Pass Lake - Chironomid Fishing Slows.06.15.10
by Mr BFSH
Gil Schiller - 4lb plus Rainbow
The weather was pretty rainy over the previous week and KJ and I were looking for a break in the weather to get our on the water... we found it on Tues. afternoon when we decided to make a run up to Pass Lake. The lake had only few fishermen on it and, not to my surprise, Ted Elder was out there fishing the far (north) side as well as Lawrence and Derek (see story here). One fisherman came in while I was gearing up (KJ arrived a little later than I) and said that a few fish were caught on chironomids but in general, they had nothing in their stomachs. I looked at the water in front of the boat launch and there wasn't much happening there either, other than a couple of mega-leeches in the shallow water. Once I got out into the water I anchored in front of the boat launch for about 15 minutes and didn't find anything encouraging. I saw a couple of fish being caught on the north side so I made my way over where Lawrence and Derek just finished landing one. There was another guy in a "Frog Boat" catching the odd fish... actually he was into most of the fish. Ted was further down the shoal and was only around for about a half hour when he decided to head home... he had been on the lake since 10 am... caught a few but it was definitely slow. I anchored in about 20 ft of water but couldn't touch a thing. Most of the other guys in the area meandered toward the research station end while one guy hung close by and he got into a couple of fish... still nothing for me, not a touch when KJ showed up. We fished in the area until 7:30 or so and had absolutely nothing to speak of so we decided to head to the south shore again... KJ to the south west end near the Research Station and I in the middle bay where there was a lone fisherman, none other than my friend, Gil Schiller (Gil and I have talked fishing many times but never had fished together in the past). I anchored about 150 feet from him and he told me that he had a few nice fish using a "wet line" chironomid tactic so I changed one line over to a wet line and while I was doing so, I had a nice fish hit my dry line chironomid. I had it on for about 5 minutes and it shook the barbless hook on about it's 5th run. Ugh. Gil hooked into a couple more fish and landed a nice one (see pic... also Lawrence was into one in the background)while I was into 2 more fish too... one nice on the "wet line" but it too shook the hook on it's 3rd jump (the fish were a little more aerial this day compared to a couple weeks before). After an hour KJ came back our way empty handed and he anchored on the other side of Gil. It was getting close to 9pm and Gil pulled up anchor and started drifting toward the front of the boat launch. He nailed another there and KJ finally got into a fish that ended up breaking his hook. The final tally had me into 3 fish and KJ into only one and none for the frying pan. The fish were hitting chromies and small green headed chironomids but like I said, it was pretty slow... hopefully, the calm before another "hatch storm". Best-in-British-Columbia Fishing Vacations BlogKamloops Area LakesFree Solunar TablesFly Fishing Strategies for BC Lakes FishingBC Fishing Resorts |
