Weekly Fraser Valley Sport fishing column; June 30 July 6, 2014

Picking up from where I left you last week, we find ourselves at Belhaven, with my brother-in?law; Dennis Belding. We had settled in, and I was on the dock helping Dennis load the boat. As we were loading; I filled my brother in on the details of the past week and how I had come to developed the green fly. Not too long after we were at Dennis?s favorite spot, and the fun began. We rigged our rods with the green flies and sent our lines down to fifty feet. As our fly rods bowed over 180 degree, it became clear that fly rods, fly lines, and down riggers, do not make a workable combination. Back to the dock we went to find some more conventional equipment. We returned with mooching rods, large single action salmon reels, loaded with fifteen pound monofilament; this time we were ready.

We hadn?t gone ten minutes when the first fish hit, ?yah!? Dennis cut the motor just in time to grab the second rod for a double header. Image, the rest of the day; troll five to ten minutes, fish on: again, again, and again. The catch was a mixed bag of rainbows, lakers, and pike minnows; Dennis was ecstatic.

?My family have been logging every day of fishing ever since we built the cabin in 1905,? he exclaimed, ?and not once have I read of fishing like this!?

?That?s cool,? I replied in my usual nonchalant manor, ?it?s about what I would expect from a lake with this many fish in it.?

I still had not figured out what that fly represented; but it sure worked. It got me my first laker on a fly, and I was pleased. The answer came a week after I was back at work. The fly looked like a Pike minnow, so I named it, after that fish. Strangely, no-one would buy it because of its name; even though it worked very well on every predator fish it was thrown at. Two years later I renamed it, the ?Dolly Whacker.?

That fly made me famous around at Belhaven. It also earned me some points in fly fishing, when in made it onto the pages of the book, ?A compendium of Canadian Fly Patterns.? Look for on page 79.



The Report

Fishing on our lower mainland lakes is moving into summer mode. For wet (sinking) fly fishing try: Wooly Bugger, Zulu, Baggy Shrimp, Dragonfly Nymph, Doc Spratley, or Halfback Nymph. For dry (floating) fly fishing try: Griffith Gnat, Renegade, or Elk hair Caddis. For kokanee try: Bloodworm, San Juan Worm, Red Ibis, Red Spratley, or Kokanee killer.

The bass and pan fishing is good. For bass try: Big Black, Clouser?s Deep Minnow, Lefty?s Deceiver, Dolly Whacker, Wooly Bugger, Pumpkinhead, Gomphus Bug, Popin Bug, Foam Frog, Chernobyl Ant, or Stimulator. For Pan fish try: Wooly Bugger, Bloodworm, Chironomid, Micro Leach, Halfback, Pumpkinhead, Dolly Whacker, Tied Down Minnow, Popin Bug, or Chernobyl Ant.

Our interior lakes are fair to good. Try: Pumpkinhead, Big Black, Micro Leach, 52 Buick, Sixpack, Butlers Bug, Dragon Nymph, Green Spratley, or Baggy Shrimp, for fishing wet. For dry fly action try: Lady McConnel, Big Ugly, Black Gnat, Ton Thumb, or Irresistible.

All rivers are open. Reporting starts next week.