Spring 2010 Dragon Lake

Fishing Report from Dragon Lake, B.C.

May 2010

I've returned recently from almost three weeks of fishing one of my favorite destinations in British Columbia, Dragon Lake.

I've made this trip yearly now for ten years and this year's trip provided by far the best fishing for larger fish than I've ever had.

Part of the trip each year is to see and re-new long-time friendships with people I've known for 40 years. Some of these folks I see once a year and we make the best of it with our "male bonding" (ribbing)! It's always a pleasure to fish with Chuck Fox, Windy Way, Del Thideman, Ron Fredrickson, Keith & Cleo Findley, and several others. Many of my Evergreen Fly Fishing Club friends also make the trek north to fish Dragon. This year they included Jerry Harris, Fred Moll, Neil Westover, Neil Cummings, Art Carlson, and George Richardson. Some who usually come couldn't make it this year and it's a shame since the fishing was so good this spring!

You never know what you're going to get in terms of weather when you head north each year and with the exception of my first and last days the weather was ideal. Water temperature was just about right and with the exception of my first day very little wind and one day with rain. I couldn't have asked for much better weather. My last day was a "blow-out" with very high winds which made it impossible to fish.

Our successful fishing was due in large part to the good chironomid hatches that were coming off each day. The fishing would usually start to pick-up at about 9:30 am or so and continue well into the late afternoon. In fact my best fishing occurred one Sunday evening from 4:45 pm until 6:30 pm for larger fish in 21 feet of water using large chironomids. We call these larger chironomids "bombers" because they are so large. My most successful patterns were black and olive chironomids in sizes 14 to 10.

You never know what you're going to get in terms of weather when you head north each year and with the exception of my first and last days the weather was ideal. Water temperature was just about right and with the exception of my first day very little wind and one day with rain. I couldn't have asked for much better weather. My last day was a "blow-out" with very high winds which made it impossible to fish.

Back to the fishing! As I mentioned earlier, it was the best I've ever had at Dragon Lake. The fish were larger and fought unusually hard this year. My best fish put in the net was a 9 ½ lb. triploid taken on a size 12 black chironomid. It took about 20 minutes to land this fish using my 5 wtg. fly rod. Several "Pennask" strain rainbows, which are noted "top water" fighters, took me deep into my fly line backing.

Back to the fishing! As I mentioned earlier, it was the best I've ever had at Dragon Lake. The fish were larger and fought unusually hard this year. My best fish put in the net was a 9 ½ lb. triploid taken on a size 12 black chironomid. It took about 20 minutes to land this fish using my 5 wtg. fly rod. Several "Pennask" strain rainbows, which are noted "top water" fighters, took me deep into my fly line backing.

Our successful fishing was due in large part to the good chironomid hatches that were coming off each day. The fishing would usually start to pick-up at about 9:30 am or so and continue well into the late afternoon. In fact my best fishing occurred one Sunday evening from 4:45 pm until 6:30 pm for larger fish in 21 feet of water using large chironomids. We call these larger chironomids "bombers" because they are so large. My most successful patterns were black and olive chironomids in sizes 14 to 10.

The last three days I fished were my worst. I believe the reason for this was a decreasing chironomid hatch each day until my last day of fishing there were very few chironomids coming off the water. When asked about this by friends, my response was; "No bugs, no fish!"

In closing I'd like to take the opportunity to thank my wife Carolyn for the chance to be able to go that far away and leave her on her own. She "insists" on me going and undoubtedly has more courage than anyone I've ever known. I call her each day and she continues to be positive and up-beat facing the challenges she has each day!

It's a long drive, 464 miles each way, and I'm also thankful that it's been un-eventful again this spring!

Included are photos are of a very with a nice fish in my net awaiting release, Jerry Harris with a fish that decided to "work its way loose" while holding it and almost knocked his sunglasses off. Another is a shot of me holding a nice fish and good friend Don Jarman from Courtney, BC landing a nice kamloop rainbow trout.

Tight lines,

Jerry Buron

(360) 659-2286
jburon2@msn.com