The Fishing Highway, Caribou, BC
The Mission
It has long been on our list to head up and experience what the Caribou fishing is all about. Fishermen from far and wide have all heard the stories of fishing for lake monsters that cannot be beat.
I made a few plans with one of our close friends, Jorden Murray, and a date was set for ice off at the end of April.
We decided to stay at the Lac Des Roches resort on the fisherman's highway (HWY 24) and take advantage of what ice off would present us.
As luck would have it when it came time for our trip I got a call from Luca at the resort advising me to reschedule as the ice had not melted yet. We have had a very late spring in BC this year and everything is about a month behind schedule. We went back to the drawing board and the only time we could sync everything up was a four day stretch in late June. We would miss ice off but the fishing should still be good and the weather would be warmer.
We packed up the boat on the roof of the car, and with my son Quinn joining us, we hit the road for a 5 hour jaunt north from Vancouver.
Lac Des Roches Resort
We stayed at this great resort right on the shore of Little Lac Des Roches. A nice collection of comforatable cabins and camping spots with docks and motor boats that are available for rent. It is run by local fishing guide Luca Lanzoni and family. Luca has a very deep knowledge of the area and its lakes and rivers. Georgio is also a guide here and gave us some very valuable info that helped land us some big fish. It was the perfect place for us to set up our home base and unwind after full days of just............fishing.
Lac Des Roches
Lac Des Roches actually comprises of two lakes, the smaller little Lac Des Roches and the much larger Lac Des Roches. The two lakes are connected by a short channel that winds through a beautiful bird sanctuary. The lakes hold Burbot, Pike Minnow, Shiners, and two strains of Rainbow trout. The large acrobatic Gerrard strain and the famously strong Pennask.
Although they were rising everywhere, we could not get a bite in the little lake to save our life. The big lake on the other hand offered up a few big trout which we caught be trolling a big black woolly bugger.
Irish Lake
We heard rumour that Irish lake on the other end of the highway was loaded full of big fish and was easy fishing. We drove out for the evening bite. Its a beautiful little lake right off the highway. As soon as we got there we saw fish rising everywhere. We were pumped! We got out there and tried every fly and tactic in the book but could not get any love. Troll a bugger, nope. Strip a leech, nope. Toss a dry, nope. Dangle a chironomid, nope. They were so keyed in on the one thing we didn't offer that nothing else mattered to them. The perfect size and color really matter on this lake. Some of the fish we saw jumping were huge!
On the bright side it was a beautiful warm, calm, sunset evening for fishing.
Lynn Lake
Lynn lake was on my radar before we left Vancouver and was one of our mandatory stops. This is a small lake closer to Little Fort. It is beautiful and a little ways off the highway on a very bumpy forestry road. This lake holds Brook trout (the main reason I wanted to fish it) and Rainbow trout.
The weather was amazing. the first warm sunny day of the trip. The fishing was really fun too. Jordan and Quinn finally got into some fish. Actually we all got into a lot of fish. The Brookies were smaller, around 1 to 2 pounds, but the rainbows were quite a bit bigger. We ended up staying out there the whole day and had a blast.
6 Mile Lake
The last day of the trip was quite rainy which didn't really bother us as we were just going to be driving home anyhow. But as we passed through Clinton, BC, the weather got a little better so we decided to pull over and throw the boat into 6 mile lake. Right on the highway, this little lake is quite pretty with deep blue water. I had heard somewhere that it holds Brook trout so we were excited to try and catch them. Well, the weather didn't hold and we didn't catch any Brook trout. However, as the rain came down, we did get into a few very decent rainbow trout. After an hour or so, we called it a day and hopped back on the road.
The last day of the trip was also "National Go Skateboarding Day". As we got closer to Vancouver we started thinking that we needed to find a spot along the way to throw down our boards and get a few tricks in. I remembered a small covered mini ramp Hippie Mike had built in Yale, BC. It didn't take long to find it and Jorden and I got are old sore bodies out of the car and actually managed to successfully land some tricks. It felt like a great way to end our trip.
All in all, this was an amazing trip of great fishing and great people. New friends like Justin Beamer and his family who towed us out to the island on the big lake for a hotdog BBQ and introduced Quinn to "mega" S'mores, which made the trip even better. And a huge thank you to Luca and Georgio for generously sharing their deep fishing knowledge of the area and their great resort.
We cannot wait to get back up into that zone and discover some more new water.
Gone Fishin!