Phillips Lake

I recently took a trip out to a local lake that I have been hearing some very good things about. This lake was one of many in the area that was killed off by Fisheries due to people transplanting invasive species. Someone figured it would be a good idea to relocate perch and bass into this lake without realizing what kind of an impact these fish can have on our native populations of trout and especially salmon. Entire ecosystems, from the animals that eat the returning salmon after they have spawned to the forest floors and vegetation that depend on the fertilization from these fish are effected when we play "GOD" and disrupt the balance of things in their natural environment. Not to mention the families that rely on these fish for food and jobs. The invasive species can and will prey on the salmon eggs and fry, depleting an already fragile resource. I would urge all of you sportsmen out there to pick up your phone and call RAPP with the license plate of any violators that you see out there. It is up to all of us who care about our outdoor sporting activities to do our part and help the enforcement authorities. 1-877-952-RAPP (7277)

We drove out to Phillips lake, which is out in Turtle Valley, and launched our boats around 9am Thursday morning. I have never fished Phillips before so I went on the advice of Bill Keown and moved away from the boat launch and started fishing along the western shore line. I anchored up in 25' of water and fished up onto the shoal with a chironomid under an indicator and a green damsel pattern on a slime line. I wasn't having much success and watched Bill hit 3 fish while he was slowly trolling from the launch over to me. He tipped me off to a black leech with a red bead head. I started to fish this pattern and didn't look back for the rest of the day. We continued to anchor up and fish several different spots along the lake using that leech pattern and trying different chironomids. I was seeing chironomids hatch but I was struggling to get a fish to pick up the dry line. I pumped a few of the fish that I hooked on the leech to find that the chironomids were a size 14-16 chrome with a red rib. I tried one of our epoxied patterns from the store and still couldn't hit a fish. I wasn't really worried about it because the Aqualux and leech were keeping me pretty busy with fish but it was a little frustrating to know the pattern and still not have any fish take it.

Bill and I finally decided to move over to the Eastern shore line and that's when it happened - I found a spot that saw me anchored there for the rest of the day. It was around 12:30 when I started noticing a good Mayfly hatch happening. The Mays were very light in colour and the fish started a feeding frenzy on them. They were being taken sub-surface and off the surface with fish rising all around and slurping them off the top of the water. I was determined to get fish on the dry line so as I was standing there, it finally dawned on me, I was fishing too deep under the indicator with my chironomid. I moved the indicator to about 6' and it was on! The breeze had picked up a little and it gave me the perfect action on a stationary chironomid line. I was able to cast the dry line out with the indicator on it and let it work with the breeze and get a nice drift going that started producing fish. The size 16 anti-static chironomid with a red rib became very popular and the two lines got me into a 30+ fish day. The fish were a mix of Fraser Valley and Pennask strains that averaged 1.5lbs.

This is a nice lake that has the potential to produce fish in the 6+ pound range. I am recommending getting out and trying your luck at anchoring up and casting for some great results. If you have kids or want a nice day out trolling, try a black leech pattern with a red bead head on a wet line and slowly work your way around the shoals.

Please email us if you have a lake update that you would like to share and I will post it. Also don't forget to email in those photos of you with your catch and we will post it in our customer photo album.

info@westsidestores.ca

Enjoy Your Outdoors!