Brooke Trout in Plaid



Paiz and I finally make it to Plaid

  
Well after three years of planning and then cancelling, Paiz and I at last made it up to Plaid Lake.

We'd been talking about it for years and finally late in August we tackled the ascent.

Plaid lies nestled amid the peaks of the Purcell Mountains on the East Shore of Kootenay Lake.
A steep 4X4 goat track takes you to the trail head where a narrower goat track climbs a couple thousand feet to a nice view of the Kootenay Lake, Kokanee Glacier and the Selkirk Mtns.

The climb to the summit is unrelenting. No breaks just straight up. Once attained, there's a brief hike along the ridge that drops a thousand feet on either side. The descent took us through a series of microclimate alpine meadows with patches of Indian paintbrush and black-eyed daisies growing alongside a refreshing mountain stream.


Overlooking the West Arm of Kootenay Lake



It's a nice hike with good views but not necessarily spectacular. It's basically a 1.5-hour steep hike up and down with the only level ground found in the basin of Plaid Lake.

Plaid is much larger than we expected, probably 2 km X 0.5 km in girth but its filled with nice little brookies that came readily to a dry fly. You can see them cruising in the crystal clear water, and when your fly hits the water, one or three of them torpedo toward the offering and smack it with an eager splash. It was good fun.

Beautiful Plaid Lake brooke trout with dry fly

The trout must have been in pre-spawn mode as many were caught in the shallows near a stream mouth, their colours spectacular.

They'll take any dry fly in the size 14-16 range, I'm sure: Adams, Tom Thumbs, elk-hair caddis', a piece of dandelion fluff whatever.

We both used 3-4-wt rods which make the hits and feisty runs a little more exciting.

All in all it is a good day-hike, nice views, not too long, and beautiful trout - I'll probably return in another three years or so, if not, well at least we can cross it off the list.

Nice descent through alpine meadows

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