Of the $1 billion-plus in annual expenditures on fishing in this province, roughly half comes from anglers fishing in freshwater. And the Freshwater Fisheries Society plants seven million fish across the province to improve our fishing.

Locally, there are 35 lakes in the CRD, most of which are stocked. Elk Lake, along with Shawnigan, is a good example where fishing is always good because as many as 35,000 trout are planted in sequential drops from March all the way into November. And for you chironomid fishers that can spell year-round action.

Chironomid keeners place an anchor out each end of their craft over shoals of 15 feet deep or so. With their float indicators on top and the line below one foot shorter than the bottom, they put teeny-weeny nymphs in the feeding lane of trout for most of the winter as well as summer. With 'catchables' as pan-sized trout plants are called growing an inch per month this means that in no time flat keeners are into two-pound trout even when nary a trout can be seen on the surface.

On Vancouver Island about 400,000 trout are planted each year, largely rainbow and cutthroat trout, along with anadromous rainbows commonly known as steelhead. The most recent rainbow plant in Elk Lake was Nov. 20, so there are fresh fish out there. And some streams receive sea-run cutthroat trout, such as the Quinsam/Campbell, Englishman and Oyster rivers. This means that there are searuns out there all year round for fly anglers willing to get in the car and spend a day up island.

The 270,000 licensed anglers spend a lot of money in freshwater. The stocking program costs about $8 million, so for every dollar spent on fish through licence fees, we anglers pump $21 back into the economy.

The society has expanded its learn-to-fish program to lure kids off the couch. With lots more fish stocked in urban areas, instruction and family days each June, lots of single moms and kids plop their red and white bobbers in lakes to catch their dinners. The FFSBC is confident that its partnership programs, targeted advertising and unified lake-type specific regulation streamlining will result in 2017 participation rates 30 per cent above present and reach an expenditure level of $640 million.

Use of sterile trout results in big gains in size in short order. The Quality Lakes of the Interior for instance are potholes without entrance and exits so that trout are contained in lakes and grow very large on the available insect feed. Freshwater shrimp, mayflies, damsel flies, dragonflies, sedges and caddis form the basis of the diet. And sterile trout put all their growth into getting bigger because they cannot spawn. Rainbows of 10 pounds are commonly caught, big by anyone's standards. And lakes in the Powell River area have rainbows to 20 pounds.

The FFSBC is so confident that you will catch fish that it will lend you some gear, tell you where to go and how to fish when you get there. The five hatcheries: Bull River, Summerland, Clearwater, Abbotsford and Duncan have the basic stuff that you and your kids can amble in, nab and then raid the larder for dinner. And if sitting still and staring at nature is more in your line, then you put a rubber core weight a few feet from the bottom, use Powerbait on the hook because it floats, and prop the rod up so you can do the family thing while waiting for the rod to tip over when the rainbow nabs the bait.

dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com