Fishing at Jacko Lake
Looking back at these photos, it's hard to believe that this was not even a month ago. Today my garden is a snowy winter wonderland. This is a beautiful place to live, regardless of the season, but I especially like our autumns. Because of the rain-shadow effect, we receive the least amount of precipitation in our province, so our fall months are overwhelmingly crisp, clear, and sunny. Gold and blue are the dominant colours of the landscape.
This was a terrible year for fishing. I'm not sure how everyone else did, but we caught absolutely nothing this time. There were a few factors working against us, the main one being that we don't have a boat, or fly fishing equipment. Another is that it's trickier now that we need to schedule a babysitter to make it happen. We used to take Little Forager along in a carrier, but now he's too wiggly and isn't content if he can't be out exploring. When he's older we can take him and teach him how it all works, but for now it's just much easier if we go by ourselves. Still another thing - more specific to this summer alone - was the oppressive smoke from what was British Columbia's worst ever season of wildfires.
I knew the beautiful weather was coming to an end, and so I enlisted a friend to watch Little Forager so Mr. Forager and I could head out to Jacko Lake for a few hours one afternoon. I'm so glad I did because I'm fairly certain that this was the last warm sunny weekend of the year! Like I said, now everything is frozen, and likely to remain that way for a while! It's possible we might have another warm spell, but I'm not holding my breath at this point.
Still no fish for us, but it was so nice to spend a few hours alone with my husband. Fishing is so relaxing. This spot at Jacko was a perfect place to relax in the sun even if it was a little disappointing not to be bringing home any trout for dinner.
Jacko Lake is in the centre of a big controversy at the moment, because the land is held by a local mining corporation, but is also thought to be a culturally significant site for the Tk'emlups and Skeetchestn Indian Bands. In the Secwepemc language the area around the lake is called Pipsell, and is thought to be where the legend called The Trout Children took place (see the link at the bottom of this page if you want to read the legend).
I love this place, and personally it is hard for me to imagine it disappearing from public access because of the proposed nearby open pit mine. I'm not very well versed on the politics of the situation, but I would certainly grieve the loss.
