August is here and it’s been an amazing summer of fishing so far! From the west coast to the interior, we have it covered. Here’s the latest reports:
Kootenay Lake:
Because July was a mixed up month for weather, it has actually prolonged our fishing season on the lake. The cooler weather and large amounts of rain has kept the water a bit cooler than normal, and the fishing has been good.
Our groups have been experiencing some fantastic days on the lake. Most days have seen between 6 – 12 fish coming in. Rainbows between 2 – 6 Lbs and Bull Trout from 2 – 10 Lbs have been caught lately. Its that time of year when the tourists are thick as well, and we have been having a blast with lots of young families and new fishers. We always love sharing our passion with the young ones. Hope to see our future generation out in the outdoors and enjoying what we have to offer.
And now that August is here, so is the summer weather. We will be concentrating on earlier starts in the morning to beat the heat. The Bull Trout have been pretty consistent this past week, and the rainbows are still coming up to feed once in a while.
Looking forward to the rest of our summer trips.
Columbia River:
The river has been on fire. There were a few tough days due to the extreme change in water levels, but for the most part its been fairly consistent.
Walleye fishing has been good, and will continue to get even better as we get into september. And the Rainbow fishing has been pretty good, especially in the evenings.
The usual Rainbows between 2 – 4 Lbs and Walleye between 2 – 5 Lbs have been coming in. I’ve even seen a few Walleye up in the 7 or 8 Lb range lately. We’ll probably see some even bigger ones in the fall.
Our favorite time to fish the river is coming up, so stay tuned for our fall reports.
West Coast Salmon & Halibut:
Our boats on the west coast are having the best year yet. July was amazing with lots of fish near the beach and August has started out with a bang as well. We’ve only had a few bad weather days, which have kept us from going too far. But, at least the fish are nearby, so we can still catch fish on the bad weather days.
It looks like the long range forecast is calling for more great weather, so we should continue to have great days ahead.
Salmon fishing has been off the charts this year, and the Halibut fishing has picked up a lot lately. Last month we were having troubles getting the bait down because of all the sharks, but the last few weeks it seems the sharks have thinned out and the halibut have been plentiful. Looking forward to the rest of our season on the west coast.
Chinooks up to 30 Lbs have been coming in, and we even got to see a beauty 40 Lb chinook on the dock a couple weeks ago. This years local run was predicted to be the biggest run in decades, and its proved itself so far. Should be a great month, as August is when the numbers really show up and sometimes even bigger fish will be coming down the coast.
On the days that we have made it out to the bank, we have been blessed with lots of fish and good quality fish. Halibut up to 65 Lbs, which is about the maximum size this year, have been caught lately, with lots of 15 – 30 Lbs chickens mixed in.
Lots of great days ahead. Stay tuned…
What are they biting on ???
On the lake, its been a lot of down rigger action. Bull Trout have been hitting on the usual flasher & hoochie combo. Our favourite being the Gibbs/Delta STS or Lemon Lime flasher with green spatter back hoochie, The fish are deep right now. We have been fishing between 100 -180ft down with great success.
On the river its been a mix of fly fishing or spin casting. The dry fly fishing has been pretty good in the evenings still, and we have been drifting with indicators and nymphs during the daytime with good success. And on the spinning rods, we have been using jigs tipped with worms for the walleye or bottom bouncers with worms. And our favourite croc spoons for the Rainbows.
And on the Ocean, we have been using a variety of gear depending on where we are fishing. Inshore we have been using smaller spoons behind a flasher. The blue footloose flasher is one of our favourite followed up with one of our 4 favourite spoons. What’s your favourite spoons you ask? In no specific order, here they are: Gibbs/Delta Skinny G in Nickel/Blue, Silver Horde Kingfisher spoons in white lightning, Maverick, Cookies & Cream, and Herring Aid have all been our top producers.
And offshore we have been running the same Kingfisher flashers with our favourite hoochies being the green pistachio, green spatter back, or the old standby White hoochie.
All in all, its been a great couple months of fishing on all of our waters.
Stay tuned for more reports.
Tight lines……………………
