Puntzi Lake is a more than a lake, it’s a community.
We went fishing to Puntzi lake this past weekend and we were not disappointed. We marked fish everywhere we went on the lake and in some areas we found huge schools of kokanee filling our fish finder screen. Most fish were marked between 60 and 70ft with the occasional school between 40-50ft (I definitely started questioning why I did not have an electric downrigger this trip). The odd fish was also marking at 30ft.
We arrived at Kokanee Bay Resort late Friday night and were greeted with a warm welcome and a familiar face. It turns out, Puntzi Lake is a popular destination for people living in Quesnel. We also managed to see the wild horses we have heard so much about on the way into the resort which made Austin extremely happy.
Saturday morning was everything I was looking forward to. We slept in, woke up and had bacon and farm fresh eggs for breakfast. We took our time getting the boat ready and then launched and were on our way over to see the pelicans (from a distance, because the island they nest on requires a minimum 100m distance). It turns out that we could have stayed by the resort side like originally planned and the pelicans would have flew over us all day long (truly a sight to see while fishing).
We managed to put 5 kokanee in the cooler before it was time to make our way back to our cabin for lunch. On our way in, the wind picked up and I decided to take the boat out of the water just in case it got rough.
After lunch, Sarah and I quietly fell asleep on our couches while the boys were entertained by the satellite TV. When we woke up, it was almost dinner time. No one was hungry because we had been eating very poorly (too much junk food). We decided to go for a drive and check out the other local resorts. We went to Woodlands first and enjoyed a cinnamon bun, tea and ice cream. We really enjoyed meeting the people at Woodlands and talking with some locals who have lived on Puntzi Lake for some time now. We talked about the lice we found on most of our kokanee. No one has seen them on the kokanee until this year. In 30 years, this year was again different than the last couple. When the fires came thru this area, the locals noticed a few things happened. The rainbow trout seemed to not fair well with the fires and the nutrient run off. The kokanee however, did very well and are now thriving in the lake. Also worth noting, the lake temperature is apparently a few degrees higher than normal for this time of the year. After we finished our snacks, we said our goodbyes. We headed over to Barneys Resort where we were greeted by more friendly owners and a sweet telephone booth before the resort (this made sarah and I feel slightly old 
). We had a tour of the resort and a few cabins and were very impressed with what we saw.
It turns out, this trip was more about relaxing and exploring then fishing. We spent the rest of the evening watching the storm roll in and enjoyed satellite TV while watching lightning across the lake. I couldn’t help but think that it has not been too long since this area was burning all around the lake. Thankfully, it had been raining heavily and I hoped that no fires had started.
The next day was very close to the same as Saturday morning. We had more bacon and eggs (I really need to eat bacon more 
) and lazily watched outside as rain drops fell on the lake. We were in no rush to get wet and hoped to wait out the rain and then go fishing. Unfortunately, the rain kept spitting on and off so we decided to pack up and head home.
All in all, we did not get much fishing in on Puntzi Lake, because of the rain. I am glad we made the journey and were able to meet some great people in the community of Puntzi Lake. I really enjoyed our lakeside cabin and watching the pelicans glide over the water effortlessly. I will be back one day and hopefully sooner than later. This was the first time we visited the Cariboo Chilcotin. Next time, I’m looking forward to more sunshine, fishing and maybe a campfire lakeside while I dream about what the area had been thru and where it is going to be in the future. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out this part of our province that often gets overlooked.