PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

JOURNAL

May / June 2011

Page 3— Presidents Report Page 4 & 5—Equipment Review— Honda Generator Page 6 & 7— Darke Lake by Jim Duncan Page 8, 9 & 10—Asian carp Page 11— Awards for 2010 Page 12— Launch and Load Page 13— Fishout Dates and Places Page 14— Photo Gallery Page 15— Classifeids and Calendar Page 16— Tying and Fishing Techniques

PAGE 2 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

Vol. 08 Number 03, 2010

May / June 2011, Edition

Penticton Flyfishers

Box 354, 113-437 Martin St., Penticton, B.C., V2A 5L1

Editor

Bruce Turnbull

Home Ph:250-493-7386 Work Ph:250-487-2000

Fax 250-487-2049 Email: bturnbul@telus.net (or)

bruce.turnbull@raymondjames.ca

President Phil Rogers

250-403-8832 pjrogers@shaw.ca

Vice President

Ryan Winstanley 488-8757

doja40oz@hotmail.com

Treasurer Ken Baker 493-2926

kbbaker@telus.net

Secretary Peter Kruse

494-0071 p_skruse@shaw.ca

Membership Director

Tom Knight twknight@telus.net

The Penticton Flyfishers are members of

BC Federation of Fly Fishers (BCFFF)

BC Wildlife Federation (BCWF)

Federation of Fly Fishers

(International FFF)

Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Alliance (OSCA)

Contents

Thompson River Drift—© by Bruce Turnbull

Penticton Flyfishers New Website is

www.pentictonflyfishers.ca

PAGE 3 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS Presidents Report by Phil Rogers

On 23 April 2011, our club had the pleasure of hosting a full day with Todd Oishi at the Rotary Station Building. Todd covered four sepa-rate topics and finished the day with an hour fly tying session. He pre-sented two lectures in the morning and two in the afternoon. I found his topics very informative and well pre-sented. I think that all of us who at-tended shared in that assessment. We had approximately 19 club mem-bers and six guests attend the semi-nar. The fly tying session covered four different flies - Epoxy Buzzer, Diawl Bach, Cruncher and the Todd Bugger. Todd utilizes a lot of Ultra Violet materials in his flies. His ses-sion on “The Importance of Colour - What Fish See” certainly explains why he feels UV is so important to successful fishing. Thanks to Tom Dellamater for looking after the cof-fee and the lunch. The 2011 Dinner and Auction will be held this coming Satur-day. 30 April at the Elks Hall, 343 Ellis St. starting at 5:30 pm. We are expecting in ex-cess of 70 members and guests to attend the event. A big thank you to George and all the other members who have managed to gather a very in-teresting collection of items for the auction and fundraisers. A full list of the donations and the winners of the various awards will be listed in the next newsletter.

On a sad note it looks as if our hosting of the Family Fish Day at Salter’s Pond is over. New construction at the facility precludes the continuing use of the facility. We have not been able to ar-range a suitable replacement site and time has run out. There has been nothing but good reports so far of the snow levels in our surrounding mountains. Hope-fully this means a good replenishing of the water levels in our lakes and streams. We are keeping our fin-gers crossed that we will see a good flow of water into Sawmill Lake. It is in dire need of water again this year. I have had reports of people fishing there over the past couple of weeks. There has been a report of a

27-inch fish being caught. Yellow Lake is reported to be ice-free. If you are going past Yellow Lake please stop for a minute and check out the club’s new signage for the docks. Tom Knight arranged for these signs and did a great job. Link Lake is the first fish-out for the year and Tom Dellamater has volun-teered to cook a turkey again. This will be a potluck dinner and we need a volunteer to keep track of salads, side dishes and desserts. You don’t have to cook, prepare or transport

them, just monitor the kinds of dishes and advise participants what is needed. If you plan on attending the Link Lake Fishout and have not contacted Gail Dickson at 250 295-6898 please do so and reserve your spot asap as space is limited. Don’t forget to get your 2011 fishing license before heading out to your favourite lake or stream.

2011 Executive

Pres: Phil Rogers Vice Pres: Ryan Winstanley

Secretary: Peter Kruse Treasurer: Ken Baker

Membership: Tom Knight

Past Pres: Angus Cameron

Phil

PAGE 4 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

Equipment Review- By Bruce Turnbull

Inverter Generator

Honda eu2000i generator is a small but powerful generator. It is known as the super quiet unit, perfect at home, RV or camp-ing, in a case of an emergency and where power is not available. According to the campingworld.com website EU2000i model is the best selling Honda generator inverter. Honda 2000 generator is the gas powered generator that is com-ing from the prestige Japanese company well known in building cars, motorcycles and electronics. Honda generator eu2000i is a small and lightweight (only 46.3 lbs.) inverter generator, designed to power electrical devices sensitive to the voltage spikes, such as computers, DVD players, TVs, and small home appliances - fridge, AC, small heaters... as long as the total Amps is below 16.7. Maximum wattage it can provide is 2000 watts while rated power is 1600 watts. This portable Honda inverter is equipped with the 4-stroke, 98.5cc OHC air cooled engine, and with the single tank of gaso-line (0.95 gallons), run continuously for 15 hours, at 25% load or 4 hours at the rated 1600 watts load. This is possible thanks to the Honda's Eco-Throttle feature. Eco-Throttle system incorporates great engineering, so it automatically adjusts the engine speed based on the usage load, for better fuel economy, lower operating noise and exhaust emissions levels. When the oil level is low the engine stops immediately. This is a safety feature. An Oil Alert Warning System is what helps pre-vent engine damage if the oil reaches the lower level and becomes unsafe. At the rated load, generator is pretty quiet, the noise level is in a range from 53 to 59 dB. And not only that. Thanks to the inverter technology, it delivers clean and reliable power. This is great for electronics that are working on steady power and to charge 12-volt automotive type batteries. If you need more power you don't have to buy a larger unit, Honda 2000i generator has an option to combine two models to increase the wattage to the maximum of 4000 watts. This model is known as eu2000i Companion, and it offers one 30A outlet for RV applications and to run two identical 2000i models in parallel, through the generator outlets. Honda generator eu2000i is also available with the Camo exterior, ideal for outdoor adventures such as hunting and camping. Pros • Small, compact and lightweight - perfect for RV owners, tailgating or camping. • Powerful enough to run the main home appliances, and gentle on sensitive electronics. • Extremely quiet. • It has three models available, with Camo exterior, with 30A and DC outlet. • Easy to start with the recoil starter pull.

PAGE 5 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

• Honda 2000i generator is durable and it can operate for long hours. • With the Eco throttle features generator saves a lot of gas. If you run a small electric unit it will use less gas than if using all the generator power. A neat safety feature that shuts down the inverter if you run low on oil.

Cons • Expensive. • During the cold weather, you have to pull the starter few times to run the generator smoothly. • Honda 2000i generator doesn't have the fuel gage. • Honda has control buttons scattered on two sides, while Yamaha has a simpler control panel with all the plugs and buttons on one. • No carb fuel shut off, which allows you to run the fuel system dry for storage. It exists on the main competitor Yamaha EF2000iS. Hard to remove the fuel - no carb drain. Oil changes can be messy. Check out Honda's presentation to see how the noise level is very low here. Summary Honda 2000i generator is top of the line portable generator inverter, rec-ommended by many users. It is not only small and lightweight, but users like how it performs, the efficiency and the most praised very low noise level. This Honda inverter generator is perfect for tailgating, RV, camping and hunting, with Camo model, or running your AC when combined with the identical model. As said by one of the users this is a truly top notch gen-erator.

2000 watts (16.7 A) of Honda Inverter 120V AC Power Natural Gear™ camo exterior Super quiet - 53 to 59 dB(A) Lightweight (less than 47 lbs.) Eco-Throttle - runs up to 9.6 hr on 1.1 gal. of fuel Advanced inverter technology provides reliable power to

computers and other sensitive equipment 12v - 8.0A DC output Parallel with another EU2000i for additional power Protected by Oil Alert® Power for microwave, refrigerators, hair dryer, and small AC units USDA-qualifed spark arrestor/muffler 3 year residential and commercial warranty

PAGE 6 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

I have always tried to find a spot close to home to go fishing when I had only a few hours available. The criteria has been an hour’s drive limit, fair to good fishing for pan sized trout and or bass, reasonable water conditions when winds blow and some chance to see wildlife. Darke Lake in the Provincial Park of the same name fits the bill quite well for the early part of the season in particular, and to a lesser degree in late fall. It is less than an hour from Penticton off the old Princeton road at Faulder on good to reasonable roads with minimal traffic. There is a reasonable launch site and water condi-tions never get to unsafe levels for a 14 ft boat. There are Rainbows and Eastern Brook Trout stocked annually, often with triploid catchable sized fish that grow quickly to 1 ½ lbs. There is always some wildlife to ob-serve. Deer and moose are common and I have seen blond black bear cubs in the camping area. There are always a few loons and Canada Geese, two active Osprey nests and the only regular Great Blue Heron rook-ery I know of. And last but not least it is one of two lakes in BC where I have never been skunked. Now for some details. I never fish alone and run the boat’s electric or gas motors so I take two rods, an 8 wt with type 5 uniform sink line, and a 5 wt with floating line so I can change with con-ditions. My buddy often uses dry flies cast-ing to rises before switching to trolling which is the most productive. If you are not ticking bottom, or getting hung up once in a while you are not fishing deep enough. Starting at the launch area if you go to left

and stay about 40 to 50 ft off shore you will be in relatively weed free water that averages about 15 to 18 ft in depth. As you round the first turn you will see an abandoned cabin a short distance along the shore and just to the left of it there is a small hidden creek flowing into the lake, that pool is worth a few casts and often surrenders a nice brookie. Now continue along the shore and water is about 18 to 20 ft and you will see a few deadheads but rainbows are in this area. You now ap-proach a large area of logs and debris con-nected to shore and here one can often see nesting loons and geese on the rotting logs, where they can slip into the water easily. As you move along here you often get strikes from brook trout and it is worth making a turn at the corner and come through again. Now we go left around the corner and this area is often active with chironomids if you like to try that. Con-tinue on up to a shallow bay where the main intake is located and I have seen a number of moose including one swimming across the lake. There are many stumps in this bay but in early May some nice fish come here with many feeding on snails, and it feels as if they have stones in their stomach when you pick them up. Now you are heading back along shore and some large fish have come from this section. Terrain is rather steep and a shale slope at the end and a large rock reef juts out into the lake. This is a good spot to set a cray-fish trap if you can arrange to come back next day. These fresh water lobsters are excellent eating though little meat is in claws, I just boil till red and then take tail section off.

Once you turn around the reef the water deepens to about 25 ft and rainbow are often taken here. As you move along you will see the remains of drowned trees and a large debris pack drifted into a bay, just off the drowned ridge is weed free and 25 plus deep. Now bear slightly left and you can see a steep rocky slope and beyond that some large old fir trees and here you see the os-prey nest on an old snag and the heron rook-ery with its flimsy nests. I usually go just past this spot and then turn right and cross the lake or go back up lake but a bit further out and turn again near the reef. That gives you what I have found after many trips to be most productive runs. In early July the weeds are heavy and this last run is about all you can do. The flies I have found most productive are Idaho Nymph (first one tied on), Prince Nymph, Wooly Buggers in maroon and char-tuse, two odd patterns that have produced are a snail pattern and a crayfish tied hook up with bead head to tick along the bottom. When fish are clearly rising the Elk Hair caddis is a good choice. I seldom use smaller hooks than a 12 and think the 10 and 8 catch the most fish and I normally offset the hook a few degrees to get easier sets. I do not fish long and fine, generally using a 7 ½ or 9 ft leader at 5 lbs. My largest Brook Trout was a bit over 17 inches long and 7 ½ in girth, nice by any-one’s standards. Give this lake a fair try, it is close to home.

Jim Duncan

DARKE LAKE

by Jim Duncan

PAGE 7

Darke Lake PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

PAGE 8 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

What we call Asian Carp have been cultivated in aquaculture in China for over 1,000 years. Large scale silver carp, a more southern species, is native to, and is cultivated in Vietnam. Grass, silver, bighead and black carp are known as the "Four Domesti-cated Fish" in China and are the most important freshwater fish species for food and traditional Chinese medicine. Bighead and silver carp are the most important fish, worldwide, in terms of total aquaculture production. Common carp and crucian carp are also common foodfishes in China and elsewhere. Goldfish, on the other hand, are cultivated mainly as pet fish. Common carp are native to both Eastern Europe and Western Asia, so they are sometimes called a "Eurasian carp."

A few bighead carp have been captured from Lake Erie, but there is no evidence that they have reproduced there. A bighead carp has recently been found in Lake Calumet in Illinois. Grass carp have been captured in every Great Lake except Lake Superior. But there is so far no evidence of a reproducing population although a juvenile grass carp was caught in a river leading to Lake Scugog. No silver carp or black carp have yet been found in any Great Lake. Common carp are abundant throughout the Great Lakes. Current records of where Asian carp have been captured may be found at the United States Geological Survey's Nonindi-genous Aquatic Species website.

Because of their prominence, and because they were imported to the United States much later than other carp native to Asia, the term Asian carp is often used in the United States with the intended meaning of only grass, black, silver, and bighead carp. In the U.S., Asian carp are considered to be an invasive species. Of the Asian carp that have been introduced to the United States, only two (crucian and black carp) are not known to be firmly established. Crucian carp is probably extirpated. However, since 2003, several adult, fertile, black carp have been captured from the Atchafalaya and other rivers connected to the Mississippi River. Dr. Leo Nico, in the book Black carp: Biological Synopsis and Risk Assessment of an Introduced Fish, writes that the black carp are likely established in the United States. In south Florida, the local water management district actually stocks the canals with steril-ized grass carp in order to control the hydrilla plant, which tends to block up the locks and drainage valves that are used to control water flow from the everglades.

Bighead, silver, and grass carp are known to be well-established in the Mississippi River basin (including tributaries) of the United States, where they at times reach extremely high abundances, especially in the case of the bighead and silver carp. Bighead, silver, and grass carp have been captured in that watershed from Louisiana to South Dakota, Minnesota, and Ohio. Grass carp are also established in at least one other watershed, in Texas, and may be established elsewhere. These fish are thought to be highly detrimental to the environment in parts of the United States. Because of these concerns, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service convened stakeholders to develop a national plan for the management and control of invasive Asian carp (referring to bighead, silver, black and grass carp). The plan was accepted by the National Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force in the fall of 2007.

In July, 2007, all silver carp and largescale silver carp were declared by the U.S. Department of the Interior to be invasive species under the Lacey Act.

The common carp was brought to the U.S. in 1831, and has been widespread for a long time. In the late 19th century they were

ASIAN CARP

PAGE 9 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

distributed widely throughout the United States by the government as a foodfish. However, common carp are now not normally prized as a foodfish in the United States. They are often known to uproot vegetation and muddy water through their habit of root-ing in the mud for food. They are thought to often have detrimental effects on native species. However, common carp are prized in Europe as a sportfish, and angling for common carp is enjoying increased popularity in the United States.

There has been a dramatic rise in the populations of bighead and silver carp where they are established in the Mississippi River basin. Although many sources cite the record floods of the 1990s as the means by which Asian carp escaped aquaculture ponds into the Mississippi River, this is apocryphal. There is at least one known escape of bighead carp from aquaculture ponds in 1995, but bighead and silver carp were established in the Mississippi River basin prior to 1990. Grass carp have been reproducing in the Mississippi River since the 1970s[16]

Bighead and silver carp feed by filtering plankton from the water. The extremely high abundance of bighead and silver carp has caused great concern because of the potential for competition with native species for food and living space. Because of their filter-feeding habits, they are difficult to capture by normal angling methods. In Canada, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has evaluated the risk of Asian carp invading Canadian waters, particularly the Great Lakes, either by introduction from the Mississippi or through the market in live carp. A few bighead carp and grass carp have been captured in Canada's portions of the Great Lakes, but no Asian carp (other than common carp, an origi-nally Eurasian species) is known to be established in Canada at this time. Their are concerns that Silver Carp may spread into Cypress Hills in Alberta and Saskatche-wan through Battle Creek (Milk River), the Frenchman River and other rivers flowing south out of the hills into the Milk River. In Mexico, grass carp have been estab-lished for many years in at least two river systems, where they are considered invasive, but no other Asian carp are known to have been introduced.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also concerned about the possibility of Asian carp migrating to the Great Lakes. In 2002, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed an electric fish barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the only aquatic link between the Great Lakes and the Missis-sippi River drainage basins. The initial fish barrier was used as a demonstration project to study the design's effectiveness. Follow-ing positive results, construction began on a second, permanent barrier in 2004.

U.S. Representative Dave Camp from Michigan's 4th district and Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan introduced the CARP ACT (Close All Routes and Prevent Asian Carp Today), which directs the Army Corps of Engineers to take action to prevent Asian Carp from entering the Great Lakes. It is estimated that it will cost more than $30 million in 2010 to prevent the carp from invading the Great Lakes. The Act will make sure that the locks and sluice gates at the O’Brien Lock and Dam and the Chicago Controlling Works are closed and remain closed until a better strategy is developed. The act will also enhance existing barriers and monitoring systems by giving authority to the Army Corps of Engineers to obtain real estate necessary for the construction and maintenance of the barrier. The Corps also have the authority to eliminate and prevent the spread of the carp by using fish toxi-cants, commercial fishing and netting, and harvesting.

In November, 2009, carp genetic material was detected beyond the two electric barriers, leaving only a single lock/dam on the Calumet River between the detected presence and Lake Michigan. "This is absolutely an emergency," Joel Brammeier, acting president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, was quoted as saying, referring to the ecological threat, and also mentioning the threat to recreational boaters. "Mr. Brammeier and some others called for the immediate closing of the lock ... though others

Big Head Carp

PAGE 8 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS PAGE 10 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

doubted it was feasible to stop shipping traffic [there]. 'All options are on the table,' said Jacqueline Y. Ashmon, a spokeswoman for the Corps of Engineers. 'We don’t have any specifics.'"

In the first week of December, 2009, the Army Corps made plans to shut down one of the electric barriers for maintenance, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources responded by dumping 2,200 gallons of the toxin Rotenone into the canal. Rotenone, the report said, is deadly for fish but not harmful to humans, animals or most other aquatic life. While "scores" of fish were killed, only one carp was found, near Lockport Lock and Dam and nearly six miles below the electronic barriers. The fish kill cost $3 mil-lion and produced 90 tons of dead fish, reported one commentator, who also noted a parallel with an intentional fish kill in Chi-cago, in Lincoln Park's South Pond, by the IDNR in Nov., 2008.

Other efforts to reduce the number of Asian carp have included encouraging the public to eat more carp and fisheries shipping the fish to other markets, such as Israel, and have included the participation of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

On June 22, 2010, a 19-pound Asian carp was found near the shore of Lake Michigan, in Lake Calumet, about six miles down-stream from Lake Michigan, by a commercial fisherman hired by the state of Illinois to do routine fish sampling in the area. The fish confirms DNA evidence that Asian carp have indeed breached the electric fish barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Ca-nal.

On August 24, 2010, a carp reportedly knocked a kayaker out of competition in a Missouri River race at Lexington, Missouri in western Missouri.

On September 8, 2010, the Council on Environmental Quality announced the appointment of John Goss as the Asian Carp Direc-tor. Goss' role is primarily to serve as the principal advisor to the CEQ's chair, Nancy Sutley on Asian carp issues, and oversee fed-eral, state, and local coordination on Asian carp controll efforts. Goss was previously executive director. of the Indiana Wildlife Federation (a state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation), director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and vice chair of the Great Lakes Commission. Source: Internet, Wikipedia, etc.

When frightened Asian Carp will flee and it’s usually by jumping.

PAGE 11 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

Penticton Flyfishers Annual Dinner, Awards & Auction

President Phil Rogers ( left) presents the Gordon Marchant Memorial Award to Tom Knight. This award is for a member who has

exemplified the purposes and goals of the club. Tom has done so now for many years and club

members are very appreciative.

The president’s Award for the past year went to KJ’s Sports and Will Carnell.

KJ’s has been an avid supporter of our club

and we are very thankful.

The Most Active New Member Award went to Ryan Winstanley. Ryan recently joined the

club and has already made his presence felt by taking on the task of Club Vice President..

The Most Improved Fly Tyer Award went to long time member Mike Daviduk. Mike has really

bloomed as a tyer and soon he will be able to take over for George at teaching. Mike admitted though

that he had to learn to tie smaller flies.

The Harry Fehling Volunteer service Award went to Ken Baker. The awards is presented to that club member whose ef-

forts in the past twelve months has greatly benefited the club.

www.bcwf.bc.ca

www.pentictonflyfishers.ca

PAGE 12 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

Own a short box pick-up with a work box? Tired of hefting your aluminium fishing boat onto overhead racks. Tired of trailering hasslesa? Here is your answer. Install your light weight and user friendly “Launch and Load” into your 2” X 2” hitch receiver and adjust to pick-up bed height. Your boat will float on and off with all of your gear and motor aboard. So easy and simple it is AMAZING. Your “Launch and Load” can be yours for only $325.00, plus taxes. Contact Calta Welding at 1-250-492-6181 or visit us at 2240 barnes St., Penticton, B.C., V2A 6T5, in Penticton’s in-dustrial area.

Launch and Load

2011 FISHOUTS

Salmon Lake

Sept 23,24, & 25

Kettle River July every weekend

PAGE 13 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

Link Lake May 27 to

29

Idelback Lake June 24 to 26

Harmon Lake Sept 9 to 11

Planned Fish Out’s

for 2011

PAGE 14 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

Picture Gallery New - Yellow Lake Signage

PAGE 15 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

CLASSIFIEDS CALENDAR of EVENTS

For Sale—15 ft Sage graphite Spey rod, line weight 10, 8 3/4 oz, 4 piece, used only ten times. Call Ken Cochrane 250-860-9128 or email at kencochrane@shaw.ca For Sale—Sharps "SCOTTIE", a 4" Perfect style Salmon reel. Has almost all of original lead finish, Bronze line guard, slightly filed foot $400.00 3 1/2" Hardy Perfect, no line guard, long alloy foot, Ivorine han-dle, with a Hardy drawstring bag. An early model which, unfor-tunately, has been refinished. 2 small cracks, one on a pillar the other close by on the frame. They should not affect the reel for fishing. $550.00 Hardy Marquis Salmon #1 Saltwater with twin handles, slight paint loss around rim only, Hardy case $400.00 Hardy Salmon #1 spare spool (Not a saltwater spool) $100.00 Hardy St. John Some paint loss around rim. $250.00 Hardy Marquis 8/9 spare spool all grey model $65.00 Hardy "Wathne Collection" #8 Numbered edition #248 & spare spool Basically same reel as a Golden Prince except for finish, Grey frame, Silver spool. Cases for both. Reel and spool are in as new" condition. I do not think they have ever been fished. $330.00 Hardy Perfect 3 7/8" leaded finish straight line writing no line guard. $330.00 Call Ken Baker 250-493-2926 or email to kbbaker@telus.net

May 5—General Meeting. Should be some form of enter-tainment. Time 7 pm at the Old CPR Station on Hastings St. Bring a friend if you like. May 12—Fly tying night. If you were at the General Meet-ing you would know what pattern is to be tied. You can find out I’m sure by calling George Graw. May 18—Executive meeting at Phil Roger’s home. Time 7 pm. June 2—General meeting. This will be the last meeting until September as the club takes a summer break from meetings and now spends its time out fishing. There are a number of great fish outs planned so join in. Come to this meeting and see and hear what has been going on with our nearby lakes and streams. September 1—First General meeting of the fall semester. Come out and see what is planned for the fall and coming winter months.

www.bcfff.bc.ca

www.troutwaters.ca

-HUNTING -FISHING -BOWS -SUPPLIES

Will Carnell

Ph 250-492-4963 2012 Main St.,

Penticton, BC, V2A 5H4

Tying and Fishing Techniques

The Penticton Flyfishers meet the first Thursday of every month except July and August when we meet at nearby fish-outs. Club meetings begin at 7 pm at the “OLD CPR” Train Station on Hastings St., and everyone is welcome. Membership costs $40 per year (Junior membership is free) and includes membership in the B.C. Federation of Fly Fishers, the B.C. Wild-life Federation, The Federation of Fly Fishers (International), and the Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Alliance (OSCA). The club is registered as a society and its function is to promote the sport of fly fishing, to educate, and to conserve and protect the environment. The club is actively involved in conservation projects throughout the Okanagan and surrounding areas. If you would like more information about the club, its membership, projects and programs, please call any member of the Executive (see inside front cover).

Bruce Turnbull Bruce Turnbull

A very successful fly pattern for early spring chironomid fishing is a Blood Worm. Here’s Wikipedia’s version of the Blood Worm. The larva of a non-biting midge (Family Chironomidae) containing haemoglobin. Neat. Now these little critters like to live in marl type bottoms but just about any muddy or silted bottom can be home. They pop out of their little holes in the mud to feed and then retreat. When its time to evolve they head for the surface. Its during this stage that trout find them attractive. Usually the trout are keying on them as they emerge from their mud burrow. That would put them at about 1 to 2 feet off the bottom. The pattern is one of the easiest patterns to tie. All you need are very small hooks like Tiemco 100 in sizes 12 to 22. A size 18 is a good all around size but I have had experiences where a 12 works very well ( Sheridan Lake). Colour is red hence the Blood Worm name. The red body can be silk thread, Super Floss, or red plastic or similar but not weighty.

You should also incorporate a wire rib, copper and fine would be nice. The head of this pattern is your typical chi-ronomid head design, pheasant tail wrap, white antron fibers or whatever for the gills and maybe a bead or not. It’s a simple pattern but you can go overboard if you like. The internet has many different patterns of which a few pictures above give you a good idea of the range. Fishing this little guy is done Chi-ronomid style. Long leaders and tippets to coincide with the water depth. Pick your spot and double anchor. You can still fish (bobber ) or what I like is one rod this way and another rod that I can work with doing slow retrieves, fast retrieves, quick short jerks….anything is possible. Of course you have to keep an eye on that other rod. A few times I have nearly lost a rod to a fish by not paying attention. The rod that is bobber fishing you should bring in occasionally , check it for slime or weeds, and then re-set but

in a little different spot. You should also vary the depth you have Blood Worm set at every once in a while. Blood Worms are one of those flies that everyone should have a few of. They are very effective and are easy to tie so load up your fly box and pick a nice sunny warm spring day, launch your water-craft, enjoy a cold beverage and wait, if you have been nice to the flyfishing gods you could be in for a fun day.

Blood Worm