Babine Rainbow Alley update / Skeena river report

Hello all.  I just returned from Rainbow Alley, what a trip, this place never disapoints.  We had steady action in the evening & early mornings, and I mean early-3:00 am.  It's light and the fish are on the bight. 
This spring was late coming, so the Rainbows are still feeding on the Sockeye salmon fry; they hit on a fast swing so this means a down river mend, drop your tip and hang on.  Much like the Sockeye flossing technique on the Skeena river in August, except we are using dry lines weight 5/6 rods, 12 ft leader tapered to 4 pound test.  There has been a small stone fly hatch when we had a little warmer weather, but that was short lived.  However, we will get some sunny days and look out, this spot is like no other, it comes alive with Beautiful rainbow trout!  Average size 1 pound up to 3 pounds, I know their are bigger as I have been broke off  : (

Had an opportunity to hang our with Cory from Webflyz, great guy, with a passion for tying flies as his creativety changes the industry, bringing some very cool patterns for Halibut, please feel free to visit his site and place your order at www.webflyz.com great prices for quality flies.


Also the Skeena river , Kitimat river , Nass river  Rivers are all on the drop, and starting to fish.  The Cranberry river is getting some great fish as well, float fishing eggs is most productive. The Skeena is now fishing well using a variety of methods Back bouncing, Plunking, Kwick fish, Hot shots, Jet divers lur Jensen make all this possible.

The Kitimat river has been incredible, the water is perfect for swinging a fly we have been enjoying 20 to 30 pound fish, this being the average size Chinook Salmon with some tipping the scales at 50 plus.  It is early, the Big Boys will be in the Skeena river starting Mid July Through August.

If you are looking for a professional fishing guide we still have a few open dates please feel free to contact us to reserve your spot.
www.skeenariversteelhead.com
www.westcoastfishing.ca
www.webflyz.com

1-866-578-8552 toll free
Tight Lines
Gill McKean

Babine Rainbow Alley update / Halibut on the Douglas Channel

Darren & Missy with a steelhead on the Kalum river.

Darren & Missy with a halibut on the Douglas Channel.

 Hello all…

A couple of nice photo forwards from Stan Hislop who was on hand to help this cripple and do some fishing too!  If fact Stan is my angler hero…here he is helping out while at home he and his wife, Glenda, have their 30th wedding anniversary apart…we did visit my Uncle Bill and use his radio phone to call Glenda, sing her the song, etc., but there’s more…while Stan missed the anniversary, he also missed the birth of his latest grandchild…both of these things knowingly.  Angler priorities…got to love it.

Jesse is on hand and seems more interested in fishing this season so the second photo shows him with his catch…Jesse has also hooked two fish off the lodge dock, patiently casting and sometimes just sitting there waiting for the strike.

Darren and Missy visited as well and Missy still have the mojo for catching the biggest fish…trout this time instead of steelhead.  But you should have seen the look on her face when she and both Riley (new guide) and Chris (new Trout Lodge housekeeper) all added a healthy amount of DaBomb hot sauce to their hot dogs…now I know of only two humans who can eat this hot sauce without so much as a flinch but all others are in tears, look very uncomfortable and often have to leave the table to have that personal moment of suffering….so  all three had their moments but Missy looked like she had seen her last cast.

Flooding, well yes we are still in flood stage…as of a few days ago Babine Lake was four inches below the highest water level I have witnessed since 1985 and still rising slightly per day.  I haven’t visited the camp in two weeks so I don’t know what’s going on there but I assume some flooding there and hopefully not too much for her to take.  Some of our cabins at the lodge have water just about to the doorstep so like the 1997 season, it will be a high water season.  1997 was a great season for catching fish so we hope for the same this season as well.  Our first guests for the Trout Lodge arrive June 16th and the river, although high, is clean on the upper end including Nilkitkwa Lake and the lower river until you reach Nichyeskwa Creek so we will have almost our full angling area ready to go for opening day and we are lucky to have that.

Some yellow stoneflies have been on the upper river so the dry fly season has just begun, and there is still salmon fry and smolt migrating through the upper river as well.  The weather luckily has been cool and no rain so the water clarity for our trout season is good.  Safe boating will be a key concern around the weir this season as our anchors or any anchors will not hold in that area, but the fish will be there and so will we.

Had a good check up with my knee surgeon so all is well and I am good to go…full recovery is still in the future but the future looks brighter every week…by this fall I should be my reckless crazy self again, sorry! Ha!

Pierce

PS  Forgot to mention a brilliant idea Stan came up with…smoked morel mushrooms.  While Anita, I and our full staff were still yet to arrive at the lodge, Stan picked a five gallon bucket of morels, smoked them in our smokehouse and then Anita made this morel mushroom soup with the smoked morels added in.  That was the best mushroom soup ever and combine that with smoked sockeye salmon from the Fraser River provided by Stan, fresh halibut and crab from Prince Rupert provided by Darren and Missy, and Anita’s fine cooking…well there is only one Babine and one goodwill effort like that!  Stacy Barto is the only other one in this department…