Lizard Lake Port Renfrew

Big_Shank

Member
I'm taking the family up to lizard lake next weekend for a camping trip. I will be trolling in my kayak for trout but was also wondering about salmon. I know they are in there sometimes, I've seen them jumping at sunset/sunrise but I can not find any info in regs other than in the freshwater section. Is there any kind of salmon retention in that lake at any point in the year? I was originally planning on using barbed hooks for the trout but if there's a good chance at an incidental salmon getting hooked I'd rather not risk it...

Thanks in advance!
 
I've seen Salmon in Fairy lake as it is connected to the San Juan River. Lizard is not, but does have some big trout. Pretty sure there is no salmon retention.
 
No salmon in Lizard Lake, for sure. Not sure about salmon in Fairy, yes connected to the river and have seen lots in river but never in Fairy lake or tributaries that run into it. Lots of stocked trout, gang troll in early morning should get you a few. Should be fun up there, I would expect masses of people. Hope the "warden" is good as we stopped going there because of the few that want to party all night. I like hearing the owls not the neighbors.

HM
 
I thought all fresh water fishing was with barbless hooks?
 
i was just at fairy lake for the past 4 days and i did not see any salmon jumping. in the evening i did see some trout jumping though. i talked to one person who was trolling and he said it has been very slow.
 
Some of the trout jumping this weekend could have easily been confused for salmon, I didn't know it wasn't connected to the San Juan. I also haven't really ever walked around it, boated around it, or looked at it much on a map though before last weekend like I have at Fairy Lake. I do remember camping at Lizard Lake years and years ago as a kid, this was also when I thought I saw salmon jumping lol. Must have looked way bigger as a kid. There are for sure some big ones in there though. Anybody know how long they have been stocking it for?

I ended up using barbless hooks, releasing a ton of smaller fish and landed three decent keepers on Saturday on my 5wt, two on a black wooly bugger, one on a worm. Sunday brought 3 keepers and lots of throwbacks to the yak, using my 2wt this time instead, what a blast! Same catch ratio on the buggers vs worms. My friends on the shore did terrible with powerbait and zero fish hooked. The problem I was having with using the worms was keeping the newts off them. Everyone I know or saw fishing with them was having troubles with them too.

I have camped tons of times in recent years at Fairy Lake, as well as very close to it and have definitely seen salmon jumping a few times in the late summer and early fall, usually near the end of the lake where it meets the San Juan. Have kayaked out to the river too and seen some big ones cruising in the little connecting channel between the lake and river. We were camping there a few weeks back though and nothing was jumping...
 
Has Lizard turned into a party camp spot? Ive camped there dozens of times but never in the main camp area. Was planning on taking my young kids there next week but maybe not...

ps Ive only caught very small fish there trolling from kayak and watched fish almost take it from shore. I never hit it super hard tho.
 
We spend a lot of time at Lizard lake during the summer. I personally have not seen any sign of Salmon in there at all. Fairy on the other hand has Salmon in it. I was out at our place in Renfrew in early November and spent a few hours at fairy with my son looking around. There were quite a few dead Salmon on the shore and several swimming around in a pool that was only about 50 feet from the lake. The water was low so they would have made it to the lake on the next rainy day. Both spots are great places and the long dock at Lizard is a fun spot for the kids to swim. Here's a pic I found from Fairy Lake last November......

..Fairy Lake.jpg
 
According to http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations/docs/1517/fishing_synopsis_2015-17_region1.pdf, its single barbless in all streams in region 1, all year. If you scroll down, some lakes also have single barbless restrictions listed.

DFO seems to have a separate set of regs for fresh water salmon fishing, which I assume includes something about single barbless only. Might want to call DFO about it though to be sure.

There is only one set of fishing regulations that apply to non-tidal waters and they are the provincial ones. DFO may announce they are permitting retention of a species, but the do not have the jurisdiction to open waters to angling that are other wised closed under the Province's regulations. DFO regulates the salmon, but not the rivers they swim in.
 
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