Spring is here and things are heating up!

Here’s the latest fishing report:

Kootenay Lake:

The lake is starting to come to life!  The water temperature is bouncing between 42 -45 degrees F, and the fish are starting to become a bit more aggressive.

The tail end of March saw some decent days with some decent fish.  Although March was a mixed bag for weather, and the fishing was hot and cold.

And now that April is here, we have seen a few warm days and hopefully will continue to see things warm up, which will also increase the fish activity.

The Easter weekend derby brought a bit of life to the lake.  It was nice to see a bunch of people out again.  Although the fishing was mediocre, it still provided some decent fish.

Our boat had a great first day of the derby.  Catching

9 fish, but nothing over 6-1/2 Lbs.  So, we released them all, in hopes of being rewarded with the big one.

Day 2 and 3 were much slower fishing for everyone, but some quality fish hit the scales.  First place fish was 13Lb Bull Trout, followed by a 9Lb and 8.4 Lb.  So, some decent fish to start off our spring fishery.  Rainbows up to 8.5 Lbs were also caught during the weekend.  So, things are looking up.

The beginning of April also saw our first opening for the West Arm Kokanee fishery.  Again, it was nice to see some familiar faces.  This always brings out the local crowd and adds a little ‘life’ to the lake.

Day 1 Kokanee was a bit slow for most, however, day 2 and 3 got a lot better.

Kokanee were a lot smaller than previous years, but hopefully will get a chance to pack on some weight over the next few months.

Moving forward, we expect to see the water temperature reach the magic number by month end, and look forward to seeing some quality fish.

The past couple weeks, we’ve had some decent rainbows between 6 – 9 Lbs coming to the boat.  So, looking forward to seeing what the rest of April and May have to offer.

Our favourite months of the year are coming up, so stay tuned…..

What are they biting on???

Surface, surface, surface. Rainbows are starting to chomp on our favourite Lux Flies.  Lucky numbers 210,215,221,223 have been working lately.  Also expecting # 208, or the black ant to start working as the weather gets hotter and the flying ants start to come out.

Also getting a few good fish on our Lyman plugs and the usual Gibbs croc in the brass/fire wing pattern.

Bull Trout have been few and far between, but hopefully as the water warms, we will begin to catch a few more.  The Bulls that we have managed to catch have been on the downriggers between 60ft – 120ft.  Mostly on our favourite Gibbs STS Flasher or the Green/yellow mist flasher followed by the green spatter back hoochie, or the Skinny G spoons in our favourite colors of ‘no bananas’, bon chovy, and the ‘outfitter’.

Spring temps are here, so it’s time to increase our trolling speed as well.  We have been trolling between 2.5mph – 3.0mph.   Look to speed up even more as the water temp increases to over 50 degrees.

Hope this helps with your next adventure!

If you haven’t already, make sure to follow us on FB and Insta for day by day reports.

Tight lines…….

Captain Kerry