You work to hard! Take a fishing break!

If you’re anything like me, then you’ve seen your fair share of 9-to-5 jobs. You might have gone to university at some point, and you are definitely no stranger to staring at a computer screen for hours … even though you were probably dreaming about fishing the whole time. But if you’re in the greater Victoria or Langford area, you’re in luck, because there are plenty of places nearby to catch fish on your lunch break.

Victoria is a harbour city surrounded by water, with rivers and lakes scattered throughout its geography. While there are ample freshwater and saltwater fishing opportunities for passionate anglers like you and me, let’s focus on freshwater. In my experience, lunch breaks last anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how cool your boss is. Some professions work split shifts, where you might have 2 or even 3 hours to kill midday! So the age-old question is, what can you do with downtime during your workday?

Fresh trout!

The 30-Minute Angler

Thetis Lake Fishing

When you only have half an hour, fishing isn’t the easiest feat, but it is doable! At one point in my career, I worked a stone’s throw from Thetis Lake. I could drive there from my Colwood office in less than 5 minutes of starting my half-hour lunch break. This meant that I had 20 minutes to do what I wanted before I even had to think about heading back to work. For a guy counting the seconds until his shift was over, this felt like a long time. So naturally I decided to try my hand at the local fishing hole.

Smallmouth bass are abundant in Thetis Lake, and the gear required to fish for them is minimal, which meant they were fair game! As soon as my break began, I hightailed it to the lake with my Shimano Sienna spinning reel, a telescopic rod, and a bag of soft plastics in hand—I was not only fishing but catching within 5 minutes!

To my surprise, I had most of my luck tossing wacky rigged YUM Dingers in the Junebug colour along the shallows of the lake. If my line moved or straightened out, I knew I had a fish on. Seeing as spin casting was so effective, I even tried my fly rod one day, and ended up catching a big bass by dropping heavy stonefly nymphs down the drop-offs that contour the lake’s edges. That proved it—even in a short 20 minutes, it was possible to live out a fishing adventure on urban Vancouver Island!

Bass on the fly

The 60-Minute Angler

Langford Lake Fishing

Now say that you have an hour to kill. Why not try your hand at catching a trout!? This time, we’re faced with a 10-minute drive to Langford Lake each way. That means we have a 40-minute window to catch a trout. Easy! As rainbow trout are readily stocked in most of our urban lakes, they are plentiful and aggressive when presented with the right bait. For this quick trip, you’ll want to have a pre-rigged powerbait setup consisting of a spinning rod, a sliding egg weight, a swivel, 6-lb test leader, a hook, and some power bait. The first step to setting up this rig is to slide the egg weight onto your mainline. You then tie off the end of the line to a barrel swivel, allowing the weight to slide freely on your line, stopped only by the swivel. To the other end of the swivel, attach a 6′ leader and a size 8 trout hook. Now you’re all set to put your power bait on the hook and give it a cast. I like this method of trout fishing—it’s extremely effective. During the summer months, I have caught trout while my bait was still sinking down to the lake bottom. Two pink power bait eggs, in combination with a chartreuse trout marshmallow is your ticket. From there, all you have to do is cast your rig out, let it sink to the bottom of the lake, keep a tight line, and wait for a bite! You’ll be catching trout on the job in no time.

Durrance Lake trout

The 3-Hour Angler

Elk Lake Fishing

Let’s say the boss at your restaurant announces that you have a split shift with three hours to kill. You’re tired and want to sit down and eat that sandwich you made for lunch, but you know that the fish are jumping somewhere. My advice would be to head on down the Patricia Bay Highway towards Elk Lake. For anyone living in Victoria, Elk Lake is the closest freshwater fishery, and it’s a good one at that. The lake boasts an array of game fish that can be caught throughout the year. I find the summer months to be most productive, however anglers can be seen fishing it in every season. The lake is home to yellow perch, pumpkin seed sunfish, rainbow trout, small and largemouth bass, as well as carp. This means that both a wacky rigged YUM Dinger or the power bait set up that was previously discussed could be productive. For diversity’s sake, today we’re going to catch a carp!

There are plenty of spots to find carp on Elk Lake, but three productive locations include the shallows near the highway, the lily pads to the right of the boat launch on the north side of the lake, and even the fishing dock on the west side of the lake. Although, for someone looking to sit back and eat a sandwich, I would highly recommend one of my favourite spots on the north side of the lake. It is easily identifiable as it has a bench that sits right up against the water under the shade of a large willow tree.

Elk Lake Bench

Casting your favourite carp bait into the shallow reeds will inevitably lead you to your first fish. My go-to rig for these hard-fighting fish is a banana weight with a clump of wet oatmeal packed around it. The weight is tied to a 2″ monofilament leader with a hook and some sweetcorn threaded on. As simple as it sounds, this is the recipe for a screaming reel! You’ll have forgotten all about having to go back to work when you feel the first few headshakes of a hefty carp on your spinning rod!

Carp Fishing Rig

There is a body of freshwater around every corner of greater Victoria and Langford. With no shortage of places to go, you can tailor your spot to its proximity to your work or home. I hope that this article inspires you to try your hand at fishing closer to home, regardless of time constraints. There is no bad time to catch fish, and believe me, they are out there! I recommend you take no longer than a 10-minute drive to your spot, plan your trip in advance, and perfect your craft. If I can do it in 20 minutes, so can you! Your boss will never even know you were gone.