Flyfish Fanatic

Over the past few years, I have taught many  students how to flyfish.  Many people come into this Great sport  thinking that learning how to cast is the #1 thing to learn, I Disagree.

Casting is an important part of the sport, But without learning all the small details, Entomology, etc… , even if you can cast you WILL NOT have success.

With this said, casting is still an important aspect to learn, and with practice and a bit of patience can be learned by ALL.

A few things to remember for the new flycaster;

-Make sure to keep your wrist stiff

-The motion of the rod is at 10 o-clock & 2 o-clock

-Make sure to stop at the 10 & 2 possition

-As you get more line out, remember that you will need to slow down to allow the line to “Uncurl” at the front and back cast, as well you will nedd to add a bit more power to get the extra line out.

These are just a few things to keep in mind when you are new to the sport. If you don’t understand what I mean by the above points, I suggest that you take a class at you local Fly Fishing Store/School

Good luck, Have fun

Rick Passek “The Flyfish Fanatic™”

I am on Vancouver Island right now getting ready for a TV shoot with Shaw cable.  The wife (Renee) and I were in a local Mall and decided to go into a book store (Coles) and had a look in the Fishing section, (As I always do)

Low and behold, there is my book, My book has been in fishing stores throughout BC for some time now, and has been in many other small book stores, but this was the first time I have seen it in a larger one. Chapters/Coles has had it for a while but only online.

This was soooooo cool to see.

Well, that time of year is upon us again. SUMMER DOLDRUMS!!!

The lakes of the Pacific North West region of North America is now starting to heat up to the point where the fish are starting to go into hiding during the day, and the fishing is starting to slow dramatically.

This is the time of year where I (along with many others) start hitting the rivers. I Love my Stillwater flyfishing in the Lakes of British Columbia and Washington, but I look forward to the summer doldrums every year to give me the chance at the great rivers that the area has to offer.

Now for river fishing around the area I live (Vancouver) I need to do a bit of travel due to the fact that the rivers close to the city are not the best for flyfishing success. One of my favorite places to go that does not require too much travel, is the Skagit River here in BC, Canada. It is a catch & Release only River, and holds some beautiful small to mid size Rainbow Trout, with the odd Dolly Varden thrown into the mix.

If I have the time and feel like doing a bit of driving, I head to the eastern part of our beautiful province. The rivers of the area are second to none (IMO) and can hold some very nice, hard fighting fish.

There are many rivers that are located within a few hours of each other that I spend a few weeks every year there to explore them all. Some of my personal favorites are;

- The St Mary

- The Bull

- The Granby

- The Michelle

The one that is missing from this list that MANY of my readers would know is The Elk.

Many people come from around the world to fish this river system, but because of this fact, I try to stay away. I have fished it many times, but I prefer solitude when fishing, and the last time I was fishing the Elk (Last Summer) I saw 10 drift boats go by my location in 5 hours. This is NOT what I like when fishing, so I avoid the Elk as much as I can. When I am in the area of the Elk and the Michelle, I also head over into Alberta to fish a few rivers like the Oldman, the Highwood, and the Bow.

I love river fishing, that is what I grew up doing with my father in Alberta, but because of location of good rivers in the province, I got into lake fishing many years ago. Lake fishing (IMO) is much more challenging then rivers, but the thrill of getting a 3-5lb Westslope Cutthroat trout in a river draws me back to the rivers every year.

I hope to hit a few this weekend on Vancouver Island, and I will post a report as soon as I get back.

Sorry for not posting in the past 3 weeks, but things here have been a little CRAZY. With all the book tour events, TV spots, and then to top it off I have been coaching a under 12 ball hockey team to get them prepared for the WCC (Western Challenge cup) a elite tournament held every year.

I will start posting on a regular basis from here on.

Thanks for you patience.

Rick Passek “The Flyfish Fanatic™”

A while back I wrote a post about Community lake (Link)

Here is the response I got From The Minister of Tourism of BC.

Dear Mr. Passek:

Thank you for your email of May 15, 2008, addressed to the Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier, and me, regarding the removal of dead trees within the Community Lake Recreation Site as a result of the current mountain pine beetle infestation in the interior of the province. Since recreation sites and trails are the responsibility of the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, I will respond on behalf of Premier Campbell.

Large scale salvage operations to harvest mountain pine beetle damaged timber are ongoing in the Kamloops area. When dead and dying trees are identified in recreation sites, they are removed to protect public safety and prevent further spread of the disease within the site.

Mitigation efforts in the Community Lake Recreation Site were conducted in consultation with local fishing groups in the area. Operations were carried out last fall to avoid impacting the camping season and to minimize soil disturbance. Signage and picnic tables were moved and stacked a safe distance away from burning piles.

The spring thaw this year was somewhat late and did not occur until near the middle of May. As a result, the site was very wet when campers began visiting the site for the May long weekend. Unfortunately, the saturated soils were very vulnerable to vehicle traffic and significant rutting occurred on the in-site roads and camping sites. This damage to the site was caused by unusually wet ground and normal recreation use, not the logging operations to remove damaged timber.

The Kamloops Recreation District will be conducting clean-up efforts at the Community Lake Recreation Site once the ground has dried up sufficiently to allow for machinery and work crews to access the site without causing further damage to the soil. I understand that the work is anticipated to begin in early June, weather permitting.

Thank you for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,

Stanley B. Hagen

Minister of Tourism, Sport and the Arts

Looks like they are going to fix up the mess, That is GREAT.

I will be going up in the next few weeks, I will post Pictures of the “Cleanup” Effort soon

Rick Passek ( The Flyfish Fanatic™)

I was on Vancouver Island this past weekend doing a book tour. We left Vancouver on Thursday morning at 6am and headed to Victoria.

We stopped in at a few of the local fishing stores in the Victoria area and dropped off a few copies of my new book.

Island Outfitters in Victoria is now stocking the book, so if you live in the Victoria area and would like a copy, go there and they would be happy to sell you one.

Thursday afternoon I did a book signing at the Save on Foods (3510 Blanshard Street ) in Victoria as they also are carrying my book. We then drove around Victoria a bit before heading to our hotel in Naniamo.

The next Morning we woke early to get ourselves to Parksville because I had a 8:30am radio bit on 88.5 The Beach

After the Radio bit we headed to My Publicists daughters school to do some fun stuff with the kids. Here are a few pictures of the event at the school.

I did some Fly Tying/Basic Entomology with them First

Then a quick casting lesson with them.

After the school we had a few hours to ourselves so we headed back to the hotel and took a bit of time to just Chill out.

That evening we went to the Save on Foods in the Woodgrove  mall to do another book signing.

After another LONG day we had a quick bit to eat at the local White Spot and called it a night.

The next day we got up and headed back to Parksville to do a signing at “Mullberry Bush” Book store, Here are a few Pictures for the signing.

My Son Tying up a few!!

After doing the signing at Mulberry Bush Books, we headed up to Courtney and did a book signing at “The Laughing Oyster” Book store.

Once all the book signings were all over, we decided to head back to Nanaimo and have a “Fathers day dinner”. We found this small restaurant called  “Nauticals”  close to the departure bay ferry. Man the food was GREAT, I highly recommend this seafood place to anyone that is going there. The Asian Prawns were out of this world, and the Dungoness Crab was some of the best I have had in years.

The Next day I had a casting class to teach at Westwood lake.

Here are a few Pictures from the class.

Teaching the “Roll Cast”

You can see Sharon’s roll going out nicely in this picture. She was one of the BEST beginner students I have ever taught, But I guess it helps that her Husband (not Shown) it a Die hard flyfisher and built her a custom made bamboo rod!!!!

All in all a GREAT, FUN weekend.

OHHHH, and to top it off my son and I headed over to “The Bungy Jump” in Naniamo before we went to the ferry!!!!!!!!!

Tight Lines & Fun Times

Rick Passek “The Flyfish Fanatic™”

I have been REALLY busy in the past month, and this shows in my lack of posts. For know, I don’t have a ton of time to post, But I thought that I would post a few pictures of some of the fish I and some of my buddies have caught this season so far.

Tunkwa lake Fatty.

A few from Leighton Lake

A few From Roche Lake

A double header, And I landed BOTH

Just some random Pictures.

The “Bushwacker” designed by “Bushman” Great little fly

Tight lines & Fun Times

Rick Passek “The Flyfish Fanatic™”

I have been informed that one of my favorite lake in BC has been practically destroyed by logging.

I am sooooo mad, I sent an e-mail to those who I think have the power to do something about it.

I am writing this post to get others to send and e-mail in protest as well.

This is what I wrote.

To Whom it may concern;

These are the e-mail addresses that I sent it to.

premier@gov.bc.ca (Gordon Campbell)
rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca (Forestry Minister)
stan.hagen.mla@leg.bc.ca (Minister of Tourism)
barry.penner.mla@leg.bc.ca (Minister of Environment)

Please send them an e-mail about this. This really Gets me MAD!!!

Rick Passek “The Flyfish Fanatic™”