Six Mile Lake - All to Myself

by Mr BFSH
(Kamloops)

Six Mile Lake 15.08.2009

Something about mid-August... everyone is trying to get in the activities that summer brings because within a couple of weeks, it's all over.

On Saturday, we were invited for dinner at Tobiano where we had 2 families of relatives relaxing at Lake Star. The "princess" and I showed up and the house was deserted. It seemed like everyone was out on Kamloops Lake enjoying wake-boarding and tubing behind the flashy, new Moomba. A little too much action for me... what I really wanted to do is go fishing. With 6 Mile Lake and Morgan Lake just 10 minutes away, I took the opportunity and disappeared for a few hours in the evening to cast a line.

Usually I decide on which lake to fish when I get up there. Six Mile tends to be windier much more often than Morgan Lake, so if the wind is calm at 6 Mile, I won't pass it by.

When I got up the hill (about 5:00pm) the lake was calm and to my chagrin, totally devoid of other fishermen. I relished the opportunity to tackle this healthy body of water by myself. I did give my buddy KJ a call but he didn't answer his cell. Oh well.

I remember last year when I was talking to fishermen at 6 Mile and the fly of choice was a light coloured damsel nymph. I just happened to tie a few up the night before so I was ready.

When I hit the water, I just trolled around a bit, without my line in the water and closely watching my fish finder. As I drifted to about mid-lake my finder started beeping like crazy. The fish were sitting in 13' to 15' of water, 10'-13' deep.

There was a gentle west breeze so I anchored upwind of where I wanted to cast my intermediate sinking line with a light green damsel. There were very few fish moving near the surface, in fact it was very quiet, but I knew they were moving below. It wasn't long before I hooked into a nice fish. It was a little sluggish because of the water temperature (65F) but it tipped the scales at an even 3lbs and 19.5 inches long and looking very clean.

As I said, there wasn't much going on at the surface and after that first fish, not much below either. Pulling up my anchor after about an hour of nothing, I drifted along the north side, down to the far east end of the lake. KJ finally phoned. He said that he obviously couldn't make it out but he asked me if I was drifting the weeds at the west end of the lake. I said no, but that I would try it before I called it an evening.

The sun was getting low and the wind died so there was some surface movement starting to happen but it was sporadic. I spent an hour down there and without a bite I started heading back to the west end of the lake. Fish were feeding over weeds and wind had changed from a light west breeze to a fresh east breeze, one that results in a great drifting speed for my boat.

The sun had set by the time that I got back to the west end but it was still light out. I had the intermediate line out with another on of my damsel patterns. I drifted with the wind down to the west bay then I used my electric motor to troll back the other way. On my first pass with the wind and against it, I did not get any bites. The next pass was going to be my last but as I fought the breeze coming back I had a strong strike. The fish was on for a few moments and then let go. I had to go back and try it again.

Again, drifting with the breeze, I had no bites however, when I changed direction with the motor I got a strike over the same spot as last time. This time, I had him hooked well. It was a better fight than the last fish, including coming out of the water a couple of times. After about 5 minutes the fish was tired out and I easily slipped it into the net. Nice fish... 21" and 4lbs on the scale. It also made a mess of my leader and since it was starting to get dark, I headed in.

I went back to Tobiano and found that supper was waiting for me. The kids (my great nieces and nephews) were tuckered out from the wake-boarding and were either sleeping or quietly watching TV. We all had stories to tell of the day and although I had the fish to brag about, it was the solitude of the evening, on Six Mile Lake, all by myself, that left me with best feeling of the day.

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