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Columbia River Rainbow Trout,

This past Sunday Mike and Dave invited me on another outing, this time a trip up the Columbia River on Mike's Starcraft fishing boat. The day called for rain and it looked like most of the day to be inevitible, however, it held off. The fishing stayed as cool as the weather for the first part of the day. Up near Fairfield we could see large rainbows in the shallows but they were too busy spawning to pay attention to our offers. Dave and I sent cast after cast, and after one initial strike, they ignored us completely.

Down river we went, checking out various spots. Dave had one fish on ever so briefly. Mike, tired of watching us lose fish, pulled out the meat rod with weighted 3-way and worm and cast into an eddy. 30-seconds later, literally, he'd hooked a beautiful 5-lb doe, played and released her unharmed.

The two of us fly fishers were getting desperate. Finally, after I lost another one, Dave connected and pulled in a beautiful 3-4lb buck. What a relief. It had only taken the two of us almost four hours to land one fish - Mike had done it in less than 5-minutes.

An hour later, Mike and Dave had both caught another. The sun was setting, darkness loomed, the air chilled but we could still see trout rising. I knew I was down to my last few casts. Dave gracefully let me take the open bow, after reminding me how he had caught a couple already and seeing I had caught nothing today I might as well have one last shot at it, and what kind of fly-fisherman did I think I was and that I should consider changing the name of my site from fly-fish-bc to no-fish-bc...etc,etc...

Well, as Dave remarked, 'There is a God' though cruel, he does show some mercy - after a good drift I felt the tell-tale thud of a strike, set the hook, and was into a nice doe. Finally, the drought was over. In the last week I had lost three fish outright and missed a half-dozen. As Mike tailed it, I breathed a sigh of relief, admired the beautiful Columbia River rainbow, took a couple pics then released her into the dark water.

Thanks guys for a great day. Click on the Link below to see a video of the trout that broke the streak.

Dave entitled it "There Is A God - Jim's First Fish"

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/719cab86a40a578feab53d9d6107db32/video/11920185

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March 15, 2010

The weather has been incredible for March so I took advantage of a couple friends and headed out to Kootenay Lake to trawl for some large Gerrard Rainbow trout. Dave and his Dad, Rudy, Mike and myself left early for the lake where Dave's 'Trophy' fishing boat awaited. Once we were rigged and loaded we sent out four lines, two on downriggers and two on the surface. In winter you have to fish slow, like 1.5 mph - trawling is not the most exciting way to fish but is the most effective on large lakes like Kootenay.

By most accounts it was a slow fishing day for everyone. We had one fish on which I promptly lost. It hit, I grabbed the rod, set the hook - perhaps too vigourously - the trout ran, jumped a few times, then was gone. According to Dave and Mike it was a big fish, 15 lbs or so. It broke off shortly into the fight, and for the rest of the day (and who knows how much longer), I had to endure the pointed verbal barbs of Mike and Dave. "Yes, I thought I knew how to fish too..."

I apparently need more practise, so this afternoon I headed down to the Columbia River. The day was similar to the previous day, sunny and warm. Last week I managed a nice rainbow caught on a nymph pattern but when I saw large adult stoneflies floating by en masse and trout rolling, I tied on a stimulator dry and threw to the most recent splash. Sure enough the trout rolled over my fly. I hooked him good, the rod bowed then went slack. I cursed and knew immediately it had broken me off. That was a nice trout. I lost two more that day. Needless to say not a great day but I count them both as good days. Anytime the sun's shining and you have a rod in your hands, sharing stories, laughs, an a few cold beer with friends - well one could do worse.

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