May has continued with the same kind of fishing trends, feast or famine, reports of 20 fish days and reports of 0 fish days are still out there. Sizes are still up to 21 lbs. but most in the 12-19lb range. This past couple of week’s warm weather have not only brought up the lake levels but also the black ant hatch. Guys were telling me that some of the fish caught were absolutely full of the ants. Thus it seems that black is the color to be using.

The Gerard spawn was absolutely fantastic with the high number being 995 fish. You can see the daily numbers on the link on our web site. With the high Kokanee numbers and the high Rainbow numbers this is going to be one of the best fisheries in the world! Fisheries will also be conducting creel census days throughout the year to gather data on fishing productivity. They would like to know the numbers of hours fished, number of fish caught or released, the approximate location. They would also like to have scale samples of the Rainbows accompanied by the length and weight, or the head of the Bull trout along with the length and weight. They are also going to be doing aerial observations to count boat numbers and apply these success factors to determine overall numbers.

Water has been coming up quite a bit lately thus the logs, branches, grass, etc. floating in the lake make bucktailing a little challenging. A splitshot weight up the line a bit may help keep the debris off the hook or putting the line on the downrigger and taking it down a couple of feet is another option.

We held the Bill King Memorial Rainbow derby on the May long weekend and had the best turnout since we started hosting the event, we had 93 participants take part in the derby. This gave a first place prize payout of $2073.72, this went to Cody Brown his fish was 32 5/8” and weighed in at 17lb 8oz congratulations Cody great fish. For a couple of hours both the 1st and 2nd place fish came out of the same boat with the first looser “fish stretcher” prize going to Gary Bainbridge. The second place fish measuring in at 32” and paying $1244.23 went to Jim Walz his fish weighed in at 14 lb. 2 oz. . In third and measuring in at 32 ½ “ was Wayne Hutton and Wayne’s fish weighed in at 17 lb. 1 oz. Wayne collected $829.49 for his prize. After the derby we all met at the Balfour Beach Inn for the prize ceremonies and everyone left with a door prize, thanks to our sponsors. Since moving to Balfour and operating the Gill & Gift I am constantly amazed by the people we have met from the past this derby brought out a previous co-worker from Edmonton, good to see you again Athol hope you had a good time fishing for those elusive Rainbows. Defending champion Okanogan Jim couldn’t make it out this year, we missed you Jim see you next year.

After the derby the colors start coming out 215’s, 228’s, black/light green/white, black racoon, 215 with ice mylar, 214’s, bleeding gill, for the flies and the 54, 69, 135 in the 4” Lymans, in the apexes b/w, black/purple, purple pearl. Fly speed between 3-3.5 mph the lymans and apexes under 3 mph. Water temp is running around 47 degrees.

The last day of the month and a wild one in the 26 lb range came in on the green with black back and white belly, this was the same color that took the first in the derby. ...we did not verify the weight but it was a big one for sure. They could not throw it back because is was wounded too badly . It will surely make a nice torphy for the boys.

The Kokanee season in the arm continued on the first week of May with some nice Kokanee being taken on the first few days but dying off later in the week. We will see what June and July bring in, haven’t heard anything about the bait ban for the Kokanee season as it comes into effect on June 1st and last until August 31.