Pacific Angler
"The Annual Fly B.C. Kettle Drift was held at the Victorian Motel, an awesome motel/RV park located on the banks of the Kettle River in Grand Forks. If you are looking to stay in the town of Grand Forks, I highly recommend the Victorian."This was my first time fishing this system, so I really didn’t have a past experience to compare it to. Some of the locals and repeat attendees told me that the fishing was a little slower than usual, however, I found the fishing to be anything but slow! It was not the kind of trout fishing that you can just aimlessly cast a fly out and expect a quick result. That being said, those who deliberately and thoughtfully worked a piece of water were rewarded quite handsomely.We rose rainbows to a variety of different dry flies. Large hoppers in tan, yellow, green, and red were the go-to dry fly. Although large foam and rubber legged flies were productive, many fish were fooled with Stimulators, Goddard Caddis, California Blondes, Parachute Adams and even mice! These are some of the most surface-willing rainbows I have ever had the pleasure of fishing for. So much so that nymphs were almost less effective than dries, almost. Productive nymphs included black stone flies in sizes 12-14, Copper Johns in sizes 12-14, and hares ear particularly in size 16. I must admit it was near impossible for me to continue to nymph fish after having several trout boil on the indicator. The average fish was 12-16 inches, but we connected with several 18-inch rainbows and a few over 20 inches . "