Hike In

[fishpro]

So last week I hiked into a lake for a day after hearing rumours of big brookies and splake. I had been once earlier this year and didn't catch any, but decided to go again and give it a shot. This time it paid off.

 

Since it was a fairly large lake I decided to start with the spinning gear to search for the fish then put a streamer on once I knew there were fish in the area. Right away I had a couple nice fish follow, so I tried rigging up the fly rod to see if they'd be more likely to take. On the third cast I managed to hook and land about a 16 inch brook trout.

 

 

I had a few more hits as the day went on, but wasn't able to hook anything for a while. As I worked my way around the lake I found a deep spot and the fish were concentrated here and very aggresive. In the next 15 minutes I managed to land 4 nice fish. The first was a brookie around 13-14 inches, followed by a fish about 18 inches long. As I brought it in it looked like a brookie, but didn't look as much like one once I got it in. I think it may have been a splake, although the pink spots (not too visible in photo) made me wonder if it was a dolly varden. Anyone here know much about the history of fish stocking in Banff Park? Next I caught 2 lakers around 19-20 inches. I lost a couple more after this, but didn't manage to hook into anymore.

 

The Brookie

 

The Splake?

 

One of the Lakers

[seby]

Some decent fish in there nice pics.

At least the hike was worthwhile this time. LOL

 

[ÜberFly]

Dustin,

 

Great photos, looks like it was a great trip! Also, it looks like you caught quite a few on a spoon (not meant to flame you). What was the ratio spoon to fly and what flies were they taking (sinking or floating line)?

 

P

 

 

 

The Splake?

 

One of the Lakers

[Heimdallr]

Glad to see you got into some fish, and good ones at that!

[fishpro]

Dustin,

 

Great photos, looks like it was a great trip! Also, it looks like you caught quite a few on a spoon (not meant to flame you). What was the ratio spoon to fly and what flies were they taking (sinking or floating line)?

 

P

 

For most of the day I was getting the most hits on a fly, white woolly bugger was all I tried and I managed to have a few come after it. I set up with a floating line since I started fishing some fairly shallow water. Later in the day I was fishing some really deep water, I'd guess 20'-50' depending on the spot, so I just used a heavy spoon there, which is where I caught 4 of the 5 fish. Overall I think about 2/3 of the fish I moved were with the spoon, most of which were in the last hour and a half.

 

Funny story though, I was walking along a trail to go back and fish where I started when I thought a small deep bay looked promising. The trail was on a steep scree slope about 30 feet above the water, but I decided to take a cast with the spoon. Turns out this was the cast where I hooked into the second brookie, so I had to navigate my way down the slope as quick as possible and still play the fish in. After releasing the fish I managed to get the next three without even moving from that spot.

[Heimdallr]

For most of the day I was getting the most hits on a fly, white woolly bugger was all I tried and I managed to have a few come after it. I set up with a floating line since I started fishing some fairly shallow water. Later in the day I was fishing some really deep water, I'd guess 20'-50' depending on the spot, so I just used a heavy spoon there, which is where I caught 4 of the 5 fish. Overall I think about 2/3 of the fish I moved were with the spoon, most of which were in the last hour and a half.

 

Funny story though, I was walking along a trail to go back and fish where I started when I thought a small deep bay looked promising. The trail was on a steep scree slope about 30 feet above the water, but I decided to take a cast with the spoon. Turns out this was the cast where I hooked into the second brookie, so I had to navigate my way down the slope as quick as possible and still play the fish in. After releasing the fish I managed to get the next three without even moving from that spot.

 

Sounds like an intense moment, should make for a good memory.

[ÜberFly]

I remember when we were younger, my twin bro and I were up at Taylor Lake in BNP and as we were traversing the cliff on the trail to to the back of the lake to go fish the falls, he chucked his spinner in and hooked a cutty (we were over 10' up and couldn't get down!!). Can't quite remember what we did as we couldn't climb down the cliff!! I think it was small enough that he pulled it up, which would have meant that he chucked it back or we kept it (we were teens, what can I say - young and naive!!)...

 

P

 

Funny story though, I was walking along a trail to go back and fish where I started when I thought a small deep bay looked promising. The trail was on a steep scree slope about 30 feet above the water, but I decided to take a cast with the spoon. Turns out this was the cast where I hooked into the second brookie, so I had to navigate my way down the slope as quick as possible and still play the fish in. After releasing the fish I managed to get the next three without even moving from that spot.

 

[fishfreak]

nice pics!

[SteveM]

Nice; glad it worked out for ya, Dustin.

That second brookie is spectacular; gorgeous fish!