How hot is too hot to go fishing?
When do you decide to stop fishing in hot weather? For us, safety is our number one priority when fishing in hot weather. While determining when the right time to “pull the pin” and retreat to the shade can sometimes be difficult to determine, we try to look for signs of heat fatigue before it’s too late. This trip was no different than any other, except that we stopped fishing earlier than normal due to the extreme weather temperatures we were facing.
Our adventure started with a 4 hour journey through some of British Columbia’s underated country side. The views were breathtaking and the vast plateaus of farm lands and mountain sides had us thinking that we “weren’t in Kansas anymore” and “we must be over the rainbow.”
Upon our arrival at Woodlands Fishin Resort we were greeted by an amazing host, Colleen. We felt right at home and were also welcomed by friendly people who were camping and enjoying the lakeside resort as the pelicans swam in for an evening feed in the shallows. We quickly unpacked and then prepared for a short turn around of sleep so we could get fishing when we woke up.
Sleeping proved to be difficult as the heat wave kept our cabin warm well into the night. This weather is not typical in the Cariboo. Normally, we are wearing sweaters outside at night and climbing under blankets during the night to stay warm. After a few hours of rest, it was time to wake up and take advantage of our/my first Puntzi Lake sunrise.
I climbed out of bed at 4:30am and grabbed my sweater to help take the chill of the morning air off while standing on the dock. It was amazing to stand and listen to the wildlife waking up for the day. As the sun rose, inch by inch on the horizon, the wildlife activity increased as they welcomed the dawn of a new day. The birds began to sing more frequently, while the fish began to rise at a steadier pace. As the sun broke the horizon, I enjoyed it’s arrival for a few minutes and then walked back to our cabin to prepare for the day.
There is something to be said about slowing down. When I was younger, I would race to the lake or river to get a line in the water. This time, I enjoyed a cup of fresh coffee after breakfast while I slowly started preparing our boat for the launch. As I was getting ready, I had the pleasure of a having a great conversation with Brad. It’s moments like these that add extra value to the experience. Sometimes, taking a few moments to meet and talk with people that you will be spending some time with can help enhance the experience. I really enjoyed talking fishing with Brad that morning.
Before we started fishing, I realized that I had forgot to print a bathymetric map of the lake. Normally, I like to print a lake map and study it. I usually have a game plan of angles of attack based on current and past weather conditions. Thankfully, I was able to log onto the resort’s Wi-Fi (there is no cell service at Puntzi and the Wi-Fi is limited) for a brief moment to download a map and remind myself of the area I wanted to try the last time.
We went straight to my first waypoint and started fishing. Our first kokanee was hooked in less than 2 minutes after setting the downrigger. It was just as I had remembered. Puntzi Lake is a naturally reproducing kokanee lake in British Columbia. The kokanee have been known to reach upwards of 3lbs here and there is no shortage of kokanee in the 1 to 1.5lb range. The schools of kokanee we marked were just like the last time we came. In just over 2.5 hours, we had hooked at least 20 kokanee and 15 of those were lucky enough to make it into our cooler.
Our tackle of choice was a Gibbs Delta Tackle dog tail dodger on one rod and a Mack’s Lure sling blade on the other rod. We used the same Gibbs bling blade lures we used the last time we came. One lure was a custom re-tied version with different pink beads and the original blade. The other lure was an “out of the package” bling blade that caught more than it’s fair share of kokanee. We ended up re-tying the out of package lure because the kokanee’s teeth were fraying the leader quicker than normal and the hooks broke off in our net at one point. (Check out my youtube channel for a “how to” on re-tying double snelled hooks).
Our bait of choice was my homemade Canadian peaches and cream anise kokanee corn. The larger kernels worked flawlessly as every kokanee swallowed the trailer hook.
We marked most kokanee between 45 and 60ft. Some were at 70ft, but I was not interested (maybe slightly to see if they were the bigger 3lb kokanee) in using my manual downrigger deeper than 50ft if I did not have to. I settled on 45ft with a 40ft setback. This combination accounted for about 90 percent of our kokanee hits, while 40ft and 50ft depths worked as well.
At 10:45am, we did another “heat check” and determined that it was time to call it quits until the late afternoon when the sun started going down and the ambient temperature started dropping significantly. Although we were drinking lots of water and Gatorade, we knew that continued hydration and an umbrella we had on the boat could only keep us cool on the water for so long. It was time to retreat from the lake and hit the shade and hopefully cooler temperatures of our cabin.
Our cabin was only able to keep us cool for a short period of time. We continued to drink more water and Gatorade. After a lengthy process of gutting, descaling and vacuum sealing our kokanee, we washed up and headed over to the Bakery for lunch. This trip, we decided to sit back and enjoy some great tasting food from the bakery at the resort. We ate lunch there twice and had a few ice cream cone sessions to help cool us down and take our mind off the heat. Unfortunately, we forgot about the cinnamon buns this trip. They were our favorite treat to have on our last trip to the bakery.
Eight hours later, we headed back out onto the lake with a full electric battery and lots of gas to get us where we needed. Luckily, we only needed an hour to catch the remaining 5 kokanee to reach our family’s second limit of kokanee ever. After our gear was put away, we spent some time and went over to view the pelicans nesting colony from the recommended distance as to not disturb them. Then, we quickly got back to the cabin to unwind, clean some fish and prepare for another restless night in the heat.
Initially, we had planned to fish Sunday morning after checking out of our cabin. After a conversation with our tired boys, we decided to sleep in instead, because we were running out of ice. Since the resort does not sell ice and we want to be responsible with the fish we catch, it was an easy decision to keep what ice we had left for the frozen fish on our drive home. We went thru 6 bags of cubed ice and 2 block ice this trip. The extreme heat made it difficult to determine how much ice was needed to keep our catch fresh. Thankfully, we were able to use this as a learning tool for our boys. This experience taught them that even when the fishing is easy and you can catch another limit of kokanee (or any fish), we should always take care of our catch and not waste it.
This trip was a special family trip for me. Although we were not able to retain our possession limit for our freezer, we were able to teach our boys about being a responsible angler. The weather and deep lake also made it stress free to allow our boys to work on their netting skills and downrigger skills. Both Ethan and Austin stepped up into learning how to use our Scotty Fishing Products downrigger all on their own. We experienced one bird’s nest while learning which is better than a broken rod tip. I also got a work out reeling up the downriggers after the ball dropped too quickly and it pulled the clip off the mainline. Our boys also got a work out and both were eager to learn how to reel up the downrigger. Soon, I’ll be sitting in the middle seat filming more YouTube videos from the passenger seat and sharing my experience while my family has fun learning about fishing and why I love it so much. To read about my wife’s perspective on our trip, find Sarah and her blog topic here in our group, Kokanee Fishing BC. Even I have fun reading her posts, because sometimes she shares an experience that I either forgot to mention or an experience that is completely different even though we were in the same place at the same time.