Year after year people of all ages in Williams Lake enjoy the opportunity to fish at Biff's Ponds, a 15-minute drive south of the city.
On the Monday before Father's Day 2024, residents from Williams Lake Seniors Village (WLSV) and Deni House, along with staff, spent several hours at the ponds, set on the picturesque Dog Creek Road property of Wayne and Val Biffert.
WLSV residents Elizabeth Horsefield and Gary Long were trying their luck at the middle pond.
"This is a unique experience for us," she said as she watched Gary trying to haul in the fish he said "got away." "I used to fish in the sea down south. I love the sea."
Gary said he fished years ago, but had not for a long time.
Ed and Marjorie Burakoff both caught a fish with a bit of help from Marjorie's son Rick Hodgson, an avid fisherman himself.
"This is great for seniors and kids," Rick said, adding he moved his mom and stepfather from Calgary to WLSV a year and a half ago.
"Ed took me fishing when I was a kid," Rick said.
Vickie Kornelson is a recreation manager for WLSV.
"This was my second year coordinating a visit to Wayne's for the residents," she said. "Every opportunity we can get them outside is great. Many love fishing or if not, just being in nature. It's amazing for them and the staff love it as well."
Wayne said there are three ponds on the property.
"When we built the house here we dug a well with a backhoe so our house water is only 18 feet deep," he recalled.
They would run a sprinkler for an hour and a half and it would run the well dry.
With a backhoe, he dug a pond closer to the house and another one on the far end of the property to water the garden.
He would have to clean the sprinklers three or four times a day because of bugs.
About 30 years ago a friend told him if he put fish in the ponds it would keep the bugs out.
"I tried that and sure enough no more problems with bugs in the sprinklers."
Bruce Reid of Reid Excavating enlarged the pond at the bottom by digging it deeper and the next year Wayne got Reid to dig another pond between the two ponds. In the third year, Reid enlarged the top pond.
Since about 2013, Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. has been stocking the ponds with a Fraser Valley strain of rainbow trout.
"They bring 500 that are distributed between three ponds and they donate the fish," he said. "They don't donate the fish feed which costs about $800 a year."
Originally he ran pollution pumps from a car with an electric motor, but they are a volume pump not a pressure pump and he could only place it down about three feet into the water.
After three years he purchased three other pumps for $1,800 each so he always has one to spare.
Annually Wayne and Val host an event every June to coincide with family fishing weekend in B.C.
"I used to have it on Sunday, but Seniors Village and Deni House didn't attend because they don't have the staff on the weekend so this year I changed it to a Monday."
People attending the event also receive a barbecue lunch, with food provided by the BC Wildlife Federation.
Williams Lake school classes, day cares and more recently the Foundry Cariboo Chilcotin, book their own visits during other times of the year.
"We prefer people phone and book ahead so we can be prepared," Wayne said.
