Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Katherine and Graeme Mulski fish British Columbia stillwaters as a team, mostly from a 10-foot wooden pram. Their core habit is preparation: each rod carries one dedicated line, floating, intermediate, full sink or chironomid, rigged with leader and fly before launch, so choosing a tactic never costs time on the water.
Katherine and Graeme Mulski are a father and daughter fly fishing team from British Columbia; Graeme is a realtor and lifelong angler, and Katherine is a teacher and university faculty member finishing a doctorate on wellness practice and fly fishing.
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How did the Mulskis get into fly fishing?
Graeme Mulski started as a gear fisherman on the Fraser River as a boy, fishing a wad of flour dough wrapped around a bent shower-rod hanger because hooks were not allowed, and watching coho, sockeye, springs and sturgeon move past the bank. He came to fly fishing about 30 years ago after inheriting his father's dried-out cane rod. Katherine Mulski started on a small lake near North Vancouver, moved into gear fishing for springs, and picked up fly fishing when a decade of overwork left her looking for something that would calm her mind.
What happened on the trip where they broke ice with their oars?
The Mulskis drove into the interior in the first week of November for one last stillwater trip of the season. The first lakes were completely winter-killed, ringed with three to five inches of ice, and the launches unusable. At the last lake on the stretch, 75 to 100 feet of ice separated the shore from open water, so Graeme Mulski smashed a channel from the bow of their 10-foot pram while Katherine held the boat steady; it took an hour and a half, cost him blisters and wrecked the oars, and produced brook trout of two to three pounds.
Why do the Mulskis rig every rod before launching the boat?
Graeme Mulski does not believe in one rod with interchangeable tips for stillwater, because a dry fly presentation, a troll, an intermediate retrieve and a deep sink each demand a different action and a different feel. He carries several rods, each with its own dedicated line, and rigs leader, tippet and even the first fly on the bank before the boat goes in. Doing that work on shore avoids tying blood knots in the wind while a client or partner holds your rod, and it puts the line back in the water faster.
Does expensive fly gear actually catch more fish?
Graeme Mulski's answer is that gear increases enjoyment and success rate but not entitlement. His own humbling came watching Katherine outfish him ten to one on the roughly $40 pink 9-foot 5-weight he had bought her as a starter rod, while he stood there with expensive sticks. His analogy is a guitar: if you do not like the instrument you will not practice with it, and if you do not practice you will not get better.
How do the Mulskis fish chironomids on British Columbia lakes?
Chironomids make up the great majority of a stillwater trout's diet, which is the whole argument for fishing them, and the Mulskis admit they avoided the technique for years because they were plunking an indicator out into the wind without doing the homework. What changed was reading the depth diagrams properly and matching the setup to water depth. Katherine Mulski now fishes a dedicated 10-foot chironomid rod, chosen for a faster pickup because she is shorter, paired with an indicator-specific line.
What does a full day on the lake look like for the Mulskis?
The Mulskis push long hours by choice rather than pressure. They eat breakfast, are fishing well before nine, stay out until about 1:30, force themselves in for a meal and a short nap, are back out by 3:30 or four, and do not come off the water until around nine, finishing by headlamp. Graeme Mulski points out that each part of that day fishes differently, so the trolling or indicator work of midday gives way to dry fly fishing at twilight.
What flies does Katherine Mulski keep in her stillwater boxes?
Katherine Mulski keeps a large mother box in the car or trailer and pulls a small day box from it before each session. Her staples are a full box of leeches in different colors, lengths and hook sizes, a box of woolly buggers, and micro boxes of chironomids and bombers. Her working rule on a lake is that if the trout will not eat a leech they are not hungry, and she buys flies two or three at a time so there is always a spare to hand to another angler.
Key takeaways
- Rig each stillwater rod with one dedicated line, floating, intermediate, full sink or chironomid, and set leader, tippet and first fly on the bank rather than in the boat.
- Take a casting lesson early; being a good caster and being able to teach casting are different skills, and a teacher can name the fault you cannot see.
- Chironomids account for the great majority of a lake trout's diet, so learning depth control for them is worth more than another fly pattern.
- In late fall, check elevation before you drive: lakes at the same elevation can all be locked under three to five inches of ice on the same morning.
- A cheap starter rod paired with the right line will out-fish an expensive rod you do not enjoy casting.
- British Columbia stillwater regulations require barbless single hooks; an angler alone in a boat may fish two rods but not two hooks on one rod.
