Fishing Northover

[hiketofish]

After Harvey, had planned a fun hike over the Northover Ridge in K-country, the next weekend with family. It is one of my favorite 3 day trips as the days are fairly short hiking and the fishing is quite good. First step is to do the easy trek to 3 Isle Lake starting from the Interlakes parking Lot. We were fortunate enough to see a whole herd of mountain goats on a neighbouring peak. I consider myself lucky this year to run into goats while hiking twice.

Not so lucky that it snowed and was freezing cold for the rest of the day. In fact it was cold all three days, with heavy frost.

In between snow flurries, we got some nice pics of 3 Isle lake.

Managed to catch some fish and give my brother some fishing lessons. The fish pictures are on his camera. I can't believe I'm posting on a fishing site, with no fish pics. Here's a morning fly.

Then its up to the Northover ridge, and a rare picture of hiketofish

Hiking the ridge is very beautiful on a clear day. Here's the BC side:

Here's more of the ridge:

Then Down to Aster Lake.

Aster Lake is really a gem of an area. The lake itself is really a giant mud puddle and you are thoroughly convinced that it cannot contain fish. Seldom if ever do you see a rise in the grey water. Pleasant surprises come however if you fish it. How many fish do you think are in this muddy section of the creek which I waded once and it was knee deep?

My brother and I caught more than a dozen from that spot just swinging a nymph with an indicator. Because its so muddy you can literally get a bite from 12 inchs away. Then you hike down to the parking lot. I have done the hike both ways and it is much easier doing it counter clockwise. If you do it, don't forget your fly rod.

[fishfreak]

Wow! This is a trek I was hoping to do this summer, but didn't have a chance to. Ater seeing these pics, I'm definitely going to do it next year. Thanks for sharing again!

 

Hey, how does the Upper Kananaskis River look on the way up to Three Isle Lake? I've always been curious about that one since There are several cutty lakes that feed into it. I've only seen where it dumps into the Upper Lake, and it looked like a decent sized stream. Plus, it's a far enough hike that few people would go to it, even if discussed here.

[Weedy1]

I took a mountaineering course in 1979 and stayed at Aster lake for 3 days. I remember it being full of fish. I had a small spinning rod and remember pulling one after another out of there. I don't remember what they were though.

By the looks of your picture the lake level seems way down. The surrounding glaciers must be disappearing. Interesting picture, brings back a lot of old memories. I'll see if I can find a picture of the lake from when I was there to post. It would be an interesting comparison.

 

Btw, is Mount Joffre in any of the pics?

[tgo]

Cool pics, I also wish I had made it out there this summer but it's hard to find willing participants. IMO the North and South Kananaskis passes as well as Northover have some of the best scenery in the Alberta rockies. I remember a few years ago hiking up to the North pass from the Forks campground and wondering what Maude Lake would hold, and then decided to leave the rod behind for some idiotic reason. So many fish it was unbelievable. It also straddles the BC alberta boundary with some really amazing views.

 

The Kananskis River would probably have fish in it, but it is very fast moving up there with not alot of good holding spots, but what do I know. It's definately worth the try considering the consolation prize.

[Castuserraticus]

That's one of my favourite hikes also. The wife and I did it a few years ago when there wasn't a cloud in sky. We also went counter clockwise and were disappointed to find Hidden Lake extremely high. The trail was under ~10' of water so we had to bushwhack over and under logs and ended up wading down the middle of the outlet stream. Was hoping to take my kids this year but it didn't happen. Maybe next....

[monger]

Great pics. Thanks for sharing the views.

I flew into Aster in the late 80's to look for fish and do some water chemistry. F&W didn't originally stock this lake, rather Parks did by accident. I caught a number of big healthy Cutts near the outflow that were stained grey like the water. The fish were all of the same age class. We set a gill net up in the middle of the lake but did not catch any in the net. It appears the fish tend to hold by the outlet. It is an amazing place with lots of fossils around.

[hiketofish]

I have been there 4x and I have only caught a few in the lake and all were where it drains out, but have always done really well in the stream that flows out. This year we caught multiple age classes from 10 inches all the way to 15 inches. They don't fight great and come in pretty easy. I imagine they don't get to swim far and strengthen up when you spend much of your life in a 50 meter stretch of stream between two water falls.