[Nickers63]

Looking for some help,

Our group is looking to do our annual flyfishing trip on Van Isl this year (Early June) Hoping for some location idea's.
We fish from Belly / Pontoon boats and looking for a quality water and good camping.

Look forward to your response,

Nickers :cheers:

 

[11th Warrior]

Where are you coming from and what are your camping requirements? Do you need a provincial site or will a back-country site do the job? (guess who just got his copy of Camp Free in BC, LOL).

Shawnigan Lake has great populations of cutties, rainbows, kokanee and smallmouth bass. Spectacle Lake has the only Eastern brookies on the Island as well as a good population of cutties.

There shouldn't be a problem doing either lake with belly boats or pontoons, however Spectacle is located in a provincial park so check the rules. I plan on doing Shawnigan this summer on my pontoon as well.

HTH,
Sean.

 

[Fishaholic]

Strathcona park area would be worth checking out round that time take the naniamo ferry, wouldnt waste the time on spectacle looking for brooks, pretty much fished out and not sure that they have restocked them. not sure about kok's in shawnigan either. sometime gotta take those books with a grain o' salt
Great fly fishing round the creek mouths of cowichan lake too, they are a good run between them so a tin boat with a 9.9 is recomendable

 

[11th Warrior]

I was speaking from experience and what I've been told by others who fish there. I've had 4 or 5 brookies in one day on Spectacle (mind you, I was on gear).

 

[Fishaholic]

I was speaking from experience and what I've been told by others who fish there. I've had 4 or 5 brookies in one day on Spectacle (mind you, I was on gear).

In the last few years though? I only know people that fish there and I dont fish there much(and not lately). I know people that used to catch lots of them there and latey they seem to get more rainbows.

 

[professori]

Where are you coming from and what are your camping requirements? Do you need a provincial site or will a back-country site do the job? (guess who just got his copy of Camp Free in BC, LOL).

Shawnigan Lake has great populations of cutties, rainbows, kokanee and smallmouth bass. Spectacle Lake has the only Eastern brookies on the Island as well as a good population of cutties.

There shouldn't be a problem doing either lake with belly boats or pontoons, however Spectacle is located in a provincial park so check the rules. I plan on doing Shawnigan this summer on my pontoon as well.

HTH,
Sean.

The Cowichan from the lake down to Sandy pool (2 or 3 miles) is a very nice drift with lots of nice runs and pools. I haven't fished it for about 4 years, but used to hit it every May long weekend. Try to hit it starting around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and end up around Sandy pool near 8:00 pm. I have never seen a river explode with rising trout (both rainbows and browns) as the Cowichan near dusk. Sandy pool is right on the road side, so is a perfect take out for the pontoon.

 

[11th Warrior]

Thanks for the info Prof. My wife has a cousin with a cottage on Cowichan...might have to take him up on his offer to use it

As for Spectacle, the last time I was there was about 6 months ago. I talked to one of the Parks guys while the family and I were out for a walk and he said the brook trout are still there in decent numbers but for some reason they won't bite. All indications are they're feeding, but on what he didn't know.

 

[Nickers63]

Thanks for the info, I will do some research into the above spots. Not fussy on camping - Provincial OK but prefer Forestry sites.

Prof: The drift from Cowichan Lake to Sandy pool sounds awesome, would definitely like to fish that. Haven't fished my pontoon in a river yet? Maybe this year. I would suspect dry fly action for those rising lunkers.

Thanks again
Nickers