The boss told me to take the afternoon off today... I think he knew that with the weather as nice as it was, my mind would likely be on fishing rather than on putting together financial plans today.
So I hopped on the skytrain and headed home to my place in South Burnaby and changed out of my suit into my fishing gear and packed up the Forester. I'd been planning to visit Deer Lake ever since I moved to Burnaby from Vancouver a year ago, but just hadn't made time. Given that the lake was recently stocked, I decided today would be a good day.
Upon arriving at the lake, I unpacked my already-inflated float tube and strung up my 4wt flyrod. The lake was much bigger than I imagined... MUCH bigger. Not to say it's a huge body of water, but it made Como look like the puddle it is. lol
I launched near the rental boat dock and started kicking around with my slime line and an olive-green micro-leech with a gold bead head. Didn't see any action, no fish, no bugs, no birds, but I sure enjoyed the sunshine and gentle breeze. The surroundings at Deer Lake are pretty beautiful as well.
After about 40 minutes and a couple fly changes, I started seeing numerous chironomid coming off, ranging in size from #10 - #16, with most being on the larger side. And then the trout started to rise - the bite was on! Unfortunately they didn't seem to want what I was offering, and I didn't feel like casting out a chironomid and waiting, so I switched to my floating line and a burnt-orange micro-leech, about size 14. Pretty small.
Within 5 minutes, I had my first tug of the day, so I immediately stopped kicking and began an short, quick, irregular retrieve. As expected (because it's worked so many times for me in the past), i felt another tug shortly after I started the retrieve and I set the hook. Fish on!
After bringing it into my floattube I thought about how I wanted to land it (no net), and the fish decided for me as it splashed on the surface and spit the hook.
No worries, I was going to release it anyhow.
I checked my fly and the knot holding it to my tippet, and then cast it back out and began kicking again. Within another 10 minutes I decided I better call my fiance to let her know where I was, and as the phone was ringing another trout grabbed my fly and took off! I put the phone on speakerphone and set it in the floattube side-pocket. It went to voicemail and I left her a voicemail laughing out loud while trying to reel in the fish. I'm not sure she found it as funny as I did. lol
After landing and releasing that little fella, I went 15 or so minutes without another bite, and checking the time decided I better head back in as I had things to do this evening. On the way back to shore I had one more strong take, but I missed it and he likely felt the hook point as he wouldn't come back when I tried my post-bite retrieval method.
All in all I had a great 90 minutes on the water, so great to have a lake like that just 10 minutes from home. The fish weren't big, and they weren't overly plentiful (this lake only gets stocked a small percentage of the rest of the lower mainland lakes, it seems), but the scenery and great weather more than made up for it. And getting into a few fish was a bonus.
Cheers!
Tex
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Topic: Deer Lake (Burnaby), April 20th 2012 (Read 2520 times)