Buntzen Lake Fishing Trip

Last Friday I had one of those “the right place at the right time” moments. I had to stop in at Riverside Fly and Tackle to see Christian on a non-fishing related matter. I found myself driving by the shop around 9 AM and I thought Christian was opening the store but it turns out that store owner Garry Elgear was opening that morning so I stayed and talked to him for a while.

During our short conversation Garry told me that he was planning to go up to Buntzen Lake to do a little product testing and asked if I would like to go. I thought about it for a few moments and decided to take him up on the offer. We agreed to head up to the local lake for the early afternoon.

Prior to leaving I asked Garry about the presentation and what gear I should bring and he told me that he would take care of everything. Makes sense seeing as he owns a well stocked fishing store. He also went on to say that he would get Christian to tie us some special flies for our quick trip.

A little history on Buntzen Lake; Buntzen Lake is a 3 mile long lake in Anmore, British Columbia, and is one of the many fresh water hydroelectric reservoirs for the Greater Vancouver area. The lake itself has been used as a backdrop in many popular movies and TV shows; Lake Placid, X-Files, Freddy V. Jason and Stephen Kings’ IT, to name a few.

The lake boasts a fantastic set of hiking trails and a beach for swimming as well as some great cliffs for diving. As busy as this recreation area gets one of the best kept secrets about Buntzen Lake is the great fishing it has to offer. I suppose one of the reasons why this stocked lake doesn’t see more fishermen probably has to do with the fact that there is a restriction on gas powered motors on the lake.

I head over to the fishing shop that afternoon to meet up with Garry and collect our specially made flies for our quick fishing trip. Christian put together a collection of green Micro leaches with red bead heads for us to try and I got to tell you, the one I used gave me a great hour and a half of fishing.

We make it over to Garry’s place to pick up the rest of the gear and after a couple of quick stops; we arrive at the lake. It doesn’t take too long to set up the gear and the boat, a 9 or 10 foot flat bottom equipped with a Minn Kota electric trolling motor, and before we knew it the three of us were in the boat and on our way.

Gus, Garry’s dog, loves his boat rides and is one of the best behaved dogs I have ever been in a fishing boat with. Sure he gets excited when the fish come into the boat but hey – who doesn’t?

The three of us are out about 15 minutes when I get a strike. We were trolling wet lines at about 25 feet deep when Garry changes the speed up a little from a slow troll. The catch is a chubby 15 inch rainbow trout and I opt to keep it so I can take it back home to let the kids have a taste of their first fresh trout of the summer.

Lines back in the water we continue on our course past the diving rocks and up the shore to the north end of Buntzen lake. A few minutes later I get another strike but this one gets off the hook before I can get it close to the boat.

A short time goes by and Gus is looking like he really wanted to get in the water and possibly water a tree or two, so Garry once again speeds up and once again wouldn’t you know it, the slight increase in speed gets me another strike and this one has a lot of fight!

I spend a few moments playing the fish as Garry slows the boat down. Again the speed change results in a strike and now Garry has fish on as well, a double header. I am playing my fish while Garry brings his fish in and then elects to release his catch. Meanwhile, I net my own fish and then hand Garry the net so he can deal with the fish while I attend to the rod.

Gus is up front of the boat with me and as Garry and I discuss whether or not I should keep the fish, Gus decides that he needs to inspect the fish a little closer. Gus’s enthusiasm propelled him almost on my lap and put us all heavily on the right side of the boat. The ensuing balancing act this caused also forced the release of my just landed trout.

The loss of the fish was no big deal as the quick fishing trip saw me with the hot rod for the day; I hooked into four, landed two and kept one. Not bad for an hour and a half on the water and only a ten minute drive from home.

If you should ever get an invitation for an impromptu fishing trip with Gus and Garry of Riverside Fly and Tackle I strongly suggest that you take them up on it, even if it means having to ditch work for an afternoon. I did and I had a blast.

Les Romhanyi