Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: danielk on August 14, 2016, 01:23:18 PM
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Hey everyone. I'm trying to start bass fishing and I'm looking for some pointers I've been watching a lot of American bass shows. Is it the same up here ????? Does deer lake still produce bass. I tried minakaida spelt that wrong. But nothing didn't see anything. Around And can you eat our bass ?
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Being from back east, Bass is the target species for lots of guys. Anything like a Rapala works. With dirty water, get a model that rattles. It's the technique that triggers the hit. From shore, change up your speed of return. Spinners like Mepps and jigs like Mr Twisters are great as well. From a boat, find a hole or shelf and bounce the lure off the bottom.
Note: these fish are just eating machines, and in my opinion, should be destroyed. If they every breed in lakes or salmon /steelie, rivers, they would disamate the fry. These are no better then Snakeheads.
Eating? Their usually full of worms.
Who's ever let these thing into BC has no idea what there doing.
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Search these forums for "bass" or "bass fishing" and you'll find lots to read. I read everything I could last summer and it kept me busy, checking out various spots. The exploring was the fun part, wasn't able to find any of those 2-3 pound fish that I read about ;)
Some tips, based on my limited experience:
Locations
Deer Lake: Lots of little bass in there and some bigger ones too, I've heard. Advice: Rent a canoe! I've had the best luck getting away from the (awfully limited) shore access points. I've caught a bunch in the 6-8" range and the biggest one was 11 or 12". That's after 4 trips out in a canoe; gorgeous way to spend an evening. Also some trout in there. Nice scenery, good parking.
Minnekhada: Fished it once in the afternoon. Didn't catch any fish but there's not many places to fish from. Heard there's big fish in there but I haven't done enough recon to know where to fish from. There was a bear on the path the day we went and we had to go the long way to the car. Not uncommon in that park! Good parking but the gravel roads mean your car will get dusty.
Fishtrap Creek: Fished it once this summer using worms under a bobber. Water too low and weedy for lures. Caught 6 or 8 fish in the 6-8" range. Easy fishing but not many places you can fish without worrying about the weeds. Good parking.
Albert Dyck Park: Easiest place I've found to catch bass. Been there about 6 times, caught fish most of those times. The water's super clear so you can fish by sight a lot of the time, especially with polarized sunglasses. Everything I've caught there has been in the 6-10" range, usually on the 6-8" side of the scale. Saw a big one swimming around under the dock once, maybe about a foot long, but that's the exception. I usually do a loop around the lake and try a few casts every 50 meters or so. Scenery is nice-ish but lots of noise from the industrial concrete thing next door, and the airport across the street, and the waterski boats. Good place for swimming, just watch the drop-off! Someone drowned there last year. Good parking.
Techniques
I've had good luck using Kwikfish lures, Croc spoons, and worms under a float. You can also jig with plastic baits from the dock at Albert Dyck if the waterski club isn't running their boats. Can be tough in the summer with people clomping all over the dock though :P I've read that bass will bite pretty much anything and that's been my experience... just switch lures often and something will work eventually. There are all kinds of bass-specific lures too but I haven't used any of those.
Edibility
You can eat bass but sooner or later someone on this forum will laugh at you for it :D Whether you want to eat fish from Deer Lake, Albert Dyck, or Fishtrap Creek is up to you. Albert Dyck is very clear but it's surrounded by farms so I'd worry about farm runoff. Minnekhada's probably fine, although a park employee checked my license last year and told me that it's C&R only in there. From my reading of the regs that's not accurate but I don't keep bass so it wasn't an issue.
Hope you have some luck! Just remember to enjoy the adventure and don't expect to catch the sort of fish you see on the fishing shows. Most of the bass here are small but they're around if you want to catch some. Please let us know how you did, where you had luck, etc... :D Monsters like these could soon be within your reach!
Albert Dyck Park:
(https://s4.postimg.org/6f29pbn55/AD_bass.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/6f29pbn55/)
Deer Lake Park:
(https://s4.postimg.org/i5g76pfxl/DL_bass.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/i5g76pfxl/)
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Here are tips...
Search the forum here for TONS of recent info.
Get out there and explore.
Sunrise, Sunset and nightfishing are the best times. But you can catch good fish all day, 9 months out of the year.
Bigger lures will be more likley to attract bigger fish.
Up to the individual angler if they want more action, or can tolerate longer breaks in between fish, or risk catching nothing for a chance at a bigger fish.
It is different than salmon or steelhead fishing, whereby a single egg can catch large fish. Big bass like a big meal, for the most part.
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This is my first season bass fishing as well. I've had some success for them at the sloughs out in Pitt Meadows. Minnekhada was disappointing for me as well. Both worm and bobber and lures (Rapalas) have gotten me fish. Most of the bass there are between 6-12 inches, but I heard from my buddy that he has seen bigger ones while carp fishing. You can also get 2 other exotics there- black crappie and pumpkinseed. Both will take worm as well and black crappie will take bass lures too. I have not tried Deer Lake...was out there earlier this afternoon to check out the place- looked very promising with the heavy cover, though a boat seems to be the best way to fish there for sure! :)
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Blood orange your amazing ;D 8) beers coming your way trust me
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Only bass fishing I have tried is at St Mary's over on Saltspring (no bites).
Bought a Rapala lure and took off the double treble hooks for one single barbless that I kept on the tail loop. Wondering if that was a good way - how do others set those lures up for bass? Better to have the hook on the mid-body loop perhaps?
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Although Deer Lake never contained bass when I started fishing it back in the early 90's, the lake itself is what I call a classic largemouth bass lake. The lake has everything that bass love such as weeds galore, lily pads, frogs, rainbow trout, underwater logs and branches and steep drop offs. The lake is also devoid of oxygen which isn't a problem for largemouth bass as they are super hardy fish that can handy some of the most difficult water conditions. I don't even know why trout are stocked at Deer Lake because I'm pretty sure that the lunker largemouth basses at Deer Lake eat MOST of the stocked rainbow trout. I would definitely rather not have largemouth bass at Deer Lake as it's so much more difficult to catch rainbow trout now. The last time I caught at rainbow trout at Deer Lake was in the early 2000's, though they are stocked every year.
I dreamed about bass fishing back in the 80's and 90's from watching TNN's In-Fisherman, Bassmaster, Bill Dance Outdoors, Roland Martin and Hank Parker fishing shows and let's not forget about TSN's Canadian Sportfishing. I would never imagine in a million years that there would be largemouth bass at Deer Lake. I caught my first largemouth at Deer lake about 3 years after hearing from members on this forum saying that there are largemouths.
I look forward for the opening of Bass Pro Shops and only if they will sell some classic bass fishing lures that designed to handle super weedy conditions at Deer Lake.
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Only bass fishing I have tried is at St Mary's over on Saltspring (no bites).
Bought a Rapala lure and took off the double treble hooks for one single barbless that I kept on the tail loop. Wondering if that was a good way - how do others set those lures up for bass? Better to have the hook on the mid-body loop perhaps?
That works fine not sure why nothing was biting.
In the attached lousy potato quality photos you can see how I like to do a single and Yes it works well-that being said Bass don't suffer much from treble hooks I just like using a single because I think it hooks & holds better some plugs like the Skitter Pop on the bottom I don't bother with.
(http://i63.tinypic.com/16h0uph.jpg)
(http://i64.tinypic.com/fthw94.jpg)
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That works fine not sure why nothing was biting.
Thanks Dogbreath! Looks like what I had going on. I'm going to watch a couple Bass vids to make sure I'm doing it right and give it another shot one of these days.
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if u don't mind hiking (quite a lot) I would recommend you to hit pitt marsh . float and worm easiest to get em , you can see them attacking worm :))) its pretty cool ... also carps , pumkin seeds and some one told me crappies are there too .... as for me I got 1 carp , my bud got few basses and pumkin seeds , nothing really big , but I did saw 1 really big bass close by shore (about 2-3lbs) . just take right after canoe rentals and head to watching tower :)
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Hit Deer Lake with my lady this weekend for a nice afternoon kayak. Brought along my ultralight setup with a Brook Trout Rapala Floater with the trebles swapped out with a #1 single barbless on the mid-body loop.
Very easy to catch fish here from the kayak. Casting and retrieving about 30 feet from the lilypads on the north side was the ticket for me. Lots of small 5-6 inchers very eager to take my offering as I was casting and dragging the lure across the surface.
I'm sure there are bigger fish deeper in this lake - but I'm not sure I would send a lure too deep in this lake as I'm sure it would end up getting snagged up on something. Looks like a full-on forest just below the waterline.
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Bigger fish are in the thick stuff.
You need heavy gear and not be afraid to lose tackle.
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I tried for 30 mins last light tonight. Nothing mind you all I had was a frog patterned blue fox
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I tried for 30 mins last light tonight. Nothing mind you all I had was a frog patterned blue fox
Where did you try?
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Largemouth in Deer Lake as well? Or just Smallies...
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There are no smallmouth bass in the lower mainland.
On the Island and Okanagan only.
A blue fox is not a great option for a shallow, weedy environment.
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Went out to Fishtrap and Albert for the first time ever with my brother today. Luck at both spots. Does anyone know if their is any bass fishing closer to Chilliwack?
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Not to my knowledge. With the exception of Chadsey lake (top of sumas Mountain) in Abby... I think that's physically closer to the Whack? but with the drive up the mountain and hike to the lake... Mill, Albert and Fishtrap are still your closest bet.
Where did you fish on fishtrap and what did you use?
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I think you are right. Im out in Chilliwack so I was just wondering. Might be some hidey holes somewhere.
My brother and I circled all of Fish Trap tossing the line in wherever we could. We found our best luck to be opposite of the main Ellwood Pier and also on the bridge by the ball diamonds. Since the sun was out and such, we found the bass to be lower down and under the pads, as should be, however we did see a 1-2 pounder in like 8 inches of water. When my bro tossed a worm in front of his face, he turned and cruised back under the pads. At the beginning we were tossing top water worms and then near the end we were tossing heavier worms to get them down under the pads. Both produced however.
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Went out to Albert Dyck today between 11am and 4pm. Fished dew worms under a float. Started at the dock and then continued clockwise around the lake, looking for weed patches to target. Water was super warm and saw tons of fish swimming around, thanks to polarized sunglasses. The fish seem bigger this year than last (or maybe I'm just out later in the summer!). Caught about 10 or 11 fish, with lots more bites and escapees. Caught a couple of sunfish today too. Finally hooked one of those big bass I've seen lurking below the dock! Measured it with a tape and it was 11.5". Caught a slightly smaller one too from the big gravel bay, around 10 or 10.5". The rest were 6-7".
Would recommend this as the place to try bass fishing if you're just starting out.
(http://i68.tinypic.com/16b09j7.jpg)