Morgan-Lake-Nov26-2010
by Mr BFSH
(Kamloops)
Skinny 19" Rainbow - Morgan Lake - 11.26.2009
It has been an unusually warm late fall after an ominously cold early fall so I took advantage of opportunity on Thursday Nov 26 to visit the 6 Mile Lake - Morgan Lake chain near Tobiano, BC.
My intentions were 60:40 to fish 6 Mile but when I arrived there was an east breeze ripple on the water that didn't excite me. I carried on to Morgan to scout it out and the lake was almost like glass. That sold me.
I hadn't arrived at the lake until 1:30 and it was 2pm before I actually got my line in the water. There was another boat at the far end (west) with 2 people in it when I arrived but they were leaving the water when I finally got my boat on the water.
I decided on 2 lines... a fast sinker with a red/blk leech booby and a dry line with a strike indicator and a damsel dragging about 14ft below the indicator. I started a slow troll near the east end, hoping to mark some fish with the fish finder. I did see few fish on the finder and as I was making my turn to head west again I latched on to my first fish, getting it on the dry line and damsel. It was a skinny 19" rainbow with a big head and not much fight. It disappointed me but at least I caught a fish. I had only been on the water for 15 minutes to I was very pleased with that result.
I drift/trolled along the north shore, past the cliffs and started ducking into the bay at mid lake for some shelter from the breeze. I had quite a bit of my wet line out so I decided to reel it in about 20ft so I would avoid the weed as I migrated into shallower water. The moment I stopped reeling I was rewarded with a major strike. Considering the fight that I got from the first fish I thought that this one was going to be a real beauty. It ran a couple of times an put up a very good fight until I got it to my net. To my surprise, it was only 18" long but much plumper that the first fish.
I stayed in the bay for about a half an hour, anchoring and casting both lines but I didn't touch anything else. I pulled up anchor and continued along the dropoff in a westerly direction and then ducked into the next bay near the island. I didn't anchor but I did start casting again. The water was quite still in here and I saw a fish rise within casting distance. I had my wet line in my hands so I stripped in and made a cast to the area where I saw the rise. Good decision. On the retrieve another chunky 18" rainbow grabbed my booby fly and never gave up until I got it into the net too.
After landing the fish and returning it for another day I continued on to the west end of the lake. The wind had picked up and changed direction making casting a little uncomfortable. It was getting close to 4pm and since the wind was going in my direction (toward my vehicle) I decide to drift back to the east end, this time following the south shore. I had a couple more hits, one real strong one and the other was just a tap but I never had a chance to play either of them.
By the time I got back to my truck it was almost dark and the half moon was starting to shed its own light on the water. It was a short day but 3 fish on the latest day that I have ever fished the local lakes made me a very satisfied fisherman.
