Roche Lake Quiet July 3
by Mr BFSH
Ken and Cate at the South End of Roche Lake
Boy, for a long weekend Roche Lake was extremely quiet. Maybe they heard about the fishing. Anticipating a large number of boaters and fishermen at Roche Lake, I avoided the crowds in the campgrounds and chose to find my way into the lake at an undisclosed (hey, it's my secret spot!) location. I was lucky to get in as I was unequipped with a chainsaw and there was a dead tree leaning over the access road... I just had enough clearance in my Ford Ranger but a vehicle with a boat on top or even a full sized 4x4 may not have made it under that tree. To my surprise the wind was up and it was creeping in from the north... certainly not indicated in the weather forecast for Kamloops (but weather is always a bit different once one gets out of the valley). On the main lake there were a few boats trolling around and a few anchored in "Monster Bay" as well as a few anchored near the south end island. I made my way to the south end shallows (no gas motor zone)and there was one other boat there, a young couple (Cate and Ken) from the Lower Mainland near Vancouver. They reported that they had one small fish to the boat and that there were quite a few fish moving in the shallows. Sure enough, there were lots of fish moving in the shallows (3ft to 5ft) but I don't think that they were feed on much. There were no chironomids visible, only the occasional traveler sedge and no rises to speak of. I anchored over the weed bed and cast to the interface of the marl shoal and the weed bed. No action. The fish were only mildly interested in my shrimp patterns, bloodworms and micro-leeches... everything I pitched at them for 2 hours. I tried drifting around the area too but the fish were really quite spooky and I ended up leaving the area without a bite. I had to use full power on my electric motor to make my way up to the island at the top of the restricted motor area... and then the wind changed ("murphy's law" at its best), 180 degrees, now pounding from the south. The change in the wind did give me the opportunity to slip into the south-east bay area where I could find some shelter and maybe some fish. I anchored and cast out a couple of floating lines (I was in 10'-12'of water). The strike indicator line looked thoroughly confused as it was whipped around in the ever-changing swirls of wind. I did however get into a decent (2lb) rainbow on my floating-naked line with a green micro-leech. I spend a good 3 hours in that area decided to head it home... I only saw one other fish caught the whole day. I encountered Ken and Cate again (they had gone ashore for a good part of the afternoon and came back out) but they were still riding the coat-tails of the one fish that they caught in the morning. The wind and inclement weather has proved a real negative on fishing over the last 3 weeks at almost all the lakes in our area... with July upon us we know that some very hot weather is on it's way... hopefully it brings on some of those great sedge hatches and mid-summer chironomid hatches that we saw last summer. Tobiano Golf-Fish PackagesBritish Columbia's interior region is home to some of North America's finest golf and fly fishing adventures. These unique packages offer you a chance to play golf at Tobiano, "BC's Best Public and Best Conditioned Golf course as rated by ScorGolf Magazine 2009 and be professionally guided on some of the best fly fishing lakes this country has to offer by world renowned guides. Tobiano has joined forces with biologist and master guide, Brian Chan, along with his team of guides to initiate golf and fly fishing packages that are not found anywhere else in the world. Join us for a One-of-a-Kind Experience that you will not forget for a Lifetime! |
