Pass Lake - April 23 2010

by Mr BFSH
(Kamloops)

As always, an anticipated visit to Pass Lake is always full of hope. This year was a real question in my mind as the lake had winter killed last season. The lake was re-stocked with "catchable-sized" rainbows that grew well through the season and made for some decent fishing in the fall.

As soon as I arrived, I saw that friends Paul Patterson and Teddy Elder were already on the water... I thought that they were headed for 6 Mile Lake.

It was early afternoon when I hit the water. There were a half dozen boats scattered about the lake. I rigged up 3 rods... 1 deep sinking and two dry lines, one with a strike indicator. Paul and Ted appeared to be on across the lake behind the point, sheltering themselves from the prevailing east breeze. It was a pleasant temperature but the wind across the lake made it a bit cool.

While crossing the lake I spooled out my deep sinking line with a "new" booby fly pattern. I slowed down my electric motor as the boat approached the point. I caught it perfectly, crossing in between 16' and 20' of water. Just as I said hi to Paul and Ted, I hit and landed my first first fish of the day. Just under 19" and quite fat. Not much of jumper but quite strong, especially stubborn near the boat. The new booby pattern had shown some success. There were a couple of guys in another boat nearby who landed a fish at the same time as I was. It looked like the bite was on.

I moved further west down the north shore and found a place to anchor. The wind had picked up again so it was nice to just anchor and take advantage of it instead of fighting it.

I threw out the booby and was trying to get my dry line ready when I had my first light hit on the wet line. Nothing much, just a tug. A little later, as I was working the dry line in the shallows, I got a strong hit on the motionless booby. I pulled in the slack, fought the fish for about 5 seconds and it pulled off... rats... gotta pay more attention.

During the excitement my stripped in dry line, which had been laying on the bottom of the boat, seemed a tangled mess so I threw out the wet line booby and started tending to the mess that my 20ft leader got itself into. Again, after a couple of minutes and my booby was suspended motionless somewhere under the surface ( I'm guessing around 16'deep) and a fish started taking the line again. I lifted the line, played it for about 3 or 4 seconds and the fish was gone again.

That sucked as I watched the 2 guys in the boat land another fish or two during the same period. Hey, I was happy for them but I'm competitive sometimes. After a while they left and Paul and Ted were looking at ending their day too and were starting to pack up.

I pulled up my anchor, thinking that I might move closer to where Paul and Ted were before they left but then the wind changed direction, now coming from the west. The change in wind gave me an opportunity to drift with the wind toward the east end of the lake.

As I approached the north east end of the lake there was another guy in the area, anchored in about 25' of water and fighting a fish. We chatted as I went by and he was using green and brown micro-leeches.

I anchored in the corner for about a half and hour without much luck. A few small fish rose near shore and a couple of loons cruised through, I figured any real fish had vacated the premises. When I pulled up anchor I continued clockwise around the lake and got to the south shore when the wind changed again and in a big way. Sweeping in from the NE it started to blow me along at a clip too fast to troll and I was heading for the shore. I hustled to get my lines in but only one escaped an ugly tangle.

Ticked off and facing some driving precipitation, I decided to call it a day.

10 minutes after got to shore and had pulled in most of my gear... the lake glassed out... I should have known.

---

Kamloops Area Lakes

Fly Fishing Strategies for Kamloops Fishing

Kamloops Real Estate -MLS Listings

---

Custom Fly Rods by Paul Patterson

9.5 ft and 10 ft High Quality Graphite
Taking Orders Now for Mother's Day and Father's Day


LET'S DO LUNCH AT TOBIANO
After fishing in our local lakes, drop by the clubhouse restaurant at Tobiano Golf.
Great Menu! Great Views! Great Company!