Tuzo Lake

Tuzo Lake

Tuzo Lake is not far from Solco Lake so I like to check it out every so often when I’m camped at Solco Lake. This is one lake that is easily missed as you can not see it until you are right at the shore. Once a one fish per day lake, the limit has been raised to six per day since the access road was blocked off. (note this has since been opened up..A move with which I agree. However not sure it if is legal or not.)

From Solco head back out to the Tuzo forestry road and turn right. Soon the main road forks take the left fork and ignore all the smaller side roads. Eventually this road loops back across Tuzo Creek before heading back east. At this point keep straight ahead for about half a kilometre where the road is blocked off with cement blocks and a deep ditch. Last fall the road was in excellent condition up to this point, still always be prepared for the unexpected when travelling the back country.

Find a good parking spot and start hiking. It’s a good kilometre so you can either carry in a belly boat or canoe, however this lake can be quite handily fished from shore. Keep to the left where the road splits and soon you come to an old log landing. Off to the right of the clearing there is a short tail into the lake, without really knowing where the lake was we were very lucky to spot it. The trees are fairly thick and you nearly have to be at the lake before you can see it. The last time in there was a light plastic boat left there, however, you should take a life jacket if you are planning on using it.

The lake itself is mainly fairly shallow with some good weed cover and not very much in the way of draw down over the summer. Early in the season when the lake is at its highest level there is a shallow bay at the far end. Several areas of the shoreline have good areas of water lilies. The bottom seems to be good for wading to get a little closer to the action and give you room to use a fly rod. Of course the spinning outfit with float and fly is always a good bet.

Good fly choices are, mosquitoes, shrimp and Tom thumbs, however it never hurts to experiment with different choices. I have used tiny clips for changing flies. They work not too badly and if you are having trouble with tying flies on you might want to give them a try. I’m digging mine out of my tackle box next time out.

This is good whitetail country so I usually do my fishing here late in the fall. One fall day I was casting from shore while ice crystals formed in the guides, while a fire crackled behind me for warming my hands. A cold proposition, but every few casts were rewarded with a nice sized trout. It was either catch fish or freeze on a stand waiting for white tail deer.

The entrance to the trail at the landing is an ideal spot for a tree stand overlooking some old logging cuts. The young growth of these logging cuts are quite thick and it is hard to see anything in the brush. A well place stand well up in the trees gives you a much more commanding view of the area. Hunting with a partner you could take turns on the stand and at the lake. This would allow for stretching and warming up of hands and toes.

Elenor and Naramata Lakes

Elenor Lake

Elenor Lake

Naramata Lake

Naramata Lake

Elinor and Naramata Lakes

I zeroed the odometer at the corner of the Chute Lake Road and Smetherst Road since I planned on a circular route as I investigated Eleanor and Naramata Lakes. The first part of the trip is really easy, 6.4 kilometres along the Chute Lake Road before reaching the first major fork where you keep to the right. Just past where the pavement ends at 9.2 kilometres the Glen Fir Road takes off to the left and soon we pass the switch back of the old Kettle Valley Railway.

At 16.7 kilometres the Chute Lake Road takes a sharp right hand turn and crosses the Kettle Valley Railway bed onto the Elinor Lake Forest Service Road. Just past the Chute Lake Recreation site this road splits: the left hand road heads towards Big Meadow Lake and the Nutall Lake trail, the right hand road continues to Eleanor Lake.

Soon I arrived at Elinor Lake at 19.2 kilometres, where the left hand road goes across the dam and heads in the direction of Big Meadow Lake. I parked, took a few pictures, broke out the fishing tackle and soon caught a few smaller rainbow trout. Near the east end of the dam a little stream cascaded over a small rock outcrop into the lake.

I then carried on the west side of the lake. At 19.5 kilometres a small road took off to the left to a small recreation site, followed at 19.8 kilometres by another road on the left leading to a fair sized recreation site. A little further along there is a sign that the road has been decommissioned, a practice with which I do not agree. At 20.4 kilometres, there was another road off to the left onto the dam at this side of the lake. Again I stopped and fished for a while, getting a few strikes.

Elinor Lake is quite narrow and most of the shoreline is hard to fish from the shore. I would recommend a canoe or a belly boat here and although most fish are small you can expect the odd one up to 13 or 14 inches.

Shortly after leaving this dam, Naramata Lake began appearing off to the east and at 21.4 kilometres the road split again, with the left hand branch heading onto the dam. This lake is much wider than Eleanor Lake and more of the shoreline is fishable, but getting through the bush can present a problem. I spent an hour or so here hooking up with many smaller fish and one decent keeper.

There was a belly boat further up the lake and I did manage to talk to a couple in an aluminum boat who, were having some success. They had already landed 10 fish and soon limited out at 12.

At 22 kilometres there is a small road off to the right. Keeping to the main right hand branch I soon ran into some fairly rough road. A person might consider going out the other way past Chute Lake. However I like to explore. At 25.3 kilometres I crossed the Kettle Valley Railway line. Turning right would take me to Chute Lake or left to the big tunnel on the railway line.

I crossed over though and kept heading down for about another 3 kilometres to the next level of the Kettle Valley Railway and the rock ovens park. I like this part in particular because of the large trees that have escaped the forest company saws. Reaching the next level, I did a small jog left before heading right off the tracks heading for Smetherst Road. I just got a little way down before I came upon a windfall blocking the road. As my back was already giving me pain, I turned around and went once more to the old railway bed and turned north to join the Chute Lake Road at Glen Fir.

It’s a good idea to know your own limits and that of you vehicle and to keep an alternate route in mind when travelling the back roads

Sighting In

SIGHTING IN

Each Fall as I head up into the hills, I’m amazed at the number of target I see set up in the branches of trees. Not even on the trunks, but in the branches of trees backed by some fine hunting grounds. Yes I’ve prowled the game trails behind many of these spots finding some nice rubs.

I would strongly encourage those sighting in rifles to find a better spot with a nice soft dirt bank behind the targets. I can understand wanting to be accurate, but not and the risk of injuring some innocent hunter or hiker in the area.

With ever increasing costs of everything including ammunition I’ve come up with my own method of sighting in which costs nothing but a few minutes. How effective is it? Well I like to say that my last six shots from my 30-06 have taken six deer. That is true as far as it goes, but unfortunately two of those were collisions with deer on my way to work in Oliver.

Bore sighting works very well with scoped rifles, there are even laser tipped shells that a person can use, centring the cross hairs on the red dot, usually about 25 metres. These will come with directions.
Personally I’ve had excellent results by removing the bolt and sighting down the bore holding the rifle solidly and then looking through the scope. I use a near target to set the horizontal cross hair and a distant target to set the vertical cross hair. This works well enough that I now use either a neck or head shot. This drops the animal immediately and insures a high recovery rate.

I was taught that shot placement should be just behind the front shoulder in the heart and lung area. Experience has show though that a fatal shot in this area can still allow the animal to travel hundreds of metres, which is rough thick country with lots of deer sign can result in one lost buck. Luck better than tracking skills has saved me several nice bucks.

Unfortunately the one that bothers me is the huge one up in Barslow Canyon. The well placed shot at about 20 metres was sure to bring the animal down. It took off though the thick bush and giving it about half and hour to seize up. (Again I was taught to wait a while because spooking it too soon after it lay down would cause it to go much further.) I picked up the trail of huge spots of blood in the snow.

With two hours of light left I was fairly confident, however the tracks continued down to below the snow level and then the blood trail petered out to one tiny drop every 15 metres or so. Hard to keep on the right track in the heavily populated area. Just before dark I did come across it, but it bolted away again. Very surprising as I pick up a piece of rib on the tail about the size of my finger.

The next morning I returned with to hunting partners and a dog. We did not have any luck in recovering the animal. This and two other time where I nearly lost an animal caused me to rethink my shot placement. I’m happy to say I’ve have great results since that time.

Good hunting and I wish you freezers full of venison.

Burnell - Sawmill Lake

Burnell - Sawmill Lake

It’s nice to wake up to a beautiful sunny day and look forward to getting up into the hills. I whipped through my chores and headed south to pick up Edda Fox and then her kids Stephanie and Aaron from school. (Yes, this was a couple years ago)  We had planned to spend the afternoon exploring around Sawmill Lake, also known as Burnell Lake.

Heading north on the Fairview - White Lake Road we were surrounded with hills white with Saskatoon berry blooms. Thoughts quickly turned to Saskatoon jelly and pies, but that will be a while off yet. About half way between the Fairview and Secrest Road the road to Sawmill headed off to the west over a little cattle guard. There is a large sign asking users to stick to the roads and not to litter, but unfortunately not all people respect this.

We took the first major intersection to the left. I was trying to use the GPS to fine- tune my directions, but sometimes these finer details do go wrong. The next major intersection I knew went to either side of the lake, but the left hand fork was the easiest to travel. we went past a corral and finally arrived at the lake.

The lake is well posted as a catch and release fishery. Other regulations to note are the December 1^st to March 31^st closure to all fishing, as well artificial fly with single barb-less hook for the balance of the year with a bait ban in place. Note that the release fishery applies to trout and char only. It appears that pumpkinseed and smallmouth bass have also been recorded here, but I’ve yet to see them.

Records show an annual stocking of between 200 and 500 fish a year, but the aeration project has worked wonders in maintaining some great fishing. This does create a bit of a hazard for those venturing out on the ice as to the thin spots that can develop around the fences. Asked point blank, the people of the National Park Feasibility Study advised me that stocking would no longer be allowed in this and other lakes if the park is established.

This was not yet the first weekend in May and I calculate that there were at least twenty parties settled in for a weekend of fishing. We, however, were just going to walk around the lake.

Buttercups and spring beauty flowers abounded and I noticed a few plants that I think would prove to be rice root, though it was still to early for the rice root to be in bloom though. I also took some pictures of some very tiny flowers that I will have to identify, as well as a downy woodpecker. No painted turtles were out sunbathing this day, but we used to see lots of them.

There were many spots to camp and lots of outdoor loos around the lake, so although there were lots of people it did not seem all that crowded. Alas we did spot a couple of old mattresses and picked up a fairly full garbage bag of bottles and cans.

As we sat eating our lunch we watched one angler play and land a fish approximately 18 inches in length -- a nice fish on any lake. I spent some time talking to a couple who told me it is quite common to land fish around the five pound mark, with some larger ones sometimes coming to the hook. Being catch and release, he said some anglers are on a first name basis with many of the fish.

This is definitely not the south Okanagan’s best kept secret, but if you want a reasonably easy to get at lake with large fish and haven’t tried it yet, do give it a whirl.

Tight Lines and keep backing the garbage out.