What a nice extended summer we are having!
September was spectacular and so far, October has been amazing weather.
Lots of fishing happening now. Here’s the latest report:
Kootenay Lake:
The water temp is still around 60 degrees, which is a bit warm for this time of year. But, the fish are slowly waking up. My favourite temperature around 55 degrees will probably be reached by month end.
The fishing has been consistent though, with some nice Rainbows and some even nicer Bull Trout coming in lately. Still, not on fire, but consistently catching 6 – 10 fish daily. Rainbows up to 8 Lbs and Bull Trout up to 10 Lbs have been coming in. Can’t wait for the water to cool a few more degrees.
One memorable trip this past couple weeks had a crew of young school kids on the boat during a day off. This was entertaining in itself, while I was wondering how to keep the group entertained if the fishing was slow. Lucky for me, the fish cooperated. It started within 15 minutes of dropping the lines. The first fish to the boat was a beauty 4-1/2Lb Bull Trout and this set the bar for the kids friendly competition. A couple small Rainbows were released next and then an hour lull in the action.
Once the bite picked up again, we went through the line-up a couple times in a short period. A few more Bull Trout around 2 – 4 Lbs, and a couple more small Rainbows released.
The friendly chatter amongst the kids made for some fun bragging from the young lad who was still in first place with his Bull Trout, but in the final hours of our trip, guess what? Yep, you guessed it, a beauty Bull Trout hit the lure and first place was now taken over by a 9 pounder! Lots of screaming and hollering as the whole team was part of this battle. Two kids on the rod and two kids trying to net the fish. That’s teamwork.
Lots of cool photos from that day. Each kid kept a fish for dinner and released a few. Making memories… check out their video here
Our latest trip was a good one as well. We headed out with lower expectations, as the water was calm and the sun was bright. My least favourite conditions. However, the fish did cooperate and we had one on right away. Throughout the day we managed to hook into a dozen fish up to 5Lbs. Another action packed day for early October.
Looking forward to the next couple months of fall fishing!
Stay tuned….
What are they biting on???
Slowly the fish are coming to the surface, however still catching a lot down deep. On the surface, it’s been a mix of Buck tails and spoons. Our favourites have been the #310, 315, 326. And the Gibbs croc spoons have been working well as usual. Brass/fire stripe of Brass/fire wing have been our best patterns.
And, on the downriggers, its been the standard flasher hoochie between 100 – 150ft deep. The STS flasher with a green pistachio hoochie as well as the yellow mist flasher with a green spatterback have been our go to set-ups lately.
Our speed is still slow for this time of year. Because the water temp is still around 60 degrees, we have been trolling between 2.5-2.7 mph. As the temperature drops to a more favourable number, we will begin to pick up our speed.
Hope this helps with your next adventure.
Tight lines……
Captain Kerry
