Choosing only one descriptive word for our recent vacation to Bridge Lake is a tough endeavor, but I’ll try.
Our vacation plans started a year ago after a few successful and a few not so successful fishing trips to Bridge lake. This lake has quickly become one of my favorite lakes to explore. As I get older, fishing has become something that “compliments” the vacation. While the pressure to catch fish for the freezer is greatly reduced on a vacation, the excitement of potentially catching a trophy sized kokanee is hard to hold in and not talk about.
Last year, I managed to catch a few nice sized kokanee and was grateful to have the opportunity of sharing my experience on my YouTube channel, Fougere Family Adventures. While the audio was not great due to the wind, I attempted to make the videos entertaining by adding music. This year, I invested in an external mic and I’m hoping to give subscribers a higher quality video where they can hear what I have to say. Now, armed with some better equipment, we booked an Airbnb on Bridge Lake in hopes of catching some bigger kokanee than what we are used to.
As time went by and I anticipated our vacation, I could not help but think about my previous experiences I had on Bridge Lake. Last year, I started targeting lake trout. As the boys get older, they have been starting to ask about catching bigger fish. Naturally, I wanted to learn about lake trout and their behaviors. By learning about fishing for lake trout, I hope to learn a little more about kokanee and hopefully this helps make me a better kokanee angler. For my lake trout fishing experience, join our new Lake Trout Fishing BC group.
From a kokanee fishing perspective, we did not fish too much for kokanee. Most of my time was dedicated to learning how to catch lake trout. When we did fish for kokanee, it was difficult to figure out what they wanted. We tried multiple dodger and lure combinations. Some worked better than others one day and then not as well the next.
We managed to find kokanee primarily at 30ft. It seemed that I was getting more strikes with a 75ft setback. Shorter setbacks did not appear to have good results. I question still, were we not getting bit because of my heavier 10lb downrigger balls? I thought about switching to my lighter 4lb or 6lb downrigger balls, but every time we finished a meal and headed back out for kokanee I forgot to grab the smaller balls. What do you think? Would a smaller downrigger ball be less “spooky” to the kokanee and yield higher strikes? My theory of a smaller ball was that the high percentage of lakers that appeared to be feeding on kokanee might have made the kokanee extra cautious when they sensed larger objects moving thru the water.
Some of our productive gear used was Gibbs Delta Tackle dog tail dodgers and a bling blade, then a Gibbs TKO. Other times, it was a Brad’s Killer Fishing Gear extreme moon jelly dodger. We also used a pink Apex and a purple/pink hoochie which yielded some kokanee. As for scents, anise and tuna scents worked well.
Another productive lure (which has worked on Bridge for me while ice fishing) was the same blue/silver buzz bomb that we used for lakers. While jigging for what I thought was a laker, I quickly discovered not 1, but 2 kokanee that would bite my buzz bomb while jigging. Has anyone tried jigging for kokanee on Bridge Lake? If so, what is your favorite jig and method.
If you decide to fish Bridge Lake, I can not stress enough that you MUST watch your fish finder at ALL times when trolling with downriggers. Trust your fish finder! I found 2 new locations (ontop of the other 4 locations) on the lake where the bottom came up quickly and before we knew it we were in 8ft of water in the middle of the lake.
Trolling speeds were not where I really wanted to be, because of my Minn Kota motor that I have talked about in the past. My trolling speed averaged 1.8 to 2.0mph. While we caught 2 bigger kokanee and a few small ones at these speeds, I question if it’s too early in the summer to be trolling over 1.5mph.
I also managed to get some more practise double stacking one of my Scotty Fishing Products downriggers. We put a lake trout lure off the ball and a kokanee setup 20ft above the laker lure. I was curious to see if I could pull it off again and this time it was easier than I remembered. This now might be my new favourite way to fish when we have 4 people in our boat (some rod placement adjustment will be required). We managed to land 2 kokanee when using this technique and thankfully we also managed not to tangle any lines.
I enjoyed saying hi to a couple members on and near the lake. One member surprised me and sent me a message and then trolled by. A quick conversation was fun and I look forward to meeting more members in the future. If you see us out there, do not hesitate to come on over and say hello.
Our week seemed to go too quickly. As quickly as it started, it was over. Upon our arrival, we were in awe as we entered our vacation home. The layout and view of the lake from our covered deck was perfect. After getting settled and relaxed, our vacation was eventually turned upside down as the new Flat Lake fire flared up and forced an evacuation order and evacuation alert for residents close by. We kept these people in our thoughts and prayers for the rest of our trip and continue to have hope that they can all return safely to an untouched home.
Thankfully, we were not in an evacuation alert, but our stress levels went thru the roof. While a vacation was important to our mental well being, the stress of being prepared for a forest fire threat was real. We started planning on leaving and cutting our vacation short. Our family’s safety was high on our priority list and so we started researching the flat lake fire and its behavior. After hours upon hours of scouring the internet for escape routes, fire development and back up plans, we decided to stay put until it was not safe to stay. We followed the fire updates, wind direction and speed, and local news about the fire.
After 24hrs of researching every couple hours, we decided our decision was sound and finally started to relax again. Stress levels started to reduce and we enjoyed the last few days we had left. This vacation brought back memories of the big fire season we had a few years ago. Back then, we had a week booked along hwy 24 while the Province was on fire and the smoke was unbearable.
It has been a tough couple of years for British Columbia’s tourist sector. We choose to support tourism as much as we can and hope that others will do the same, safely. Hopefully, we can all get thru this together and ensure we continue to have great places to vacation for years to come.
In summary, our vacation was a roller coaster. We started in a relaxed state, then we were thrown into a combination of ups, downs and were even turned upside down. In the end, our ride ended back where it began. We were safe, relaxed once again and excited for the next ride.
If I had to choose one word to describe our recent vacation, amazing comes to mind, but this would not describe the whole experience. When digging deeper, I would choose a more suitable word.
Extraordinary!