Promised in an earlier post to do a report on our trips up to Babine Norlakes Steelhead Camp.
Well, I have finally gotten around to it..........
October 19-25 - We all rolled into camp on the 19th met by pretty nice weather but with a dreadful and abnormal forecast for the coming days. An immediate cool down was predicted and starting on our second day the weather did just that....got damn cold! This years trip will certainly be long remembered as the year that seemed more like December than October. Anyways, the eleven intrepid anglers continued on through the week and, in my opinion, had much better fishing than we should have had considering the cool temps and cooling water.
Water temperatures that were 3 to 4 degrees above average when we arrived quickly dropped to below average in the span of a few days with Babine tributaries quickly freezing up. Our first week the fish could be best described as bipolar. A few of the days the Steelhead acted just like you would expect with a severe drop in water temperature, they got lockjaw! But then the next day fishing would be pretty darn good. One of these days I would like to possess some semblance of understanding of these critters!
Anyways, moving things along, I`m not sure, but most of the anglers ended up with an average of 3 or 4 fish landed a day. Low by Babine standards but we`re spoiled. The run of fish on the Babine this year would be, as a guess, about average but this week saw a marked absence of the usually present 20+ pound fish. A few around but not like normal.
There must of been a few around as Alex P. landed a buck on the second to last day that calculated out to 28.1 pounds with it`s length and girth (40+ inches). Tim S. and others found the ever productive run, Moose, continued with it`s magic, racking up numerous landed Steelhead from it`s coffers. Les G. continues to be the ``Sink Tip Samurai``, mowing through fish populations and fishing T17 where no man has before. Doug R. joined us again this year. A good thing as he tells the best stories and never stops grinning (offsets his diabolical snoring). Kudos go to Curtis B., who quite obviously spent the most time practicing his Spey casting. And to our two friends from the USA, John F. and Steve H.....always a pleasure! Except when I have to fish behind John, the guys like a vacuum cleaner.
2012 is a curious year of change, but at the same time continuity, at Norlakes. The new owners turned out to be top flight, old hands like Larry, Missy, Darren, and Joel continue to make things as close to perfect as one can hope, and of course this great river that so few of us get to experience makes us love it a little more each year. Look for details from our second week tomorrow.
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