Birch Lake

Karen and I spent the day at Birch Lake today. It is a lake full of challenges. Perhaps the biggest challenge is just launching your watercraft! You have to negotiate a hill down to the lake that is about 50 m. It is steep in a couple of spots too. Luckily we borrowed a wheeled frame from my buddy Doug that made getting our pram down to the lake easy. Even the grunt back up the hill at the end of the day wasn't too bad because of the wheeled frame we put under the boat.

Well our first stop on the lake was quite productive for Karen. By the time I had a take, she landed 2 brookies and three rainbows. The brookies belched up stickleback minnows. Karen was using her usual tried and true Tokaryk Special. We set up on a drop off and the trout were feeding on the shallow side of the drop off.

We headed to the far end of the lake and again fished along a drop off. I switched to casting and retrieving a black leech streamer on an intermediate line. I managed to hook three nice rainbows. Karen hooked another nice rainbow on her Tokaryk Special.

A bathometric map certainly helped us decide where we would set up on the lake.

We kept prospecting and found the active fish were about 8 feet down. That was interesting considering the water temperature was around 65F. 

Stripping the streamer got more action for a while.

Near the end of the day we set up in a spot I like. I hooked a sizeable brown and Karen followed suit a few minutes later. I continued to strip a leech and Karen stayed with her Tokaryk Special! Two different strategies. Both worked although at times one was better than the other.

The air temperature was climbing to close to 27C.  At 5 pm we called it a day. 

If the weather forecast is accurate, we have rain on the way. We definitely need the moisture. It is tinder dry out there!

Enjoy the upcoming weekend. Sunday maybe a wet one!

Brook sticklebacks were on the menu of the trout!

Celebrating a fun day out on the water!