BC Ferries

Lakeside Gardens

Region 1 freshwater regulations

Salt Spring Island Chamber of Commerce

Salt Spring Market

Vancouver FOC office
604-666-0413

Victoria FOC office
(250) 363-3252

By Rodney Hsu

Not knowing what we were doing as we were bass newbies, we began to chuck spoons at any direction in the middle of the lake. After all, spoons are universal lures that no fish can resist, right? Cast after cast, not a single hit was felt. As frustration began to emerge on the boat, we noticed one boat drifting slowly and quietly along the weedy shoreline. Two anglers on the boat were tossing their bait or lures towards the weeds. I recalled those boring nights when I watched the Bassmaster tournament on TNN, these gentlemen's fishing techniques were just like what I saw on TV! Realizing what I had done wrong, we quickly paddled to the nearest shallow weed bed.

I tied a squid-like weedless jig onto the end of my line. We began casting to the edge of the exposed weed bed, letting the jig sink for a few seconds before jigging slowly. After many casts under the bright sunny day, we did not feel any tugs at all. As it began to look depressing, my girlfriend started mumbling, "I think I got something..."

She reeled in slowly and curiously. The weight on the end of her line was not fighting, it seemed like a clump of weed to me. As soon as that thought passed through my mind, line started to peel off her reel. It was a fish after all! Seconds after that, the hook popped out of the fish and we never saw its face. The atmosphere on the boat suddenly changed. Knowing that we are doing something right, we quickly returned into our casting and jigging mode. Minutes later, as soon as I started jigging after a cast, I felt a dead weight on the end of my line. I quickly reeled it in, keeping the tension. As the "weight" was brought closer to the boat, it began to fight! Once again, the sound of the drag broke the silence. Fish on! Seconds later the fish emerged and shook its head as it leaped on the water surface. By this point both my girlfriend and I were beyond excited. It was refreshing to see a different species being caught for once. It was a medium sized fish. I grabbed onto its mouth with my fingers and held it out of the water for a couple of seconds while my girlfriend snapped a photo of it. A couple of head shakes and it vanished into the deep after I placed it back in the water.

That fish was the only one we landed during our first afternoon on St Mary Lake. We paddled back to the cabin after an hour to freshen up and eat dinner. That evening we spent a couple more hours fishing around the same weed bed until dusk. The result was optimistic. We hooked into many fish, however our landing ratio was very low. Only five fish or so out of the twenty fish that we hooked were brought to the boat for a glance. We were delighted, but at the same time very frustrated. That night I was very sleepless, those long line releases haunted me. I was determined to reach a higher success rate for the rest of the trip.

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