C.P. Fly Fishing Getaways for Fall 2014/Winter 2015

2014-2015 Fly Fishing Destinations

We are pleased to announce our Fall 2014 and Winter/Spring 2015 hosted fly fishing adventures.

Country Pleasures offers both scheduled, hosted trips as well as adventures tailored to your individual requirements to a multitude of locations. You never pay more when you book with Country Pleasures, we don't charge extra over and above the lodge packages. When you book with Country Pleasures you deal with us. We don't use "middle man" travel agencies like other shops. We have developed working relationships with our destinations and deal directly with them.

All trips include: Pre-Trip casting instruction as needed, pre and post trip reel service, comprehensive trip information package, and suggested flight information.

If you want to experience a new excitement in fly fishing, or just want to get away from winter, stop by, give us a call, or go to CP Fly Fishing Vacations to find out more. We would love to have you join us!

BABINE NORLAKES LODGE
TROPHY STEELHEAD OF A LIFETIME
*OCTOBER 19-25, 2014. - 1 SPOT LEFT
*OCTOBER 26-NOVEMBER 1, 2014 - 1 SPOT LEFT

In 1965, Babine Norlakes Steelhead camp began a long-standing reputation of astounding the most afflicted of anglers known to have "Steelhead fever". Words cannot describe the magic and power of Steelheading on perhaps the best Steelhead river in the world. Located in northern British Columbia on the Babine River which is part of the Skeena River watershed.

For more info, click on Babine Norlakes Steelhead Camp

PALOMETA CLUB, ASCENSION BAY, MEXICO
IF YOU WANT TO CATCH A PERMIT, THIS IS THE BEST PLACE WE HAVE FOUND TO DO IT!
* NOVEMBER 13-20, 2014
* JANUARY 3-10, 2015
* MARCH 20-27, 2015 **SOLD OUT**
* MAY 15-22, 2015
* MAY 22-29, 2015

This is arguably the best Permit fishery in the world! Combine that with the best complement of guides we have run across and you'll find the best place on the planet to land a Permit. Top flight lodging and five star food make "The Club" a favorite with clients. A huge percentage of CP clients who have fished PC land Permit, often multiple fish in a week. Oh, and we almsot forgot, there's lots of tarpon, Snook, and Bonefish.
For more info, click on Palometa Club

SIGHTCAST - LOS ROQUES, VENEZUELA
*JANUARY 17-24, 2015

Technically an atoll within the Lesser Antilles, the Los Roques' fly fishing region is made up of more than 300 cays, with a vast diversity of saltwater habitats including magnificent coral beds, grass and hard sand flats, pristine beaches, and remarkable "pancake" flats. Better yet, nearly all of the flats fishing is done while wading. While the area abounds with tarpon, barracuda, and jacks, it is the world-class bonefishing that draws anglers back year after year.

Similar to Christmas Island, Los Roques is blessed with consistent weather and water temperatures, not to mention high fish counts. Bonefish average 4 pounds with numerous fish in the 6 to 10 pound class. Meals and accommodations at Acuarela Lodge are greatly enjoyed by anglers and discerning non-anglers alike. For anglers who love flats fishing and to wade fish for high numbers of good sized bonefish, Los Roques is truly one of the finest flats fishing destinations in the world today. Stays of varying lengths are available. Chris Yrazabal, owner of Sight Cast, is a fourteen-year veteran to guiding the Los Roques region
For more info, click on Los Roques

BLACK FLY LODGE, ABACO, BAHAMAS
*APRIL 18-25, 2015

"This is a very private and exclusive fishing excursion thatsome of our anglers have said is the best fishing experiencethey have ever had in the Bahamas." 6 days of fishing for large Bonefish and Permit. Although most people think of Bonefish in the Bahamas, the Abaco area is a very viable permit fishery, with very large Permit to be found.
Blue water opportunities for Dolphin, Tuna, Sailfish, etc. "Five Star" accomodations,
world class guides and equipment. This will be our fourth year going to Black Fly, and everyone loves it!
For more info, click on Black Fly

NICHOLAS DEAN LODGE
LOWER SKEENA SPRING STEELHEAD
*MAY 3-9, 2015

Nestled in the majestic coastal mountains nearTerrace, British Columbia, Canada, the mighty Skeena River and its tributaries form the major arteries that fork through stands of old growth forest and steep valley walls. It is in this river system that some of the strongest runs of large, wild steelhead and salmon left in the world return. Chrome bright Steelhead with more comfortable conditions than fall.
For more info, click on Nicholas Dean Lodge

Fall 2015 destinations to be announced later in the summer.

Fishing Spots-Skeena System Edition

Continuing with photos of beautiful places we have been lucky enough to fish...

The Babine River, tributary to the Skeena, home of some of the world's largest monster steelhead, and one of the most stunning places on earth!

Babine River Report

From the intrepid angler, Kevin S.
http://www.pbase.com/kevinsproule/210913

Norlakes Video

Aaaah....the Babine!

Babine River Trip Report-Oct. 26-November 1

After sending the first bunch of guys home the day before in a cold, minus 5 wind, the second bunch arrived in camp around 9 AM. This second week had both anglers who have joined us at the Babine many times, and those who have never been Steelheading, much less to the Babine.

Our second week can be summed up on the weather side as being a continuance of the previous week. Even though the weatherman kept predicting things to warm up in a few days, as each day went by he kept revising things towards the negative. 

Without question, this year the last two weeks of October were a weather anomaly. Mid-week lows turned out to be around minus 12 and daytime highs only reached minus 5. Never seen anything like it before, hope to never see it again. Our poor first-timers were, from what I saw, completely blindsided by this weather. They were likely thinking back to earlier conversations with yours truly that went something like "Oh, unless something really weird happens you'll see plus 2 to 5 temperatures at this time of year". Turns out something really weird happened. Even the guys with us who have been many times were a little befuddled by the weather.

Tributaries that ran the week before quickly froze up.

With the cooler weather, the trend of dropping water levels and temperature continued. By weeks end the water levels were not as low as I have ever seen...but close. Water temperature on October 31 was 34 degrees fahrenheit....never seen that before!

As this second week progressed, there seemed to be a fairly big push of new fish into the area. And the big bucks finally started to arrive in pretty good numbers. And even with the very cold water the bite was better than it should have been. Tougher fishing than normal but better than I would expect.

Doug P. and Dennis F. landed their first Babine Steelhead. Dennis being plagued early in the week by inexplicable long distance releases. Darren S. started the week "farming" a large percentage of the Babine's Steelhead but settled down after a couple of days and got pretty damn efficient.

Kevin S. was stunting all week! Fished his TCX 6 weight switch solely throughout the week. Worked fine, Kev's a very good caster, but I was keen to see what happened if he hooked something approaching, or exceeding, 40 inches. As it turned out that didn't happen but he caught quite a number of fish through the week.

Without question, as always happens at Norlakes, everyone still had an awesome time even though the weather was a "character builder". As a close to this report, an overview of things that I continue to try and learn, improve, master, etc. as I fish this great river kind of goes like this:

- minus 12 sucks almost as much when you're catching fish as not.

- river right snap t's continue to confuse me.

- I continue to not catch fish at Moose, even though everyone else does.

- Deep Rock owns my ass! I will figure it out one day and then pillage!

- I wish for my ashes to be scattered at Logjam! I love Lower Logjam, and it loves me.

- Finally caught fish at Upper Logjam...only took 6 or 7 years.

The new owner...some things don't change.

So, on the 14th straight day of fishing, at about 3:30 PM we arrived at our last run for the week. Laura's Pool is one of the more beautiful places on the river and a damn good Steelhead Run. With thing's winding down I asked the guy who's shown me more about the Babine than anyone, Darren Wright, to fish it with us. As a pretty nice close, at least to my trip, I got to net a fabulous 39+ inch, very deep, Babine Buck that Darren hooked within a few casts.  This fish was absolutely stunning. Beautiful colours, heavy, healthy, over 20 pounds, a perfect goodbye from the Babine.

See you in 50 weeks!

Babine River Trip Report-October 19-25

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.

All's Well at Norlakes

This past weekend we arrived back from the Babine River. The last two weeks of October had us hosting 2 separate groups with Babine Norlakes Steelhead Lodge. For those who didn't know, this was the first year in almost 30 that Pierce Clegg was not at the helm. Pierce and Anita Clegg sold the Norlakes operations to Billy Labonte and Carrie Collingwood this past spring.

Those of us who have fished at Norlakes for many years couldn't help but wonder "how will it be?".

There are those, yours truly, who are somewhat resistant to change when something is just fine so the annual fall trip to the Babine was tinged with apprehension.

A lot of continuity from past years, Darren Wright still guides,  Missy and Larry still make sure all is perfect with our trip. Former camp employee, Joel Nowlin, guided his first year and did a fine job.

Over the span of two weeks you can get a pretty good feel of how things are working and get to know a person. Without question Norlakes is in good hands! Things are all good still on the Upper Babine.

Billy and Carrie are no strangers to this gig. Carrie comes from very established outfitting family and Billy has guided anglers on the Lower Babine since his teens. Their experience shows through very quickly. To find out more about Norlakes, as well as Billy and Carrie, go to http://www.babinenorlakes.com/about.html

Morning steam at Lower Trail

 When our first group arrived in camp on October 19, it was immediately evident that Biily and Carrie had already made a commitment to improvements. Upgrades to the main lodge/dining area looked very nice, some nice new touches in the cabins, and plans for even more infrastructure improvements for next year left me with the impression they are committed to making this historic camp even better.

Conversations with both Billy and Carrie left me with the impression that, while they want to make improvements at many levels, they still wish to honour and remember the history of Norlakes.

Billy could have done a little better job on the weather. 

 To sum things up....we'll always miss the one of a kind Pierce Clegg and his stabilizing anchor, Anita but things at Norlakes are in good hands. Here's to the next 30 years!

We'll have a more fishing specific report on our trips this week......

The Character of Norlakes

There is no shortage of character on the Upper Babine, or to be more exacting, no shortage of characters.

A few photos from around camp this year..........

This years Halloween attendees at the fire.
They keep coming back even when we pour diesel in their heads and ignite.

.

Kevin and Darren...singing the blues.
It is my understanding that Kev bought a couple of guitars while on this trip

Pierce seems to always warrant multiple photos!
Terry Antoniuk Photo

Pierce Clegg on Halloween.
Terry Antoniuk Photo

Need we say more......

Anita Clegg at Satellite

Riley made it through his first year guiding on the Babine.
Only to be forever lost in the junkpile in his room!

Missy...I looked for a picture of her smiling. I had about 40!
A great addition to camp!

Darren, the other half of the Darren/Missy show, and still likely
one of the hardest core fishheads I've ever known.

Before the burning. Terry carved this pumpkin. First time ever for a guest
and quite frankly, a dangerous precedent. They'll want us all to do 'em!

Missy and Maureen. Lots of ladies kicking around camp this year....

Austrian Team

More Kevin Sproule Video

Babine Fish Photos

Back From The Babine River

Back to the shop today after 3 weeks at Steelhead Camp. Kind of a cool trip this year,with great groups made up of returning anglers, a few new additions, and a final week of couples fishing.

Looking upriver from camp.

The first week gave us weather more indicative of September than late October, a nice bonus. The inaugural "Horseshoe Award" went to David Crampton, who took up Spey Casting just a few weeks before heading up to camp. This was also David's first time ever fishing for Steelhead. He pretty much lit 'em up, averaging 3 or 4 fish landed every day. We were glad to get him on trip, our October 19-25 week has had the same anglers for several years, with nobody missing a year. 

Les continues his reign as "The Dredger", with no tank deep enough to stave off his 9140 and T-17.

We get to see our friends from the U.S., Gene, Gary, and Steve for the first time in 51 weeks. A name is missing from this list, our thoughts go out to John and his wife. We hope you can make it next year, we missed you! 

A quick note of welcome, and thanks, to Missy, who took great care of us this year. Always in good spirits and a pleasure to be around! Maureen commented at one point " Missy is the only person I've ever met who's in a great mood even when she's mad".

A lot of good people on this week, I always feel a little sad when we send them off at the end of the week. This emotion is somewhat lessened by two things .... for the balance of the day Darren, Riley, Missy, and I are likely the only anglers on the entire Upper Babine and we get Larry's famous Cheeseburgers for supper. Like every changeover, we fished until we couldn't see and after supper the staff was in bed almost as early as me.

Colours of the October Babine.

A light dusting of snow.

Wednesday, October 26 sees the excited second group of anglers arrive in camp. There was obvious relief on a couple of their faces when they saw I was only joking about meeting them on the beach in my Simms thong. Our second group saw another Babine first-timer, Tom Hirst. Glad to finally get him up to camp and hope he enjoyed it as much as we do. 

Another great group of people make up this week. Kevin continues to impress us with musical talents I had no idea he had. Not only is he a great guitar player, but he can sing as well, even coming up with new Blues licks with Babine themes. "Got no eggs" is likely to be on radio in the near future.

Got to watch a couple of guys, Darren and Terry (both who started with the Spey rods in the last few years) casting and fishing. Both of these guys have developed into very nice casters with the two handed rods.....a pleasure to watch.

Doug, as always, tells a great story, keeping everybody laughing through the week. His ever present grin almost allows me to forgive his diabolical snoring.

A little snowy...Steelhead weather.

Third week sees a little bit of a change up. Maureen and Anita Clegg come into camp along with our Austrian friends (Eugen, Hans, Gerhard, and Luis) and Dwayne, a neighbour of Pierce and Anita at Trout Camp. The weather was a little cooler for this third week, but still a lot nicer than normal.

For the first four days Pierce and I played guide to our wives. This included an overnighter down to satellite camp, an absolute blast. In over 20 years this was the first time Anita got a chance to come and just fish for a few days. I hope she makes it an annual event.

It was kind of fun just playing guide for Maureen, I actually lasted a couple of days before finally breaking down and fishing. Without question Pierce enjoyed it, getting to spend some time with Anita after months of Trout and Steelhead camps. Anita hooked a ton of fish, particularly during the first two days, showing both a complete understanding of fly swing and long distance release. Unfortunately, Anita maintains a key role in the operation of Norlakes and she had to head back Smithers after only four days. By this time Maureen was getting used to things, having already landed a very big Buck of around 20 pounds so I got to do a little more fishing for the balance of the week.

The Austrian National Fishing/Schnapps Team was, as always, a lot of fun. Luis was a new addition and we hope he comes back. Hope Hans likes his Birthday Intruders!

Dwayne, it turns out, is an outstanding singer/guitarist. He can do Ian Tyson tunes and you swear you're listening to Tyson himself. He was good enough to do play for the campfire one night as well as the Norlakes "Closing Dinner" hosted by the Cleggs in Smithers.

So, after about 21 straight days of fishing, the terrible day arrived....time to go home. We all helped close down camp, a traditional part of close week involoving winterizing and storing boats, loading up everything to return to Smithers, and closing up camp (not a happy day for me). Back to Smithers with an evening dinner thanks to Anita and Pierce and the thought that it's only 49 weeks to go and counting!

The final campfire.

The boys be having fun

Some shots from Kevin Sproule and Tom Hirst following their trips to Babine Norlakes.
Check out more of Kevin's photos at http://www.pbase.com/kevinsproule/102511