I took a quick trip up Island this past weekend to hang out with some buddies and watch the UFC on Saturday night. I go the chance to go fishing on Sunday morning with my friend Clayton. We really wanted to go check out a new spot, to us, on Quadra.

November 16, 2008

We left Heriot Bay around 8:00am heading for Little Main. Clayton’s a timber cruiser, so he has a pretty good idea of the area around our desired lake. The day before Fred and I got lost looking for Little Main and ended up at Straumberg Lake, were Freddy fell in which ended our day early. Anyway, Clayton led us to the Promised Land and we started our morning off with a flurry of early strikes from nice sized trout. After fishing one zone for about an hour and doing very well, we headed over to where another creek was feeding into the lake. Fortunately, there’s a resident canoe with paddles stashed up at the lake, so we could maneuver around the lake very easy. The fish continued to strike very hard at our new location and the sizes were surprising. After it cooled down a bit we paddle to the far end of the lake where the out flow is, but it really didn’t produce anything. We decided to head to Straumberg to have a look before we headed home.

Clayton brought two pairs of hip waiters so, we could fish the outflow of the main creek running into the lake. We caught a few trout, but it seemed very slow and it was time to go anyway.

At the end of the day, Clayton and I estimated we landed 30 fish and hit around 50. The biggest surprise was the average size, about 11-12 inches. I’ve been fishing on Quadra for years and I had never seen so many nice fish at ounce. Clayton even caught a little Coho to top it off.

After finding the initial jolt for fly-fishing, on my last trip home, I can’t wait to get the juices flowing for the art down in Victoria. My buddy Matt was coming down for Halloween weekend and this would be a great opportunity to check out the area. I already had a pretty good idea of the main fishing lakes, such as Elk, Beaver, and Prospect. However, I wanted something less popular.

Nov 1, 2008

After going to a hockey game and wandering around downtown the night before, Griswold and I got up around 8:00am, with just a slight bit of brain fog. After some coffee we headed out the door to talk to the guys at Island Outfitters. After some obvious and also good information we got on with it. We really wanted to head towards Port Renfrew and hit the creeks and rivers along the way, but we had a busy afternoon planned, so we headed to Durant’s Lake. Durant’s Lake is easy to get around along with being a very short walk. The main problem here was the lack of area to get a good cast with the fly rod. Durant’s Lake would be good with a belly boat or casting rod. Fish were jumping out in the middle of the lake or out far enough to get at with a casting rod. After some hopeless attempts we headed back to the van. While walking back we ran into two guys fishing with casting rods and power bait. After mentioning fly-fishing, they told us to head to Matheson Lake in Metchosin. They figured we would have better luck finding a good spot to fly-cast there.

We drove through the Uplands and Langford and then into Metchosin, after what seemed like forever, we arrived at Matheson Lake to find more people fishing with power bait, the one problem was they were in the spots good for fly-fishing. Feeling a little deflated we continued to walk along the trail hoping for something good. Matt pressed on further than I and found a great spot. I could here him hollering every time he hit a big one. I gave up on the spot I was fishing, which produce one small cutty, and headed towards Matt. I found him balancing on the tip of an Alder, which fell into the lake. Classic Griswold. I had no luck trying to leech off Matt’s spot, but he ended the day with three rainbows and one cutthroat. We checked out some other fallen tree spots, which would have produced, but Matt almost lost the top of his thumb in Griswold fashion and we needed to get him wrapped up.

One thing I should explain is, I don’t own a pair of waiters. So, that’s why I’m always looking for spots to fly-fish from shore. When the money comes in, I’ll be hitting up a pair of waiters.

In October of 2008, I went home for a week to spend some time with the family. Upon arrival, my dad gave me a fly rod that had been given to him by my uncle. I’d never really spent any time fly-fishing. I usually spend more time in the saltwater than fresh, and on Quadra, if you don’t have hip waiters your pretty much using a casting rod because of the trees and bushes surrounding the lakes and creeks. You say well use a boat, but the good fishing spots are usually a good hike across other peoples property and the thought of packing a boat around in the woods wasn’t a realistic one, until I got that first big trout on the fly rod.

October 21st 2008

I was pacing back and forth waiting for a phone call from my friend Scotty Stride. I couldn’t wait to try out my new fly rod.  We drove out to Straumberg Lake around 11:00am and hiked in the back way along Benner’s Woodlot. This is our regular fishing spot on Straumberg Lake. It’s just open enough to get an okay cast with a fly rod, however its really an area for casting. Scotty and I hung around for about 2-3 hours catching nothing on the fly rod, but a couple on the casting rod. The whole time a I kept looking across the lake checking out possible spots to fish with a boat, and if it was possible to get a boat down to the lake somehow. After getting home I called my buddy Matt and asked about it. He told me it’s possible, but we would have to go through private property and carry a boat a long way. I convinced him to call me if he could get out one of the next few evenings.

October 22nd 2008

I got up around 7:00am and brewed up some good old instant coffee for the thermos. Today the old man and I were going to Main Lake, which is easily accessible by boat. The fog was beginning to lift as we broke water about 8:45am. I began practicing my fly-casting technique as my dad maneuvered the boat along the shoreline. We spent the majority of the day fishing behind the Camp Homewood campsite about half way up the first part of the lake. After many failed attempts at “fly-fishing” combined with tangles and ineffectiveness we went home with only too small fish, not close to being keepers, to are credit. However, even with the lack of production the itch for catching a nice fish on the fly had begun to grow.

October 23rd 2008

Just like the day before, I got up at around 7:00am and headed back to Main Lake with my dad and mom this time. We paddled out to the same area as the previous day and set up for a morning of fly-fishing. I knew there were cutthroats in this area, the creek was running into the lake and the time of year was perfect for anything red. After fishing the reeds for a half hour, with no luck, I paddled back over to an area closer to the mouth of the creek. It was now around 9:30am. After a few casts, I decided to let my fly sink a bit longer with each cast. Within two casts, bang, fish on. I pulled the cutty into the boat it was about 11inches. Not huge by any means, but still bigger than anything prior. Now I was exited about the potential here. A bit later a caught one about 9 inches and had a couple more strikes. After trying out some other spots it was time to head in.

At about 3:30pm the same day, I got a call from my buddy Matt. He was off work early and he wanted to go look for trout on Straumberg Lake. We drove out along some logging roads until we came to what looked like some kind of homestead. We followed the creek, along this person’s property, down to the lake. We saw a nice looking Kokanee holding in bottom of the creek and I knew we were into something. We borrowed a boat that was sitting in the bushes and decided to fish the mouth of the creek, about 30 feet out. On my second cast my itch was scratched. The rod went down hard and the fight was on. Head shakes followed by aerial routines and long runs. The fight lasted about 12 minutes and the cutthroat laid on its side in defeat. We continued to fish until the sun went down, catching five more and having countless hits. I used the same fly the whole time, a wet fly with a red body and a peacock tail on my dry line.

I went fishing the next day with a casting rod from the shore, however the excitment wasn’t there. When I get back to Victoria, the search is on for good fly-fishing on the south end of Vancouver Island.