Welcome to WesternSportfishing.ca!

Rediscovering the Discovered

Rediscovering the discovered. The expression came to mind during a recent fishing trip to an old haunt…it also came to mind sitting down to write this article because it has been a while since I’ve done any fly fishing writing! Me and my fiancé, Ashly, took a week off this summer to take a break from our work and relax in a favorite area of mine. Considering we both started new jobs in the spring, we were very content with being able to squeeze out one week off, especially during busy field season. On the first day of our vacation, we drove up to one of my favorite lakes. Well, after I called my dad for detailed directions. While Andy Chironomid fishing along the reeds on a high mountain lake in BCon the phone I felt somewhat foolish because I’d been to this lake many times and I needed directions on how to get to it. Calling him also made me try to recall the last time I’d fished this lake….and YEP the last time I’d fished it was actually 2003 with my brother Tim.

During the drive up there, I also pondered as to why the hell we used to fish there in August. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like stillwater flyfishing, but in August when there’s a big heat wave rolling through, I can think of 100 better things to do than to sweat my ass off setting up a boat and trying to pack a lunch outThe author fly fishes a small clear creek in the summer sun. of a water-logged cooler. This is especially true with creeks and rivers being in perfect condition to fish and cool off in. However, lake fishing was on the menu and it appeared the lunch for the day would be a baggy half-filled with bacon from breakfast and a couple cookies. Perfect.

We arrived at the lake with no issues at all. It was beautiful, with some shoreline lily pads and very clear water. Maybe there Stillwater Bowwas a reason why we used to fish it during the hot summer months! Things went great setting up the boat, I only needed one frustration beer and a couple dunks of the head in the lake to cool off, and we were motoring off the shoreline! My trolling motor on our raft is probably 40 years old, but it got us going at a nice trolling rate, which is how I remember Tim and myself having our most luck in previous outings. We would troll intermediate sink lines with dark leech patterns over certain structure. I explained to Ashly that the drop-off we were approaching used to be good. Right as we got onto it, BAM FISH ON! I felt pretty cool predicting the fish. It jumped two or three times high in the air. Not a monster, but a nice scrappy BC rainbow trout of about 14”.

I could tell that my skill level had evolved greatly since my last trip to this lake (it better have, it had been 11 years since I fished it). This seemed to be noticeable throughout the day, as we even got into a double-header of decent rainbow trout.

It is always nice to go back to an old haunt, especially if you doDamselfly well there. It makes one feel a sense of accomplishment, when it comes to knowledge and skills acquired since the last visit, and it also brings back some memories of past adventures to that destination. Rumor has it, Tim returned to this same “haunt” a little bit later than us last year and he got skunked. Maybe Tim needs to look into skill development and attend some seminars?? He did better 11 years ago!


Andy Tchir, WesternSportfishing.ca

Written by: Andy Tchir