The Chironomids are finally emerging!!

It has been a really cold and windy spring and ice off is quite late when compared to recent years.  In the Kamloops area we have only a handful of waters to fish but within the next 10 t0 14 days we will have a lot of lakes becoming ice free.  We are finally seeing some good chironomid emergences on lakes like 6 Mile, Morgan and White.  The bugs are small, often best imitated with #18 pupal patterns.  I have been tying #18 bodies on # 16 hooks as the slightly bigger hook size is stronger and less susceptable to bending or straightening on a bigger fish.  We are definitely in very early spring mode and really rushing the fishing but it is hard to stay off the water after a long winter!!  Here is a shot of a throat sample from a fish from 6 Mile lake, the fish are on the pupa despite being very small.  I am excited about an another upcoming spring of chironomid fishing.