Kamloops Fly Shop Fishing Report and Articles

The Kamloops and Area Fishing Report

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Here are a list of flies that work well in the Kamloops area.

Chironomid

Mayfly

AK'S Callibaetis Spinner

Callibaetis Emerger

Adams

Fall Fishing is for the Hardy Fly Fisher

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:18:53 +0000

Fall seems a little early this year, what happened to Indian summer? Fishing on the lakes when the weather turns can be hit and miss so watch the weather forecast. Some of the best fishing can be found during the calm conditions between low fronts. Raw weather doesn’t necessarily mean poor fishing but it is a test of your pain threshold! Layered clothing will save a lot of grief, remember you can always take it off but if you don’t have it with you, you can’t put it on.

Don’t expect fish to feed in one spot all day long. Food items are scattered and not as numerous as in the spring and so trout will move around. If you haven’t seen any action for half an hour it’s time to move. Sunny days will stir backswimmers to fly, but even if you don’t see naturals in the air it’s worth trying a boatman pattern. Fish a sinking line, pulling the fly down with an erratic, jerky retrieve. Hang on tight the takes are often very fast and hard. There are some chironomid emerging and if you find a good sample with the throat pump, match the hatch to enjoy spring –like fishing in the fall. When you see fish cruising the shoals they are looking for shrimp. A pair of polarized sunglasses will help you spot these trout burrowing in the marl. A shrimp pattern or micro-leech hung from an indicator right on the bottom will do the trick. Use maximum stealth to sneak within casting range, let the fly settle and look for side-ways movement of the indicator to tell you when a fish has picked up the fly. In shallow water it’s just like bonefishing, you may catch one or two but spooked fish will move away and so must you.

The hardy fly fisher can have good fishing right up to freeze up, pick your days, dress warm, move around and enjoy the last of the season.

Boat Partnerships

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:13:11 +0000

Boat partnerships are a funny thing. Some guys should not fish together in the same boat, others have shared a boat for years with nary a cross word. Some guys keep conversation to a minimal level, a grunt now and then just to confirm that they still have a pulse. Other guys never shut up, a running commentary on everything from past fishing trips to the gory details of their last prostate examination.

No, boat parners that can fish together on a regular basis have a special bond that makes them want to fish together. Just like any team, the individual effort is unimportant it’s the sum total that rounds out the day.

In a perfect world boat partners catch the same amount of fish and each has a special fish that makes his day. Today I fished with my friend John who comes from England every fall to go steelheading. We have a few “lake days” together before he heads north and in general the tally is pretty even. But not today, we were fishing identical flies using the same retrieve. I was hooking fish on a fairly consistent basis John caught one fish and never had another bite. I netted 6 fish and lost as many more, John was wondering what he was doing wrong (second guessing himself) and he tried changing his tactics. No matter what he did his fly was ignored.

I started to feel bad about the situation but then I remembered the numerous times we have been fishing steelhead. John can catch a steelhead even on the toughest of days and when it’s good he can catch one in almost every run. So when he was bitching today about me catching all the fish, I reminded him of what a great steelheader he is and with a well stroked ego he made it to the end of the day. A team player to the last cast!

Fall Fishing Techniques

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:12:22 +0000

It seems to me that summer ended rather abruptly. One moment we were like trout in a smokehouse the next I was turning on the heat to warm the house. Everything responds to changes in conditions. With the days getting shorter and the nights much cooler, the aquatic life responds in the lakes. Insects are in migration and hibernation mode and the fly angler can take advantage of insect movement.

Look for backswimmer flights usually triggered by the first frost. The male backswimmers will fly from lake to lake in search of females. They like a sunny morning and look like fluff balls carried on the breeze. These little guys fold their wings just before landing and land with a plop just like a raindrop. Trout have the remarkable ability to track the incoming backswimmer and be there at the moment of landing.

Dragonfly nymphs are migrating from the depths heading for the shoreline in search of rush tubers where they burrow for protection from the freeze to come. The fly angler can anchor in the shallows and slowly retrieve a nymph pattern along the bottom to imitate this migration.

Shrimps are always busy at this time of year, there’s a lot of dead stuff for them to clean up. Try hanging your imitation from a strike indicator just above the bottom and give it a twitch every 20 seconds. This method also works with micro leeches when the trout are feeding on the tiny shrimp that are hard to copy with a fly.

Chironomids hatch right up to freeze up but not in the numbers you see in the spring. Try bloodworm patterns, next spring’s chironomids are in this larval form and are often migrating at this time trying to find an ideal location to hunker down for the winter.

In the early fall there is still lots of food available. Trout will feed in short intense bursts then shut down just as quickly. Don’t sit in one spot, move around and try different methods. Take the action to the fish don’t wait for them to come to you.

Sockeye Harvest

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:05:28 +0000

The sockeye run this year is the largest in almost a century, estimated at 34 million fish. Soon the rivers and creeks in this area will be full of sockeye and chinook salmon, and tucked in behind them trout and char will gorge on the eggs. The fly angler can have spectacular action using egg patterns, although in a dominant run year it can be frustrating trying to get the fly past all those salmon. You will snag salmon so be prepared to re-rig often, it’s best to break off these fish rather than wasting fishing time trying to play a foul-hooked salmon to a standstill. Avoid wading through the redds, you can crush hundreds of fragile eggs with every step, it’s not necessary to wade deep most fish are well within casting range.

On the negative side this large run has brought out the “great unwashed” to get their share of the bounty. When fish become commodities greed rears it’s ugly head. Sportsmanship, conservation, manners and etiquette get washed away. The bar “fishing” on the Fraser is a zoo, crowd any animals together and there’s conflict. I’ve heard horror stories about bad words, fights, tackle thefts and unfortunately a couple of drowning deaths. Why are these ”anglers” being allowed to foul-hook salmon[so called flossing], catch their limit[2 per day]take them home then go back and catch more? Think about all the lead and fishing line that has been lost and now litters the river. We have regulations why are they not being enforced?

This is not fishing it’s a harvest, it’s a slaughter, it’s greed. My feelings are that when salmon make it to the river they should be protected not targeted. If we made inland salmon fishing catch and release then perhaps the only thing that will be retained is sanity.

How Does A Fish Smell?

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:50:43 +0000

There’s an old music hall joke that goes like this: Q- “How does a fish smell?” A-“Bloody awful if you don’t ice it down.” A fish’s sense of smell, olfaction, is probably one of it’s most important senses, said to be a thousand times more sensitive than a dog’s. All fish have nostrils usually located on either side of the snout and a little forward from the eyes. Unlike our nostrils, fish nostrils are not connected to respiration because fish breathe through their gills. Fish nostrils are not well understood but those tiny organs are very sensitive. Fish use their sense of smell to locate and identify food, detect predators, find their mates and find their location and natal streams.

There are many products on the market to add scent to lures and baits, with claims that these smelly substances will drive fish into a feeding frenzy and draw fish from miles away. How does this help in flyfishing? Well it doesn’t, fly anglers do not use scents to attract fish. We have to rely on visual and feeling senses to bring a fish to the fly. One of the things we can do is make sure our flies do not have unpleasant scents that drive fish away. Avoid handling flies after applying sunscreen or insect repellent, and maybe that should carry over to tobacco and fruits such as oranges. Some anglers take the “no scent” to extremes, not using head cement on their flies and refusing to tie flies from materials that have been protected with mothballs. What you have to remember is that scents wash off with casting and current. Although some flies have absorbent materials most are water repellent and will not hold a scent for very long. It is said that fish give off a special scent when frightened, wounded, or alarmed, if this is so then a fly that has landed a fish should be useless for catching another. I have had days when I’ve caught 20 or more fish on the same fly. Shouldn’t it be 20 times more unlikely to catch fish?

When I was in Belize fishing for permit some guides told me that they put client’s flies in a plastic bag with a mixture of crushed crab and sea water on the way out to the flats. It was claimed that I wouldn’t catch a permit with a regular crab pattern unless it smelled like a crab. I had a couple of shots at permit and they didn’t take my fly, but I did catch bonefish whose sense of smell is reportedly the most sensitive of all fishes!

A Rod or Two

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:27:58 +0000

When I was fishing on the Bow this past June my drift boat partners were amazed that I was rigging up with only a single fly. “You can use a dropper fly here in Alberta” they said. My reply was that a two fly rig is taboo in B.C. and I never even thought about it. In fact there are very few places in this world that have this single fly restriction. But if you are alone in a boat in B.C. you can fish with two rods.

Back in the old country I was allowed to fish with several flies hanging from my leader. This was very effective for fishing chironomids of different sizes, colours, and depths and it took away a lot of the guess work but was a bugger to untangle if you threw too tight of a loop! Another rig is the washing line, this method uses a big, bushy dry fly at the point to hold up a string of chironomid droppers just sub-surface. Down South it’s pretty standard to see guys using what is called a hopper and dropper. The theory is that the trout is attracted by the big dry and finds the suspended nymph on the way up to investigate. Added bonuses with the hopper and dropper are that the nymph rarely snags up and the hopper makes a great strike indicator. All deadly stuff but not allowed in B.C.

Alone in a boat you can fish two rods, to me this is an advantage for the troller using rod holders that allow the fish to hook themselves. Fly fishing with two rods I rarely do. It’s tough enough to concentrate on one strike indicator, and have you ever noticed that you always get a strike on the rod you aren’t holding. Don’t get me started on the joys of trout macramé where a leaping rainbow jumps over the other line several times, or the fiasco of two fish on at the same time, and the sick feeling of watching an un-held rod disappear over the gunwale!

On the Bow we fished from the moving drift boat, my boat partner and I both hooked the same sunken log, he snapped off two flies whereas I only lost one. I should be selling flies in Alberta.

The Three Senses of Fly Casting

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 04:44:37 +0000

The other day I watched two guys fishing from a boat, they anchored on a productive shoal and there were fish feeding around them. The Captain (I’ll call him that because he was at the blunt end near the motor) was a good caster and he was trying to teach the Mate (the guy at the pointy end) how to cast. I heard the Captain shout all the casting catch phrases, “Keep the rod at ten to two. Don’t bend your wrist. Let the line straighten out behind you.” He should have saved his breath. The Mate flailed away his line slapping the water and the boat rocking as he put more body into it. Frustration level high, fish catching level low, neither Cap’n nor Mate were having a good time. The guide in me wanted to help but that would have seen me shouting instructions making the situation worse.

If you’re trying to teach a novice to fly cast here’s a few points to remember:

1. You can’t teach fly casting from a boat and certainly not while trying to catch fish at the same time. A fly casting lesson should take place on the bank or a dock. Once the novice can execute a reasonable cast then take it out on the lake.

2. Teach the novice that it’s the rod that does the work. Loading the rod is critical, just like casting a spinning rod it’s the bending [loading] of the rod that catapults the lure to the target. A fly line loads the rod the same way, the fly is just along for the ride.

3. Take little steps. Concentrate on a good presentation with 20 feet of line, add distance in small increments.

4. Practice, practice, practice. The novice should understand that just as in any sport, tennis, golf, whatever you have to do a lot of it to get better. Don’t give up just keep working on the basics.

Casting involves three senses: sight, sound and feel. When you are casting well, the “feel” comes to the forefront and you can lay out that line without even thinking about it.

Summer Fishing Techniques

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:39:13 +0000

When we get a sustained period of hot weather the lake fishing will decline, this is often referred to as the summer doldrums. Do you just give up and quit fishing? Not at all, there is good fishing to be had, because fish still have to eat, but first you have to find them.

Trout will not spend much time in shallow water that is warm and in full sun. The sheltered bays and shoals are too uncomfortable for trout to feed in during daylight hours. Choose a shoal that is open to the wind where wave action will cool and oxygenate the water. Fish the edges of these shoals where the drop off will provide the fish with security, cooler water, and easy access to food. You will often see trout rise to a surface food item and this gives you a clue as to where to concentrate your efforts. These rising fish will drop back down into their comfort zone so a fly presented at that depth will usually bring results.

What fly to use? At this time of year everything is abundant and trout can find food anywhere in the water column. Throat pump samples often show a smorgasbord of food items such as chironomids, blood worms, mayfly nymphs, shrimp, immature damsel nymphs and a leech or two. Keep changing the fly until you find one that works but if it stops working change again, remember there is little competition for food so the fly has to be different and attractive. Keep a tight line, the takes are often very subtle, strike at any perceived movement of the indicator or change in tension when retrieving. These fish have a lot of food options and will not hang onto a fly like they did in the spring.

You may not catch big numbers of fish in the summer but the quality makes up for it. These trout have fed heavily in the early season and are in prime condition. Fat and sassy they fight all the way to the net!

Masking Hatches on Lakes

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:31:43 +0000

A side benefit of working in a fly shop is that you get to read a lot of articles in the magazines. I love fly fishing magazines, the articles give you the goods in one thousand words or less! A couple of years ago I came across an article entitled “Masking Hatches”, the premise of this piece was that what you see is not always what you get. Insects that are visible at the surface may attract some attention but an abundance of another insect may be what the trout are keyed into. Although the article was about river fishing (most American magazine articles are) I have experienced the masked hatch on still waters too.

The other day I was anchored on a shoal in 12 feet of water, mayflies were hatching and trout were rising to them. I could also see fish cruising in mid water and by their darting behaviour I could tell these trout were actively feeding. Mayflies hatching, trout rising, fish cruising sub-surface, a nymph pattern should be the ticket, right? Well, after many fruitless casts I eventually caught a fish on the nymph. The throat pump sample told me volumes about what was really going on, there were a couple of mayfly nymphs but chironomids out numbered these ten to one. The trout were keyed into the abundance (chironomids) and feeding opportunistically on the mayfly nymphs, a burger and a side of fries in human terms. I switched to a chironomid hung 6 feet down and caught fish on almost every cast. I looked more critically at the rise forms, sometimes a mayfly was the target but many were surface boils for emerging midges.

When you have broken the code and have great fishing you should enjoy it. But it’s not about racking up big numbers, now is the time to do a bit of experimenting. On this day I switched again to an emerging midge pattern and although the action was slower I got great satisfaction fooling trout at the surface.

Reflections of a Fishaholic

Info@flyanglerswarehouse.com (Administrator) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:45:58 +0000

A great number of today’s flies have some flashy material tied into the pattern. Not too long ago the only sparkle you found was the Doc Spratley with it’s silver rib and it is still a great fly that often turns up a fish when all else fails. Can you have too much flash? I have a little mantra that I use as a rule of thumb when at the fly tying bench. If it’s an insect then just a glint, if it’s a baitfish then more than a hint.

Most insects do not advertise their presence, they are drab and try to blend in with their surroundings. Sometimes the light will catch a hard shell or trapped air bubble and give a glint that will give away the bug’s hiding place. One of the most successful, insect fly patterns that utilises a shiny material is the chromie chironomid. Some species of midge pupa fill their abdomens with gases to help with buoyancy and expansion of the exoskeleton before emergence. A body with silver or gunmetal tinsel makes the chromie pop perfectly mimicking the shine of the natural.

Baitfish, on the other hand, also have a drab coloured back that blends in to foil avian predators, but their flanks are reflective and bellies are white to break up their outlines when viewed from the side or below respectively. When fleeing a predator the baitfish will twist and turn and this is why we strip streamers fairly quickly, the fly will change angles and the flash simulates the fleeing action.

Recently I have been experimenting with electric blue tinsel in micro leeches and as a rib on chironomids. This colour has been very successful when used in steelhead flies and has proved to be a definite hit with trout in the lakes too. So why does it work? As any diver knows blue is the only colour that doesn’t change as you descend, and every angler knows that flies have no scent so visibility is crucial.