The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

This article chronicles a recent trip to Quesnel Lake in central British Columbia.  This is the second part of the series. 

Quille greeted us with a warm smile.  She indicated we would head to the North arm this morning and asked if we had any preference towards casting or trolling flies.  Beings this was day one, we were open to any technique that caught fish.  Quille offered that we could do some creek mouths, and do some trolling in between.  It sounded good to us!  A big plate of pancakes and blueberry syrup later, we grabbed rods, bags full of extra spools, reels, rods, flies, dry cloths, camera gear and everything else we could potentially need for a three day cruise.  I could tell Quille was a bit amused by our over preparation and enthusiasm for catching a first BC trout as we filled the boat with enough gear to outfit a Cabela’s catalog. 

We met promptly at 9:00 am at the launch.  Quille indicated we were going to run to the end to the North arm of Quesnel Lake and hit several creek mouths.  Quille is an expert guide and has been fishing Quesnel Lake for many years.  She is widely recognized as THE guide on this lake.  So much so that Elysia Resort hired her as the resident guide some years back and she is looked to by all who fish this area of the lake for expertise and knowledge.  We knew we were in good hands as we motored north along the lake towards a far away creek mouth.

Not quite sure what to expect, I had packed a 5 weight rod, a 6 weight, a 7 weight and an 8 weight.  I expected to pull out the 5 weight and rig up with a sink tip.  But Quille frowned at the suggestion and motioned to the eight weight outfitted with a Rio Deep 7 line which sinks darn near as fast as lead core.  I had also packed many boxes of flies for this trip and she asked to see my boxes full of Alaska patterns. 

We were going to sling big flies, and with big flies come big fish! 

The fly pattern was kind of an accident in fly tying.  I had recently fished Clear Lake in Northern California with a friend and he had recommended purple and white flies for catching the large bass in this area.  One evening before the Clear Lake trip, I sat down with a glass of wine and some creativity and tied a few of this pattern.  It had a Purple magnum bunny tail about two inches long beyond the hook shank, a large tuft of purple and silver Polar Flash, a body of white cross-cut rabbit, gold barbell eyes, and was tied on a Daichi Red Salmon Fly hook in size 4.  By all accounts, this fly should have caught bass, but on a lark, it was the first pattern I tied on for Quesnel Lake rainbows and Bulls.  I didn’t know it at the time, but it was an excellent match for the Kokanee Salmon that these aggressive trout fed on routinely throughout the lake.  Ultimately it turned out to be the hot fly for the week and I spent a few hours at the tying bench turning out copies in order to keep us outfitted with this hot fly.  Mid-week it had caught quite a few fish and we abandoned the fly’s intended roots as a Clear Lake bass fly and named it Phil’s Elysia Special.

After a 35 minute boat ride, we eased the boat gently into the first creek mouth on the North Arm and Quille asked one of us to man the anchor on the bow.  I climbed forward, grabbed the line and stood on the bow as we moved into the channel that signaled the creek’s entry into the lake.  As I looked into the crystal clear water I uttered more loudly than intended, “Holy sh*t”.  As I looked up the creek channel, I saw several huge bull trout moving out of the path of the boat.  These fish were measured in pounds, not inches, and at least one of them was double digits.  I think I was going to like this place! 

We eased two anchors in place to firmly hold the boat in the gentle current where this creek entered the lake.  We cast across some 60-70 feet into the main creek channel, let the line sink, and then stripped aggressively back towards the boat.  Bull Trout are very aggressive and likely if they are going to take, it will be on one of the first few casts.  If a fish doesn’t take in the first few minutes, time to reel in and change patterns.  Such was the case on this first creek mouth.  The Bulls were stubborn, and I changed from the Purple and White Bunny Leech, to black, and then to orange, and finally to chartreuse.  All of these flies were tied on size 2 and 4 hooks and all had an intended purpose to catch a fish as long as my leg.  But at this first creek mouth, no joy.  Similarly Rob had changed flies multiple times, yet nary a strike, let alone a hook up.  After about 45 minutes of trying, we gave in and decided to head for the cliffs. 

The cliffs are a short run from this first creek mouth.  It is an area where cliffs tower over the lake, and where water joins land, the drop off below the water’s surface is steep and the rainbows rise from the cool depths to intercept sockeye salmon fry, small Kokanee and other baitfish that wander into this area.  We elected to troll this area with the fly rod, the deep 7 line and the large purple and white bunny leech.  Quille drove the boat and zigzagged along the shore in tight s-turns.  At times we were only a few feet from scrapping the rod tip on the lake shore, and other times we strayed out to the depths.  Within the first 10 minutes I had a sharp strike, but the fish didn’t take and we continued trolling.  Quille gave a bit of counsel, recommending that instead of sharply setting the hook upon a strike, we quickly give slack line.  The trout slash at baitfish and then return for a meal on the wounded baitfish.  Giving slack line immediately imitated this situation and results in many more hook-ups.  Often the trout will return and slash two or three or four times before taking.  Ultimately we learned that most hook themselves.  Yet it was hard to not react to a strike by trying to set the hook and multiple times a strike was followed by a quick lift of the rod and no fish was hooked. 

Finally after several strikes and more counsel from Quille, I finally got it right and a nice rainbow of about 22” and 3 ½ pounds hooked himself despite my efforts, and the fight was on.  Almost simultaneously, Rob hooked up and we had a double.  Two fish to net, our first two British Columbia rainbows. 

We continued to troll the cliffs for awhile, and shortly after the first fish I had another strike.  I was kind of getting the hang of this and, rather than savagely lifting the rod, I quickly dropped it to give slack.  Immediately another strike, but no take, and I dropped the rod again to give slack.  Again the fish hit, yet didn’t take.  Finally on the fourth strike I felt a solid pull on the line as the fish grabbed and set the hook himself.  The fish ran out some line and then gave some back.  After a back and forth for a few minutes, Quille gently slide the net under this fish and we boated my biggest fish of the day.  Quille weighed it in the net right at 4 ½ pounds.  It was a nice 24” native rainbow and beautifully wild. 

We trolled the cliffs for an hour or so and then headed to the next creek mouth.  The reports this week had indicated that creek mouths had been hot and cold.  One day the fish were on, and the next, nothing.  So it was for us. We found fishing the creek mouths very slow on the first day.  On the final creek mouth for the day, I finally hooked up with a nice 4 pound rainbow casting over the edge of the drop off where the creek flowed into the main lake, our first taken casting today.    Yet trolling produced all day long and we caught a number of nice rainbows to about 24 inches and 4 ½ pounds.  No Bull Trout today and no fish as long as my leg.  The rainbows we caught were nice fish, but as it turned out, the smallest average for the week on the big lake.  We were to find bigger fish in the following days. 

About 5:00 it was time to head back to Elysia Lodge. We had started about 25 miles up lake from the lodge.  But by the end of the day we had backtracked about 20 miles through trolling and creek mouths and the run across the lake was only about 5 miles.  Upon our return, I broke out some smoked salmon, capers, red onions bathed in balsamic vinegar and olive oil for hors devours to accompany some fine single malt while we reveled in the success of the day.  The scenery off the deck was spectacular, and the first day had been wonderful.  A little different than what we anticipated, but nonetheless a great day.

The Next Report:

Quesnel Lake Report - Day 2, Klinne Lake

Prior reports: