Four seasons on the Columbia River

 

An April day spent on the Columbia River may seem like a full season of weather as the morning snow turned to rain, then a concerted hail storm followed by more precip and finally sunshine. Despite the frenetic weather the fishing was fine, as large rainbows gulped my stone nymphs and woolly buggers in a consistent frenzy.

The golden stones are emerging from beneath their rocks and in spite of the cooler than average weather, have morphed into their adult form - at least a few of them.The best pattern was a number 8-10 olive wooly bugger with an orange or gold head, however a recently tied golden stone picked up a few fish too.

Turn over a few embedded rocks
to find Golden stoneflies

Crawling nymphs along the bottom requires an intermediate to fast sink line. The take may be subtle so set the hook at any pause or light pull. Soon the warmer weather will arrive, I hope, and then top water action with salmon flies, cicadas and flying ants should be the patterns of choice.

Just to be clear, despite what people say in the West Kootenay region, salmon flies are a type of stonefly known as pteronarcys californica - They are not a cicada - you know the black-blue bugs on the wall of the mall- those are cicada NOT salmon fly.Go to the entomology page at fly-fish-bc.com for more info.

The fishing is pretty good this time of year as large trout move into the mouths of creeks or slack water to spawn. Predatory trout will feed on eggs and insects targeting the seasonal bounty indiscriminately.
Be sure to release the spawners which are generally darker and often the males may even have a kype showing.

Photo tips: For great photo tips check out flytowater.com, a humorous and helpful Blog by a fellow fly fisher and superlative shutterbug - check out his recent tips on photography and how to fish and hold a beer in your waders at the same time - brilliant.
And for what it's worth, I'll throw in my own tips for solo photography.
Due to a bizarre schedule, I go fishing solo the majority of the time so I've had to learn how to take fly fishing photos of myself casting, catching fish, grip and grins etc.
It can be challenging but what I've found is that predicting the spot and shot and preparing the camera goes a long way to getting promising results.

1. Sun at your back.

Unless your going for a halo effect, be sure the sun is behind the camera thus illuminating the subject which is obviously yourself when alone.

2. The majority of outdoor magazines want to see your face for some reason, so be sure to tilt your hat back or take it off, and lose the sunglasses.

3. Set up your camera on a tripod pointed in position, sun at back, shooting a pleasing background (not the highway or house on the shore).

4. Set 12 sec. timer on camera and then in manual focus, focus on a spot where you will be releasing fish with the sun in your face and a beautiful backdrop. I focus on a log or rock then be sure to stand right there for the photo depending whether a shallow depth of field is the impression looked for or a deep one.

5. Now catch a fish.

6. Once hooked up you can "casually" reach over and click the camera while rushing to the spot as you play the fish. Make sure you have a good rod bend when the shutter clicks.

7. When you land the fish, keep it in net or handle it gingerly. Press the shutter button, rush to the spot, hold the slippery, squirming fish in a gentle but pleasing manner and wait for the click.

It's a bit of a gong show and looks somewhat ridiculous but I've had good results in my desperate attempts to get something published.

Self portrait with slow shutter speed
 to get waterfall effect

 "...My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things—trout as well as eternal salvation—come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy." - Norman McLean "A River Runs Through It."

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Fly fish BC goes in pursuit of Kootenay Rainbows

Perfect conditions on Kootenay Lake

The mighty Gerrard Rainbow is the largest species of rainbow trout in the world, with leviathons occasionally topping 30 pounds. So it was with excitement and a great deal of anticipation that I hit the water of Kootenay Lake Wednesday, a fortunate guest of father and son team, Rudy and Dave.



Dave ties on one of his hand-tied flies



We climbed aboard their comfortable 22-foot Trophy trawler (which is for sale by the way) fairly bright and fairly early but not too early, as local informants indicated the bite would not kick in until about 10 a.m.

Rudy is a retired doctor and his son Dave, a school teacher, who have lived on the lake off-and-on for the past 40 years. So their combined experience and a ton of fish landed over the years made this a promising venture.



Fly fish BC lands mighty
Gerrard on Kootenay Lake



Still, the first three hours on the water vetted nary a nibble. The "Bill Normans" and Rudy's personal favourite, the "Silver King" seemed to have lost their expected magic for winter trawling at an excruciatingly slow pace. 

At 11:30 Dave decided to change it up and replaced one impotent lure with a hand-tied-polar-bear hair fly, lovely creations, that seemed somehow indignant at being passed over by the more unwieldy and ineffectual plugs. 

As if to say, "I told you so" the fly was not in the water for more than five minutes when the rod bucked and line screamed. 

I fought and landed a beautiful eight-pound rainbow, shiny and thick - a harbinger of more good things to come. 

Rudy's 20-lb rainbow from Kootenay Lk.


Soon we had all three rods pulling hair, and again, just minutes after the first fish, another one was on.
I grabbed the  pulsing rod as line tore off the reel for what seemed like minutes. I passed it off to Rudy who played the massive rainbow like a pro, patient but intent on  keeping the line tight and the hook set. Dave netted the 20-pound trout, with wild exclamations and hardy congratulations all around.

In the next three hours we released five more Gerrards ranging from two to six pounds. It was a rare day for a lake that can be unforgivingly slow at times.

Perhaps it was the alignment of the stars, perfect conditions, good flies, experience and expertise, or a combination of the lot - I find on days when I catch more fish than expected, I don't question it, I just thank the fish gods and the men who made it so.

Thanks guys for a great day.

For more fishing adventures go to fly-fish-bc.com

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Cougar photo irks hunter

Jay Mykietyn holds the 160-pound cougar a friend of his shot in the Pend d'Oreille last month.

By Jim Bailey - Trail Daily Times
Published: February 14, 2011 5:00 PM

The photo of a Trail hunter straining to lift a massive cougar has generated controversy and as the photo spiders its way through cyberspace, heated debate follows, which is the last thing the man holding the cat was looking for.

The photo was taken after local cougar hunters tracked and shot a 160-pound cougar in the Pend d’Oreille and was subsequently posted online by a friend of one of the hunters. Media soon reported that the man holding the seven-foot two-inch cat, Trail resident Jay Mykietyn, had also shot the animal.

“They didn’t even have the courtesy to phone me,” said Mykietyn.

“It’s my picture with a cougar that I didn’t shoot.”

Mykietyn had already filled his cougar tag so it would have been illegal for him to shoot another cat, however, hunting partner Gerry Merlo was perfectly within his rights to harvest the animal and apply his own tag.

“It’s all part of game management and cougar hunting is here to stay, they kill lots of deer, elk, and moose – we have to have a balance and Mother Nature doesn’t take care of things like that,” said Mykietyn.

But there are detractors. Rossland city councilor Jill Spearn wondered online how “cougar hunting could be considered sport in the 21st century,” suggesting that it should be “outlawed.”

Pronouncements like these have made many hunters defensive but Mykietyn and others remain undeterred. Hunting is a precious and vital part of their heritage, something woven into the fabric of Canadian rural living and they mean to defend and preserve it.

Area cat hunters are a small fraternity. They share hounds and work together to exercise and train dogs.

The task is not an easy one, hunting cougars is difficult and expensive, but the few who do raise dogs are committed, spend hundreds of hours training, and at times are faced with unavoidable risk.

Mykietyn has been hunting all his life, tracking cats for 16 years and training his own hounds for 11, during which time he has lost one dog to a cougar.

When dogs are killed, “we feel sad and we have a little tear, but they’re soldiers, they are bred to do that, there is nothing that they’d rather do,” he said.

During last month’s hunt, one of the three hounds on the chase, a young pup named Rocky, was severely mauled by the cat. Mykietyn revived the dog, and after a pricey visit to a vet in Pullman, Washington, “the dog will make a full recovery.”

Because of the elusive nature of cougars, the Ministry of Environment has been unable to field an accurate study to determine populations. Nevertheless, hunting regulations put strict quotas on the cat harvest.

In Trail area management units 4-8 and 4-9, hunters are limited to one tag per year and each cougar killed must be reported and inspected. Once 10 female cougars are harvested and reported, hunters can no longer hunt in the area. But in the eight years a Fruitvale reporting and inspection station has operated, that quota has yet to be reached.

“Cats are almost impossible to hunt without dogs; a cat won’t tree because there’s a person following it, you have to have dogs, you have to have noise, and cougar hunters are selective with what they shoot - they don’t shoot every cat they put in a tree,” said Larry Hill, a Fruitvale hunter who has been scoring trophy animals for the West Kootenay Big Game Club for 28 years.

Hill says that most cougar hunters will tree cats, take a picture and let them go, doing so for training purposes and the thrill of the chase. And while he admits this particular cat is large, Hill has definitely seen bigger. Even Mykietyn acknowledges that he has come nose-to-nose with over a half-dozen larger cats and was with his father when he bagged the world-record, a seven-foot eleven-inch lion.

Responsible cat hunters try to avoid the spotlight as much as cougars avoid being spotted.

“Advertising like that (photo), it takes a long time to get straightened out . . . with cougar hunting, we keep a low profile, we don’t rub it in anybody’s face.”