Fishonyukon forums

First Water to Open

2012-04-26T06:17:43Z

What’s your first open water go to? Yukon River is definitely open in some stretches although not sure how many Grayling are kicking around yet. Johnson’s Crossing would be getting close to open.

I remember Twin Lakes as the first campground to have open water but that’s around the first long weekend in May. Any other suggestions on when us Yukon Anglers can get on the water?

It is almost over- What trips did you take to break the cabin fever

2011-03-12T13:16:08Z

Hey guys, I figured I would post this up and hopefully get some discussion going to get us all excited about the somewhat near approach of spring.

This was my first winter in an area where the waters all freeze and fishing through the ice is the only option, being born and raised in S/W BC this was a huge shock to the system.

I felt the need to head south a few times during the winter to stretch my fly lines out and try to break the funk of a loooooong ice fishing season.

My first trip was at Christmas down to Chilliwack were my family runs and Organic vegetable farm close to the Vedder river. There was an excellent run of steelhead in the river already upon my arrival and my friends and I had good success for them, my bait fishing friend more so than me but that was OK. I was just happy to be back on open water swinging my spey rod.

The second trip I took was in February to Haida Gwaii, I have always dreamed of fishing the famed rivers of the Islands for winter steelhead, and when the oppertunity arose I could not help but go. It was a long and epic drive down the Robert Campbell and Cassiar highways but lots of fun and very worth it. The fishing was tough but the Islands were great and there were enough fish caught to make the trip pretty smooth.

My wife and I are heading down to Liard Hotsprings to hang out for March break we are looking forward to some awesome wildlife viewing, snowshoeing and hot spring soaking. After that I will be heading back to the Vedder for the best part of the steelhead season- early april.

Anyway just thought I would throw this up here to hopefully get some discussion going and introduce myself to the forum, my wife and I are die hard feather chuckers who are new to the territory and are enjoying our explorations so far.

Tight Loops,

Pat AV

2011 ice reports

2011-11-05T22:01:03Z

Just returned from Fish Lake. There’s ~5” of clear blue ice near the boat launch and causeway, though I didn’t check more further out than about 100m from shore. Be careful of the ice around the outflow - there’s current there, which prevents good ice from forming.

Checked out Scout Lake on Friday evening. It had ~2” of clear blue ice - nominally enough to walk on, but I wasn’t happy to try it out for long. I’ll give Scout another few cold nights before fishing there.

Oliver

Gloria II success

2011-06-05T10:46:20Z

I was passing through Carmacks yesterday, and stopped into Gloria Lake II to see how the rainbows were doing. I’d been in to that lake to release fry before, but had never fished it. As it turns out, the fishing was great - I was into a ~18” rainbow right away, which hit my woolly worm like a truck just at the dropoff, and jumped higher and more often after it was hooked than any trout I’d caught previously. The water was really clear, and standing at the dropoff I was able to watch trout cruise by, picking insects off the bottom.

I caught a half-dozen little guys (12”), then switched to a #14 dark pheasant tail nymph, mimicking the dark little mayfly emergers in the big trout’s stomach (and the clouds of little black mayflies on the shoreline veg and on my clothes). First cast had an even bigger trout than the first dart up from the deeps to nab my slowly sinking fly, but it was only on long enough to feel a couple of tugs before I lost it. Biggest fish I’ve hooked on a fly that size, and a thrill to watch it take so aggressively.

Anyway, I had a great time watching fish in the clear water, it’s a nice spot to flycast, as you can wade out a bit to the edge of the dropoff (and the bottom’s firm for wading), and it was great to see (and catch) all sizes of trout. I’d go back (but with some smaller dark little nymphs - #16s maybe? - and some lighter tippet, maybe 6x).

Stocked Lakes Survey

2011-08-08T14:50:43Z

Hello all,

Environment Yukon is looking for your input on the Stocked Lakes Program. Which fish species do you prefer? How’s the fishing at your favourite stocked lake? What do you like about the program? What would you change to make it better? Fill out the Stocked Lakes Survey, and let us know. Your input is valuable, and will help direct the future of the Stocked Lakes Program. The survey closes on 31 August, so don’t wait to fill it out!

I’ll start analyzing the results as soon as the survey closes, and provide a summary of responses on our Stocked Lakes web page this fall.

Oh, and while you’re there, check out our new Google Map of Yukon’s Stocked Lakes. Check out the map online, or download it as a .kml file and use it in Google Earth.

Thanks (and good fishing)!

Oliver

Oliver Barker
Fisheries Biologist
Environment Yukon
oliver dot barker at gov dot yk dot ca
867 667 5199

Status of Yukon Fisheries 2010

2010-12-07T19:53:53Z

The new Status of Yukon Fisheries 2010 is out. If you are interested in knowing what’s going on with Yukon fish and fish habitat, this is an interesting and easy read. You can download it or read it online on the environment Yukon website.

Some things that jumped out at me:

- the biggest impacts on fish populations is harvest and this pressure is not distributed evenly across the territory;
- there is a slow, steady decline in non-resident anglers and due to a lack of participation among youth, we expect a continuation of the decline in Yukon angler numbers;
- visitors purchase about half of the 15,000 angling licenses sold each year;
- larger fish, a higher percentage of which are female are targeted in the recreational fishery;
- there is little known about Grayling….and much more.

Worth a read.

Ice this Year?

2010-12-07T07:39:26Z

I have heard that with the not so cold temperatures and then that big dump of snow we had that ice conditions are less than perfect.

We have to be careful out there. Anyone got a sense of how deep things are on some of the bigger lakes? Like Aishihik, Bennett or Kathleen…

Not too worried about the pothole lakes like Hidden or Pumphouse.

Fly Fishing Film Festival

2010-12-07T07:31:02Z

I’ve heard that Steve Hahn of H2O Troutfitters is trying to bring up the fly fishing film festival.

I have often wanted to take part in it but have missed it in Vancouver and Calgary in the past. Would be great to get this up here. It would be like the Warren Miller Ski festivals, but with some serious fly fishing.

If you want this to come up or to help Steve out…drop a line here. I am sure he would enjoy the support.