fishingbuddha

So excited to report that after years of Flyfishing still water I have finally landed my personal best Bow in the double digits.

May long is usually the weekend I get to fly fish with some buddies up in 70-108 mile house. This trip we hit the usual lakes plus a new one one.

Overall fishing was slow in some lakes and decent in other lakes.

Weather started off with some snow but ended up being pretty decent for the five days we fished up in the Cariboo.

The cool part about my PB trout is that I caught it on a size 20 pheasant tail.

This slab hit right beside the boat in six feet of water. After the indicator went down the line ripped out almost taking all my backing on my 4 weight rod. When the slab stopped running I was able to start reeling in as the bow started to swim towards the boat. Commenting to my buddy that it feels like a three pounder we quickly realized that this was not the case but in fact a 11lb 14 ounce slab.

Always enjoy fishing with this crew on this weekend. Already looking forward to next year.

Lac La Jeune Resort hosted our annual derby this year hosting 27 fly fishermen for this years event.

Although fishing was generally slower for everyone, some decent fish were weighed in.

This year Matsumura won landing a 4lb 22 ounce rainbow trolling a micro black vampire leech behind his boat. I was able to secure second place (3 lb 14 oz) with an indicator fish caught on a small green and black chironomid and Sean came in third place landing a 2.9 lb bow under an indicator with the cherry cola leech.

A big thank you to the guys who came out and joined the derby. Although the derby is the excuse to come together, this trip is really about bringing a group of fly fishermen together to relax and learn.

Fyi although this was advertised as the 27th year…..after redoing the trophy labels it was discovered that actually this is the 26th year! Since we started in 1998 and we didn’t hold the derby for two years….means that 2030 will be our 30th!

Well it has been a long time since I have tapped into a steelhead. Although not the nicest looking steelhead it was sure great to hook into it and bring it in with a 10ft 4wgt rod.

We only fished a few hours but between the two of us we managed to land two steelies, two rainbows and a bunch of whitefish .

Amazing day and marks the 6 fishing day of 2026.

Winter fishing withdrawal is a thing especially when warmer than usual temperatures arrive in late February!

Last weekend headed out with a buddy to the Squamish River to practice my Czech Nymphing technique.

The weather was amazing with plus 10 degree temperature, no wind, blue bird skies and although there was a lot of traffic we managed to find a long stretch of good water to wet our lines.

Nothing beats the first few casts after hibernating over the winter. Yes winter is a time for tying flies, watching fly fishing videos with your buddies and if you are lucky…fish somewhere hot and tropical but when I toss your first cast after this long winter stretch one feels nothing but happiness because this marks the start of another season.

One of the perks about finding untouched water in a high pressure system is that you have to walk a lot which also targets the other goal which is to get off my ass and walk more.

We managed to find some amazing water at our first stop. After a few holes on the stretch I switched from an egg pattern to a small white streamer pattern. Not long after switching my fly drifted back to the shore line after crossing a deep cut bank when I felt a tug. Thinking it was a snag I pulled but then it started to pull back. Unlike some strikes this one was a gradual tug but quickly realized it was a possible bull trout by the way it was fighting.

Landing the fish and getting the beautiful landscape in the background was fantastic.

Although we didn’t land another fish that day we managed to do a lot of exploring and ended the day visiting my buddy Burt’s new food truck and brewery called Hop Creek Farm. If u haven’t been it’s a must! Best beef brisket ever!

Now that lake fishing has finished for the year it’s time to shift to moving water. Yesterday’s sturgeon trip turned into a personal best for largest sturgeon caught in the lower river for my boat measuring in at 7.4ft long. But not just long .:::this fish was thick.

It took all three guys to rotate reeling in this bad boy. At the end of the day me landed 4 but went through a lot of bait and after the last fish bit so softly….we were left wondering how many sturgeon we might have missed!

Nevertheless…..it was another great day on the water and look forward to getting some more in before the end of 2025!

2025 has been another great year and what a way to end the Stillwater season.

Six of us headed up to one of my favourite lakes for some late fall fishing.

Again this lake don’t disappoint as not only were there a lot of fish caught but some personal bests.

Our boat landed over 80 fish over the weekend thanks to Derek’s red and black jig head leech which was dangled under the indicator. It always amazes me how there are times that it doesn’t matter what one uses to hook into the bows while on other trips they are only biting on the one fly. For our boat that fly was Derek’s red and black with red bead micro leech. Seemed like the fish wanted sparse and skinny flies not fluffed up and thicker leeches.

Fish didn’t seem to shy away from Brian’s uv micro leech as he landed a ten over as well as other fish in the 4-6 lb range.

Although most of us were dangling flies under the indicator, Istvan managed to land many casting and retrieving with a prince nymph. But to land the bigger ones he had to switch to the indicator as it appeared the larger trout were looking for dangling flies.

All in all the trip was a huge success, good buddies, decent weather (even though it snowed) and overall a great way to end the season. You can count on us coming back next year for a repeat!

This past weekend six of us City-it’s (city idiots) took off to the cariboo to repeat last years trip which two of us tapped into 150 big bows in three days. As we got closer to the date a realization that the extended warm weather was still rocking the cariboo so there was a chance we were perhaps a bit early for a Cariboo fall fishery. Yes technically it was still the last days of summer but the coolness of fall creeps up really fast up where we fish. In fact even with plus 20 temps in the day the evening and mornings were still dipping below zero. So in my estimation we were a week off of some prime fishing. But that’s how it goes….whenever u think u have figured out a lake or river or think u know when the best time of year a lake fishes ….it never fails….nature shows u who is boss and all your knowledge and predictions go right out the window. Let’s not feel too sorry for us. Six buddies on a four day trip means you’re already in the plus integers. In fact even though we didn’t catch 150 fish over three days we still all managed about 6/day on average and everyone caught a 4-6 lb horsefly strain bow.. In my books that’s a win. On top of that we got to visit with our cariboo friends which for me is also one of the reasons I like going to the cariboo.

One thing I have been thinking about is something one of my buddies said in the summer….that we don’t have many more years to fish. Well I just got back from the WHO concert and Roger waters is 82 and Peter frampton is 75. They rocked it for two hours. It was really amazing. And with that I left setting my first old guy goal which is to fish until I am at least 85. And more importantly to fish with buddies who enjoy not only fishing but enjoy the entire fishing trip experience. It is not how many fish or how big the fish are. It’s the fishing memories that are made along the way. It’s not a competition but a collective enjoyment of just watching anyone in your group catching and learning.

So just like teaching I guess it’s not the product but the process and for those that don’t get it that’s too bad.

Cariboo Fall Flyfishing 2025

Well took a break from the salmon and sturgeon and head up to the mountain to fish a higher level lake.

Fishing was slower but still managed to land about ten each.

Thought we had hooked into Walter as a fish hit the uv jig head leech and took off like a dart which took all the fly line immediately. However after landing the fish we discovered it got snagged in the tail. The fish was still a decent fish for this lake.

Well my sister and brother in law just got back from a Skeena river and trib rafting trip and reported they got some trout. But upon closer inspection looks like they actually landed a couple of nice pinks! You can see how they might have been mistaken for trout as one is so shiny and has some pink on it but one has the obvious spots and the other is very faint. Well done!

As a British Columbia and fisherman I can not express how lucky we are at this time of the year.

Generally for most fisher people August might be a time for casting dries on a river but in BC I am grateful for the multitude of options that are available. At the start of August I got to dry fly fish a classified river as well as fly fish Cariboo lakes for large rainbows.

Meanwhile just minutes from my house I was able to tap into some white sturgeon as well as some sockeye and pinks from the mighty Fraser River.

Also this month my fly fishing buddy took me Czech nymphing for some steelhead.

All of these opportunities taking place in the month of August and in BC.

It doesn’t get much better than this. Looking forward to next month targeting coho, chum and fall Stillwater rainbows! Stay tuned.