Pale orange hues lined the few wisps of clouds that hung in the sky above the mountains.
It was early morning. Part of me had wanted to stay in bed, but another part of me wanted to get an early start to fishing. It is always a battle. A hint of snow had appeared overnight on the peaks, just above the snow line – a harbinger of what would be coming, and staying, in the next few months.
Winter is not my favourite season.
As I looked up at the mountains surrounding me, I thought about what a good summer I had in the East Kootenay. I then reminded myself I would be leaving in a couple of days to return to Salmon Arm. It would be good to get home, but I still had two days left and there was plenty of fishing to do before leaving.
I unloaded my gear from the vehicle and sat down on a rock looking at the Sportspal canoe that I had borrowed from a friend. Sportspals are an odd looking contraption. They have a charm and a quality all their own. Made of aluminum, they are painted to look like birchbark. They have an ugly strip of floatation foam rubber about six inches wide running along both sides, on the outside, that sets them apart from any other craft of their type. They are not a thing of beauty, but they are pretty much unsinkable.
The early morning air was cool and crisp. A pair of loons began their lonesome calls to each other across the lake. The day ahead seemed full of promise.
I pushed off from shore and it wasn’t long before I was casting my first line out to what I hoped would be a lake full of hungry and eager fish. It only took a few minutes before I was into my first fish.
To my knowledge, there are no big fish in this particular lake. But there are plenty of 10- to 12-inch rainbows. I had my three-weight Orvis fly rod with me, so any fish would be a worthwhile fight. By mid afternoon I had caught and brought five nice little trout to the boat. Each one was released unharmed.
Come September, fish know instinctively they will soon have to start increasing their body fat in order to survive the long winter months ahead. This means they are willing to investigate just about anything and everything that comes their way. I caught my fish on dragonfly nymphs and leeches.
Dragonflies can exist, in the nymphal stage, any- where from two to six years on lake bottoms where they are continuously moving about, feeding, growing and maturing towards the adult stage. Dragonfly nymphs not only represent a significant food source, they also represent a significantly large (in size) food item. At a time when fish are trying to retain calories and put on body fat, they will actively seek out single large food sources, as opposed to smaller, more numerous food items, which may be present in the same waters. Large, bushy dragonfly nymph patterns fished near the bottom can produce sudden, aggressive and exciting takes.
Look long and hard enough in just about any lake and you are bound to see the dark, flat, wavy, undulating form of a leech. Although leeches can be found throughout the water column, imitation leech patterns are best fished near the bottom on a weighted line with a short stop-and-start retrieve. When hungry trout see the undulating motion of a leech swimming about in the water, they simply can’t help themselves.
When it comes to both dragonfly nymphs and leeches, I have cast some interesting patterns – with a charm and a quality all their own. Sort of like Sportspal canoes. All I know is that all three worked well for me that day.