Fishing Eena Lake

That was such a good trout dinner the other night, we decided we should try again today, May 15, 2019.  We talked with the visitor center host, and someone at the local fishing shop, and we came up with Eena Lake, which is only about a 12 mile drive from our campground north of Prince George, British Columbia.  The lake is stocked with a variety of trout and is said to be very productive, although the big fish are really hard to catch.

So we learned.

We got an early start (for us) and arrived at the lake in the late morning.  There were a few other fisher-people here ahead of us, but not enough to be an issue.  Eena Lake is small -- a little over a kilometer long and about a half kilometer wide, with a large island slicing through the middle.  The island makes it seem like fishing two different lakes.

We were excited to put our kayaks in, having done so well on our fishing trip to Greeny Lake near Lac La Hache.  Here's Kathy getting ready to get her feet wet:

The lake was very still as we put out into the water.  There were one or two private properties along the eastern shore, such as this one, boasting a dock with colorful umbrellas and an RV:

The umbrellas told their own story:

All around the lake, the water was so calm, it gave us reflective views of a varied lakeshore with many trees leafing out:

Kathy quickly chose the east side of the island to cast her line:

David, meanwhile, caught lots of reflective photos while trying to chase those leaping rises along the east shore of the lake across from Kathy:

The south tip of the island looked like an especially interesting place to cast a fly:

We worked our way around to the west side of the island, when our attention was diverted by this majestic bald eagle soaring above:

It surprised Kathy by diving right past her head to grab a trout at the surface of the lake.  Surprisingly, the trout wiggled free and the eagle had nothing to show for its hunting prowess.  The eagle flew off to a nearby fir tree to sit and sulk and spy for its next meal:

Kathy continued to fish until lunch, while David continued to watch the eagle, hoping to catch more drama on the camera.  It was not to be.  Finally, we put the kayaks out on the island to have a little lunch:

After lunch, the winds picked up and the clouds blew in.  Where we had had numerous bites all morning, our results declined in the afternoon.  Total score:  Kathy -- 3 catches, numerous bites; David -- 1 catch, numerous bites, and one other fish on.  While we were disappointed, we realized later that this would have been a good day anywhere but here in British Columbia.  Our four catches would have been acceptable anywhere else -- three of them 9-inchers and one colorful little 6-incher.  But we had promised ourselves we would only keep our catches if they were actually at least 12 inches.  So we came home empty-handed for dinner today.

The loons kept popping up near our kayaks.  We weren't sure whether they were commiserating with our poor luck, trying to encourage us to keep fishing, or actually shadowing us to find the fish we let go.  But in any event, we had plenty of loon company to brag about:

Since we have no home-cooked trout dinner tonight, we'll go drown and feed our sorrows at the local Alpine Pub & Grill, just down the road from our campground.  It's supposed to be a nice, local, low-key place.  Just the thing we need to help us forget our failure to catch the big ones today.