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Remote Rainbows


Zubris21

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I have been talking about making a fly in trip to a remote rainbow lake since I started to hear stories of common 10lbs plus fish, and the occasional 25lber coming from Lake X. The local doctor had a plan to go this past weekend with a med. Student that was up. I was invited but initially had to decline because the grade 12’s had their grad, and I was signed up for the firearms safety course through the college. Low and behold, a mudslide mid-week blocked the road leading south, and a forest fire blocked the road coming in from the north so we were completely isolated. Relatives could not attend grad and the instructor couldn’t make it to town so all my plans were cancelled! I quickly put in to get Monday off and luckily there was still another seat on the plane.

 

We left town around 9am Saturday morning and it was about an hour’s drive to Tattoga Lake resort where we would be catching the float plane.

 

Getting ready to load the beaver

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On route, only a short 30 minute flight here are some of the views from the plane.

 

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We landed and immediately set up camp. There were two other groups staying in the same area as us, but there was enough space for everyone to be comfortable. We had an inflatable boat with us, but fortunately there was a spare aluminum we could use. (belonged to the guide outfitters whose territory is around the lake, we know them and had permission to use the boat).

 

Some scenes from camp...

 

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We went out for a fish and immediately got into them, they were breaking surface everywhere!!!

 

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Danny, the med student was fishing for only his second time, being a city boy from Vancouver he was pretty impressed by all the scenery and wildlife, and he even got into some very nice fish...

 

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Dr. Dave hooked into the largest of the evening coming in at 29" and probably 8ish lbs....

 

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After a while we snuck up and took some photo's of this moose having a drink...

 

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We brought a couple 2-3lbers back to camp and had a great feast of rainbow trout cooked over the open fire! it was Delicious.

 

The next morning Dave was sick with a migrane and couldn't make it out for the first fish. Danny and I did go however and had some great success... The pattern for the trip was that I caught the numbers, but the other guys caught all the big fish... Oh well, still not dissapointed...

 

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We came back to camp in late afternoon and Dave was starting to come around, took a few shots around camp and did some fishing off the dock. It seemed like everywhere you looked there was something beautiful...

 

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Danny caught this beauty right off the dock that evening

 

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After a delicious dinner of homemade bison burgers we were out on the water again. We got into lots of fish, but didn't bother with any photo's. It's unbelievable how long the light lasts up here. We were on the water till about 11pm and it was still light out. Around 9:30-10pm Danny shouted, "What's that?, I just saw somethign white moving in the bushes" Dave and I didn't see it, but moments later this fella came down to the waters edge for a stroll along the lake...

 

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My first ever wolf sighting, and I don't think I'll ever get a closer look!

 

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We went in to investigate his tracks and an old lava flow nearby. Not far from the Southern edge of the lake is Mount Edziza, a dormant volcano. It really is beautiful seeing all the old lava flows and cinder cones. Would like to hike up to some of them one day.

 

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The boy's fished from shore for a few minutes while I snapped some shots...

 

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Next morning we headed out again and got into some great fish, again all of mine were small-medium, but dave caught probably the biggest of the trip.

 

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All in all it was a great trip, I will definately try to get back next spring again and look for that big one. The other groups in camp were pretty dissapointed with the size of the fish. I don't think the other groups got anything over 5lbs, so we were pretty lucky with our big ones. The story of the lake is that in the late 70's the department of fisheries claimed it was void of any fish. Mid-late 80's reports started coming in the anglers were consistently catching fish in the 15lb range. The Deparment of fisheries went in and did another story and confirmed the reports. They concluded that a local trapper had illegally stocked the lake with rainbows from nearby waters. The small number of fish were able to gorge themselves on limitless food, and the growth rate was unheard of. They took to the lake and even began to spawn.

 

According to one of the other groups we met who have been coming to this lake for 10 years, the fish size has been gradually declining. It seems as though the prospects of that monster fish are fading, the small fish are out-competing the big fish, who, for some reason only feed on crustaceans and fly hatches. I find it strange that they have not become cannibalistic, I would imagine this would favour the larger fish. Anyways, the lake is still super productive with an incredibly healthy population of rainbows!

 

-Andre

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Bravo!!!! Your story with the visuals sent shivers up my spine....

 

That's was most definitely a fishing trip of a life time...

The scenery and wildlife were the icing on the cake...

And not to forget the "Rainbow" cherry on top of every "bite"....

 

Very nice work and thanx for this AWESOME share...

 

Will

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sweet fishing man....good job!

 

Wish we had inland bows like that around here.

 

 

we do Anders

 

great report

I would love to get into some of them again

I remember making a trip out to a rainbow pond with an uncle who was a logger in BC

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