Neil Waugh Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 I took this bad boy (or is it a girl?) through the ice over Christmas off Kinsmen Beach at Inveremere. According to the local rag there's apparently been a population shift in the big lake over the past few years. Giving the Columbia Valley sloughs a whole new meaning. I have to admit I was pretty surprised when it came up the hole. I expected to catch those fish with the politically incorrect name. Does anyone ever target these bass? For you southern boys I reckon you could almost day trip to the East Kootenays and gives you a whole new species to target. Quote
rusty Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 I've made the drive to Duck quite a few times...the fishing there is really reliable for largemouths. It would be great if the drive was half as long though. Quote
SanJuanWorm Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 Neil i havent seen you post in a while. Good to have u back. Quote
Taco Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 Someone could say something about largemouths and the media but I'll just say Nice Fish and I'm gonna hafta make that drive someday. :D Quote
Glenbow Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 Sweet large mouth! I hafta say there's almost nothing as fun from freshwater as bass on the fly. I bet through a hole was pretty good too. Lets not talk too much bonking on here, eh? Nice catch Neil. Quote
Tako Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 Sweet large mouth! I hafta say there's almost nothing as fun from freshwater as bass on the fly. I bet through a hole was pretty good too. Lets not talk too much bonking on here, eh? Nice catch Neil. Invasive and disgusting. Kill them all. Quote
Brownstone Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 Pound for pound the best freshwater fight, Biggies rule .. my fav .. NICE FISH as for he/she .. I'd say female lookin at the size .. near damn impossible to tell outside of spawning season Quote
Glenbow Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 Tako, some might say the same of people. This isn't the "Bonk Fish Alberta Forum" Quote
snakeman Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 I love bass, they're definitely my second favourite group of sportfish behind trout. I've never targeted them in BC but I've been chasing them with a fly in Ontario for a few years now. I prefer smallmouth bass, particularly in rivers, but fishing a lily choked pond for largemouth is a blast as well. Nothing beats their takes on the surface. Quote
esleech Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 Nice fish! Tako, I was catching those in windemere in 94 so... Quote
Tako Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 Nice fish! Tako, I was catching those in windemere in 94 so... And I was catching them in 2002. They're still invasive and destructive to native fish populations. Oh wait, Alberta didn't get the memo. Invasives are bad. Quote
lonefisher Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 LMAO call me nostradomas but I bet I know how the next few posts are gonna go......... Nice fish Neil thats a good one. Where can I get me one of those hats? Quote
KingSalmon Posted January 28, 2008 Posted January 28, 2008 Nice catch Neil. You don't usually see people catch bass through the ice...even on those Ontario fishing shows lol. Quote
Neil Waugh Posted January 29, 2008 Author Posted January 29, 2008 The hat's a genuine Wal-Mart. Provocative but with a dash of certainty. Taco, is it just me or are you starting to look a lot like Tom Mix these days? Quote
Tako Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 The hat's a genuine Wal-Mart. Provocative but with a dash of certainty. Taco, is it just me or are you starting to look a lot like Tom Mix these days? Are you guys blind? T-A-K-O Tako is the student from BC, who doesn't like invasive BASS screwing up his awesome NATIVE biodiversity. Taco is the cowboy from AB Quote
dryfly Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 Swell bass Neil. I made it to Duck once. It was fun. Tako ... Rainbow and brown trout are on the "top 100" list of invasives in North America. Should we whack all non native trout in Alberta and BC? Whoopee. We'd have cutts and Athabascans here--and some bull chars. Rainbows and browns have an adipose fin so maybe they are "elite" ... and bass don't have an adipose and therefore are alien trash to be killed. I bet the Bow River crowd would be all over killing all of the invasive browns and rainbows in the Bow river. Hey gang...what say? Rightly or wrongly, a lot of our ancestors screwed up big time by planting some fish species where it was not a good idea. About 99 percent of what has been done can't be undone. Yes, we should try to protect some cutt watersheds from further degradation--it is a grand idea. But, let's get over the past screw ups and try to preserve what we have. Cheers! Clive (Crawling out from under my rock) Quote
Taco Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 Holy Smokes a Clive sighting...that hasn't happened much this yr :D Neil, close but that old Hoot himself, my mug to damn ugly to post.... might scare someone Tako, wrong Taco my handle also on my birth certificate Quote
Tako Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 Common Clive you know as well as I do there's a huge difference between scientific stocking and illegal species transport. I don't know if you're aware, but we got a big 'bucket brigade' problem over here. We're back to using rotenone to get rid of perch some morons keep bucketing from south of the border. IMO BC could lose the brown trout on the coast, and every single non native piscivore that's been planted. Pike, bass, perch kill em all. I'm not a big fanof the idea of 'preserving' non native fish populations. Brookies are a success story over here, as I've only herd unsubstantiated rumours that they're in a few riverine systems. Brookies over there, well you got a different situation. Arg. It's a nice bass, Duck is a great Bass fishery. I just don't think BC is any place for a great bass fishery. Quote
dryfly Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 Sorry Tako, I can't buy your exceptions. Man-made plantings are man-made plantings. (Unintentional ones like zebra snails excepted.) Some fish plantings were thought out more than others. You can't decree all bass should be killed while condoning brown trout, brook trout and rainbows--well there are native rainbows in BC. How many cutts in BC have been moved around? Are Gerrards native to all the waters they are found in today? Is it okay to move a trout 100 km but not a bass 1000 km? (I am not saying I agree with any of this but your posts smack of a serious double standard here.) "scientific stocking " What scientific stocking? I'm no historian, but I bet lots of brookies got planted without biologist input and anyway, just how scientific were the "biologist" plantings of 100 years ago. They weren't. Some "bios" had a hard-on for rainbows and browns and it was done. And just how scientific was the Bow River brown trout stocking? A guy's truck broke down so he decided to save the browns by dumping then in the Bow -- or so the story goes. Who knows? Yeah, let's preserve native strains. It is indeed noble. But let's not waste a lot of time and effect tying to purify all of our waters back to before the European invasives got a foothold. Cheers! Clive Quote
toolman Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 The hat's a genuine Wal-Mart. Provocative but with a dash of certainty. I like that...lol. Nice pic Neil and thanks for sharing. ps. Hey Tako, I think I remember you from FFA...let's see some of those Fish Pics of yours. What was your handle at FFA anyway?...hmmmm...let me think... maybe BCboy or somethin'. Quote
Tako Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 Toolman, yeah that was me. Took me a while to get back round to an AB forum. Liked working over there. Hope to be back. AB fits my fishing style perfectly. Love it. Clive, both rainbows and cutts (westslope and sea run) are native to BC, including all the strains currently stocked, to mention nothing of bull trout, dolly varden, 4 species of pacific salmon, steelhead, lake trout and kokanee, as notable salmonid species, along with three or more species of whitefish and numerous cyprinid species. I don't think we were lacking in diversity to begin with. I'm not sure why I have to explain this, as I believe you to be a very educated man. Stocking of brook trout was done carefully, and mostly in previously barren lakes, to avoid competition with native fish. Prior to 1997 this was a hit or miss process as fish were stocked diploid. Brookies stocked after 1997 have been sterile triploids, something I believe that AB is dabbling in, but hasn't really gotten into yet. Brown trout on Van Island (I believe) were illegally introduced by one of those 'sports fishermen' that seem to think they can single handedly transform a fishery into something great. Bass, perch, pike, pumpkinseed, black crappie, carp and even goldfish have been sampled all over the lower mainland and southern interior, with even a couple smallmouth bass being caught (reportedly from a family pond) in the upper Quesnel River watershed!! The problem with these species is their incredibly high fecundity. They out-grow, out-eat and out-breed native trout, char and salmon. NOT good. Perch are especially bad for trout populations. Several excellent trout fishing lakes have been reduced to sub par fisheries due to the introduction of perch. Bass in Duck Lake are only a hop skip and jump from the lifeblood of the Gerrard strain of rainbows, Kootenay Lake. My point is this: Illegally planted invasive species have caused some mega problems in this province. If you think I'm being vocal on the issue, you might not want to bring the topic up on some of the BC fishing boards. It's as controversial a topic over here as jetboats or bully poaching is over there. I've personally caught perch, LM bass, pumpkinseed and black crappie while bumming around the lower half of the province, and I can tell you with no remorse that every single one of them has become eagle food. Hope to cross paths this summer and share thoughts over a drink, Tako Quote
toolman Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 Welcome back...now lets see some of those fishies you've been catchin'. Quote
Tako Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 Welcome back...now lets see some of those fishies you've been catchin'. Noone wants to see icefishing pics Tis the season I threw some pics in a thread a while back. Quote
Neil Waugh Posted January 29, 2008 Author Posted January 29, 2008 Sorry all to heck Taco, yup, it is ole Hoot. I was sorta leaning toward Red Rider too. But he wears a different kinda hat. My understanding is (geeze I'm talking like a flippin' lawyer) the Windermere bass were government stocked. As were the blue gills or pumpkin seeds or whatever those other darn things are. I didn't want a war to break out with my first post for a while. But it is a neat feeling that I can still flame it up. But since bass are there and it doesn't involve two days getting to Creston, it could be fun fishing for them without having to feel too guilty. I had a blast on my one and only session at Duck slapping deer hair poppers between the milfoil beds. You learn real fast that you can't mess around with any dainty fly rodding techniques and crank them out of the cabbage with an 8-weight just like the good old boys do on TV. Quote
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