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I am a very serious fisherman, my wife would
argue almost fanatical. I am almost expert as bass fishing and saltwater
fishing, a decent trout fisherman, but only slightly better than a
beginner as a fly fisherman. My wife is competent with bass and
saltwater tackle but a novice at fly fishing.
We are both medical doctors, have high
stress lives, and I use fishing to maintain my sanity. Our friend,
wildlife artist David Wirth, turned us on to 100 Mile Charter two years
ago with a story of being flown in to remote lakes with a friend where
they were the only people there, and had the lake to fish all by
themselves. I couldn't believe it and had to try it. Here is what we
have found, uncensored or doctored up.
All of the lakes that Jon Sarver has
built a cabin on, four so far, are extraordinarily beautiful, McNeil
being the most picturesque and quaint. (We have not yet tried Roger
Lake, the smallest.) All three cabins are rustic log cabins, fabulous
compared to tent camping but rustic, outdoorsy nonetheless. We have only
been in June and have had to content with mosquitoes and some days are
hot. I have drunk the lake water directly and have not gotten sick; it's
actually delicious, but my wife only drinks the water after it has been
thru the filtration pitchers at each cabin. Chopping firewood, lighting
fires, cooking on the propane stoves in the kitchen, making toast on the
metal grid toasters on the stove, taking showers from the five gallon
buckets with gravity-fed shower heads in a rustic shower stall at the
back of the cabins has been a fun adventure for us. What has amazed us
is that they manage to stock virtually every kind of food you could want
in these cabins, especially since they have propane powered
refrigerators with a freezer.
Here is my experience of the fishing. I
brought a portable depth finder to map the lakes, certainly not necessary
to do but it is just how I am. I metered very large numbers of fish in
all three lakes, usually hanging out at the depth of 20 to 30 feet,
which I imagine is somewhere near the thermo cline. These fish often
would not bite, maybe due to my limitations. At Lang and McNeil Lakes we
caught Lake Trout by trolling, typically one to three per three or four
hour session, as many as five in a session, and occasionally we got
skunked. At Lang Lake our largest Lake Trout was 8 1/2 pounds and
smallest about 3 3/4 pounds. At McNeil our largest laker was 6 and our
smallest about two, but someone had caught a 42 pounder recently. We
caught them on trolling plugs of all sizes, Apex spoons, etc. but they
often had distinct preferences for a specific plug or spoon on a given
fishing session. The Rainbow Trout fishing ranged from spectacular for a
few hours to slow. There seems to be small fish around the shoreline
cover that will bite most of the time. Catching the larger Rainbows, say
14 to 20 inches, takes more skill and patience but they can be caught by
most any technique. I usually had my wife throw 1/8 Roostertails or
Mepps spinners (usually with a single hook replacing the treble). If we
got them to bite then I would switch to experimenting with flies,
usually only catching one or a few fish at one place on the main lakes,
then moving. Since each lake has one or two aluminum boats 12 to 16 feet
long with Honda 4 stroke motors, I could easily cover any area of the
lake and usually explored and experimented everywhere.
Each main lake has one or more small
lakes nearby to hike to, usually with a small aluminum boat to fish from
by rowing or motoring. The fishing at the small lakes can vary from slow
to phenomenal. For example, one of the small lakes at Pendleton has huge
numbers of small, very naive, very catchable Rainbows. My wife caught
over 60 in a four hour session on spinners and I caught about 30
practicing my hookset with surface flies since the wind was very calm
that day. That is an ideal situation for a child or novice to learn to
fish although the hike to that lake takes 15 to 20 minutes.
In summary, here is what I have come to
expect. Scenery as beautiful as it gets, unless you don't like water,
trees, fresh air, and the occasional Bald Eagle or Loon flying or
swimming nearby. People as nice as it gets. Canadians seem to just
genetically be honest, friendly, down-to-earth, good folks. Weather that
can be capricious since you are at an elevation of 3000 to 4000 feet
approximately. I just add or subtract layers to cope with the climate of
the moment; it can be very hot one day and cold and rainy the next.
Fishing opportunities are abundant at all the lakes and will range from
slow to outstanding. Even when it is slow, the scenery and relaxing
ambiance is always spectacular. My wife caught up on six months of
journals, read a novel, and still fished for 3 to 5 hours every day.
We have decided to make a commitment to
coming up for a ten-day trip every year, "the good lord willin' and the
crik don't rise"!
Chris and Marilyn Minnick
Pasadena, California |
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"We’ve just completed an
incredible one week stay at Pendleton Lake in British Columbia, our 3rd
trip with 100 Mile Charter Ltd. After fishing in British Columbia for 25+
years, we discovered 100 Mile Charter Ltd. about 4 years ago.
Every trip has been a
perfect vacation! We’ve stayed at Pendleton, Lang and McNeil Lakes. The
beds are comfortable, and the cabins are clean and unbelievably
well-supplied homes away from home. Jon and Brenda make certain that there
are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and delicious meats and poultry,
as well as wild game, to accompany the big fish you will catch. Every lake
is equipped with wonderful boats and motors, as well as kayaks. Several of
the lakes are short hiking distances to other pristine lakes and beautiful
streams.
We can’t imagine a B.C.
fishing trip or wilderness experience with anyone except 100 Mile Charter
Ltd. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email
ellielange(nospam)@aol.com
or phone (925) 828-6905."
Jim and Ellie Lange
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