"Where the trout have shoulders and the
wine has legs. High Desert small lake
flyfishing for Kamloops trout"

Gordon Honey's
Flyfishing Guide Service

#16 - 763 Front Street
Kamloops, BC   
Canada V2C 6S8
Phone: (250) 828-1286
Fax: (250) 377-8188
gordon@flyfishingservices.com

An excerpt from "Flyfishing Small Lakes for Trout"

Flyfishing conjures the image of a fisherman on a stream enjoying a relaxing day in the wilderness. The flyline arcs gracefully and the fly settles gently on the moving water of the stream. There is a flash of silver as the fish strikes–followed by a chase through white water until the fish is landed. A sense of satisfaction combined with the beauty of the fish and the setting complete the perfect day portrayed in magazines and movies.

Flyfishing in lakes has not received the same magazine coverage that stream fishing has and its movie is yet to be made. When it is, it will feature the calm and serenity of fishing stillwater. There will be dramatic shots of the morning mist rising off the water and the sound track will carry the silence of a mountain lake broken by the haunting call of a loon. Then you will hear a high-pitched piping and your eye will be drawn skyward to a fishhawk as it glides overhead, hovers–then makes a spectacular dive into the water to catch a fish in its talons. The camera will focus on a close-up of what appears to be the limb of a dead tree. With startling swiftness, the limb of the dead tree moves and reveals itself to be a gray heron spearing a fish with its long beak for its first meal of the day. Then there will be an underwater shot and you will see a large black and white bird using its wings in a breaststroke that would be the envy of an Olympic swimmer. It is a loon in pursuit of a trout to take back to its nest to feed to its young.

When the visual joys of small lakes have been documented, the story line will shift to the trout. It will show how trout are protected from their predators by protective coloration, speed and strength. It will show the trout as a wily creature that inspects its potential foods–rejecting those that don't look right and spitting out those that don't taste right.

One of the special joys of flyfishing in lakes is that when you are not catching fish, there is always an inner voice telling you that you could catch fish if you would just "do it right". The conviction that you will outwit the wily trout as soon as you figure out how to "do it right" keeps you going as you search for the "right spot" in the lake, the "right fly" and the "right presentation". This is the challenge that holds your interest through the periods when nothing is happening.

The ultimate joy in flyfishing in lakes is when you do get it right–the moment when the line tightens, the rod bends, and your hand lifts to set the hook. You have just had your first "take" of the day. This defining moment is what makes flyfishing so different from other forms of fishing. When flyfishing in lakes, the contact between you and the fish is all touch. There is no mechanical hindrance such as a reel or a chrome flasher between you and the trout. Your hand is holding a sensitive rod and your fingers hold the thin flyline, creating a direct contact with the fly and the trout. The take is wonderfully diverse. It can be startlingly savage as a large trout attacks a leech pattern, or so subtle and deceptive that you wonder what caused you to raise your rod tip and find that a fish is, suddenly–just there. The sensation of the take can be visual as well–the gentle ring on the water surface as your mayfly pattern disappears, the heart-stopping vision of the slashing rise of a huge trout as it takes your caddis pattern. The jolt of positive energy generated by the take is why many of us fish with a fly.

Experienced anglers may be addicted to flyfishing for its solitude, its aesthetics, its mental challenge or the "rush" of the take. Unfortunately, for the beginning angler these joys seem to be hidden behind a barrier of mystical skills. This makes some reluctant to try the sport and may cause others to become frustrated and to abandon it. This need not be the case. It is our conviction that good anglers are made–not born. Simply stated, our objective is to teach you how to catch "Walter"–the mythical huge fish that inhabits each and every lake.