Kokanee Fishing up here

[Cariboospeed]

I'm going to make this fairly local to me, I'm not an expert on Kokanee, or the plethora of lakes we have in British Colombia. I'll keep this all fairly close to the major hwy '97' and east of the Fraser River. The region of B.C. I live in is called the "Cariboo", spelled that way, and I don't know if there is many actual Caribou left, I've never seen one...but there's lots of places to fish. The south Cariboo begins about 4.5 hours from the border, Quesnel at the north of the region is a good 2.5 hours further.

We have a great resource called Backroad Mapbooks, http://www.backroadmapbooks.com/main/products.html
and I'd suggest getting one and using it to plan fishing trips. There is a version for Southern B.C. for the shorter road trips. Although I lived in the south Okanagan, I'm really not too familiar with the area. I can say that there is Kokanee in Lake Okanagan, and its pretty busy throughout the region in the summer.

Here's a map of the South Cariboo to refer to, it shows the names of most of the lakes, but I'll still use the town names to reference location. The yellow dots are Provincial campgrounds and are quite well kept.

In the other thread someone mentioned Sheridan Lake, there's a whole bunch of lakes in the area just east of 100 Mile House, (South Cariboo). Sheridan, Deka, Horse, Green, Canim, Bridge and Sulphurous are some of the larger ones, and there's a few thousand little ones, from 5-100 acre sized. Due to the sheer number of lakes our Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans doesn't stock them all, so many are only holding indigenous species like Rainbows, Lake trout, and Brooks. Most all of the major lakes have been stocked with different strains of Rainbows, and our beloved land-locked Sockeye.

I've only been down to the southern lakes a couple times, they're quite well developed with either Provincial, or private campgrounds, or both. Some, like Deka are very popular and have no 'official' camp sites on them but there seems to be no real problem finding an RV park or something nearby or at least vacant place to pull over. I know a couple guys that have cabins on Sheridan and fish that area regularly. They are getting more and more popular as recreational property surrounding them is pretty cheap. Still, there is no rod-tip-to-rod-tip fishing, or line ups at the boat launchs.

Lots of fish, limits vary, and you may not limit out consistently, but if you're not getting any action, you're doing something wrong. The larger lakes can be vary a lot in depth as well as color, from the bright green of Green lake, to the deeper blue of Canim. Beware some lakes can be quite shallow and turn to pea soup in July and August, no big deal, there's always another lake a stone's throw away. Some info on specific lakes can be found on the BC Adventure web site, http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/explore/cariboo/lakes/index.html, or just Google the lake name.

 

[Cariboospeed]

About 30 minutes north of 100 Mile House is Lac la Hache (lack la hash), its long, narrow, deep and is well developed on the hwy (east) side. There's a good sized Provincial park at the north end and numerous private campsites and RV parks along it. Its quite good fishing, referring to Kokes, and a few minutes west is Greeny and Timothy lakes, both have good Rainbows, and I believe Timothy has Kokes as well.

Another 40 min. get you to Williams lake. I don't know if the fishing is very good in Williams lake, but to the south west, a buddy of mine lives near Chimney lake and although shallow, there's tons of pan sized rainbows. The lakes in the area, (central Cariboo) are a little thinner and smaller. A couple, Rose, and Forest are known for very large (10-20lb) Rainbows, but can be very, difficult and frustrating to fish. I know a couple guys that make trip to Forest every year and might only bring one fish back, but its always well into 20lbs. There's lots of fish there...just tough to catch. If you think you're a hot shot fisherman, that's the lake that will give you something for your wall.

Again, to the north, McLeese lake, is loaded with Kokanee. There's places to camp and a pub and small general store. Its quite a beautiful lake with mountains along the west side. Deep and clear, its very good Koke fishing.

Hwy 97 runs along side the Mighty Muddy Fraser River for the next hour north. I guess it still is the biggest Salmon producer in the province, but unfortunately we've done our best to cleanse it of anything living and its not open for fishing for stretches, boat access is few and far between. I don't think Sturgeon are open anymore from Williams Lake north to Prince George any more at all, but they used to be the the fish to catch. 6" hook through a dead chicken, couple pounds of lead weight on a rope tied to the bumper of your truck.

 

[Cariboospeed]

Rolling on up Hwy 97, 'The Gold Pan Trail' another 40 min. or so brings you to my location. Lakes are a little fewer again, but they're good producers. Just south of Quesnel is Dragon Lake. People come from all over to fish Dragon's big Rainbows. They're a very large growing strain and the lake is quite shallow. In the summer it gets very thick with algae and the fish are too gross to eat so they get tossed back from mid July to beginning of September.

They can be picky like in Forest lake but a small black micro leech or sinking fly will usually get you some action. My first time out was as soon as the ice breaks up and 50' from the boat launch and hooked an 18 lb fish on the smallest hook I've ever used in my life. Often, when the water is still clear, you can sight fish them, and it makes for some pretty intense fly fishing.

On the north side of town, is 10 Mile Lake. A really nice Provincial park and a couple private campsites along its shore. Although its small, its loaded heavily with the sterile female Kokes. DFO did this 4-5 years ago a couple times and now I expect to average 2lbs easily. Both 10 Mile and Dragon get quite busy with water skiiers and campers, but in the early morning of at sunset, a slow troll will take a couple hours to cross 10 Mile and I can get my limit of 5 and lose another 5 regularly.

Unlike the southern lakes, which generally get the same techniques as I see guys on the board here use, down riggers, fish finders, lots of different tackle, 10 mile just takes a little pink and white spin'n'glow or something similar behind a small flasher. Maybe because its small and has only one deep end and stays cooler than other shallow lakes. No weight, just a couple feet deep and 25 yds or so behind the boat. There is Rainbows as well, biggest I've caught was around 4lbs.

 

[Cariboospeed]

About the area...

It's changed a lot over the last 20 years. Climate change, global warming/cooling whatever you want to believe or call it, has ripped us a new one. A small beetle that needs -30*C temps to kill it off in the winter has wreaked havoc on our forests, wiping out massive areas of Pines. The winter's have been progressively warmer since I can remember. This winter was the warmest and least snow ever. No one dares to try and predict what this summer will bring, but we really hope its not a major drought. We all cross our fingers and are hoping for a quiet fire season. Total bans on open fires are not uncommon in the summer as the south Cariboo is usually a fairly dry climate anyway. Just be aware of lightening storms and keep and ear on the local radio stations.

Being all small resource industry towns, many an hour apart, people are a little different than 'city folk'. I'm from the Coast, and really notice the difference going back home to visit. Customer service here is..well...slow. Don't expect a waitress to come running over to your table to take your order, but when she does, she'll probably talk your ear off. lol. Buying tackle in a local store might prompt you to say, "Its only $xx.xx in Cabella's". Well sorry, this isn't Cabella's. No one's trying to be impolite, its just the way it is. Probably goes back to the 1800's gold rush when there was only one place in every town you could buy a shovel. Always best to ask around where a good place to eat or shop is, there's a considerable variety.

On the other hand, offer someone a cold beer at a camp site or on the lake, and you'll likely wind up with extended family. Typically you'll find people polite and friendly, and quite willing to tell you anything you want to know about a lake or how to fish it. If you make it up this far, for sure get a hold of me and I'll give you a tour.

The collapse of the North American economy and the lack of demand for construction lumber has left the dead trees standing, and ~10% unemployment. However, we had some strong programs put in motion and a bunch of stretches of hwys have been upgraded, widened and straightened, the drive through the Cariboo is a lot nicer now with more 4 lanes and smooth blacktop. No more getting stuck behind a motor home pulling a boat doing 40 mph for an hour at a time. We've bounced back, or at least adapted well to the economic turn, you'll see several log house building outfits around the south-central region and the lumber, pulp and MDF plants plugging away in the north. Mining has been turned to for new opportunities and mineral exploration has been rampant with gold/copper finds.

With all the road construction, be careful when listening to your GPS. My Garmin likes to tell me to "Turn Left" in the middle of now where just south of Quesnel and you have to follow the signs to get through Williams Lake, lol.

If there's anything specific you'd like to know about a lake or a place, post or PM me and I'll dig up what I can.

 

[Cariboospeed]

Several years ago my father and I were making fishing trips into B.C. and had a great time. We quit going because Canada changed the rules about bringing a rifle along. We were camping in bear country and there had been some recent trouble with some particular bears in the area. Not interested in becoming bear food. Also, it seemed as though Canada was a rainbow trout fishery almost exclusively. We were interested in brook trout and with some effort had found a nice brookie hole but the fish were being mishandled by the locals and the fishing on this lake was going downhill fast. The lake we found was called Snag Lake and it was just a little bit past 100 Mile House.

Do you perhaps know of any other good brookie holes with some decent size fish in it up there? Preferrably some smaller sized lakes like Snag so we don't have to spend a couple weeks trying to locate the better spots. I'd love to go back up there for a little vacation if I could find the fishing I'm looking for. I'll have to look into the rules to see if there is any way we can bring a firearm of some sort with us next time. I've never had to use my rifle up there but I did have a close encounter with a bear that having a rifle in camp sure helped bring about some comfort.

I will have to look into one of the map books that the link you posted had advertised. It says it's for fishermen and has some info on the waters up there but it doesn't say if it tells anything about the species of fish in each of the waters. Still, it would be worth a shot. Thanks for posting that link.

Sorry Skookum, having a bit of fun with merging the threads into one....
I actually have fished Snag, and a buddy goes there regularly. Last time I was there we got a 4lb brookie, and spent the weekend at Gustafson fishing rainbows, nice place to camp. I don't know of many lakes with Brook trout specifically, but I'm sure there are a lots.

Here you go.
Even if you did do the effort and brought a gun, and then had to use it, shooting a bear with no license, tag is a whole other problem... not as bad as getting your butt chewed off I guess. We do have somewhat different views on firearms up here, and very different laws. Despite the area being full of hunters and one of the higher gun per household ratios in the country, discretion is advised.

Bear encounters do happen regularly and most of the time it only goes bad when some moron starts feeding a bear, or tries to get to close for a picture. Generally, if you treat a bear with respect and common sense, it'll be ok. Bear spray is widely available here too.

The Backroad Mapbooks do have little blurbs on each lake with some stocking and species info. Just a quick look through my book and Beaverdam Lake, between Clinton and 70 Mile has stocked Brook trout to 4.5lbs....Big Lake, west of 100 Mile has Brookies as well but can be tougher to catch.

 

[Full_Monte]

Thanks, Cariboospeed,

You have made some nice contributions with your posts. Maybe this "priming of the pump" will get more Canadians to post on the site. Thanks again!

 

[skookum9]

Thanks for the reply, Cariboospeed. I know that shooting a bear without a license is not an easy choice to make but as you pointed out, I'd rather face a court hearing than an angry bear. According to the local game ranger at that time, it was a shoot first ask questions later sort of a deal. He said that there had just been a case of a local farmer being partially eaten by a bear. They weren't certain if the man had been killed by the bear or if he had suffered a heart attack or something since he was by no means a young man, but they were very concerned anyway. There had also been a malicious bear in camp that kept raiding the garbage cans. The game ranger said that although he could not advise us to go out and shoot a bear at will, he did recommend that if in doubt that our lives could be in danger that we not hesitate to do what we felt necessary. He claimed that there were far too many bears in the area and that neither he nor the locals would have any problem with our actions. Again, it is something that never came up but it sure was nice to know that we could have protected ourselves had anything happened. I really enjoyed the common sense approach that they had out there about that whole thing.

Sounds like maybe Snag Lake still has some decent brookies in it. As I recall, that lake was about the easiest fishing lake I have ever been to, but then again, it is the only lake I have ever fished in B.C. We always had such a great time up there, almost too good to be true. Met some really nice people up there and enjoyed their company in our camp. Got to change their minds about how good brookies are to eat. They had actually said that they didn't think brookies in that lake tasted very good, and then they tried some of our fish. I enjoyed getting to see their reaction to the excellence of those fillets.

Thank you very much for your wealth of information. That was a great place to visit and I do hope to go back there again. I haven't been back since I got married and I'm really hoping to be able to take my wife up there with me someday. I figure the next time I go though, I'm going to have to make a trip over to see Forest Grove. I wish our Forest Grove were that close to such excellent fishing.

 

[Bduck]

Great contribution Cariboospeed. As Full Monte stated, hopefully more of our northern neighbors will take interest and join us on KFF. BC has always been a place on my to do list. worthy12

 

[SuperD]

BC has always been a place on my to do list

yeah, new guys host the next KFF event! 101idea101

 

[Cariboospeed]

Here's another handy link:
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/regions.html
The Provincial park website with a clickable map. Geeze, I had no idea there are that many camp grounds around...

Some like the one at Bridge or Lac la Hache, are fairly busy in the summertime and it might be a good idea to reserve a spot. From Sheridan or Canim park you'd have a pretty big choice of lakes all within a 30 mile radius.

I'm not really much for camping other than the occasional overnighter, but if you are, there's some adventures to be had.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/regional_maps/quesnel.html

On the right is Bowron park, its a chain of narrow lakes that people can canoe/portage around. Its not for the faint of heart, and there is an equipment check enforced to make sure people are properly equipped. Campers are spaced apart when they start so you will probably not see another person other than in your group, for the whole trip. In the chain of lakes there is Kokes, Rainbows, Lake trout, Burbot, and Whitefish. Like many of the lakes here, big 15+lb Rainbows aren't uncommon. People come from all over the world to do the Bowron trip, and reservations must be made.

 

[Cariboospeed]

yeah, new guys host the next KFF event! 101idea101

I can do that. Ya'll show up here and I'll have the smoker out, the canner on, BBQ set up. Lots of room here, and like I said, a great little fishing lake 2 miles away with a couple campsites and beaches.

I suppose I could take or make a long weekend and go down to the southern lakes as well...

 

[MMDON]

Beautiful Lake. I wouldn't mind a mini fest in your neighborhood!

 

[bradthebutcher]

howdie Cariboospeed and company

Bought 10 acres across the street from Bridge lake in the Caribou, caught 11 kokanee this spring in the 2 to 3lb range.
apex lures in different colours off lead core flyline, no flasher.
Just started getting into kokanee this year.

going up wednesday (live in vancouver) to start a small cabin/shack floor.
13 x 17 ft. From mostly recycled/scrounged lumber. will hopefully have the walls and roof up before the snow.
No more holidays so just weekends with an extra day off.

Any tips for trolling for kokanee on bridge lake this time of year would be appreciated. Will be too busy building to go to other lakes this trip.

thanks and regards

 

[Cariboospeed]

Hey Brad,

Good to see another Canuck here! I'm up in Quesnel.

Congrats on the land purchase! You'll do real well on it and its a great place to get away to. I know a couple guys that go down to Bridge and they use flashers and the usual lures for Kokes/sockeye. Apex, Kokanee Killers, Wedding Rings, etc. If I went down I'd do the same thing I do here, small flasher, pink/white Spin'n'glo. Maybe a small pink/white hoochie. I know they show up as deep on a fish finder, but if Ospreys are picking them off the surface, so I just go with no weight, and troll slow.

I still have a house in 108, and race at Ashcroft and Mission so I get down that way regularly. Stay in touch and I'll meet you there and give ya a hand for an afternoon some time.

Cheers, Tom

 

[platypus]

howdie Cariboospeed and company

Bought 10 acres across the street from Bridge lake in the Caribou, caught 11 kokanee this spring in the 2 to 3lb range.
apex lures in different colours off lead core flyline, no flasher.
Just started getting into kokanee this year.

going up wednesday (live in vancouver) to start a small cabin/shack floor.
13 x 17 ft. From mostly recycled/scrounged lumber. will hopefully have the walls and roof up before the snow.
No more holidays so just weekends with an extra day off.

Any tips for trolling for kokanee on bridge lake this time of year would be appreciated. Will be too busy building to go to other lakes this trip.

thanks and regards

-- I used fishwithgary system pink and orange.. bridge has many shallow areas so best to use a depth finder to keep from getting hung up.
--also found going deeper just get MAC's
--I like the new reg to allow for keeping of some Mac's as locals probably were keeping a few any way and those critters eat a lot of kokanee.
--you can also download a depth chart for the lake from anglers atlas which is a handy reference point
--I'll be fishing there late may early june.. note this is a high elevation lake so can get cold in a hurry if you're in a tent but like the islands on the lake to give you shelter no matter which direction the wind comes form there are areas to fish.

 

[platypus]

--Wood lake north of Kelwona... ice off ... fish on. Decent size for early season and with stormy winter weather not much boat pressure yet.
--Will be hitting Skaha soon.
--Expect in season change again this year to allow Okanagan lk fishing.. just would prefer they open it earlier and close it if close to quota... has not been closed yet due to reaching quota so why open so late in the season.

--My issue with Okanagan late opening is.. winter and spring most are fishing trout with large single hook. Kokanee is closed. Not much winter pressure so why not let those fishing for trout keep kokanee which are killed by the large single hook rigs and have to be thrown back dead.

 

[platypus]

--Wood lake: dont take a lunch... with two fish limit took just 15 minutes of fishing.
--With short ice fishing season this year expect decent size and numbers.

 

[Kingchinook]

I live in orville next to the border where is the best place for big Kokanee within four hour drive

 

[platypus]

--wood lk two fish limit decent size just north of kelowna
--Okanagan but kokanee closed so you have to watch for in season opening which they have had last two years but later in the season.
--Kooteny and Arrow bit of a stretch but good fish size.

--remember to check regs as some of these are single barbless restriction and lower limits that what you are probably used to.

--Not sure what Skaha will produce this year... many small fish last year and this showed in fall spawn not many over 2 lbs.

--check out kelownafishing one word for pictures of local kokanee
--we're mainly fishing trout now with cold weather, should be good soon.

 

[Kingchinook]

Which lake has bigger Kokanee and which one is more constant action for the trout and dollys