Boy, that tug at the end of the line sure becomes unfamiliar after a few months of drought!
2006 has been somewhat bitter sweet so far. While my career continues to excel, my fishing opportunities have been reduced tremendously. On busy days fishing is out of the question, on free days I become too tired from work and end up not fishing.
The steelhead season was a scratch this year, even though others have had a phenomenal year. When steelhead start to surface and bump your Drennan float into the air like a dolphin, nature is telling you to stop fishing.
Despite of a disappointing season, one must move on and look forward to what’s ahead in the next few months – Lake Season.
On Saturday evening, Chrome Mykiss and Fishersak came by before we met up with Chris for dinner (
see Journal from the Big City). They helped me loading up my Brandywine Flyer onto the car. Thanks to CM, the Flyer was pampered and ready for another season.
During dinner, we discussed possible fishing plan on the following day. Itosh has been bugging us about Alta Lake in Whistler, since Floon and Deb always mention their fantastic trip up that way with Snapperhead on FishBC. Carlo was leaning towards that idea. Fishersak and I were… Well, skeptical.
“Whistler is a bit too far for a day trip you know…?”
“What? People do day skiing trips up that way!”
The conversation continued after dinner at my house and finally the trip was firmly planned. The company soon left my house in a hurry so they could get a good night sleep before the long day.
The first lake trip is always so difficult; the preparatory work can be a turn-off. Finding and dusting off all the boat accessories from the previous season seems to take forever. Just when you think the boat is ready, new problems often arise. However, the frustration quickly vaporizes once you are floating on the lake and listening to the water gently splashing against the boat.
Once the car was packed, I realized that the trip just wouldn’t be complete with a batch of freshly tied flies. Now, being a complete novice on the flyfishing department, the only patterns that I can crank out are wooly buggers and minnows. I sat down at the desk and began fiddling around with feathers. What a way to spend a Saturday evening.
After pulling out four flies in a ridiculous amount of time, feathers were flying all over the place. I looked at my pathetic olive wooly buggers and said to myself, “That’s it! Carlo better bring more flies tomorrow!”
I hopped into bed at 1:00am, but insomnia soon set in. I tossed and turned, perhaps I was getting too excited because it had been a long time since the last fishing outing? Next thing I knew, I woke up at 4:45am, two hours ahead of the schedule.
After a hearty breakfast while watching some infomercial on sportfishing and hunting in Quebec, it was time to leave. Fishersak arrived 30 minutes earlier, probably just as excited as me.
We arrived at the lake with Chrome Mykiss and Itosh at 11:30am after the usual pit-stop at Squamish Tim Horton’s. The moderate northerly wind looked rather cold, but the sun was shining.
Fishersak and I set up the Brandywine Flyer in no time while Chrome Mykiss and Itosh took their time at the boat ramp. The lake was rather quiet; I guess the local crowd was still asleep after the usual weekend parties.
What an amazing view! The background is rather different compared to our usual hangouts. Whistler and Blackcombe sat behind us. From our binoculars, we could see skiers making their way down the runs. I said to Fishersak, “Hey, it’s pretty fun just to be out on the boat cruising today!”
Yeah right, I wanted to catch a fish.
Since we were at a new lake, we cruised around for an hour or two scouting out potential spots where we might connect with a fish or two. In my opinion, lake fishing is more challenging than river fishing. Do the fish inhabit in the deep, or the shallows? What are they feeding on? These questions are so difficult to figure out without sufficient amount of background research and local knowledge.
The one that got awayFishersak and I finally settled at one spot. Both of us thought it looked juicy. The 5 feet deep clay shallow flat drops right off to 20 feet; the area is also littered with wooden debris.
On my first cast, I let my olive wooly bugger sank for 15 seconds or so. The golden bead took the fly down in no time. Soon after I began to do my short strips, I felt a light pull.
“Hey Mark! I think I have a bite!”
The tip was pulled lightly again as I stripped.
“Hey! Another bite!”
But Rodney… Why aren't you setting the hook?
This verbal battle seemed to be going on in my brain, meanwhile the fish decided to pull again! I yanked the rod up and that familiar bend could be seen on my rod!
“I got one! Hey!!”
As I took a deep sigh of relief, the first fish in a few weeks decided to swim towards the boat as quickly as it could. I sped up the stripping, hoping that I could catch up. Well, my arm wasn’t as fast. A few flashes appeared at the edge of the boat and that familiar bend was gone.
Grrr… It looked like the curse was making itself welcome, again.
The next two hours were rather uneventful. We strolled around to several different spots with no success. Both Chrome Mykiss and Itosh also came up empty. The day was starting to look rather depressing.
Mykiss meets ClarkiFinally, while all three boats congregated at one spot, Chrome Mykiss hooked up! Judging from the action of his rod, it appeared to be a good sized fish. Itosh rushed over on his pontoon boat as CM had forgotten his net. After a few minutes, the fish was in.
The cutthroat trout couldn’t be spottier, a pretty fish indeed. Fishersak and I rushed over to take a look, but being so clumsy, we managed to hook onto CM’s other rod.
Everyone’s confidence was lifted after the fish was released. We still had a couple more hours; the day was not a write-off yet.
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Topic: Whistler April 23rd (Read 8209 times)