PPS Destinations Report

Douglas Lake Ranch; Little Sabin Lake, BC, Canada

Date:         May 1, 2004

Reported by Dr. Ernst 'Ernie' Schmidt, Vancouver, Canada

Well known by PPS members for past seminars at Stoney Lake Lodge, Canada's largest ranch has a lot more to offer in regards to recreational fly fishing.  My personal objective for this fishing trip was to have an intimate experience, enjoy quality fishing and above all, make this a fun trip for my favourite fishing buddy, nine year old Stefan.  With beautiful weather on season-opening May 1, this would have been a total impossibility if I did not consider paying for private fishing at the renowned Douglas Lake Ranch.  After some discussion as to which lake would suit our needs the best, we settled on Little Sabin since it was known to have good numbers of 1 to 3 pound rainbow trout.  Enough numbers for Stefan and large enough to give me a thrill.  As it was, Stef and I had the whole lake to ourselves!

Our day started with a pleasant drive from Merritt and, as we drove through the beautiful grasslands of this working cattle ranch, I pulled up in order to photograph the ranch in action.  As far as the eye could see, feeding bulls were lined up at the trough in a a very impressive manner.  A little further down the road, we pulled off to pick up our instructions at the historic General Store located at tiny Douglas Lake (see picture at left).  From there, we continued on for approximately 20 minutes until we found our way to Little Sabin lake.  This is a very exposed lake and could be very difficult to fish if the wind conditions are not favourable.  On this day, we were in luck, with sunshine and calm winds.

Even though the report for fishing was not known, we knew right off the bat that we were likely to have a good day.  Stefan and I had three fish from shore before we even got our boat in the water.  From there on, I spent the whole day manning the oars as Stefan managed to hook and land about thirty fish ranging from 1 to 3 pounds.  Needless to say, Stef was ecstatic at his success.  Now, one of my other conditions for this day was that I had to feel satisfied as well.  During lunch as well as a half hour near the end of the day, Stef took a break from reeling in fish and let me at it.  Using small scuds and chironomids, I was able to catch a good number of fish using a strike indicator in shallow water.  Even I felt that this was an excellent day of fishing.  Pretty well all fish caught were in prime condition and extremely hard fighting.  This was a great way to teach a 9 year old how to fight strong fish (okay, so 'we' lost a few flies on the first few).

With time a very precious commodity, today's busy individual has to look real hard at pay-fishing in order to optimize his/her experience.  Douglas Lake Ranch offers a variety of lakes with everything from high numbers of smaller fish to the renowned Minnie and Stoney Lakes where fish tend to be in the two to four pound average with the chance of larger fish.  Excellent row boats are available for a very reasonable $25CND per day.   For more information on the fisheries as well as other activities at the ranch, visit their webste at Douglas Lake Ranch.

Here are a few pics of our day-experience.    Yours,

Ernie

(after viewing the thumbnails, just click back on the browser to get back to this page and view the next one.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call on me at pps@shaw.ca