Published: September 18, 2013 1:00 PM
Updated: September 18, 2013 1:26 PM
The West Kootenay Fishing Report is back with reports and tips on how to catch fish on local lakes and streams.
Columbia River:
The Columbia saw some great fishing over the summer months.
After a July of furious action, the dwindling caddis hatches made way for hopper patterns in late August and early September. Hatches will begin to fall off as the weather cools and fly fishers are generally more successful using sink-tip or full-sink lines and throwing woolly buggers and stonefly nymphs at the large rainbow. However, sunny days and late mayfly and October-caddis hatches can mean some great top-water action during warm afternoons.
Technique: With fewer bugs coming off the water, rainbows will hunker down and hold in tailouts or in the fast water of runs and riffles, feeding opportunistically on passing nymphs, beetles, flying ants, and other invertebrates. Getting the fly down is more effective so flies weighted with lead wire or a tungsten bead-head helps.
A short leader of up to four feet is recommended. Cast the line out, let it sink, and strip out extra line to cover more ground, before twisting the line in slowly, with an intermittent jerk to give it life.
The takes can be hard and jolting, but are often barely perceptible so be sure to set any pause in the retrieve.
Lakes: Fall is the time that fishing on local lakes heat up. Well actually the lakes cool down, bringing trout out of the depths as the thermocline - the area of cool, oxygenated water, that trout are most comfortable - moves closer to the surface. Trout will cruise just above the thermocline, along shoals, and weedbeds seeking out dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, as well as leeches, chironomids, and water boatmen.
Patterns and technique: Leech, chironomid and water boatman patterns are good choices but tossing a weighted dragonfly nymph pattern alongside a weedbed elicits some bone-jarring hits. Cast a dragonfly nymph pattern on an intermediate sink line or sink tip, over weed beds or near the shore along the bottom.
During emergence, dragonflies migrate to shore and emerge on reeds and other vegetation, so crawling a nymph towards shore, slowly across the bottom, interspersed with a quick strip to imitate its innate propulsion system is effective.
Adult Darner dragonflies are most common on lakes and attain large sizes with bodies up to 3.5 inches or longer. Climbing Darner nymphs grow up to 2 inches, although 1 ¾ to 1 ¾ inches is a common average. Long shank hooks in sizes #4- #8 cover the bases and a size #6 is a good overall average. Use larger patterns in the spring and early summer to suggest mature nymphs. During the fall, smaller sizes are wise choices to imitate the remaining immature nymphs.
Champion, Rosebud, Nancy Greene, Erie and Cottonwood Lakes are great local water on which to toss a fly or lure.
Kootenay Lake:
After spending the summer chasing salmon on the coast, Kerry Reed and Reel Adventures Fishing Charters is back on Kootenay Lake.
Although Kerry was absent from local water, his team was still fishing Kootenay Lake on a regular basis throughout the summer. Even on hot summer days they managed to catch a few fish mostly on the downriggers due to the warm water conditions.
Bull trout of smaller sizes were consistently caught each day and a few rainbows mixed in.
And when the warm water finally caught up, they started fishing for Kokanee to help maintain interest. That turned out to be a pleasant surprise, as late summer Kokanee up to 18 inches made for exciting trips.
As the team transitions to autumn fishing, decent rainbows have been caught in the past week or two. Nothing huge, but still some good fish in the low teens. That’s a good start considering the water is still very warm.
Lures and technique:
It’s still a mixed bag. The weather is still warm and so is the water. So, most fish are biting on the deep lines. However, there have been a few good ones caught on the surface.
September is usually best fished with downriggers. Common depths of 80 - 120 feet seem to work best.
The usual flasher and hoochie combo has been successful. And some of the latest experiments have found a flasher and bucktail fly to be catching fish also. These combinations fished on the rigger around 100 feet seems to be working.
Bucktails on the surface will be working also as the fish become more aggressive. Look forward to more detailed reports as we spend more and more time on the lake over the next few weeks
Nice blog. Thanks for sharing!
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