After a series of events (BC Family Fishing Weekend, Steveston Bullhead Derby, Fish for the Future), it was time to take a break and go for a fishing trip. I decided to use this past weekend to do the annual visit to St Mary's Lake on Salt Spring Island. With the Brandywine Flyer loaded, I was off to the ferry on Saturday morning. The ferry ride is probably the dullest part of the whole trip as usual, but the weather was nice at least. I was able to get on the ferry to Salt Spring Island right after my arrival in Victoria despite of the long line-up due to the Saturday farmers market.
My accommodation for the weekend was once again a cabana at
Lakeside Gardens Resort. This was my sixth visit and it is still very enjoyable as Mark and Deb always have made new improvements to the resort everytime we come back. The very first year, the cabanas were simply bare little cabins with not many accessories. These days, the cabanas come with a rather complete outdoor kitchen, lights and a fan inside the cabin, so it is a rather luxurious way of "camping".
By 1:30pm, the boat was on the lake and ready to tackle some smallmouth bass.
Due to
our exceptionally productive trip around the exact same time last year, I was expecting to have similar results. I first anchored at one of the spots where I have always done well, but was unable to trigger some bites. Puzzled, I moved to a second spot an hour later and started to hook a couple. The fishing appeared to be slower than last year, but it was still pretty good overall. After spending the first day scouting out all the spots that seemed to produce fish, I spent the second day focusing on those areas and managed to hook up consistently.
Instead of using one specific technique like we have been doing in the past, I wanted to see if I could hook into fish with as many techniques as possible. Luckily, every technique I tried worked out pretty well.
Flyfishing with surface poppers generally produced small fish as most bigger fish are deep down now. The tubebait rig produced the most and the biggest fish as usual when it is dragged along the 30 to 40' bottom. Just for fun, I threw out a 1/8oz spinner with a size 4 copper french blade at times, which produced fish all the time, but mostly small. There was one time when a large (18") bass grabbed the spinner as I was retrieving. The instant take and run almost pulled the rod out of my hand. Finally, slow stripping of a wooly bugger on a sink tip also produced quite a few fish. The highlight was a rather large (18 to 20", released without measuring, but on video) cutthroat trout swallowed the fly as I was stripping it in from 30' deep. It was exciting when it first showed itself on the surface. According to the locals, this spring has been one of the best cutthroat trout season they've seen in many years.
Sunset at St Mary's Lake
Saturday I fished from 1:30pm to 9:30pm, Sunday I fished from 8:00am to 9:30pm (with a few breaks of course), Today I fished from 8:00am to 10:00am. In total, around 50 fish were landed, with just as many lost. Most fish were between 12 to 14 inches. About a dozen were between 16 and 18 inches. There was also one rather ambitious yellow perch that grabbed a rubber bait just as big as itself. Overall I would rate the fishing to be more on the slow side, especially if this warm weather continues. The lake is rather warm, great for swimming. The smaller bass will continue to bite, so this would be a good destination for young families in the next two months. For the more serious anglers, a trip there in September or early October would be wiser.
Now, some bass photos...
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Topic: St Mary's Lake July 14th - 16th, 2007 (Read 3744 times)