The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

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

There was no need to be in a rush this morning.  Klinne was only about 6-8 kilometers away from the lodge.  With the Callibaetis hatch not coming off till afternoon, Rob and I decided to take in a nice leisurely breakfast and get to the lake the late morning.  The weather this morning was spectacular.  Clear, no wind and the day promised to be warm.  Blaine had fished in overcast conditions yesterday and I hoped that the weather change wouldn’t put off the hatches, or the fish.  No matter, we were going to have a nice enjoyable day.  We looked through a Cabela’s catalog worth of fly gear laying in the entry way to the room and sorted to narrow down to the critical gear for fishing small lakes.  We decided to bring pontoon boats, a large bag full of fly reels, fly boxes, waders, fins four fly rods and other stuff we couldn’t do without, as well as two small lunch sacks packed by the lodge.  Lastly, we had an ice chest packed with some of those BC Ales we had picked up in Williams Lake a couple of days ago.  Economy of gear packing wouldn’t happen once again, and we brought all but the kitchen sink.

Breakfast was awesome this morning.  We took things at a relaxing pace and ordered the full Monty.  Pancakes, eggs, ham, toast, coffee and hash browns to make sure we had sufficient energy for a long day’s pontooning on a British Columbia lake.  We were still a little tired from the long trip to BC and hard day’s fishing yesterday, and a leisurely pace was just what the doctor ordered.  After breakfast, we strapped one pontoon boat to the top of my Ford Explorer and the second tucked into the back of the truck.  After getting driving directions from Harmony, we set out for the short trip to Klinne.  A 5 kilometer drive from Elysia, we turned right and meandered down a gravel road and turned left at the sign that said Klinne was just a half mile away.

the lake was British Columbia crowded.  There was one car in the parking area, and one boat with one person on the lake! 

Blaine had mentioned that he had caught most of his fish in the marbled bottom area off to the left of the dirt boat launch.  Marbled, in that the bottom changed from sandy bottom to weed beds and back to sand every few feet.  It was enticing water.  So we elected to head that direction and give it a try.  Right off the launch we witnessed two very nice fish working some kind of midge on the surface.  Each fish was about 17-19 inches, and sipped fly off the surface in a way that told this was going to be a special day!

I had rigged one rod with a dry line and a Callibaetis pattern, and the second rod I’d rigged with a black wooly bugger.   I started casting right off the boat launch and slowly worked my way over to the corner of the lake Blaine had described to us last night.  With the glowing reports from Blaine, I expected to catch one on every cast.  Yet, after a half hour of casting wooly buggers, neither I nor Rob had had so much as a strike.  No rises on the surface despite a blanket hatch of midges on the windward side of the lake.   Finally, right against a willow overhanging the bank I had a sharp grab, and just as quick, slack line.  I reeled in to discover the fish had broken off 4X like it wasn’t even there.  Hmmmm, interesting, maybe there were some big fish in this lake?

Rob in his Pontoon on Klinne Lake

Another 30 minutes went by and nary a strike.  It was early afternoon and if the Callibaetis were going to hatch, it should be right now, but very few rises throughout the lake.  Finally we gave up on Blaine’s “Honey Hole” and began trolling wooly buggers behind the pontoon boat as we slowly made our way to the other end of the lake. About halfway down the lake we crossed a wide flat, and my rod suddenly jumped and at the end of the line a nice rainbow jumped ad settled in for a short battle.  A nice 15” rainbow to net and I slipped the barbless hook from his mouth and gently released him back to the lake.  The regulations in this area require barbless hooks when fishing all waters, and interestingly, the regulations also do not allow for fishing a dropper fly.  One fly at a time, which made things a little slower to figure out what patterns would work, and which wouldn’t.  Well, finally, the ice had been broken and we were ready for a few more. 

Down towards the West end of the lake we found the fish.  Lot’s of them, and they hit black wooly buggers with reckless abandon.  None were the size of the first fish, and most measured from eight inches to about twelve inches.  But they were feisty, and there were lots of them.  We each caught 30+ of these small wild rainbows on black wooly buggers that at times were almost as big as the fish.  Several hours had gone by and it was suddenly the beginnings of early evening. 

I had slowly worked back up the lake towards the large flat where I had caught the first fish.  Towards the middle of this flat I caught a rise form out of the corner of my eye.  Soon another rise form appeared and I strained my eyes to try and figure out what the trout were taking.  The rises were aggressive, and these fish were much more substantial that the smaller fish of the past several hours.  I kicked my pontoon over the flat trying to get closer to these rises when I spotted a telltale sign of the hatch; a slight v-wake on the surface that was quickly engulfed by a nice rainbow.  Traveling Sedges!  I was hoping for this hatch and had tied about a dozen big Goddard Caddis flies just in case.  Quille had mentioned last night that we might see this hatch and went on to explain the take was not what it appeared.  She told us that trout rise to the traveling sedge and take the fly, not on the rise, but on the way down after the fish has turned.  Setting the hook on the rise results in mostly missed fish!  I would quickly learn this lesson on the first several fish on this hatch, which I missed.  Most of the time having the patience to not set the hook at all results in the greatest number of hook-ups.  The fish generally hook themselves.

I set my first rod with the sinking line and wooly bugger in the rod holder and grabbed the second rod with a dry line.  I tied up 4X tippet and a size 8 Goddard Caddis and began the hunt for rise forms.  It was important to land the fly fairly close to and shortly after a rise.  Often as not, this resulted in an aggressive rise, which my reactions would immediately interpret as a reason to quickly lift the rod and set the hook.  After several of these mistakes, I forced myself to not react to the rise, which I also found is a lot harder that it seems.  Trying to break myself of years of practice reacting to rising trout by setting the hook wasn’t about to be changed after just a few traveling sedge rises.  But sure enough, the first time I didn’t react, I was rewarded with the fish hooking itself and I landed a nice 17 inch rainbow.  The traveling sedge frenzy lasted for about an hour, during which I landed about a half dozen nice rainbows between 15 and 19 inches.  Rob had been late to arrive to the flat and missed most of the fun.  Soon the lake returned to its serene quiet, and I replaced the dry line with the wooly bugger rod and began the slow kick back to the boat launch.  It had truly been a nice second day in British Columbia.

Back at the car I found the ice chest in the truck with the ice cold ale we had picked up in Williams Lake several days ago.  Rob and I were both thirsty and two of these cold brews quickly disappeared without a trace.   As the day finished, I heard a haunting sound reverberate across Klinne Lake.  A loon had been hanging out near us for a good part of the afternoon.  As we were leaving, this loon began its lonesome call into the evening.  It was the first loon I had ever heard in the wild.  TV does not do this sound justice.  It is loud, and the sound echoes across the lake in the fading day.  It is eerie and comforting, and nature at its best.   

Loon's Lonely Wail Across Klinne Lake (Click to play sound file )

Klinne Lake Loon

The Next Report:

Day 3 - The Trip to the Mitchell River

Prior reports:

Day 1 - The North Arm and Phil's Elysia Special