One of the most appropriate things to do on the first day of spring is to go fishing – in my case it was trout fishing. The weather was such that you could have gone on the ocean to fish for salmon, herring, cod, prawns, crabs, or gather oysters. If steelheading was your passion there are several rivers you could have fished without travelling very far.
In a nutshell we live in an angler’s paradise and while the wind and rain of the past few weeks have left much to be desired, the first day of spring was a gift on Tuesday, March 21 and we can only hope it is a good omen for the coming season.
I had the pleasure of sharing the lake with a like-minded group of fishers who were members of the Comox Valley Fly Fishers (whom I shall have something to say in a future column). To say the least they call themselves a social club. If all social clubs were like this group, we can use a lot more of them in society.
When we launched our boats on Spider Lake it was easier than usual because the lake is almost up to the road from the recent rains. The lake was calm, with a few little breezes that gave the lake a quality of spring promise that is best described in the fairy tales of children’s books. It was complete with the resident trolls – a pair of bald eagles keeping watch over the fishers so they could collect their daily toll for fishing in their lake.
I started my day with the same patterns that I used late in the 2010 season. They were both nymph patterns that offered promise. As I rowed out into the main body of the lake I glanced back at the park and in one of the trees there was a large hawk silently surveying the scene for hunting opportunities.
I decided to fish the north shore that had some shallows that may have warmed enough to bring on some early sedge hatches. To try to match what I thought the fish may be interested in, I changed my patterns to a dark green version of a sedge pupa, and a micro leech slowly mooched behind my punt with medium slow sinking lines.
To folks unfamiliar with the fly fisher’s excuse for sanity, we try to match the hatch that the trout may be feeding upon.
Fishing was slow, but a couple of tell-tale ripples revealed where trout had delicately taken a small midge from the surface. Sure enough my hunch paid off and I was rewarded with a prime 12-inch trout from last fall’s stocking. Upon cleaning the fish, its stomach contained the remnants of three sedge pupas and a small dragonfly nymph.
In the meantime the members of the club were fishing in the shallow bay at the north end of the lake – under the supervision of the eagles. Sure enough when Roy Dash connected with a trout, one of the eagles collected its toll and was inconsiderate enough to make off with his fly in the process.
If we could package the medicine that a magic day on the waters dispenses we could go a long way in making the world a happier place. But in the meantime we must be content with having to take this rare medicine by slow doses of a day on the water.
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Congratulations to Island Fisherman Magazine and the advertisers that sponsored it who have produced an excellent Tide and Bite Guide for the Strait of Georgia, West Coast, Comox Valley and Gold River. It is free and is available from the sponsoring businesses in the Valley and throughout the region (Comox Valley Record, A&E Marine, Brian McLean, Courtenay Husky, Gone Fishin’, Boston Pizza, Sunwest RV Centre, Woofy’s Pet Foods and Canadian Tire).
Thank you for a timely gift.
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If you have not already done so it is time to renew your annual fishing and hunting licences. For senior citizens they are modest in cost, for a family it costs less to buy your annual licences to fish and hunt for a year than it would cost to attend a major athletic event for a day.
It is a good investment and they are available online or from local sporting goods stores. The new licence year starts on April 1.
Ralph Shaw is a master fly fisherman who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 for his conservation efforts. In 20 years of writing a column in the Comox Valley Record it has won several awards.
