Danger: (Wo)Men Fishing!

We're staying at Robert's Roost RV Park, on the shore of Dragon Lake, near Quesnel, British Columbia.  One of the jewels of the Cariboo region, Dragon Lake is the home of trophy size rainbows. Twelve pounders are caught on a regular basis and because of such great fishing, this lake is often featured on Canadian TV fishing programs. All methods of fishing work well.  However, Dragon Lake is considered a fly fisher's dream.

Fishing is such a serious sport here at Robert's Roost that visitors are given due warning:

Every morning, the waters off the near shores of Dragon Lake are populated with solitary fishermen - and occasionally some couples - practising the Zen art of fly fishing:

One of our neighbors, Lois Smith, whom we met while she was walking her dogs Cocoa and Sage, told us about her husband Brian's passion for fishing and how they have visited Dragon Lake for years.  Here's a photo of Brian with his second love:

Brian Smith is a freelance outdoor writer and photographer. His work has appeared in BCWF Outdoor Edge, The Canadian Fly Fisher magazine, The Art of BC Fly Fishing 2005 Calendar and Fly Fishing and Tying Journal. Smith has been fishing the waters of the BC’s Central Interior, Cariboo, Kootenays and the Okanagan for more than twenty-five years. In his search for the perfect catch, Smith also targets steelhead and salmon in northwest British Columbia, but readily admits his love is for trout that come freely to the dry fly. Smith is an avid fly fisher, and an accomplished fly tier and rod builder. He was recognized as Contributor of the Year in 1997 for articles published in the BC Wildlife Federation’s Outdoor Edge magazine. In 2008, Brian was awarded the Jack Shaw Fly Tying Award by the BC Federation of Fly Fishers. He credits his lifelong passion for fly tying to the pioneer work of the late master angler Jack Shaw, who was his friend and mentor during his formative fly fishing years in Kamloops. Smith has four children and lives with his wife Lois in Prince George, BC.

"Fly Fishing BC’s Interior" is his first book.  It is the definitive fly fisher's guide to BC's Central Interior. He writes about the allure of BC's wild rainbow trout, which attract fly fishers from all over the world. In "Seasons of a Fly Fisher," his second book, Smith takes us on a journey to the Pacific Northwest where we experience the thrill of fishing for salmon and cutthroat trout. He expertly guides us to lakes and rivers in BC’s Central Interior that are world-renowned for rainbow trout fishing, then to the Bulkley Valley for steelhead fishing and finally the east Kootenays and southern Alberta for still more trout fishing.

Learning about Dragon Lake's fame as a trout fishing destination, and how Brian Smith loves this place, we felt we absolutely had to explore fly fishing for trout on Dragon Lake.  This, however, required us to fish from a boat, and we have only fly-fished twice from a boat - once on the Matapedia River with a guide who helped us learn about salmon fishing with a Spey rod; and once on a float trip down the Little Juniata River in mid-state Pennsylvania with a guide who helped us find the favorite hiding places of local trout.

Okay, so we decided to rent a boat from the RV Park.  David had a shadowy memory of fishing from a boat with his Grandpa Harris on Lake Mary Ronan in Montana near Flathead Lake, so he considered that this made him an expert on managing the outboard motor on a rowboat.  Here, the Cap'n guides us across the lake to the most like fishing waters:

While David was in charge of motors, Kathy was in charge of casting.  Here she is, lecturing a recalcitrant trout on why, if it had risen three times to take real flies near our boat, it had an obligation to take her artificial fly rather than bypassing it and swimming under the boat to continue its fly-catching on the other side.

Our attention was diverted for about a half hour by a bald eagle, soaring overhead and trying to catch trout that were leaping out of the lake after emerging flies.  It gave us some consolation that the eagle had no better luck than we did in catching those elusive trophy trout.

In the last analysis, what we had was one lonely fly, floating on the surface of the water, waiting in vain for its intended trout:

After a few hours, we saw rain and wind coming in, so we headed back to the dock.  We even got an unusual view of our RV park as we passed the rigs on our way back to the dock:

While we weren't very successful in the fish-catching category this afternoon, we did achieve a great deal in learning how to cast and fish from a boat on a lake.  We think this could become a more frequent activity for us as we continue to explore British Columbia, Alaska and the American West.