Even in the height of the summmer, Scuitto Lake continues to produce but you have to beat heat by hitting the lake at the right time.

A couple of days ago I was just fed up with the heat in the valley so I loaded up the fishing gear and wandered up to Scuitto Lake (near Campbell Lake) for a mid-week sleep over and an early morning fish. I had heard that there were a number of BIG fish (5-12lbs) being caught in water as shallow as 8 ft.

The sun was down by the time I arrived at the lake but there was still some light. The lake was like glass with the odd fish rising for a lazy slurp of small caddis that seemed to be everywhere. I decided that I would get my gear ready for the morning. The mosquitoes were not bad but the caddis were absolutely prolific. As I had my van open, the adult caddis swirled around the interior light, finding their way inside the lens, only to be trapped. After about a half and hour, the light was nearly blocked by the caddis and a pungent odour was taking over the inside of the van... the light was baking the caddis... Gross! I ended up cleaning the light out, closing all the windows and sitting in the dark with a couple of brown pops until I was ready to bed down. Every time a light went on, the swarm returned (they were already inside the van) but they then settled down as soon as the light went out.

The light starts getting light around 4am but the sunrises just around 5:20am. I got up, poured a coffee from my thermos and hit the water at about 5:30. Making my way across the lake I noticed that the surface water temperature was 73F. I have never fished for trout in water that warm, I wondered if they would even be feeding.

I visited the south-west corner of the lake (where I usually go) and drifted around a bit. There wasn't much moving but when there was, I casted a chironomid at it. I had my first fish at 6:15am and a 2nd at 6:30am. The first was a nice 16" fish that put up a great fight... unfortunately, it was his last fight. I tried to revive it and released it twice, only to have it come floating back up to the top with it's belly up. I finally decided to keep it and put it out of it's misery. (lesson learned... when the water is that warm, don't try to play a fish until it is exhausted as reviving it in the top layer of warm, oxygen depleted water doesn't do much for the fish's chances).

I was into my 4th fish (about 7:30) when another boat wandered down to the same end of the lake, anchored and started casting. I drifted closer to where the boat was sitting and said good morning... and the same reply came back... I knew that voice... It was none other than Brian Chan, local and international fly fishing expert and TV show host. He was scouting out the lake for future guiding opportunities. Brian and I played hockey with/against each other many years ago when he was a biologist with the BC government and I was an engineering tech with Ducks Unlimited.

We chatted a bit, I watched him hit 2 fish and then I wandered back closer to the damsite bay, anchored and started casting toward the shore between the old dead trees still standing in the water about 40 feet from shore. It wasn't long before I started hitting fish on a regular basis. As usual, I was armed with 2 floating lines, one with an indicator and one without(the naked line). The fish seemed to like the black and red chironie (with black head and small white yarn for the gills) when I was fishing the naked line. I caught most of my fish on a steady slow (but not real slow) retrieve. The strike indicator line was loaded with a dubbed micro-leech/black head. I only landed 3 fish with that set-up but when they hit it, they hit hard.

The bite was not bad between 10am and 11am. I was getting strikes almost every cast. As the bite peaked, I even had a double-header (one on each line at the same time... always a buzz). I caught 2 more fish after the double header and then the lake just seemed to die in the mounting heat.

In the end, I landed about 12 fish, most around the 15"-16" range, some smaller, nothing bigger, which was a bit of a disappointment as I have witnessed how large the fish can get in this lake from the year before.

I was off the lake at noon (already too hot for comfort) and headed home with 3 fish for dinner... we were expecting company for the evening. I planned to cedar plank the fish on the BBQ. When I prepared the fish, I followed my own words of wisdom. I gutted them at the lake and because of the heat, they were a little soft so I wrapped them in a wet towel. At home, I cut the fillets off the back-bone and put them in the freezer to firm up a bit as the meat was looking too soft to handle. After they cooled down it was easy to remove the rib bones and skin the fillets before putting them on the plank. In preparation, I also sprinkled the fish with "Garlic Plus" seasoning to help remove any "muddy taste". While cooking, I lathered the fillets with Renee's Dijon Creole sauce. The meal ended up pretty good with just a slight algae taste (not abnormal).

It was an unexpected good outing when I found a way to beat the heat.