"You can see from these pictures, water changes the appearance of fishing lures dramatically at depths of five to 15 feet. This is the range where most people fish.
"Except for anglers who fish surface plugs and dry flies, underwater colour shifts affect the appearance of your fishing lures nearly every time you fish. Without an understanding of this information, you have been literally 'fishing blind.'
"I wish I had these pictures when the guide and fishing-store owner told me that he knew all about under water color shifts and that they did not occur at depths of less than 100 feet."
This quote was taken from Colin Kageyama's book What Fish See.
I have found that many anglers are overly concerned with finding an exact replication of food sources when anything close will do.
Often so much time is spent fretting over species, sex, and colour of a food source that the bite (feeding period) is missed.
I know this may sound sacrilegious to some but the truth is simplicity is the key to more fish.
Faced with the reality that once light is removed all things turn black, appearance becomes more important than color.
I show this in my classes with an overhead projector, holding a bright colored fly up and asking the class to tell me the colour.
Next I place the fly on the lens of the overhead and project it on the wall. The image requires no further explanation.
Secret #4: The silhouette of a food source is more important to fish than color. So when you choose your lures or flies, think size, shape, then colour.
The report
Fishing on our Lower Mainland lakes is good. For wet (sinking) fly fishing try: chironomid, bloodworm, coachman, American coachman, professor, wooly bugger, micro leach, sixpack, dragonfly nymph, halfback, doc Spratley, baggy shrimp or Zulu.
For dry (floating) fly action try: Tom thumb, irresistible, black gnat, Griffith gnat, royal coachman or renegade. For kokanee try: red abbis, bloodworm, red Spratley, San Juan worm, red quill or double trude.
Our Lower Mainland bass and panfish fishing is AAA at the moment. For bass try: wooly bugger, big black, lizard, Clouser's deep minnow, zonker, bingo bug, tied down minnow, bucktail, dolly whacker, frogs, poppers, Chernobyl ant, stimulator or crayfish in sizes eight to four.
For crappie or pumpkinseed try: wooly bugger, big black, micro leach, bucktail, tied down minnow, dolly whacker, Clouser's deep minnow, poppers, Joe's hopper, Chernobyl ant, royal wulff or stimulator in sizes 12 to eight.
Fishing on our interior lakes is very good. For wet fly fishing try: wooly bugger, micro leach, egg sucking leach, chironomid, bloodworm, pumpkinhead, dragonfly nymph, halfback nymph, 52 Buick, doc Spratley, green Spratley or baggy shrimp.
For dry fly try: irresistible, black gnat, Griffith gnat, Tom thumb, renegade, double hackled peacock, goddard caddis or elk hair caddis.
Although river levels in regions two and three have been dropping for two weeks, they are still not what I would call fishable for many shore anglers. Spring and pink fisheries are open. We are hoping to see sockeye open soon. Detailed reporting on these areas will resume when angling access is reasonable for everyone.
