Fishing Report – May 7

We launched the jetboat in Genelle around 9:30 am on a warm sunny morning. The water temperature was just over 7 degrees Celsius (45 F), and once again I noticed the river is coming up and changing every day. With two rods in the water we landed and released 23 rainbow and probably lost 12-18 fish. It was hard to keep track as there was a lot of action. Most of the trout were in the 18-19 inch range, and a few were 22 plus inches.

This trip the trout had moved out into the big back eddies, so we fished the seams and feedlines. We fished with indicators at 3-7 feed depending on the location. In all we fished a dozen spots. All were within upper and lower Genelle, and provided us with very good fishing. We used pheasant tail, a stonefly imitation, and a caddis pupa imitation. The rainbows took them all and were very aggressive -when they hit they took the bobber down hard. All the flies used on this trip were purchased from Rod at Castlegar Sports Centre and Fly Shop.

Part way through the trip we met up with the DFO doing a patrol from Castlegar to the USA border at Waneta. We went into shore to do a thorough boat safety check, license check, safe boater card check, and a gear check for compliance with the fishing regulations. About 20 minutes later we were back for more fantastic fishing. It is reassuring to know the DFO is working to keep our fishery protected and that they are making sure boaters are prepared and operate safely on this powerful river.

In all we fished for 8 hours and called it a day around 5:30 pm. The Columbia River fishery still amazes me. What better way to spend a gorgeous sunny day in early May than fishing a dozen different spots and catching fish all day long in every spot we hit.