Quesnel Lake, British Columbia
Quesnel Lake is truly a trophy trout lake. Bernie Taylor, very well known author of "BIG TROUT Fly Fishing", rates it as one of the top 10 in the world. You can read what he has to say about the lake <here>. Another good resource is found <here>.
Quesnel is a very large, glacially scoured fjord lake in the Caribou Region of British Columbia, about 65 miles northeast of Williams Lake, and roughly midway between Vancouver and Prince George. The Lake has three arms: North (27 miles long); East (37 miles long); and West (32 miles long). It is a narrow lake, averaging about two miles wide, and ranging from about one to three, being consistently narrow and very deep. Maximum depth is about 1,645 feet. Common lake-center depth is greater than 1,000 feet. Except for several embayments, the shoreline drops precipitously. Water depths of 100-300 feet are typical within 50-100 feet of shoreline. The water is clear with a greenish cast which probably results from the glacial flour entering the lake from several tributary streams.
Rock cliffs rise abruptly on the shore in many places, exposing steeply dipping highly metamorphosed schist rock that glistens with mica and is heavily embedded with garnet phenocrysts. Soil veneer is extremely thin to non-existent. Despite the thin soil, the steep slopes are wooded with cedar, hemlock, spruce, birch, aspen, cotton wood, pine, and fir. The forest floor is a mélange of thick mosses, lichens, ferns, mushrooms, and a curious four-petaled green flower with orange-red berries. To walk 20 feet back into the forest is to walk into a different world; a world of 500 year old stillness and grandeur.
The rock mountains are heavily faulted, with at least one recent fault clearly visible through the forest timber -- as a series of mini landslides, and dead trees whose roots were torn by the fault. Ancient faults produced hydrothermal vents that over thousands of years have become quartz veins. Some of the quartz veins are massive. One mountain is named Quartz Mountain because of the large amount of veining. Below the lake is considerable gold mining activity, on the Quesnel River. We don't know whether or not the quartz veins along the lake shore are productive.
The lake has several steep pebble and sand beaches, each quite different in character. One beach is mostly wave polished white and rose quartz. Beach logs form a picturesque backdrop, and wave polished root balls create art forms of exquisite beauty.
Lake Quesnel is a very clear lake, highly oligotrophic in character. Despite the low level of nutrients, it produces very large trophy trout. The reason for this is that the Lake is a natural hatchery for Sockeye smolts. The big trout feed heavily on these smolt, and grow to very large size. For this reason, streamer fishing is especially productive during the times when Sockeye smolt are outmigrating.
Knowledgable trophy trout anglers generally avoid oligotrophic lakes and seek out the shallow, nutrient enriched, eutrophic lakes of the lowlands -- because these are usually the lakes that produce the biggest trout. There are, however, some oligotrophic lakes that produce outstanding trophy trout. Almost without exception, these oligotrophic lakes have large populations of smaller fish, usually salmon or kokanee smolts that the rainbow trout feed on to grow exceptionally large. It is a rare treat to visit a wilderness lake of such beauty, remoteness, and mystical quality and be able to consistently catch trout of two or three pounds and larger, and many much larger than this.
To get to Lake Quesnel, drive to Williams, B.C., and take the road to 150 Mile House. From there, the road turns to gravel. Take it to Miocene and Horsefly, and on to Elysia Resort.
Elysia Resort lies on the south shore at the juncture of the North and East Arms. A 12 foot by 26 foot cabin rents for $85.00 Canadian per night (in 2008), for three people. The cabins have excellent beds, propane furnaces, propane cook stove with oven, refrigerator, and cold water. Restrooms are communal. The boat moorage in 1991 was free, but launching was $6.00 Canadian. Gas was $3.00 Canadian per imperial gallon. Rose operated the resort, although Roy Wilson owned it. Rose was a vivacious, buxom redhead with a great desire and ability to please the resort guests. Guy was the maintenance man and marina operator. He was also extremely personable and helpful. We found nearly all Canadians to be very friendly and helpful. The Resort has changed hands twice since we fished there in 1991. I returned in 2008 for a brief visit, and the improvements are truly astounding. We loved the old resort. The new owners have done nothing but make it better. Their restaurant is truly outstanding now. My wife and I had one of the finest meals we ate in British Columbia when we visited there. Folks travel for miles to eat there.
QUESNEL LAKE FISHING TRIP
of September 6-14, 1991
Weather was typical of September for the area: cool nights (40¬-50°F), and warm days (70°F), with scattered clouds. Two days were briefly windy, producing 2-3 foot waves. One morning was briefly rainy. Warm jackets were needed in the morning, and by noon it was tee-shirt weather. In all, exquisite weather for fishing.
Water temperature dropped each day, as the days grew shorter and fall weather approached. Surface temperatures started at 61.9°F and ended at 60.3°F seven days later. Because we had no long-line telethermometer, we neither knew the depth of the thermocline, if any, nor the ideal holding depth for rainbow or lake trout. We would have liked to have a telethermometer, even though the fish finder accurately locates fish. Each new piece of information helps to solve the puzzle--or at least make it more interesting.
Because the fishing trip was for trophy rainbow trout (10-20 pound class), fishing equipment was heavier than necessary for the trout we caught (1-9 pounds). Steelhead rods with casting reels holding 200 yards of 10-12 pound line were used most of the time.
Terminal gear, in rough order of success was: (1) 6 oz. lead trolling weight, 6 inch sonic dodger, and a 3-inch, pink Apex spoon; (2) needlefish, in size three, with either a fluorescent orange head or a prism green head, behind a 4-5 oz. trolling weight; and (3) a Gold Star silver-with-green spoon of about 4-inch length, or a gold with green spoon of the same make and size, rigged as the needlefish were. Not one fish was caught on a plug. Only two fish were caught with Nordic jigs: an 8.5 pound lake trout, while jigging, and a small kokanee, while trolling.
Siwash hooks were used exclusively on the spoons and jigs; treble hooks are not allowed in Quesnel Lake. This regulation supposedly protects small fish from excess hook damage. Our experience was exactly the opposite. To get proper spoon action, a large siwash hook was necessary, having a point-to-shank width the same as the width of a treble hook, measured point-to-point. Fish mortality was increased with these large siwash hooks.
Most fish were caught at 35 feet or less depth. Downriggers were set at 30-40 feet. The nonriggered lines were simply extended to 130-250 feet in length, which reached a depth of perhaps 20-25 feet. About half the time one downrigger was extended to 100-150 feet line length (60-90 feet depth), and no fish were caught at this depth. We persisted at this depth because this is where the trophy fish are supposed to be caught, although we had no success to prove the assertion correct. Neither, however, does lack of success prove the assertion wrong, because we did observe large fish at this depth on the fish finder.
Trolling speeds are very fast, ranging from 2.0-4.5 mph, with all success at about 2.8-3.3 mph. The locals say 5-6 mph is needed for the trophy fish, but we question whether this "blistering" speed is actually being used by those who catch trophy rainbows. Our failure to catch fish at these speeds proves nothing, however. Trolling direction did not seem to matter.
We took great pains to find spoons that would wobble correctly at high trolling speeds, only to discover that we could catch no fish with a properly wobbling spoon. The spoons that caught fish at high trolling speed all spun "out of control". In fact, the "Bugaloo" spoon, developed specifically for the Quesnel Lake fishery, is made to spin, somewhat like a steelhead spinner. Perhaps a slow bladed spinner would work well?
Trolling along shorelines produced the largest and smallest rainbows, from 5.5 pounds to 6-7 inchers. Most were in the 2.5-4 pound range. Best success was in 100-200 feet of water depth.
Trolling in mid-lake produced very consistent size fish, all about 2 pounds in weight. There was no best water depth. Trolling depths were the same as along shorelines.
A fish finder with 350 watts (RMS) of power would be very helpful. The 150 watt unit we used simply could not provide structure information at greater than 500 feet depth. Many large fish were seen on the fish finder at 300-500 feet. Perhaps there are fish even deeper? Also, the sounder we used could not "see" our jigs or downrigger weights at below about 60 feet depth, and we needed to jig at depths of 100-250 feet.
The fish of Quesnel Lake are extremely spooky, requiring 130-250 feet of line between the rod and lure. This same distance factor seems to work vertically as well as horizontally. We did not observe fish on the fish finder between 0-200 feet depth except on rare occasions while trolling, yet we saw them abundantly at these depths when the boat was moving at 25-30 mph. We believe the fish are at these depths, and avoid the slow moving boat, but do not have time to avoid the fish finder's path when the boat is moving at the high speeds. Hence, trolling well behind the boat worked well. We reasoned that downriggers that could reach 250 feet would also produce fish, but at 3.5 mph trolling speed, the downrigger weight would need to be about 25 pounds to reach this depth. Lacking the huge downriggers, we jigged for fish at great depth. The jigging was unsuccessful, except for the two fish mentioned earlier, both caught much nearer surface.
Because of the fishes' extreme spookiness, a Luhr-Jenson Side Planer rig was used to move one fishing line off to the side of the boat by 50-70 feet. Several fish were caught with this setup, even with only 30 feet of trailing line to the spoon. This sideplaning rig offers great promise for Quesnel Lake, and other lakes as well. It works well in calm or slightly choppy water, but in a heavy chop it dives through a wave, goes airborne, and flips over. Still, it is a very useful addition to one's bag of tricks.
Because of lake currents and wind breezes, it is very hard to stay on location while jigging. A GPS unit would be very valuable for trophy rainbow fishing.
As stated earlier, we went fishing for trophies, but caught none. We were not disappointed, because we caught many fine rainbows and lake trout, in the 1-9 pound range. But, where were the trophy fish? A few thoughts and observations are in order. First, there were many large fish evident on the fish finder at 300-500 feet depth. They could not be reached trolling, so we jigged. They didn't bite. We think they are nocturnal feeders, and go to these depths during the day to "sleep". Alternatively, the big fish at these depths could be squaw fish, as we found large ones at shallower depths. Second, we think that pre-dawn to early dawn hours should be fished harder. Dusk was singularly unsuccessful, but late dawn was the fastest fishing for the smaller fish that we did catch. We were too lazy to get out too early, usually hitting the water at 8 AM or later. We think that the big trout are slow to go on the feed at dusk, but might feed well at dawn. Worth trying anyway! Third, if we wish to troll in the daytime for trophy rainbow, we need much heavier downrigger gear, to obtain actual depths of 100-200 feet or deeper. Fourth, there is lots of barren water, which should not be trolled. It does nothing but eat up time. Find the concentrations and work them over. Then go to another. Fifth, mouths of major rivers need to be explored. This means explore the North Arm. Sixth, a week later might see the Sockeye return, which would be a great experience, without sacrificing too much in weather deterioration. Seventh, perhaps the trophy fish are as unconventional as their smaller kin; the assertion says the large fish are deeper; perhaps they're not, but are all with the smaller fish? Certainly the majority of the trophies caught are at 50 feet depth or less. But, the catch at shallow depth could be explained as happening solely because that is where practically all the fishing is done. What is needed is two competent fishing teams spending enough time on this subject to get some good statistics. About a month long trip seems necessary to answer this most pressing question. <grin>
Quesnel lake trout taste best when eaten shortly after they are caught. We barbecued one fish almost daily for lunch, over beach wood and alder fires. The rainbows feed heavily on Sockeye smolt, and take on a deep pink color. Their flavor is closer to that of Kokanee than other Rainbows. On the last day at the lake we each kept one nice Rainbow to take home and brag about. A photo follows. Note the size of the fish relative to the half-gallon milk carton and 2-liter soda bottle. These are truly nice fish!
-- Marvin Fretwell, 1991