Kootenay Lake:
We have had some pretty good days on the lake lately. Most days with eight to 10 fish being caught. Sizes have ranged from two to 13 pounds. The water temperature has dropped below 50 degrees and our fish are still feeding more on the surface. Which makes for some exciting bucktail action. My favorite kind of fishing.
We have been experimenting with lighter gear as well as fly reels and mooching reels to make the battles even more exciting.
On one of our trips last week, a young lady named Kalyn asked to bring her fly rod on board and we accepted the challenge. Throughout the day we hooked numerous fish on all of our rods except the fly rod. However, patience prevailed and in the final hour of the day the fly reel started screaming.
Kalyn was quick to grab the rod, and just in time because the reel had only three wraps of line left on it when she grabbed it and slowed the fish down. After about a 15-minute battle with her six-weight fly rod, we finally got the fish to the boat: a beautiful nine pound Rainbow.
What a great battle on this light rod! I think we are hooked on this newfound technique.
And now with lots of two to three pound Rainbows being caught, I think the lighter gear will be a lot of fun. As long as the gear can still handle a 10 to 12 pound fish, we should be OK. Either way, it will be exciting. Looking forward to experimenting more as the season continues.
Our latest trip had some boys from Alberta join us for their annual Kootenay Lake trip. And while the weather was freezing cold here, they were still happy to not be back at home where it was even colder and a lot more snow. A nice get away for the crew.
They managed to land 10 fish up to 10 pounds during their trip. Day one was a bit slow because of the weather change, but day two made up for everything. Lots of action on the mooching reels. Line peeling and fish jumping made for a few exciting battles. They are already planning their next trip. Looking forward to it.
December is usually a good month for fishing, so hopefully the pattern continues. Either way, we’ll be out there, so stay tuned
What are they biting on?
Mostly surface action for our boat, so the magic lures have been the usual bucktail flies. Lately the lucky numbers have been 203, 210, 215, 224, and 228. Colours have been purples, blacks or grays.
Also catching a few Bulls on the downrigger with Lyman plugs or flashers and hoochies. There seems to be a lot of fish showing up on the sonar at depths between 80 to 120 feet. Although most of the fish seem to come to the surface when they want to feed.
Mix it up a bit and run both surface lines and deep lines and you should catch some fish.
— Kerry Reed is the owner of Reel Adventures Fishing Charters in Nelson. reeladventuresfishing.com
