In the past, not really knowing what I was doing, I was always hit and miss when it it comes to fishing lakes here in BC.
Well after a lot of research and with the help of this site and others, my success rate increased exponentially!
This spring I spent sometime in the interior.
Chironomid fishing under an indicator......wow. The hits were hard the runs were fast and the fish were 'yuge' !! What a blast.
Between the hatches, I also had great success with leeches. One of the biggest fish I caught ( 4 + lbs!!) was at around 6:00am on a small balanced leech under an indicator. I was the only one on the lake that morning.....first drift with the leech ...oh about 40 seconds in and WHAM!!! The only thing I can compare it too was like fighting a steelhead...which makes sense I guess. On a 4wt rod, it was a battle to remember thats for sure.
I am not a big fish eater, but my wife loves 'em, so I did keep my limit each day... this fish however, I could not bring myself to 'bonk' she was just as gorgeous as they come, super bright chrome, hardly any spots.
Over he past couple of days there was zero sign of any chironomid in the water. An older gent that I chatted with for a while advised that I try slow drifting or slow trolling ( I was in a fishcat belly boat ) a 'skip nymph' ....basically a mayfly nymph. Needless to say the trout just hammered 'em!!
In the shallows I also tried a pumpkin head with great success too....as I understand it the 'Pumpkin Head' was created specifically for the fish in Tunkwa Lake.
Just an amazing Spring for me so far, i was by myself and did not get pics but at least i have the memories.
Thanks to Rod and Kitty for the great informative videos on the setups for this fishery. I have renewed confidence now when fishing BC lakes in the Spring.
Cheers