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[keithr]

We arrived Monday night (June 6) at Lakeside Gardens, so Tuesday early I assembled the pontoon boat and set out on St. Mary Lake with fly rod and a spinning rod just in case.  There was a hatch of some kind of black miller on the shore, so I put on a small black fuzzy fly and caught a few really small bass and some perch.  Tried the spinning outfit with a green wedding band and worm and caught one small trout, working the shore to the right of Lakeside Gardens.  It was pretty slow, so I put on a damselfly nymph and caught a few more small bass and another small cut throat along the bank.
Wednesday morning was about the same, except all I caught (with the damselfly nymph) were small bass, so I loaded the boat in the truck and went to Stovall Lake.  I pulled the fly all around the lake and picked up one 13 inch cut throat across the lake from the dock.  I worked to the left of the dock some more and caught a couple of smaller trout.
Thursday morning I sat on the bank at Lakeside Gardens and fished with worms and yellow power bait and caught seven perch and a couple of small bass.  About mid day I talked to another fisherman who had been complaining that he hadn't caught anything for several days, and this was not what he was used to on St. Mary Lake.  He had been trolling deep, expecting large trout, but Wednesday he tried it across the lake along the shore and came up with three trout, about 13, 14 inches long, and he told me other guys had been having some luck over there opposite Lakeside Gardens.  The trout he caught were full of newly hatched minnows, almost transparent bodies with black eyes.  So in the afternoon I went that way and fished that side late in the afternoon and caught a bunch of small bass and three small trout on a damselfly nymph.
That fly was getting pretty beat up, so Friday morning I changed it to a brown bodied fly with a little tinsle on it and long hairs and set off to the right of LG, fishing along the edge of the weeds, and by the time I got around to where the lake narrows I had caught (and kept) 10 perch, one of which was 11 inches long.  Plus, I started getting some bigger bass, one 14 inches, another 15 inches.  This improved my attitude a lot.  We ate the perch.  They were good!
Saturday (this morning) when  I got up at 6 am, the lake was flat as a mirror, so I went out for a couple of hours before breakfast and fished.  The perch and bass I'd caught Friday had pretty much chewed up that fly, so I put on a green wooly bugger and dragged it around to the left of LGs; caught several smaller bass and 13 incher and another 15 inches.  After breakfast I loaded up the boat again and went to Cusheon.  Caught a 15 inch bass with it after dragging it all the way to the end of the lake to the left of the dock.  Thinking that perhaps that fly was too big a bait for the trout, I went back to the df nymph and worked my way back to the dock, anchoring and casting towards the bank.  With it I got several strikes and caught one 13 inch cut throat and hooked another pretty good sized bass.
The boat is still in the truck.  I don't know what I'll do tomorrow.  Right now I'm wondering, can one start keeping bass on the 15th, or does one have to wait until the 16th.  I'm gonna google the regs. 

[kid fisherman]

Sounds like your having a lot of fun, Do you have any pics.

[keithr]

Sorry, I don't take pictures any more.  I went out mid-morning today and fished just to the right of LG for a couple of hours until the wind started blowing me around.  Caught a bunch (maybe a dozen) small bass and a couple larger ones (one 14 inches and one 15) and eight fat perch, which we are having tonight for supper.  Finally lost the fly I was using and when I saw I had a couple of knots in the leader I decided to come back in instead of tying up a new outfit.  I've been using smaller flies, figuring they would be more likely to attract trout (I'll start using larger wooly buggers and dragonfly nymphs on the 15th, hoping to attract larger bass), and I suppose that's why I've been getting so many perch.

[keithr]

Since I'm still fishing, I'll add to the report.  I last fished here this time of the year in 2006.  It is still good fishing, but here are some changes I see.  The perch are doing really well; some of them are so chunky the are almost hump-backed.  If I am fishing smaller flies (I have a hell of a time big wooly buggers and leaches) I probably catch three or four perch for every bass I catch.  Largest I've caught so far was 11 inches.  If they are even close to that, I keep them.  They are a little more work separating the bones, but I think they are the tastiest fish in the lake, and I don't feel the least bit bad about eating them and eating fewer bass and trout.
I'm catching a larger percentage of trout than I did in 2006 (I caught very few that year), but they have all been small.  Biggest I've caught in St Mary Lake has been 12 inches.  One guy who fished pretty steady for more than a week, trolling deep for trout, complained that it was much worse than he was accustomed to (been coming here for past 15 years).  I think he caught fewer than half a dozen trout the whole week--biggest one was 15 inches.  Fishing with flies I've caught maybe 15 trout in St Mary Lake, at least half of them in the six and seven inch range.
I'm catching small bass, a lot of them less than ten inches.  And it is not like there are swarms of those little bass.  Or they aren't where they were in 2006.  I haven't seen anyone catch anything from the dock, for instance.  The sunken island is pretty much deserted, although today I did catch maybe half a dozen small bass (and one large perch) fishing well away from (say 30 meters) that sunken island, the north end of it being best for me.  Larger bass aren't that easy to come by.  But there are some.  The biggest I've gotten into the net so far was 16 inches.  I've caught four or five 15 inchers.
I wonder if the bass are in decline here and the perch are on an upswing.  I've only found one dead perch in a bass so far . . .  I wonder why the bass don't eat more of them.

[keithr]

OK, here is the last installment.
Yesterday, Sunday, I decided not to fish St Mary Lake.  There were lots of people at LGR and other people fishing on Saturday; I figured Sunday would also be crowded, so I decided to let those guys fish and Violeta and I went up to Mt. Maxwell.  On the way, though, we stopped for a few hours and I fished with a worm and power bait from the public dock on Cusheon Lake.  Durning the first hour or so I got two bites, hooked fish both times, but lost them before getting to see what I had on.  But it was enough action to keep me fishing.  Finally, though, I made a last cast, fishing on the bottom with a piece of dew worm below a piece of yellow power bait.  I thought, "well, you had a couple of chances and blew 'em, so you can't really complain," and started reeling in.  About five feet from the dock I got a strike and managed to land (it wasn't pretty) a 19 inch bass.  There is a picture of it on this video Violeta made, but it's quite a ways in, and you have to look at a bunch of Saltspring island stuff, and it's in Spanish:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isPfzmvZs54.
Today, Monday, last day on the island, I went out really early and fished for a little while and only got a bite or two on a black wooluy bugger, and when I lost that outfit I stopped fishing and had breakfast. I didn't get started fishing again until about 11 am.  I decided to fish for perch, figuring if anything else got on that would be ok too.  So I put on a small (maybe on a size eight hook) bead headed light brown nymph.  I fished to the right of LGR and the at the beaver house.  In about three hours I caught twenty perch, a bunch of small bass, and one 13 inch bass.  I also caught the biggest perch yet, a really brawny 13 incher.  Violeta is cooking up some of the perch even as I write this.

It's been good fishing, and fun.

[Dogbreath]

!Orale! 

Great stuff Keith-Thanks for posting-I haven't been back over there for a few years now so it's good to read the up to date info.

[GoldHammeredCroc]

Perch in that lake is the worst thing that could have happened to it.  The perch numbers will continue to increase until there are too many and then they will stunt out.  Smallmouth prefer things like small minnow, insects and crayfish in their diets. 

There wasn't anything wrong with the lake before whoever thought it was a good idea to stock it with perch.  Trout were very large, and the bass were pretty big too all with a healthy insect base.

[clarki]

They are a little more work separating the bones, but I think they are the tastiest fish in the lake,

Agreed. Although I have not fished perch in BC, I did when I was growing up in Ontario (where they belong!) Tasty little buggers, esp. when simply pan-fried in butter with a dash of pepper. Yummers!
Can I ask how you remove the bones from the meat? I have used a method that may, or may not, be easier...