Bridge Lake can now be checked off my “to do” list of one of the many great kokanee lakes we have that I have wanted to fish in British Columbia. We stayed at Lac Des Roches Resort which is a short drive away from Bridge lake.
Our trip to Bridge Lake was a last minute adventure. I had a week of vacation booked (which was supposed to be for pike fishing) and called to booked a cabin close to Bridge Lake at the last minute after my pike trip was put on hold. Surprisingly, contrary to popular belief, I was able to find a cabin for rent during my required time frame. Actually, I was able to find 3 cabins at 3 different resorts for rent. This is a good reminder to not count yourself out if you wait until the last minute to book a cabin on a lake on Hwy 24, the fishing hwy. We must remember to physically call around. There even appeared to be many campsites available as well.
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon with enough time to wind down and settle into our cabin. The boys and I were on a 2 night boys fishing trip while Sarah happily worked hard to bring home the dough to fund our excursion. We had discussed prior to our arrival that Wednesday would be a “day off” from fishing as we had fished Puntzi Lake on the weekend. We chose to play card games and play outside instead. However, like a kid in a candy store, my boys discovered the dock that lay in the water in front of our cabin. Like most lakes in the area, there were small fish swimming everywhere and the odd “big one” would slowly swim by to see what was happening. I couldn’t believe it. Ethan and Austin had chose on their own to go fishing off the dock on their down day from fishing. They wanted to catch a big one. I managed to convince them to cast into the lake in hopes a rainbow would come in and latch onto their carefully selected lures, but nothing of that natural materialized over the course of our stay.
Thursday, we continued to monitor the weather and wait for a break in the wind and rain to go fishing. We managed to sneak out and go fishing for a short period of time, but we decided that the cabin and fishing off the dock was more fun than getting wet and cold in the boat. Friday would prove to be about the same as Thursday so we called it what it was, “slow kokanee fishing” because of the weather.
Normally, slow fishing would drive me crazy, but this time I seemed to be dealing with the stress very well. We still managed to put a few kokanee in the cooler each day, so I was able to sleep at night. We had so much water in our boat one day that we made a river we were able to race sticks down. I was also enjoying staying warm and dry in our cabin and hanging out with the boys playing cards, sleeping in and watching them play with their glow sticks.
Our stay at Lac Des Roches was enjoyable for a few reasons. As always, we love staying at a cabin that is on situated right on a the lake. These cabins which were one large cabin divided into 3 suites had the best view of the lake and dock. They also had something I haven’t experienced at any other cabin which is my #1 reason I loved it. The decks on the front porch were all covered which made the rain bearable as we sat outside under the roof. The location and proximity to Bridge Lake was perfect. We were fishing within a half hour of leaving the resort. I was also very impressed with the recycling program Lac Des Roches is a part of. This resort is the first one I have been to that has such an extensive program.
Sarah arrived Friday night after work. We were excited she was able to make it. We found the “perfect” spot or so we thought to catch a limit of nice kokanee on Saturday. The weather forecast was showing improving weather conditions and so we anticipated a good day of fishing. It turns out that one day of good weather does not “turn on” the kokanee bite we were hoping for. We put 3 kokanee in the cooler and called it a day after the boys started having meltdowns on the boat. We are definitely starting to outgrow our boat which is somewhat disappointing. I love our boat, but we will be starting to look into other options for our family that suit our future needs. Even mom wanted to have a nap on the boat and there’s not a ton of room to do this on our tiny tin boat.
Sunday morning came quicker than I could have imagined. We had only fished for maybe 12 hrs total in the 3 days we planned to fish. Of course, with 2 young boys, this is a decent amount of time to keep their interest in fishing. I felt relaxed and sad that my vacation was over, but also felt like I had learned so much in a short period of time. I knew Bridge Lake downrigger fishing could be dangerous if my downrigger ball ever caught bottom. Thankfully, I managed to avoid a collision of my downrigger balls with a sunken island that is not on my Anglers Atlas map (it is now…..and I knew these maps were not for navigational purposes before I fished Bridge Lake). We also managed to avoid hitting bottom with another sunken island on our way back to the launch Saturday. A white buoy had blown off the island and the depth went from 90ft to 5ft quicker than you could blink an eye (this island was also not on the map). Just as we were getting ready to pack up the truck and car, Sarah threw me a curve ball and I was up and packing as quickly as I could. My wife knows me too well. She knew that I wanted to fish one more day to learn some more. She offered to take the boys home and I stayed behind to fish one last day. Before they left for home, we enjoyed a few drinks at the restaurant. Sarah had a cup of tea and I enjoyed a cup of Lac Des Roches’ famous cappuccino. The boys managed to convince us that they needed a can of Coca Cola which I’m sure they “needed” because I had effectively only brought one bag of candy with us the whole trip.
As we said our goodbyes and drove away from the resort one last time, I couldn’t help but go into “focus” mode and try to plan what my first presentations would be. My new Kokabow tackle caught a kokanee, but the winning ticket ended up being my Brad’s extreme dodger and a bead lure. The bite was better than the last couple days and the wind had changed direction. I was impressed to have a limit in 3hrs which also included losing a couple kokanee. This year has definitely proven difficult for myself with the timing of my fishing trips to hit the bite just right, but at least more often than not I did not go home empty handed.
Bridge Lake is definitely a fun lake to explore and I’ll be back to explore new areas and maybe even catch another lake trout. That’s right, I managed to catch my first lake trout ever and hooked into a second one before coming home. With countless islands and bays to explore, it could take a lifetime to fish Bridge Lake and I still will not see it all. Maybe I need to consider looking into moving there or maybe I need to dream about what it would be like to own a resort on Bridge Lake where people can come explore for themselves and where we would share stories about the big one that got away.