I'm Travis Bader and this is The
Silvercore Podcast.
Join me as I discuss matters related to
hunting, fishing, and outdoor pursuits
with the people in businesses of the
comprise the community.
If you're a new to Silvercore, be sure to
check out our website, www.Silvercore.ca where
you can learn more about courses, services,
and products we offer.
As well as how you can join The Silvercore Club,
which includes 10 million in North American wide
liability insurance, to ensure you are properly
covered during your outdoor adventures.
Silvercore Podcast listener Brock Fisher
writes in and asks, "Any thoughts on the podcast,
outlining the local fishing scene, river
crabbing, Lake fishing, that kind of thing?
There's such a large amount of people who
are interested in fishing, who live in
the South coast, razor Valley, and just don't
know where to start."
so that's what I want to delve into today.
Tonight, I'm joined by Catherine Laflamme who's
dabbled in guiding, works in Michael & Young
flyshop in Vancouver.
And we met through a mutual friend,
April Vokey of Anchored Outdoors.
Welcome Cat.
Hi.
Gillian Steele, who guides part-time, works
at Highwater Tackle in North Vancouver and
along with Cat, is a founder of the BC Women's
Fly Fishing group.
Gillian, I met you through my wife, Tiffany
Bader, who can't stop raving about the good
work both you and Cat are doing with the group.
Welcome Gill.
Thank you.
Finally, to provide the new angler's perspective.
I have pro chef and resident Silvercore
staffer, my wife, Tiffany Bader.
Welcome Tiff.
Hey.
So Cat and Gill, when we were talking before
looking at different ideas of what we can
bring to the listeners.
There's a number of ideas that were floating
around and I think the top three that came out
was a fishing calendar.
Basically talking about what to fish, where
to fish, when to fish, advice for new anglers
and of course talk about the BC Women's
Fly Fishing group.
But before we get too deep into that, I kind
of want to learn a little bit more about you two.
Okay.
So I grew up in a family, my parents both really
love going camping.
So every weekend growing up, we would
go camping and fishing.
My dad's a fly fisher, he loves fishing lakes.
So anyway, we were brought up fishing.
My siblings hated it, I loved it, at 12 years
old I begged him to teach me how to fly fish
because I hated worms.
Right.
Absolutely hated worms.
And there was something very poetic about
watching my dad fly cast.
And one thing that really got me was
that he would cast to these rising trout and
basically count down.
So he'd cast out to a dimple in the water
where a fish just rose and he counted down
and be like, ready?
Three, two, one and then.
No.
Somehow.
No.
He just got it so many times and I was
like, want to do that.
That sound's amazing, looks amazing.
That's magical.
It's magical.
So anyway, begged and begged and begged him
and he finally, we went to Walmart, he
bought me at $50 fly set up and that was it.
You know, there was a lot of skipping school
in grade 12 and just drive straight to
the Vedder and fish.
And then I met April Vokey out of, I went to
Capilano University for a couple of years and
did a outdoor recreation management program.
And out of that, I ended up getting
a job with April.
So I worked for her for Flygal Ventures
for a couple of years, actually three years.
Very cool.
Yeah.
Well, April, she wasn't at Cap was she?
No, no, I just, I met her at the Trade
Ex when I was 16
. Ahh okay.
And we kept in touch.
And then with that program I had to do a
practicum in the summer.
So I asked her, I'm like hey, need any help?
She's like, yes.
And then she hired me right on the spot in
February before summer.
So, and then I just stuck around, helped
her with some office stuff, fly tying,
all kinds of stuff, shipping out packages,
blah, blah, blah.
So did that for a few years.
Well, sorry, hold on, backtrack.
Out of high school.
I got a job at the Fly Shop in Surrey,
Michael & Young Fly Shop.
Okay.
So I was there part-time on top of working
for April, did whole bunch of fish bumming.
Fish bumming.
For a few years.
Fish bumming.
I like that term.
Yeah.
It's kind of like bandit camping and out
on the river there.
Yeah, exactly.
Living in a trailer by the river.
Perfect.
And then came back, needed money.
So I got a full-time position at Michael
& Young, and I've been there ever since.
Wow.
Yeah.
I only have one question for you.
Yeah.
So you said your dad being French Canadian,
did he count three, two, one, or did he count..
Threeee, twooo, oneee!?
Fish on!
Only cause I jnow your dad and I love him.
I was like, he does not just say three, two, one.
Cat, eh Cat, ready?
Threeee, twooo, oneee.
Sorry, dad.
Love it.
Love him.
But yeah.
I knew that I was like, yeah he did not.
Three, two, one, absolutely that's
not how it went.
Not at all.
Gill?
My intro, my dad has owned Highwater Tackle
in North Vancouver for, I guess now we are 20, 36
years coming up in April.
Wow.
So quite a long time and he's owned that
shop for pretty much its entirety with the
exception of six months.
He bought it off another guy there, quickly
thereafter who was not very well received in
the retail business.
One of those types, I hear ya.
Yeah, so he purchases off, then he essentially
came home to my mom and said, Hey, I bought a
tackle shop and my mom wasn't exactly that
excited about it, but.
No.
She didn't know?
She knew what she was getting into
a little bit.
They met at a guiding lodge up at Stuart
Island back in the day, Sonora Island Resort.
So she knew what she was getting
into at that point.
Got it, fair enough.
Anyways, so it's a bit of a romantic
love story with them.
And then I came around and I was just kind
of pushed into it.
Not pushed into it, I shouldn't say that.
I was just kind of indulged in it
my entire life.
So it came very naturally for me.
And a little bit of a contrast, I have
a sister who never really got into it.
I was camping and everything.
Whenever we went out in the outdoors, it
always revolved around fishing in some way.
So my dad wasn't going to camp somewhere that
didn't have a water body attached to it that just
wasn't going to happen.
I can get behind that.
So yeah, so fishing was always a part of
it and it just kind of grew naturally.
And then when I was about 15, I started working at
the shop and then going to university, it became
a very convenient working space for me as well.
And then ever since then I've just kind
of grown and adapted through there.
And I've got myself involved in a couple
of things since then.
Various non-governmental organizations,
NGOs, and some other things as well.
Okay.
And then dabbled a little bit in that
guiding side of it too.
Like consulting for the NGOs or volunteering?
Yeah.
I work for the Steelhead Society as a director,
not work, I volunteer for the Steelhead
Society as director.
So that's been a big passion of mine for.
It can be viewed as work, but yes, yes.
It can definitely be work sometimes for sure but.
It's a labour of love.
Yeah, it is.
So just kind of got involved and then just
fish when I can and meet lots of great people and
the industry certainly helps that a lot so.
Well, one of the things that Tiffany, you're
going on about, was the calendar, the
fishing calendar.
And I really wanted to sit in on that
episode, but you know, it is the BC Women's
Fly Fishing group.
So I guess I get to hack it a little bit by having
you guys here on the podcast and learn about
this fishing calendar.
Can you tell me more about that.
The calendar, or do you want to know
more about the group from the get-go?
Well, I don't know.
What do you want to talk about first?
We can talk about the calendar.
I think that's.
The calendar was sort of something Gill sort
of did amidst COVID.
We tried to do a bunch of like zoom meetings to
keep the group active.
Right.
While not being able to interact
in person so much.
So Gill's has been really great about
doing all these zoom meetings and zoom
courses for the group.
And one of the things she did over the holidays was
kind of explain all of the fishing opportunities
in the lower mainland throughout the year.
Well you guys must get that question
all the time.
Yeah, I think one of the things that is, I
mean, maybe an advantage for us and maybe an
advantage for our group overall is that, both
of us working in shops and having worked in
shops for a long time, relative to other people.
Yes.
You start to learn the questions I get asked
and you start to learn what the perspective
is of a new angler walking into the store.
So one of the questions that you get all the
time, especially this time of year, cause
it's January and if you're not like
hardcore steelheading.
Right.
What do you do?
You know, or if there's, in the lower
mainland, we don't have ice, so you're not
necessarily ice fishing.
We're lucky not to have ice.
Yeah, maybe we're lucky.
We have lots of flowing water, not hard water.
Yeah.
So, we could ask them a lot about what to
do and what are some other alternatives.
So I thought that was maybe a good thing.
And then the other thing is, you don't want to
miss out on something, so you don't want to get
halfway through a season and then not be prepared.
Right.
So just kind of preparing a calendar of kind of,
what are your target species, what you should
be thinking about based on the time of year,
and this is based in the lower mainland.
Sure.
So of course it's not going to necessarily
transcend to all aspects of the province, but at
least, kind of gives it a good rounded idea of what
you should think about and then what you should
kind of plan for as well.
Cause that definitely, I would say in the shop is.
Upcoming fisheries.
You know, people walk in and they say like, you
know, what can I do now?
Yeah.
Salmon, season's over.
I love to fish.
What do I do now?
Yeah, we get that all the time in
the shop, at least.
So setting that kind of up and making people
think also alternative fisheries, you know,
although it's not like, you're not chasing
coho and chinook and the rivers right now
in January when we're recording this, but
there's tons of other things that you can do.
Sure.
Yeah.
Whitefish.
Gill's favorite.
Whitefish.
The Mountain Whitefish.
But it's true.
There's there's lots of other, I mean, you can
go steelhead fishing.
You can still, there's lots of like for right
now January, if we start at the beginning,
there's resident trout you can go for.
Bull trout, there's starting to be.
WHitefish.
Cutthroat.
I really like whitefish.
Cutthroat trout, you know, depending
on where you are.
So we kind of just got into that, cause that was
just something that we get asked all the time
and I didn't realize kind of necessarily like how
you don't think about it.
Like how big of a question that is until
you start making a PowerPoint presentation.
Well I heard it was pretty voluminous.
I heard you had a lot of information in it.
Oh my gosh.
I wrote a lot of notes.
Yeah.
I signed in a little late on that one
and I was like, wow.
This started at seven it's now almost 11.
Dimitri hates me.
Yeah, that's my problem.
I have to tone it back on the info.
It's very detailed.
I liked it.
A little, maybe too detailed.
But yeah, but anyways, so we kind
of went through that.
So I think we could, for the listeners here,
we could probably go through our kind of
our rundown of what.
And it's a good time, it's January, so we
can do our calendar year kind of thing.
Maybe not as detailed as.
No, we're not.
Don't worry.
We will not go on for three hours.
Seven o'clock now, so we've got, okay.
11:30 of this.
But yeah, I dunno.
We can just kind of jump into it.
We can start basically with, with now, January.
That's a good way to do it.
Yeah.
Beginning of the year.
What do we do?
What do we fish.
January.
There's.
What do we do?
Winter steelhead in certain rivers.
Not all rivers in the lower mainland will
have winter steelhead, but you know, the main
ones that have the earlier run of steelhead
would be the Vedder.
And it's.
Fishing great right now.
The Chehalis is another one that gets early
runs of steelhead.
You can start thinking about the
Capilano if you're on the North shore.
When you say fishing great on the Vedder.
Ooh.
Yeah.
I mean, there's fish around.
Okay.
There's also a lot of anglers around.
Man is there ever!
Yeah.
That's one of the things that's always
kind of scared me away from the Vedder
river rafted down that thing numerous times.
Sweet.
But I've never fished it because I just look
in they're cheek by jowl going down there.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Is there many steelhead going down there?
It's got the biggest number of steelhead
in the lower mainland that's for sure.
And that's why it's the busiest.
And you're also allowed to keep a
fish, a hatchery fish.
So find anywhere you're allowed to
retain a fish, there's usually more people.
So for newbies, how do you distinguish
a hatchery fish from
A wild one?
So hatchery fish will have a clipped adipose
fin, so that little nub of flesh above
in front of the tail.
So it's a little fin that's essentially
useless and they clip them when they're young.
So you'll see, there should be a scar there
where it's kind of healed over and a wild one will
have that adipose intact.
Okay.
Cool.
One thing I'll say about the Vedder, just cause
it gets a lot of hate.
Sure.
And the Vedder gets a lot of hate
because it's busy.
Yeah.
From the steelhead anglers that I know, and
a lot of the steelhead anglers that are very
prominent or very well-rounded steelhead
angler, being a good steelheader is not
necessarily about how many fish you catch, but
it's being able to adapt.
The Vedder is probably hands down one of the
best rivers if you want to learn how to
steelhead fish, and you want to learn how
to steal at fish well.
And it gets a lot of hate because it is
busy, but as soon as you have a catch and
keep fishery, that's what's going to happen.
However, in terms of the water that's available
there, the diversity of the runs and the water
type there, and from a learning perspective, it
is hands down one of the best systems out there.
So it's a lot of hate all the time, all the time.
People are like, Oh I don't want it to
become the Vedder, or I hate the Vedder.
Right, right.
We need to throw that out because I don't
think that's fair.
It is busy because it's also a high access area.
Easy access.
You can fit a lot of water, easy access
that's available for a lot of different
kinds of people.
You know, maybe you're not mobile,
there's lots of places that you can go.
So we need to kind of, I think dispense that
idea that the Vedder's bad because it's busy.
Let's think about the Vedder as being good
because it has so many opportunities.
There's also big fish in the Vedder, you
know, there's 20 pound fish that come out
of there every year.
Wow.
I was just there with my boyfriend today and
he got a 15 pound wild buck, it was amazing.
And there's not a lot of places where you
can live in Canada or North America for that
matter, where you can drive 45 minutes and
catch 15 pound wild buck.
You know what I mean?
We're pretty lucky.
And yeah, the Vedder is super busy, but
it's also incredible.
So I wonder if we're going to see more
people on the Vedder, what you're just
saying right now.
I'm sorry Dimitri, I ruined your cover.
I'm kidding.
Maybe, but I think on the other hand, people
know where they're going when they are, what
they're getting into when they go out there.
But I just, I kind of want to dispense
that cause a lot of people put a lot of
hate on that river.
And from a fishing perspective, it is
probably one of the nicest rivers to fish.
It's diverse, there's lots of water, so.
It's true.
From the top to the middle, to the lower.
And it's all very beautiful.
It's all very different.
It is beautiful!
And it just gets hated on.
And I just want to dispense that cause you
know, you think winter steelhead and everybody's
like, Ugh, I don't want to go to the Vedder.
Right.
But you'll do.
Go to the Vedder, you will learn.
You don't but you do.
Yeah.
But yeah lots of winter steelhead opportunities
in the lower mainland.
January, February, and that fishery will go
till the river blows out in May pretty much.
Well, the Vedder closes in May, above, not.
Not this year.
There's proposals to change that so.
TBI is that changing this?
Is this top secret?
It might be.
No, no, no, it's not top secret.
No, no, no, there's proposals.
Yeah.
So typically May, but there is, I don't
know how it would go in this year.
I don't know.
Actually.
TBI.
Okay.
Anyway, usually it closes above the Vedder
crossing May 1st and the lower, below the Vedder
crossing stays open in May, but you usually
might get like a week and then it blows out.
Okay well, we'll look it up and put it in
the podcast notes.
If we can find it, if it changes.
Yeah.
And then you get into kind of as well
this time of year.
And I would say pretty much through till March.
I mean, there's lots of resident trout fisheries.
So all those, any system that got salmon
in the previous fall, those are all going to
have resident trout.
So your bull trout, your cutthroat, your rainbows,
they're moving into those systems, looking to key
in on egg patterns, on flesh patterns, on all
those kinds of things.
So you see lots of guys fishing fly patterns,
like big flesh flies and stuff like that.
That goes right till March pretty much.
March the salmon fry will actually start hatching
when the weather warms up in March typically, or
sometimes late February.
Okay.
And then the trout, resident trout fishing
gets phenomenal cause they'll gorge
on those salmon fry.
So bull trout fishing is great, cutthroat
fishing is great.
Rainbows.
Yeah, yeah.
All through till the rivers blow out with.
Well that'd be up Squamish as well
and up through.
Yep, absolutely.
Yeah.
Squamish systems, anywhere that connects to
the Fraser in the Valley there, Harrison, Nicomen,
Dewdney all that stuff.
Stave.
Okay.
Yeah.
Lots of opportunities.
And then.
So I see people sometimes fishing, you know, as
you drive down towards the border down highway
99, and right by the.
Yeah there's the Nicolmickle,
Serpentine, Campbell, all those ditches.
Right.
I grew up, when I was in my teens, that's where
I used to go, cause I grew up in North Delta.
So I used to go fish cutthroat in those
ditches all the time and it was great.
I mean, mind you, they're not big, but
it's super fun after school, on an afternoon.
Anything that connects to the Fraser or the ocean
will have little runs of and sea run cutthroat.
And that's what they're going for is cutthroat?
Yep, cutthroat, or well, some of those rivers
will have coho in the fall and chinook in the
summer and some of them will also have steelhead
there's hatcheries on the little Campbell.
And I think the Nicolmickle as well.
That's pretty easy access.
Super easy access.
Do they get pretty crowded as well?
No.
Dirty ditch water, people don't find
it very attractive.
But they have fish.
There's fish in them.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
It's not exactly the most picturesque fly fishing
experience in the woods.
No, no.
Fishing amongst farm fields and whatnot,
but it's something to do and it's close so.
I remember one time going, I think it was
the Serpentine and I thought I'm going to
raft down the Serpentine.
Nice!
I was getting really into rafting at one point and
I thought, well we'll just take this raft, I'll
put it in and I'll catch it as a tide's going out.
And I basically put it in a ditch, me and
this other fellow.
And I spent hours kicking and paddling and kicking
and paddling with a case of beer in my lap.
Thinkin I could have some nice lazy little,
little drift down, it never happened, but yes.
It sounds like a lot of work.
It was a lot of work.
Yeah.
And yes, it's not the most scenic place to be.
But did see some anglers.
Yeah, there ya go.
So, yeah.
So you get those kind of fry popping out in
that kind of Mar- late February, March, April.
And that's a big, that's a big food
source for a lot of those resident fish.
So anywhere that had salmon, you think
about it, we got chum fry coming out,
we'll have pink fry next year, I guess.
Any of those systems, that's when the fries
start to move out and all the resident trout
really key in on that.
So that can be a fishery as well.
You know, March, you have a little bit
longer days, but maybe you're not into steel
heading, you know, it's not quite lake season.
What do you do?
SO there's all that available cutthroat.
Some guys will go fish off beaches in
the lower mainland in the salt water, if
you want to do that.
But rainy day sometimes that's not ideal either.
True, true.
It can be a little bit harder as well.
That can be a little bit nitpicky, but there's
lots of options too.
And then you get into the springtime and then you
have BC's 20,000 lakes that's available to us.
Fish a different lake every day for the
rest of your life.
Pretty much.
So that's you're, what, late.
Yeah, depending on the year and the
temperatures we get.
Yeah.
But based on how this year is going,
it could be a really early lake season.
Right, yeah.
Mid to late April.
Yeah, mid to late April.
There's usually the lower elevation lakes
that are icing off and then may and June
will be your prime, still water months.
Okay.
And there's so many other things going
on at that time too.
You can go bass fishing, which is also
a very new thing in the lower mainland.
Where do you go bass fishing?
Oh my gosh.
Anywhere.
Really?
Yeah.
There's any pon- Oh, I'm going to ruin it.
It this an invasive species or what?
Yes.
It is.
I mean, it's a fairly new fishery, but
basically any pond or slew in Abbotsford,
pitt Meadows, langley.
I heard there's a
--. Yeah.
In the -- area.
It's a secret.
Shhhh, shut up.
You know what's funny.
You might want to cut that.
I noticed you didn't mention that during
the presentation.
I wasn't going to say anything
But what's funny is, is the person who actually
asked this question, I'm going to call him
out right now because he gave us some heat
for doing a crabbing episode with MeatEater
with April Vokey.
Oh that's right.
Remember that?
So Brock, don't think I forgot that one.
Well you're giving them secret crabbing spots?
No, we didn't even say the location.
We were just out crabbing and I guess he
was able to determine what beach we were at.
Oh my God.
He's a local.
Okay.
But in his defense, it was his idea and actually
there's a few people who put it up, but I
just thought he'd get a kick out of hearing his
name mentioned on here.
It was his idea to share this information.
But you guys let me know if we've got
to beep things out as we go through
here, we can do that.
Yeah, maybe specific spots.
We won't say.
We're not going to talk about specific spots.
But I mean, there are like, right in
vanc- Burnaby, Deer Lake has huge bass.
Yes.
Burnaby Lake has huge bass and super easy
access and right in town.
You don't have to go very far, but
there's there's bass.
Yeah.
Those ones you're okay to say.
Yeah.
And we do.
Would you eat them?
Nah.
I've heard people say you can.
You can.
Not from Deer Lake.
I think.
No!
Serious?
You can?
You can?!
But I wouldn't.
Okay.
I mean, depending on where you got it from,
if it was like a nice, clear Lake, maybe.
Apparently they're delicious, but
not deer lake.
I've eaten straight Mexico so.
No, so yeah, but they are an invasive.
And I think that is something that people,
it is becoming more prevalent in the lower
mainland, probably at the cost of a lot
of other species.
Especially as they, those systems that
they're in to now that connect to the Fraser
in the last, maybe two years, there's been some
systems that do connect to the Fraser that
are serious problems.
Yeah.
For residents steelhead salmon in some instances.
So it is a problem, but we have to be realistic
that it is a fishery that is here now, and
it's very popular.
It's so much fun.
Yeah?
It is fun.
Would you fly fish for them?
Or what do you use for?
You can, the only issue with that is it's hard
to, people are gonna hate me for this, but
it is hard to fly fish in the spots that you
get good bass fishing.
In the lily pads, under brush and that
sort of stuff in the weeds, it's definitely
better with gear.
That being said, I have fly fish for them
a bunch and like Pitt Meadows, just take the
dogs for a walk and bring your fly rod with
a little bass popper.
You get tons of the smaller ones and a
bunch of little pumpkin seed and pan fish and
that sort of stuff.
It's super fun.
But if you want like bigger bass,
I'd definitely switch to gear.
Actually an episode of DAS boat, I
remember that.
Das boat.
Yeah.
Ahh, that's right, you're.
She's getting all frustrated.
Some people might hate me for this cause the
fly fishing purists will say otherwise,
but there's a reason Bassmaster Classics
is all gear fishermen.
Just saying.
Can't catch everything with fly.
Exactly.
You know, you gotta know your place.
Yeah.
But yeah, and back to our lakes, I mean, you got
your lake fishing, which is just exceptional.
And it doesn't, you don't have to do
crazy trips either.
I think that's another thing too, is there's
lots of Lake fishing.
certainly within an hour or two hours,
three hours, you have the exponential
number of local lakes.
So it's not, it doesn't have to be
a big production.
Yeah.
Not even that far really.
You don't have to invest in a boat.
Like there's lots of options that you can do
locally, which I think gets underrated a little
bit because people think that you have to
make some big excursion to some camping, you
know, 150 miles house.
Yeah.
We're really lucky to have the trophy lake
fishing that we have in the interior in Merritt
Kamloops, Caribou, blah, blah, blah.
But a lot of people forget that there's all
of the local lakes in the lower mainland are
also stocked with trout.
And if you don't want to drive too far, or you're
a young kid and you don't have a car, there's a
lot of lakes that you can even bus to and fish.
Absolutely.
That's all stocked with trout.
That's a great, like the Freshwater
Fisheries Society does an unbelievable job
in the lower mainland stocking those lakes.
So it, yeah, that's a great point actually,
because people get so uppity about like going
to a big trophy, but it meant you can go to
like Lafarge lake in Coquitlam, Grayslake and
like North Van was like 10 minutes from my house.
Green Timbers, in Surrey, they throw
in the odd broodstock rainbow in there.
Ohh, there ya go!
Once in a while an 8 year old kid will pull
out a 10 pound trout and your like, what?
So cool.
Yeah.
You don't have to go far, right.
And I think that's kind of, you know, you see
all the pictures of all the grand adventures,
but that's like, you don't have to do that.
Yeah.
If you don't have the means to do that, there's
lots of fishing nearby.
If you do have the means to drive out to
the interior, we are extremely lucky with
what the Freshwater Fisheries Society of
BC has done with our interior lakes and
the triploid fish that they've done and it's
absolutely phenomenal.
You can have some really, really incredible fishing
and that's from yeah, you know, late, mid to
late April till November.
Technically yeah.
Depending on your elevation.
Yeah.
Till it freezes up.
Yeah.
Obviously it's better May, June will be
your ideal month, sometimes July.
Middle of summer is usually your summer
doldrums, the water's too warm, the fish go deep.
And then it picks up again in the fall, so
September, October, sometimes November.
So summertime just take out on the ocean fishing.
Yeah.
Take your fishing out there.
Ocean if you want.
Ocean and everything that we love.
And trout!
Oh my God.
My favorite, the best months.
The best months.
For river trout fishing.
Yeah.
So there's a lot of, err, not a lot,
there's a few rivers that open up July 1st.
Like the Skagit, Similkameen that
are fantastic.
Dry fly trout fisheries, and we're absolutely
obsessed with them.
On the Thompson, good trout.
Yeah, I think that actually opens earlier.
Yeah, it opens earlier.
But like the Chilliwack, so then the Vedder
opens again July 1st and you can target chinook
in there if you are.
And trout.
So apt.
And trout as well.
But the summertime, I mean, in British
Columbia, especially in the lower mainland,
it is endless.
So many options.
Summer, you know that June, July, August,
September, October, pretty much into November
pick what you want to do.
We have so much here.
I think that we like to complain a lot about how
busy things are here.
Being attached to.
It's been known to happen.
Being attached to a city of two plus million.
But on the other hand, it is endless.
We have so much.
Yeah.
And I mean, we, we share a passion for
trout fishing a lot, that's kind of where
we, I think fostered our friendship, I would say.
So the summertime is definitely just endless
things that you can do.
We got salt water fisheries on the ocean
if you have a boat or access to a boat as well,
and you can go there.
And then yeah, we have dry fly fishing.
We have some of the best dry fly fishing around.
Yeah?
I think a lot of people would argue that, but
there's we have some in British Columbia, I
should say as a whole.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
British Columbia has a hold absolutely.
Yeah.
The, I mean, the closer you get to
the city, obviously the more pressured
the fish are, so you definitely have to.
Yeah, the fish are definitely pickier,
more selective.
But the farther away you go, like we fished the
Blackwater the summer and any fly in your box,
pick the biggest one, skate it, like everything
you've ever known about dry fly fishing, throw
it out the window because it doesn't matter.
Those are so unpressured.
Really?
And not picky whatsoever.
You know, hundred fish in a day, no problem.
And there's so many other fisheries
like that in BC.
What was that when you fished by
Prince George there?
Regardless, doesn't matter, I don't
have to name rivers.
You'd probably have to beep it out anyways.
Yeah, exactly.
Beep.
River X.
But yeah, we're really lucky with what we
have here in BC.
The rivers closer to the lower mainland
or in the lower mainland, or obviously
a little bit trickier.
But the other thing we have this year, 2021.
Oh yeah.
Pinks.
I love it when the pinks come.
Except when they bump into the boat.
And you're not catching them.
It's frustrating.
Tiffany knew right where I was at.
She's like pinkksss.
I love catching pinks.
Yeah.
And I think this is a huge thing.
And going back to what we were talking about,
new anglers as well.
Yeah.
This is your fishery.
The pinks?
If you are a new fly angler.
This is your year, 2021.
This is your year.
Okay.
New year, new you.
This is where we're going.
But this, yeah.
This, especially for fly anglers.
Absolutely, for sure.
So you're not catchin tiddlers.
You're catching salmon and they
are spunky as heck.
And if you.
They put up a good fight.
You know what, as a new angler, this is
a fantastic resource that we have that
comes in, I mean even.
Every couple of years.
Yeah.
Every odd year.
And they come into pretty much almost every.
Yeah, almost all the systems.
Most of them.
I mean, big ones would be like the Fraser.
The Frasers.
Squamish, Chilliwack, Harrison.
Yeah.
They all, you know, they all get them.
Hopefully they let us fish for them.
Yeah.
Yeah last time we were.
Knock on wood.
A little out of luck down there.
Yeah.
But pinks are a geat option, especially
for those new anglers.
Cause they can go out.
Absolutely.
And I mean, you're not catching like a little
like me- you know, little dinker, you're catching
a salmon that's gonna be anywhere from three to
six pounds on average.
You might get a bigger one than that, but you
can go and you can catch them and you learn a lot.
And as a fly angler, especially when you have
that consistent kind of rate where you're
interacting with fish, you know, it really
helps you as an angler.
So that's depending.
Depending on.
Mid July.
Yeah.
Certain rivers.
Till September.
Like Squamish usually gets them earlier.
Like Howe Sound Fisheries usually get them
earlier than the Fraser.
But yeah, usually it's like mid July, even early
July people start getting them off the beach
and then July through.
Mid-October.
Yeah, technically.
Yeah.
Depending on where you are for sure.
Depending on where you are, the Fraser
will get them till October anyways,
through September and.
That just overlaps all the trout
fishing we have too.
Oh my gosh.
Everything's overlapping in that time.
Yeah.
That's when I have.
September.
You have people coming in the shop
and they're like, so I want to go fishing.
I'm like, what do you want to do?
Cool.
Pick one.
Which way do you want to go?
How far and what do you got?
Big fish?
Little fish?
So yeah, summer is great and that's not, we're
not even counting the, like you kind of touched
on before the crabbing that you have available
to you, the saltwater fishery that sits right
out in front of our city.
Oh.
So lucky.
You know, so.
So lucky.
You know, people are like, what do I do?
I don't know what to do this weekend.
I'm like, you know, we've got so much.
Do you not know what to do because there's
too many options?
Too many things.
Yeah.
And then we, I guess we would shift into
the fall and then.
And you got salmon for days.
Salmon, coho.
Coho, chinook, chum.
Where viable.
Yeah.
Coho starts in September in the South Fraser
systems anyway, like the Vedder we'll get
them early, early September through
mid November, almost.
Squamish got some in October, November.
Chum will start showing up in October, November.
Yeah, it's just a roller coaster of options.
Back into winter springs.
Yeah.
There you go.
And then you also, there's all
trout in like.
Oh in the fall.
Pretty much in the fall too.
I mean, they'll follow those salmon up as well.
So there's lots of trout opportunities as well
that go right through till Christmas time and.
Absolutely.
Really?
Through salmon eggs.
Yeah, absolutely.
There that's another thing too, that
October on really when the salmon show up.
Yeah.
All the egg fishing and stuff.
So there's, that's always kind of there and
people forget about that.
Interesting.
We get so stuck.
And then just like you said too, October, you
can go lake fishing.
Oh yeah.
Totally.
It can be super good, but that just kind of gets
thrown out the window.
As soon as July comes around.
Oh, for, I mean for us living in lower mainland
anyway, I'm sure the guys end up in Kamloops or.
Like what are you talking about all the
way till it freezes up.
And then we fish the hard water.
That's right.
Yeah.
And then, yeah, ice fishing, which, you know,
we don't get a lot of down here, but that's
definitely an option.
A lot of people do that.
I'm dying to go ice fishing this year.
I don't know why, something about it.
It's pretty fun.
I've never had too much success ice fishing.
I would dig a bunch of holes, I put up flags.
I would.
Drank a lot of rum.
I did drink a lot of rum, this is true.
Yeah, it's pretty fun.
That's the thing, you just drink and
stare at a hole in the water or the ice.
It's pretty fun.
I did go to Tunkwa last year.
Oh yeah.
And it was, it, it got pretty addicting.
Yeah?
I'm not going to lie.
Yeah.
And you have like the little, when you have
your fish finder too, it's pretty much like a.
Oh yeah, you guys had a video game going on.
It was a video game, 100% a video game happening,
live video game.
And huge shout out to Tunkwa Lake
resort for that and.
Ugh, we're supposed to go this year.
Rob up there at Tunkwa lake, pretty much like
helped me with that.
And it is unreal.
Very cool.
When you get somebody that is like dialed
into ice fishing.
Yeah.
And he like mentors, you.
I was like, this is the funnest thing.
Oh, we did a trip, a family trip up to a mile
high resort last winter.
I mind you, the fish aren't big, but
it's so much fun.
So fun.
It is fun up there.
Especially when it's not, like mind you, we
didn't have a big ice fishing tent, we were
just in lawn chairs on the lake, but man,
it's so much fun.
I could see if you had a tent and a stove.
Yeah.
So my dad.
You'd be hard pressed to get me off that.
My dad, we did that one trip.
He bought himself a huge 10 person ice
fishing tent this year.
Nice.
So we can go, but thanks to COVID,
everything's closed.
So until next time, I guess.
Yeah so.
But we're set for next time.
Oh, there's, I don't think you could
say, unless it rains torrentially, which
can happen in January.
Yeah.
And we're in Vancouver so, disclaimer.
But honestly, unless there's some
apocalyptic event, you can do something
every single day in the lower mainland.
And even when there's those crazy rains, there
are a couple systems with dams on them.
There's things that you can do.
That are still very fishable with that.
Yeah.
Amount of rain.
We are so lucky here.
There is never a day when there's not something
that you could do.
Absolutely.
So with the rain though, that sort of blows out
the river or it's just unpleasant to fish?
No, it blows up.
Yeah.
Like we're supposed to get what?
80 mils tomorrow that'll blow at the
river, it'll be brown, it'll be too high.
Eh.
So go duck hunting?
Go duck hunting.
Yeah.
You know, maybe, maybe, or, you know, it's
January, you could go up the mountain or
something like that too.
But that, however, if you were really, really,
really keen on it, there would be things
that you could go.
There's some options.
To do tomorrow.
You know, you might have to work a little
bit harder and it might not be productive as
other opportunities, but you could fish
365 here in never do the same thing twice.
And the other thing with when the river does blow
out, that people don't really think about, those
fish are still there.
They don't just all wash away into the ocean
cause the river came up.
Right.
They're still there.
And you know what, what they do is that
we'll just tuck into, you know, really close
to shore and they'll go up the inside so.
So work the inside.
Work the inside, maybe use a bigger
presentation.
There's still options.
It's definitely not as productive, but there's
still options and those, those rivers with dams,
they definitely, you know, hold the water
back as one would say.
You're not going to catch anything sitting
at home on the couch.
Definitely not going to catch anything
on the couch.
Yeah.
Practice your cast.
It's a long cast from the couch.
I like that.
You've used that before.
That's not mine.
I'll have to give a shout out for, to Tim.
I snatched that one from you, sorry buddy.
Well, okay.
So we've got an idea of a calendar of what
we're looking for.
Basically, there's something everywhere,
all the time, if you're willing to work for it.
Yeah.
But a new person getting into it.
So there's a couple things that I'm sure
you guys probably hear a lot in, like
what gear do I need?
And then I guess the other one would be,
man, those regulations, they're tougher to
read than the hunting regulations and they
change and they change on a regular basis and you
gotta be able to keep up with the ongoing changes
and on my end, freshwater or saltwater, or am
I, is it permissible at this area or not?
Are those common questions that you get?
Big time.
They definitely don't try to make it easy on you
as far as regulations go.
What's up with that?
No.
They want to catch you!
You definitely.
And I guess you guys from the hunting side
as well, I mean, you, you, you almost need
a law degree to read some of that stuff.
Yeah.
Kind of.
So, yeah.
And yeah.
I mean, I'm not a conspiracy theorist,
but I do think that there's a bit of gray
area that's intentionally put in there.
Ooo, this'll be fun.
No I just, I think that it there's a lot
of instances where it could have been written
a lot clearer and that comes from both
the federal and the provincial side as well.
BUt it is, it is hard and I can see,
you know, people get intimidated when they
come in the shop.
Right.
They're like, what can I do?
And you're like, I get it.
I know why you're confused.
Believe me.
I sit there and I try and decipher half the
stuff half the time, so.
Right.
It can be challenging.
So for hunting, there's Mark Stenroos.
He made an app he's, did a podcast with him
before, called iHunter.
And it's got the synopsis in an app form, but it
also has like pictures of the animals and it tells
you geo locate where you are and what you can and
can't hunt at that time.
Is there anything like that for fishing?
There is actually, there is a new, the BCWF I
believe, it's on my phone, I can grab it.
They had one that just came out as well
that is an app that's similar to that as well.
Oh interesting.
Yeah.
I would urge people though, like,
you gotta know.
You still have to do your due diligence.
Right, learn how to read it.
And stuff like that.
Yeah.
I don't go fishing without, you know,
don't go fishing new area without checking
the regulations.
I feel like a lot of people they just assume.
Yeah.
I think, I think an app.
I agree with the app.
I think the app is a great resource.
Resource, but you never rely on it, but the
same breath you read the synopsis, it says
this is a resource and it's not the law.
Have you ever seen that?
Yeah, I, yeah.
Woah, I haven't seen that.
I feel like we have to be aware of, you
can't use it and be like, Oh the app said.
Right.
Oh totally not.
Yeah.
That doesn't work.
I've heard that before.
But if you can cross check it.
Just say, okay I got it, it says it's
open, let me take a look at the synopsis.
Yeah, it looks good.
And I should put a caveat on that one, for the
hunting synopsis anyways, it says this isn't law.
This is to be used as a reference.
It's a synop- the word synopsis means
condensed version of, and the same thing I
would think applies to the fishing synopsis.
Cause it's all based on something else so.
I would think that too, but then how do
they charge you on the wildlife act then?
Under, it wouldn't be under the synopsis,
but it would be under the wildlife act.
The wildlife act would be synopsisized.
See, already were in the gray area.
That's all of two sentences to get
into the gray area.
Boop.
Let's back out of this one.
Okay, so.
I mean, in short, the fishing synopsis,
it's not that ridiculous to read.
The fresh water one anyway, for trout.
Sure, freshwater.
And steelhead and whatnot.
For sure.
Don't get me started on DFO.
Yeah, the province.
We talked about this earlier.
Yeah, exactly.
So the annoying part as somebody who works
in a shop anyway, is that salmon regulations
aren't printed out.
They're on a website.
Right.
So they're are two totally different
regulations.
Right.
And a lot of people don't know how to find them or
don't know where to look.
So trout and steelhead, everything managed
provincially is printed out in the synopsis and
you get a paper copy.
And that does get easier.
It is easier.
So based on what region you're in every, you
know, there's chapters based on the regions, you
look at the front page of that region and it'll
give you the general regulations and if you're
going to a specific river or lake, you
look them up in those.
There's basically a huge list of all the
different exceptions.
Right.
So it'll be, you know, let's say rice
lake, I'm going to rice lake tomorrow.
Look up rice lake it'll if it says something,
if it says, you know, no motors allowed,
no bait allowed, blah, blah, blah.
Then those are the rules for that lake.
Easy.
If you don't see rice lake in the list, then
you just refer back to the general regulations
in that region.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
Salmon regulations are on the a whole other
thing and they get updated pretty frequently
in season, so it's definitely a lot harder
for people to fall along with that one.
Especially, well, I mean the Fraser River, we're
talking about that, but that's going to be tidal
water up until what
Mission.
The bridge?
Yeah.
I think, yeah that's probably actually
one thing that gets asked a lot.
I mean, we have provincial regulations
which apply to all our freshwater systems.
And then we also have salmon, which transcends
both freshwater and saltwater system.
So they're managed by saltwater.
Right.
Or by sorry, by the federal government, but
when they enter into a freshwater system,
the freshwater system regulations still
apply, but they're still managed by the
provincial government.
Right.
So for instance, in the summertime on the
Capilano, you cannot use bait after August 1st.
Okay.
That's a provincial regulation.
Okay.
But if you're fishing for coho in the summertime,
in August, you cannot use bait, which is a
provincial regulation, but you can only keep X
number of coho in there.
So you have to constantly be looking at two
different regulations at the same time, which
is not all the time.
I will say, clearly explain that that's
how it works.
I'd agree.
Yeah.
So they had some confusing ones
this season too.
Yeah, so that can definitely, that's
another thing.
That's a bit of an inhibitor, especially
to a new angler coming.
They're like, so what do I read?
I'm like, well, you actually have
to read both.
Yeah.
And they're like, what?
But I'm fishing in the river and I'm
looking at a DFO?
I'm like, yeah but you're fishing for
salmon, you know?
So that can be a bit of a hurdle for new
anglers as well, is that, we're fortunate
because we have all these anadromous species
and we have these, two regulatory bodies,
but then on the other hand, it's like woah,
woah, woah, now I have twice as many rules?
Right.
And you gotta make sure you're following both
of them and you're not.
And be able to identify the fish too.
Right.
At what stage in their spawning sequence.
Yeah, yeah exactly.
Yeah, one thing I will say, if you are confused
about regulations, just call your local shop or
go into your local shop.
Don't just go fishing thinking that you got it
all figured out based on one of the regulations
that you read, or somebody said something,
blah, blah, blah.
Your buddy said that this is okay.
Just ask.
You know, the guys at the shop will know.
And they're used to it.
You guys get it all the time right?
They're used to it.
We get those questions every day, all day.
I think that's actually a really good point
because that kind of segues into our, like
the whole premise of our women's group is
just ask the question.
You know what I've had phone calls at the
shop where it's like, Hey uhm, uhm, uhm, and
you can hear the river in the background.
And it's like, uhh, can you keep this fish here?
And you're like, uh no, it's closed.
It's like, okay, click.
And you're lik, uh ohh.
What did you kill?
Something is on the beach that's not supposed
to be, but if you're not sure, just like
Cat at said, just ask.
Phone a shop, a shop is never gonna say anything
to you, and I'm sorry if you've had a bad.
We don't bite.
Experience for that, but the shops don't
bite, like we're here to be that, literally
our job is to read those regulations
and understand those regulations.
Right.
So we sit there and when a new notice comes out
or something, you have to sit there and it's
terrible to sit there and read through all
that, but that's our job.
And so phone your shop and be like, Hey,
I'm a little confused on this, what's the
perception here, and then go from there.
That's why the shops are there.
That's why we have small businesses that are there
to read those rules.
Exactly.
And understand them.
So tell me about the BC Women's
Fly Fishing group.
Just one day you woke up.
Sorry, I was waiting until you took a drink.
Yeah.
How did it start really?
So maybe we'll start with how, how Gill
and I started fishing together, I guess.
Yeah.
Cause that's where the conversation came up.
I remember the conversation we had.
Me too.
And it was really, it was fun.
Do you wanna?
Okay.
Yeah, let's hear it.
Okay.
I'll go.
Okay.
So essentially what happened is
back in the day.
So my ex boyfriend and her boyfriend
are best friends.
Okay.
And so they would guide up in Haida Gwaii
and they'd be gone all summer because
that's what guides do.
Bless them.
Sure.
But they'd be gone all summer.
So from mid to late June, right in through
til early August, like.
Trout season.
Yeah.
You know like, okay bye, I love you,
have a good time.
You know we respect, they do what they love.
We respect that, we understand it.
Sure.
You do you.
So then you're left kind of all summer.
So that being said, they started, they're still
best friends and you know, they kind of had
that and they go away.
So I think actually when it started, cause I've
known Dimitri longer, her boyfriend longer
than I've known you.
Yeah.
Actually, and Dimitri said like, Hey you
should get in touch with Catherine.
Like she really likes trout fishing.
I was like, Oh, okay, that sounds cool.
So I have to say one thing too, our boyfriends
don't like trout fishing.
They're a nuisance.
If it's not a steelhead, chinook or a sturgeon.
Who cares.
So anyway, that was what it.
That was never appreciated.
How it started.
Yeah.
So then I said, I think we went and
fished the Thompson for trout I think for
the first time that was kind of our thing.
And then your car got stolen.
Yeah.
What?
But that's a different story, but anyways.
Adventures.
Yeah.
So it kind of grew from there and we kind of got
connected through them and it came to be that we
had this shared passion for trout fishing, which
we couldn't necessarily have them have with
them because you know.
Cause they're not into it.
No, and they're are, they're both
very, extremely good anglers, like.
Oh for sure.
Top tier.
They just don't care about trout.
They just don't care.
It doesn't go.
Actually I got, Dimitri likes lake fishing.
Yeah.
Disclaimer.
Only chironomid though.
As soon as the chironomids go away and
damsel flies and may fly nimphs come out, uh, no.
But yeah,
so we hung out and then we started to develop
that we had this like really great shared
passion for trout fishing specifically, which has
obviously expanded into more, but it kind of
started there and we're like, Oh, this is great.
Like they're gone.
We both are in the same situation.
You know, they're gone, we have each
other, we can hang out.
It's perfect.
Totally, totally.
And then we go trout fishing.
And the vibe with another female angler.
So different than with, I dunno, it's, I don't
wanna be, mean to be,
It's just different.
Sexist, but yes, it's so much fun.
It's not competitive.
It's, you know, you're yeah.
It's just.
Our conversations are differnt in the car.
On the same level.
Conversations are so much fun.
It's not like, I missed that fish like four
hours ago and I'm like really pissed about it.
Although it does happen.
But, you know, it'll be still like
girl talk, it'll.
Yeah.
So it's still fun that way.
So we kind of went and it just like
instantly clicked.
Somebody gets a big fish and there's like
crazy screams going on.
And we're like so pumped for eachother.
It's not like I'm going to be like pouting.
No.
Not to say that all boys pout, but I've
been in situations where I've fished with.
There's never.
Guys.
Been a pouty session with us.
No.
No pouts.
But to be like, disclaimer, I fish
with other the guys and it's like 20 minutes of
pouting cause I got one.
Yeah.
That's hilarious.
I'm just going to say it comes from
actual observations that I've had.
Yeah.
Right.
And so we'd go and it was just fun and
it was different and we're like, Oh my God.
Like, I wish that everybody
could, all like.
Experience that.
Our female anglers could have this.
Like, we're so lucky that we had the, kind of
that relationship built.
Right.
From them.
But we were just so excited about that
and it was cool.
And then we've, that's grown since then.
That was, that was a while ago now.
How long ago was that?
Five years.
Almost.
At least almost.
Five years this summer, I guess.
Cause Dimitri and I, it was the first summer
Dimitri and I were together, I think.
Yeah.
Something like that.
So right, right away.
You guys decided, Hey, we click, this is awesome.
Let's get others into this?
Or did it take a while?
It took a while.
Well, I think I brought the idea up with you one
day when we were driving back from the river.
It's like, Hey.
Yeah.
And then you said it and I was like, hey I was
thinking the same thing because it was weird.
And we just had this kind of, we were kind of on
the same page of that.
And it's funny, cause we always talk about
being on the same page, but yeah, you
just you're like, Hey, I was kinda thinking
that, you know, and.
With the two shops.
Yeah.
We both our shop's.
There's more and more ladies coming
into the shops.
We just wanted to create this little, like.
We kind of wanted to recreate.
Community.
For other people kind of what we felt.
And there's a lot of women's groups, women's
fly fishing groups in the States and I
feel like Canada's really behind on that.
So yeah, we just wanted to try it out
and start one here.
There's tons in the states.
So how many people belong to the fly fishing group?
So what, it's two and a half years old now.
Okay.
And we've got over 650 now.
650?
That's on our facebook group.
Just BC.
Yeah.
Wow.
Well, yeah, I think the Facebook groups
I checked the other day, it was like 640.
Although a bunch of people joined the
other night after your zoom thing.
Yeah it's grown quite a lot.
And I think too, It's just kind of
having that access.
I mean, Facebook, I think is a great forum
for you can participate as much or as little
as you want, but it's still, it's still
right there for you.
It's free and it's easy to join.
Easy to find.
We have a base, I'll explain it.
We have a closed group page on Facebook.
BC Women's Fly Fishing group, if you want to
look it up, feel free, but it's closed right?
So you have to ask to join.
So we kind of weed out all the fake accounts
or guys, but there's definitely been some
guys trying to join.
Seriously, you find that?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Wow.
But we just want to have like a safe place for
women to ask questions and you know, I'm going
fishing this weekend, anybody want to come
along and we just don't want to have any
creeps on there, if you know what I mean.
There's no like snarkiness or
meanness or anything.
I won't name the names of the groups on
Facebook, but there's a few different groups
on Facebook for hunting and fishing and there,
there's just so much attitude and you get.
Ego.
Yeah, totally.
If you don't know what you're doing,
you get ego.
If you ask, like heaven forbid, you're one of
these guys that's new to hunting and says,
Hey, I'm going up to region eight, you
know, where's a good spot to get whatever.
You can't ask that.
Your group, it's a given, if you have a
question, just ask it.
Yeah.
I think that's so important.
Everyone's so polite and nice and encouraging.
I don't know.
I, yeah, I don't know what it is.
I think that comes from that.
We've kind of fostered that because it be,
because we come from the shop, we know that those
questions are out there.
Don't be scared to ask that question,
but we also want the space to be there.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Yeah.
People to feel comfortable asking
those questions.
It's easy, it should be easy.
And when you do ask those questions, you
know what you're going to get legit responses.
So you've got the Facebook group, but you
guys also do zoom calls.
Gill started that basically with COVID.
Yes.
Cause we used to do a couple of years ago.
We used to do so much!
Yeah, I know, it's so sad.
We used to do like fly tying nights every.
Trips.
Month almost.
Casting lessons.
At the shop, in person.
We did some like big seminars at Cabela's with
some special speakers.
Everything in person.
We had some like introduction to fly
fishing courses in person, but with COVID
we haven't been able to meet up in groups.
Mind you, it's kind of a good and bad
thing because doing the stuff in person,
it is a BC women's fly fishing groups.
So there's people from all over the province,
the Kootenays, Prince George, Smithers, blah,
blah, you name it.
So having those in-person courses
only select people.
Pretty tough.
Yeah!
I mean, mind you, we have a great group of ladies
in the lower mainland that are super active in
the group and love coming to our courses and that.
But the zoom courses definitely opened up
to having those other women able to join, which
was really cool I find.
So do they have to pay to join?
Nope.
Free.
All free?
You know, I thought about, and this is
actually interesting.
Cause on Saturday night we did that zoom call
and I was talking to Sarah Simpson who has
the Western Outdoors Women Facebook group too.
And they're in Salmon Arm.
Okay.
And she does it and I was talking to her
and we were just kind of conversing on a
couple of things too.
And she was under kind of the same thought.
And we've talked about it, cause people say,
Oh, you know, maybe you should charge and stuff.
Membership fees, yeah.
You know, we will charge, like if we do
a casting lesson or something like that.
Yeah, not everything is free.
Yeah.
Or a.
Sure.
Like our in-person fly tying nights
where materials were required and stuff,
there was a charge just to cover the materials
essentially and.
But.
That makes sense.
It's super affordable.
For sure.
But the zoom calls and stuff, I think we did,
we still want it to be on a format where it
was, it was accessible to everyone because
even if there's a charge on a membership, it
still puts a bit of a boarder to some people.
Sure.
The fundamental thing is it's supposed to
be a safe space they can ask questions and
there's no judgment.
You know, there should not be judgment.
And this also comes from us, both
working in shops.
I've been a girl, you know, I.
How long have you been a girl for?
A long time!
Most your life.
Since the beginning.
Pretty much my entire life.
But anyways, I've been a girl that
works in the shop for, you know, 15 years.
I get it.
Like I've, you know, I.
Talk about judgment.
My dad owns the shop, I've worked there
since I was 15, without doing the math, that's
like 16 years for me.
But I've had people that have walked in and have
refused to talk to me.
Same.
Really?
And you know what, like, okay.
Still happens.
Sure, whatever, but you know what, like this
is not a side job for me, this is my job.
This is.
This is your life.
Catherine's full time job.
This is not a side hobby for us.
Totally.
I do this, I spend hours out on the water, so
don't walk in and talk to the 14 year old kid
that works at my shop.
That's the funniest ever.
Because he's a male, that's been fishing
for a year and a half.
You know what, if they want to, go ahead.
Yeah, no problem.
Yeah, and when he can't answer your question
and turns to me I will gladly help you.
And it's not about being a female or not,
but it just it still annoys me that we,
you still get that.
So I don't want anyone to feel like that cause
I guess I felt like that, on the daily.
She gets felt like that on the daily.
So I don't want people, I want you to come in and I
want you to come into our group and ask a question
and feel confident asking that question.
Nice.
Yeah.
I like it.
That's accessibility.
Yes.
Yeah.
And you said something earlier that you
touched on, which is really interesting.
I think it ties into this, but you brought up
the word mentorship and you said, you know, if
you go out there, you've got a good mentor to show
you, show you the ropes.
So many people don't have that.
Yeah.
So another thing I guess we didn't really chat
about, but we do a lot where we try to do a
lot of trips day trips and we do our best to
have either Gill and I, or both of us there.
So the cool thing about that is like, we have
a lot of women in the group that, they might
not fish unless they come on one of our
trips and they come on those trips because
they feel comfortable going on a guided trip.
The guide, yes is a male, but one of us,
they know either Gill or I through the shop
or through the group.
And they feel comfortable going with
a group of strangers essentially because
they know one of us.
Whereas, it is intimidating booking
a trip, not knowing a single person
going on that trip.
I mean, you came on one of our trips this fall.
You didn't know anybody, mind you, Gill and I
weren't there on those ones, unfortunately, but.
I did know the guide though.
You didn't know the guide.
Yeah.
Pat was one of your guides at Skeena Spey.
So it was less intimidating.
It is less intimidating when, you know at least
one of the people right.
And I never, I never would have thought, hey,
Trav, I'm gonna spend Sunday up in Squamish.
I'm gonna go fishing.
Bunch of strangers.
I'm going to hire a guide and go out fishing
for whatever right.
Like it just, I would never have done it, but
you guys coordinatde the whole thing
and it was amazing.
It was like one of the best days of the year.
It was so much fun.
And I didn't like, like you said, I
didn't know anyone.
Yeah.
It was just awesome.
Awesome.
Really enjoyed it.
We have just as much fun.
Like I love our women's group trips, honestly.
It's, they're so much fun.
I look forward to those more than anything we do.
We try to do.
A decent amount.
I mean, we usually do a few in the spring up the
Lillooet with Curtis and those are my favorite.
Oh my God.
We booked two boats and it's like 10 ladies
and jet boats going up the, you know.
Ooo.
Across Harrison Lake up the Lillooet.
Catching trout left, right and center.
And it's so much fun.
We, it's just been like the best two years.
It's so much fun.
And the cool thing is like, we're making tons
of friends from it.
And I feel like a fishing buddy matchmaker
a lot of the times.
Yes, 100%.
Friends that come out of it.
Like there's people in our group that are
like best friends now because of this group
and it's so cool.
And they've found fishing themselves.
It's amazing.
I love it.
It, it makes me like, that's probably like
the best part of it is when you see people and
they're like, Oh, we went fishing the other day
and you're like, so cool.
We've done our job.
But I think too, like I sometimes, I feel like
both of our families grew up fishing and stuff.
So that was always available to us.
Not everybody has that, right.
Not everybody has a dad or a family, or a mom or
a boyfriend or a husband.
Absolutely.
Or you know, a grand parent that got
them into fishing.
Some people just generally want to
get into it, but I couldn't imagine trying
to jump in nowadays.
Oh my god.
It'd be scary as heck, right.
So I got to ask, for the other 50%
of our listeners.
Do you guys have a counterpart?
Oh, I mean, there's certain clubs in the
lower mainland, guy, you know, there's what
the Totems, the Ospreys.
Yeah, North Shore Fish and Game Club.
There's different games, clubs out there for sure.
A lot of them are, they're not
as easy to join.
You gotta be whatever certain level.
I don't know.
I find the guys aren't as open to having
random strangers join.
I don't know it's not the same.
I find they're not as encouraging and I
don't want to bash.
Yeah, that's why you started your group.
Yeah.
It's different when you're a woman.
It's different.
That's such an odd.
I feel so mean saying that.
That's such a great question.
I'm trying to like, think of an example and there's
not really something that parallel's.
Cause there's a lot of guys out there
that'll want to learn in the exact same way.
Yeah.
It's a lot more competitive.
Sure.
For the guys.
Not all.
Yeah, not all.
Not all.
And there's a ton out there that just, they
want to learn in the same fashion, but.
Absolutely.
So one thing we have like kind of thought about is.
To do more like co-ed trips or couples trips.
So that might be something down the
road, but it would be cool to have a
similar guys group.
I mean, there's a few out there.
There's like Stillwaters that Facebook page,
that thing's great.
No, I think.
But there is.
It might not be as pronounced and it might
not be as defined as an individual group,
but I think there is.
Yeah.
Is that, when you say stillwaters, that's
not the store sports.
No not the shop.
Yeah.
There's like a Facebook page.
It's super, they're super friendly on there.
Any questions you have about lake fishing.
There you go guys.
Brent Gill, I think is the one that runs it.
Anyway great group, but it's super open.
It's co-ed it's not just guys obviously.
Sure.
But there's I think like thousands of guys
on there now there's a lot, it's a big group.
Yeah.
I think actually, just to go into that, because
you kind of touched on that a little bit is as
we talk about like new anglers too, I think I
feel, a little bit as a disclaimer, I have
to say this and we get really, really caught
up nowadays in the media and portraying
yourself as being good.
And I think something that we've always
talked about in the group as well is,
it's okay to be new.
It's okay.
It's so okay to be new.
It's so okay it's not even funny.
It's okay to suck.
Cause that's how you learn.
I sucked so bad today on the river,
it's not even funny.
Honestly though that is so important because
everybody now, and it's just the climate
that we live in.
Okay.
Social media, it's it's in your
face all the time.
It's all.
Well everyone rocks on social media.
Of course.
Everyone's a rockstar.
Live your best life.
But, but it it's okay to be new.
And I think that's really important to talk about
because you get a lot of people and they get
so wound up about like, Oh my gosh, I have to
be able to prove to everybody that I'm good.
We have to remember to learn the process
to love the process of learning again.
I like that.
Because.
That's the cool thing about fishing you're
constantly learning.
You never know
everything and I'm sure it's the
same with hunting.
I mean, I don't dive into the hunting world,
but I'm sure it's the same with hunting right?
Always.
You don't know everything.
And we have to remember to learn to lov .That
process of learning.
Absolutely.
And it's fun and it's okay.
You know what, if you went out and you didn't
get anything today.
Oh my gosh.
That's fine.
It's so fine.
That's what I love about fly fishing
is because I very rarely catch anything.
SO it's really taught me to be like,
chill out on the expectations of success.
And I don't need to bring, especially
catch and release.
It's like, I'm not bringing home any fish
meat at all tonight.
Doesn't even matter.
It's like I'm going to go, I'm going to
practice my cast and it's going to be calm.
It's like it's the most relaxing, meditative
experience I've ever had in my life.
I am completely addicted to it.
I just, I love it so much.
And it's so against everything that I've
ever been like super excited about, because
I suck at it and I very rarely catch anything.
But when I do, it's just awesome, but it's not.
It's that much better.
Yeah, but it's not like why I'm out
there doing it.
No, but you also know that feeling when
you make a really nice looking cast.
Oh it's the best, I love it.
So, you have to learn to love that process.
And that's what it's about.
It's not about like, you know, getting that
pictures that you can post it so that you
can be like, look, how many likes I got?
It's like, Hey, look, I made this really
great cast and I feel really good about
myself today because I laid out a 70 foot
cast and I feel great.
Plus most of my friends wouldn't care if they saw
an awesome cast I did.
No, but I think that's where we have to shift.
That importance too.
And I, it doesn't matter if it's angling
or fly fishing or whatever, it's like,
we have to shift that.
And so talking just to, you know, the new, the
100% group, not just the 50% talking to the
100% group, like let's talk about learning.
And I think that's what it is group.
Especially we try and like ask questions,
please ask questions.
We, or whoever else here is expert, because
there's certainly lots of other girls in our
group that are very experienced as well.
Like let other people help you.
And like, it's okay.
I've lots of questions.
I don't know anything about hunting, but you
know, if I'm going to get into it, I'm going to go
ask somebody that knows.
And I don't care.
It's hard to learn if you think you already
know everything.
Absolutely.
I think that's like the biggest thing about
this group, is that there is no, like you
guys don't act like you know everything.
I'm not not saying that you act like you
don't know anything, but not at all.
Like, I'm always amazed at how much I'm like, Oh
my God, I can't believe how much there is to
know how much you guys do know, but you don't act
like you know everything.
Whereas I find sometimes dealing with other shops
or people or, not to say guys in general,
but just other people, like you have to have
an answer and you guys don't act like that.
And the group's not about always having an answer.
I mean, you do but.
Yeah.
It's okay to say I don't know.
Yeah.
I can look into it and find out later.
Yeah, that's an absolutely another
thing, if I don't know, I'm going to be
like, I don't know.
Let me, let me, let me figure out
the answer for you.
I might have to get back to you, but I'll
figure it out an answer.
And the cool thing about the group too,
is there are so many amazing women on there.
If I don't know.
100%.
The answer, if it's some crazy like
entomology thing or fish ID thing, there's
amazing biologists that work for DFO that
are part of the group.
And you're like, Oh, well, Katie can answer
or so-and-so can answer.
Or, you know, maybe she knows, I don't
know everything.
Actually.
I just asked Katie today if she would do a
presentation again on, she just got her master's
degree last year.
So we're going to get to.
There's a few, there's quite a few biologists
actually in the group.
Yeah.
So this is going to be an upcoming possible
zoom presentation?
She did one in the spring.
Katie, you're committed.
Yeah.
Sorry, Katie you're in.
I did talk to her today, so she knows
what's coming.
But yeah, so we try and do that, but yeah
we know we certainly don't know everything,
but we just want to be able to facilitate.
Yeah.
Some answers, whether it comes from
elsewhere, that's fine.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Well, is there anything else that we should
be talking about?
Cause I'm looking at the time here and I
think best practices for a podcast and they
say we've gone over it, but that's okay.
This is very interesting.
Is there anything else we should be talking about?
Do we got to get some plugs in for your shops?
Any specials coming up?
Oo.
Ahh, put you on the spot.
Boxing day's over.
So we don't really have valentine's day sales.
No, no.
We could, we could.
You could say, you could say.
Totally should!
You could say you got your, your lady angler
in your life that really wants to get into fly
fishing or gear fishing, depending where you're
at, you know, go and buy gold and buy them
a rod theyre really.
You know what your lady really wants.
A fly rod.
Yeah, she says she wants flowers, but
I guarantee you, she really wants a new fly
rod so, better get it.
You heard it here.
No, I think.
Who needs jewelry on their fingers when
they can have jewelry on their rungs.
Absolutely.
I don't know, just, we need to be more positive
and we just need to all be more supportive of
you, whether you're a guy, girl, however you
go, like just let's keep it positive.
Yeah.
I like it.
Thank you very much for taking the time to
come and speak on The Silvercore Podcast.
I have a funny feeling.
There might be follow up podcasts.
Well this is really fun.
Thanks for hanging out.
This has been so mcuh fun.
You guys are awesome.
Yeah.
Tonight I'm joined by Catherine Laflamme.
Did I say that right?
No, you didn't.
You said it like laphlegm.
Ekk.
See.
You're saying it like it's phlegm.
It's Laflamme.
Laflamme.
Sorry.
We'll try this one again.
And we met through a mutual friend,
April Vokey of Anchored Outdoors.
Welcome Cat.
Hi!
Sorry.
Hey, that's quite alright, not a problem.
I'm still laughing about the phlegm.
Okay, okay.
Serious.
No problem.
You know, and uh, I, I'll, oh.
It's okay, you don't need those.
Your heads too small.
I have a really small head and I have
really small ears.