Corbett Lake Report

Ed Kane at Corbett Lake

Corbett Lake Outing Report

July 5-9, 2013

by Ed Kane

The Corbett Lake outing this year was characterized by pleasant environment & surroundings, great fishing companions, excellent meals, quality research and above average fishing, catching & releasing.  Thanks to Ron Miller’s suggestion, we all caravanned up to the lake on July 5th to find pleasant weather and spectacular scenery.  We stayed in two large adjoining cabins with an interconnecting door so socialization was maximized each day.  The view from the cabin balcony and some pictures of the lake are below.  We also noticed a new sign on one of the points so we had its namesake pose next to the sign for the record.

The first evening we had dinner in the lodge where they prepared a prime rib dinner with all the trimmings.  The food was excellent and we really enjoyed each other’s company during the meal.  The remainder of the meals was prepared in the cabins by the participants and it must be said that these were equally excellent.  Each meal was preceded by relaxing in the lounge area of one of the cabins and sharing fishing stories.  We ate on the deck each night and it was breezy enough that the mosquitoes weren’t much of a problem.  The main dishes consisted of elk meat loaf, beef bourguignon and spaghetti with meat sauce.  Each meal included salad and dessert.  No one walked away hungry!

We basically had the lake to ourselves for most of the week-end.  However there were several Canadian fishers that seemed to have this lake dialed in.  Each day they would go out to the drop-offs, anchor up and fish chironomids.  It seemed that they were hooking a fish about every 5 minutes.  Naturally we were curious about how they were doing that.  Several of us asked them for more information, but they were not very helpful.  A fish broke off one of their entire rigs and the next day Dave Nielson found it floating in the lake.  It was everything from the indicator to the fly.  He coiled up the whole thing and brought it in for us to look at.  The fly was a size 14 root beer colored chironomid with a black tungsten bead head and a tuft of white fir just above the head.  Dave and Bill LaFever set about getting a good photo of the fly (below) and I made an attempt to untangle the leader so that we could measure it’s length.  I got Ron Miller to help me with the untangling project and we found out that it was about 20 feet from the indicator to the fly and tapered from about 3X at the butt to around 5X at the fly.

We caught fish using all the usual techniques, trolling, casting & retrieving, casting dry flies to rising fish, and chronomiding.  Bill LaFever, Dave and I spent the morning of the last day trying out what we had learned from the analysis of the retrieved Canadian rig.  I caught one, Bill caught several fish and Dave caught at least one.  The research was a success, thanks to Dave.  Following are some other catches and releases from our 4 days of fishing.

All in all, it was a great outing and we really enjoyed it.  I’ve booked the same two cabins for July 5th through the 9th for next year.

Hopefully we’ll see you there,

Ed Kane

 

Corbett Chironomid
Corbett Chironomid
Corbett Dock
Corbett Dock
Corbett Inside
Corbett Inside
Corbett Outside
Corbett Outside

Corbett Large Trout

 

Rattlesnake Outing Recap

The weather started out beautiful and warm on June 25th for the Rattlesnake Lake outing.  I almost left my jacket at home.  By the time I reached downtown Kirkland there was a literal hurricane blowing through, ripping whole branches off trees.  After checking weather radar I could see that it had already blown through North Bend so I continued out to the event.  When I got there I heard stories of the group effort to hold the tent to the table, but the weather was just a little damp.  Nate & Midori, as always, had laid out quite a spread of food and about 20 members must have heard how good it was last year because they came despite the weather.  A handful also tried fishing in small boats.  Fish could be seen feeding on the surface, but it was a challenge getting them to go for the fly.

Rattlesnake Cold Dog
Rattlesnake Cold Dog
Rattlesnake Hot dog
Rattlesnake Hot dog
rattlesnake kick boat
rattlesnake kick boat
Rattlesnake Lake
Rattlesnake Lake
Nate
Nate
Rattlesnake Pie
Rattlesnake Pie
Rattlesnake rod
Rattlesnake rod
Food Tent
Food Tent
Terry
Terry

 

Nicaragua Tarpon – Bruce Tyson

On April 20, I set out for San Jose, Costa Rica to meet up with seven other friends from the Seattle/Tacoma area to head out to Nicaragua for some tarpon fishing.  After a short flight from San Jose to San Juan de Nicaragua, we boarded boats for the 10 minute jaunt to the Rio Indio Lodge.  This lodge was built about 10 years ago and billed as an Ecotourism Lodge, but has since added the fishing aspect as this area at the mouth of the San Juan River is right on the migratory route for big tarpon.  The lodge was really beautiful and built right in the jungle.  We arrived on Sunday and were fishing by Sunday afternoon.  I was the only person fishing flies.  The gear guys were using jigs or bait (sardines) if available.  My partner hooked up and landed his first tarpon early Sunday afternoon.  At around 4:50pm, my Tibor Pacific reel attached to my 14 wt Orvis Helios2 started screaming and the fight was on. Once you get past the first jump (which happens almost immediately), you’re probably hooked up well.  After about 40 minutes, I landed my first tarpon – around 75 lbs.  I caught the fish on my own hand tied Black/Green/White Deceiver on a 6/0 hook using 25 lb class tippet with a 100 lb shock tippet.  Pretty exciting.  Throughout the rest of the week, I had 3 other hookups, but did not land another tarpon.  I did however, land a very nice Jack Crevalle, again on one of my Deceiver ties.  The guys using bait did better, but I refused to go over to the “dark side”.  While at Rio Indio, we also did a day of jungle fishing which was really fascinating.  The guide took us into the jungle through some nasty and shallow water (sometimes having to paddle) to get us to the area where we fished for Guapote or Rainbow Bass.  Lots of fun.  My partner and I caught over a dozen Guapote the largest weighing in at about 6 lbs.  I did very well using a Black Starlight Leech on my 6 wt Orvis Zero Gravity rod.  The last item of particular interest about Rio Indio is its resident crocodile.  The croc, named Juan Cho, has been coming to the lodge dock every evening since the lodge owners first started coming to the area in 1990.  They, of course, feed him.  The Discovery Channel did a special on the croc and he is 125 years old, 19’1” long, and weighs about 1250 lbs.  He just nonchalantly swam up to the boat dock into one of the slips every evening waiting for his fresh snack.  The picture attached shows Juan Cho dining on a Jack Crevalle.  Pretty spectacular sight.  We had a great time at Rio Indio Lodge.

Upon our return to San Jose, four of our group of eight remained to travel to Quepos, Costa Rica for some Sailfish fishing.  We flew to Quepos on April 26 and had Sunday, April 27 off to explore and chill in Quepos.  This is a nice, quaint seaside town and we learned that there were a lot of American expats living there.  The town itself had some really nice bars and eating establishments, but the high rent district was up the hill on the way to Manuel Antonio National Park, which is supposed to be pretty spectacular.  Anyway, our first day of fishing was Monday, April 29.  We boarded the “Sea Lady” captained by CPT Eric along with deckhand El Chita.  We proceeded about 25 miles offshore in search of Sailfish.  I had my 14 wt rod rigged up with a sailfish popper, ready to go, but with trolling eight bait rods with an additional 3 teasers, I didn’t have much of an opportunity to get to the sails with the fly.  I’m not proud, but I did enter the rotation for the fighting chair and landed 3 sails on gear.  I’m not including any pictures of the sails since they don’t count, being caught on gear.  I did however catch a few Yellowtails and small Dorado on the fly while we were fishing for Sailfish.  On the last day, we did some inshore fishing for Rooster fish.  I was using my 6 wt Zero Gravity casting on the bow of the boat.  It was pretty rough as we were right in the surf.  All of a sudden I saw a big fish right beside the boat.  I already had my fly out on that side and as it swung around, the fish saw it and developed some interest.  I stripped it in a few times and suddenly, FISH ON!  This was a pretty big fish for what felt like a really wimpy 6 wt rod.  But, about 45 minutes later with the help of CPT Eric helping in the chase, I landed a 35 lb Tripletail (kind of a black snapper).  Quite a fight on the 6 wt.  Deckhand El Chita indicated that these fish were really good eating and that he would be happy to take the fish, so this fellow was not released unscathed.  We continued on to another area by a bunch of big rocks to seek Roosters.  One of the gear guys landed one.  Beautiful fish – really hard fighters.  Since we were told Roosters would take nothing but live bait, I thought I would use the 6 wt rod with a “live sardine” fly.  Yes I know it’s cheating and I deserve a ration of $*%!, but what the hell.  I wanted to catch a Rooster.  Right at the end of the day, I did hookup and again, after a 45 minute battle, landed a 30+ lb Rooster fish.  The rod broke just as we had the fish up to the boat but we landed the fish anyway.  Catching the Yellowtail and the Rooster on the 6 wt. was quite a battle, but the rod was way overmatched.  I was quite impressed with the strength of the rod.

All in all, this was a really great trip.  I got to explore some new areas, catch some big saltwater gamefish on the fly, and have a lot of fun with a great bunch of guys.

Pictures:

DSC_0256 – My first tarpon catching some air

DSC_0266 – My first tarpon with guide Rocindo

DSC_0316 – Jack Crevalle with guide Roy

DSC_0538 – Trippletail on the 6 wt with El Chita

DSC-0569 – Rooster Fish

P4230790 – Juan Cho dining at Rio Indio

tarpon 256
My first tarpon catching some air
DSC_0316
Jack Crevalle with guide Roy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tarpon DSC_0266
My first tarpon with guide Rocindo
DSC_0538
Trippletail on the 6 wt with El Chita

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DSC_0569
Rooster Fish

Juan Cho dining at Rio Indio
Juan Cho dining at Rio Indio

 

 

 

Fly Fishing British Columbia’s Stillwaters – Bill LaFever

Bill LaFever
Bill LaFever

 

 

At the age of 6 my father introduced me to the art of fishing streams and much later, to fishing lakes.  At the time I did not think anything about it as fishing was fishing, no matter where it was. But now that I look back over those years I have come to realize that I have stopped fishing small stream in favor of the stillwaters of lakes. I also know that is not the norm for many fly fisherpersons and the methods and sometime equipment is somewhat different.  With this in mind, I am taking on the task of explaining some of the things that makes stillwaters fishing in B.C. my passion.

I will start with, a few of my reasons for fly fishing on lakes in B.C. which are as follows:  (1) lots of small lakes that are perfect for fly fishing, (2) few people to content with. (3) Lots of wild life and scenic beauty.  (4) It take a day or two days of driving to get to these fishing areas, which are far, far away for the city life. (5) Lots of fish, simple, huh?

But you might say that you can find the same thing in Eastern Washington which is true to some extent but you can not find the legendary Kamloop trout.  Of course there are Rainbow trout in most of the lakes and some lakes have Kookanee which can give you one heck of fight for their size.

For a beginner fly fisherperson, you can start fly fishing on lakes with two simple techniques; (1) Trolling a fly such as a Wooly Bugger, or a Carey Special or (2) Chironomidae fishing with a bobber. Both methods are effective and many times the only way to find fish in a lake you never fished before.  Of course both these methods are fished below the surface. Trolling requires the use a wet line and Chironmidae fishing will be done with a dry line with a bobber set so that the fly is at the same depth as the fish.

Trolling very slowly allows you to search areas of a lake shore or shoals while observing the surface for hatches, spent shucks or bird activity.  You may use a row boat, canoe, pontoon boat or float tubes depending on the access to the lake or your personal preference.  A row boat or canoes are fine for two persons and you can cover a lot of water with them.  Pontoon boats or float tubes will allow you to get into lakes that do not have road access and let you fish closer to the shore and are less expensive to acquire.  You can row slowly or you can let the wind drift you across the lake, assuming it is where you were you wanted to fish.  But remember to keep an eye open for where the wind is blowing you, as you will still have to get back to you launch site at the end of the day.

Chironmidae fishing can be done from any type boat anchored in front and rear to keep the boat from moving.  It is much like fishing with a bobber when you were a kid.  The bobber (strike indicator) will keep the fly at the depth of the fish.  You will use a long leader, 12 feet or longer, so that the dry line will float and the fly will descend to the depth of the fish as set by the bobber.  Yes, I know that this method of fly fishing may seem odd, but it is effective. Once the fly is at the depth, you will retrieve it very, very, very slowly, to emulate the Chironmidae as it ascends to the surface on a bubble of air. You must be very quiet and patient which is why many fly fishermen pass this part of the sport up.  However, this method can be effective when nothing else will work.

Another method of fishing lakes is with a dry fly, on the surface or subsurface, much as you would a stream except you will not have the current to take the fly to the fish.  This is where the Pontoon boat and float tube comes into their own.  These crafts will allow you to work the shoreline without the problem of the wind that you have with the row boat or canoe.  Also they are much less expense and easier to store in you garage.  Dry fly fishing is either done in a hatch or along the shore where the reeds, grasses or dead trees give cover for the fish from their predators.  I must admit that less then ¼ of my fishing is with a dry fly but it always gives me an adrenalin rush when you see the fish strike the fly on the surface.

As for rods, you will need a 8 ½ to 9 foot rod in a 5 or 6 weight because you will be lower on the water and you need the extra length to keep the fly off the water when you cast.  There are two different types of rods I use for Lake fishing.  I use a medium to fast for dry flies to keep my casts to a minimum and medium to soft rod for Chironmidae fishing as you will get fewer break offs when the strike hits the softer rod.

You will find that the prices in British Columbia are reasonable and the exchange rate is near par.  One note of caution, take your passport with you.  It is not for the Canadians, but for when you return to the U.S. After 9/11, the U.S. customs must see some sort of photo ID and the passport is best.

More detailed information on lake fishing can be found in (1) “The Gilly”, a flyfisher’s guide compiled & edited by Alfred G. Davy.  This book is a collection of writings by some of the legends of British Columbia, past and present. (2) Morris & Chan on Fly Fishing Trout Lakes, (3) Fly Patterns for Stillwaters, a study of trout, Entomology and Tying by Philip Rowley. (4) “Hatch Guide for Lakes, Naturals and their Imitations for Stillwater trout fishing”.  All of these are published by Frank Amato Publications.

Videos in our OFFC library include: (1) Trout in Still Waters by Gary Borger, (2) Flyfishing Still Waters with Alf Davy, (3) Flyfishing Strategies for Still waters – Volume I & II by Brian Chan, (4) Lake Fishing Techniques for Large Trout with Bill Mart, (5) Fly Fishing Stillwaters for Trophy Trout by Denny Rickards.

Web sites on British Columbia fly fishing are a very good source on lakes and flies.  The following will be of help to you.  http://bcadventure.com/adventure/angling/stillwater/index.phtml

http://srmapps.gov.bc.ca/apps/fidq/main.do

http://www.angelfire.com/wa/nwfishing/troutcanada.html

http://www.gofishbc.com/where-to-fish/fishing-bc.aspx

10 Pounder at Rocky Ford

Rocky Ford in Summer

OK, so I have been to Rocky Ford on my way to and from business meeting and took a could newbies there a couple weekends ago. Funny thing about this place, when other waters are getting hammered with folks, there is no one here and visa/versa. The last couple times, I was the only guy there, well almost … and with the newbies there were just a handful of fishermen out. The good news: This spring the hatchery released some large 10 pounders and I have actually been lucky enough to catch a few to hand. The water is above normal slightly, might be part of what the WDFW guy was talking of but this makes it all new in terms of how and where to fish. I find that good in that we can try new techniques and such. The bad: The WDFW has put chains across both footbridges for “Safety Reasons” the sign says. At the lower aluminum bridge it does appear the ramp just on the other side is listing at more than a 45 degree angle which could make it unsafe and on the upper foot bridge I am not sure why because every thing looked ok to me … I will try to find out more but this sure does put a cramp in hitting the Ford if we cannot fish the other side, especially the lower other side. Bummer for the summer. Note to self, must find other water to fish …

Said 10 pounder …

Rocky Ford 10 pounder

Said 10 pounder back in the water on the far side

Rocky Ford Other Side

Mark Koch

 

Carp Outing Aug 3rd 8:30 Banks Lake

Hello all you Carp hunters …

Just a quick email to find out who is interested so we can nail down some details over the next weeks before the outing. The date is Saturday, August 3rd starting at 8:30 at Banks Lake although I will be there the 2nd on Friday scouting out the known carp habitats so we can get on some Saturday.

As a few of you witnesses last summer at the outing the conditions have to be right for everything to come together and end up with the behemoth on the end of your line. Conditions such as sunshine to spot them, no wind and no chop on the water so we can see then, water temp at about 71 degrees or better, water levels which should not be a problem at Banks Lake at that time, the carp need to be feeding in groups … need I say that it is a hunt to be sure. Just laying this out so there are no disappointments if the conditions do not come together. I have been on Banks when they do and had 20 fish to hand in four hours, also have been skunked.

So if you are willing to take a chance on a good day, let me know. Ron Romig is bringing his jet boat and can get a few into position with that … if anyone else wants to bring a boat let me know. I will be wading in a couple different spots and can lead that group. If you are coming Friday we can camp at a campground near the lake that Ron’s friend owns, more details to follow.

Please let me know if you plan on coming and which days so I can plan accordingly. Any questions just shoot … Mark

Mark Koch