Were heading up there this summer and heard stories of 120 fish days,all Rainbows and an average size of 18", any good stories to share?

I'd like to know who's telling you those stories and what years they're coming from.

hate to burst your bubble but the only way you'll get 120 fish days is if you total up the day's results from 6 guys... Eighteen inches sounds believeable, but my guess is that's not the "average size, but the size of the bigger fish.

..... or.... the guy who told you that story has a problem estimating the size of fish (like I do). I had a couple that I thought were around 18 inches, but a fellow fisherman thought not.. and broke out a ruler. My "almost 18 inchers" were 14 3/4.... Only saving grace is the fellow fisherman wasn't catching hardly anything.

Your best bet for Nimpo Lake info is to go to the www.bcadventure.com page and get info from the BC'ers. There's a guy named Mark who occasionally posts on the page that has gone to Nimpo the last two years. He did state the fishing was getting better there than it was in past years and caught good numbers of nice sized fish. But he didn't mention 120 fish numbers.

I fished Nimpo 30 years ago. Fishing was slow then. I've been up there many times since, but haven't fished Nimpo itself since the first time. Always lots of fish rising, though. We're normally using Nimpo as a float plane base and taking off for the backcountry. It isn't all that expensive and it is where you'll find some of the best fishing and the best scenery.

Nimpo lake has a floatplane base operation on it. My bet is the story coulda been true
but waz probably not for Nympo lake, but one of the Fly ins in Tweedsmuir.

I stayed at the Pine Point Lodge on Nimpo Lake in July of 2000. You will definitely not see 120 fish days; 12 fish days would be more realistic.

Having said that, I do love this big BC lake! Lots of eagles and loons to see, and tons of high jumping rainbow trout (they apparently jump so much to try to rid themselves of the freshwater lice on them).

The trout are big. 18 inchers are not uncommon, though 14 to 16 inchers were the average range we found.

I'd love to go back myself. Let us all know how you do!

JK

Fished Nimpo a couple of years ago and 120 fish might be caught in a couple of weeks of hard fishing. And, yes, the average size is something like 12-15 inches. Beautiful area, but it's a long way up there from WA state. You may want to try some of the Kamloops area lakes like Peterhope, Billy, or Tunkwa for something closer with better flyfishing.

Good luck and let us know how you do up there.

Only problem with Tunkwa and Peterhope is they don't fish as easily as Anahim or Nimpo. Now there are other lakes around Nimpo where the fishing is hot.

I've fished Peterhope about 6 times so far since about 1993 or 1994. My general rule of thumb there is to LAND a couple of fish a week. I might hook more, but they seem to fight harder there and strike shorter, so usually I end up losing most of my fish. Some do break me off too.

Last time I fished there was June of 2000 and for some reason the fish gods favored me. Instead of just a couple of fish I landed somewhere around 50-60 fish in 2 1/2 days of fishing. Peterhope was never like that before. Only thing was the fish were smaller than I previously landed there. Only bad spot on the trip was finding out on the last morning I'd broken my favorite rod. If that hadn't happened I'd have caught even more fish as I didn't fish after I found out about the broken rod.. just packed up and drove home.

The "other" lakes I alluded to that are around Nimpo are lakes that can be driven to... no float plane needed.

Zen, the reason you did better at Peterhope last time there is that the lake
has been given a new stocking schedule and is 10 times better than it used
to be. Canadians used to call it Peterhopless, now they don't talk about it
except in whispered voices to close pals.

Uh... Ron... we should try Peterhope sometime this year... June would be best or very early July at the latest...

Bill

I fished Peterhope last in June 2000. Did pretty well twitching a peacock carey special over the shoals in the middle of the lake. The fish averaged about 16 inches, but the loons were outrageous. They would follow you around the lake and when you hooked a fish, down they would go. The loons would pickoff your fish from your line and chow it immediately. One came so close to my boat that I had to scare it off with an oar. They even would take the larger fish that were so big (18") that they couldn't even swallow them. I love watching those birds, but their behavior was pretty frustrating.

TD,

If you were there the same weekend I was, then you didn't "optimize" your catch if you were out on the shoals. Weekend I was there was around the 20th or a day or two later. Seemed like all the fish were in or just out from the reeds. Lots of mine were caught on larger Tom Thumbs fished on the surface over damsel nymph migrations.

Had one or two fish eaten by loons that weekend myself. But, that's not normal Peterhope occurances.

Take a bag of stones with you the next time and throw them at bothersome loons. It should work.

ZL- I was at Peterhope the 1st week of June that year. BIG trout were beginning to cruise the shallows but couldn't entice them to bite. Even tried Tom Thumbs. You must have hit them at the right time.

The most memorable thing about the trip there was a big thunderstorm came in really quickly and I was on the far side of the lake. Lots of lightning everywhere. I knew a woman who was struck and killed by lightning about 10 years ago while jogging in Redmond, so I'm pretty nervous about the stuff. I wound up taking cover on shore under a big rock, grabbed a beer and sweated it out for about 20 minutes until the storm passed.

The loons --- Took some rocks out there and chucked them at them but they just would pop up somewhere else. Although I am strictly catch and release, I found that after the loons chowed down a couple of the smaller rainbows, they would get full and leave you alone.

Cruisers that early are usually spawners so you didn't miss much.

You might try exploring surrounding lakes if you get up there again. That's as close as I'll come to giving you a tip.

ZL - have you fished Plateau lake up there? It's a b**** to get in to, but has great sight fishing for 16-20 inch bows. The evening I fished it with no one else around, I saw a Grizzly chase a mother Moose and baby across the reeds/swamp on the far end of the lake. Probably one of the most awesome wilderness sights I've ever seen personally.

There's one or two other lakes nearby Peterhope that are reputed to put out 2+ lb sized trout that are easy to access. And one that's easy to get lost trying to find.. Little Blue... I've never been there but heard the stories of the people trying to find it.