Kootenay Lake end of July

[Soup Knot Sea]

Well my wife finally managed to pry me away from the coast for a BC camping summer road trip. I’m hoping some of you freshwater guys can help out this salty guy.

We’ll be making multi-day stops at Clearwater Lake, Upper Arrow Lake and Kootenay Lake…. Clearwater and Upper Arrow I’ll just be booting around in a kayak, and I’ll bring along a light spinning rod for ***** and giggles.

After a little research of Kootenay I see that it holds world record size Gerrard Rainbows, so I figured I’d rent a boat and haul a couple 50 pounders out. I have a 19’ Kingfisher reserved. I’m fully rigged for salmon fishing on the coast, so I figured I bring my salmon gear and should find something that works…. But would love some suggestions. I’d imagine this time of year trolling deep is key? Spoons? Plugs? Maybe a bucktail in the surface?

In general, how’s the mid summer fishing on Kootenay? Is it even worth it this time of year? Would I be better off just enjoying a boat cruise, and finding some beaches for cold bevies??

Appreciate any advice!

 

[kingblazer84]

Well my wife finally managed to pry me away from the coast for a BC camping summer road trip. I’m hoping some of you freshwater guys can help out this salty guy.

We’ll be making multi-day stops at Clearwater Lake, Upper Arrow Lake and Kootenay Lake…. Clearwater and Upper Arrow I’ll just be booting around in a kayak, and I’ll bring along a light spinning rod for ***** and giggles.

After a little research of Kootenay I see that it holds world record size Gerrard Rainbows, so I figured I’d rent a boat and haul a couple 50 pounders out. I have a 19’ Kingfisher reserved. I’m fully rigged for salmon fishing on the coast, so I figured I bring my salmon gear and should find something that works…. But would love some suggestions. I’d imagine this time of year trolling deep is key? Spoons? Plugs? Maybe a bucktail in the surface?

In general, how’s the mid summer fishing on Kootenay? Is it even worth it this time of year? Would I be better off just enjoying a boat cruise, and finding some beaches for cold bevies??

Appreciate any advice!

water temps are a big player when it comes into getting those bigger bows and bulls out there, all your salmon gear will work, spoons, hoochies, lyman plugs or even tomics, also LARGE bucktails or bull trout fly's work really well. The flys id run on top with maybe 1 or 2 oz of weight like 300' back. same with lyman or fishinator plugs they dart around really nice causing large strikes.

Watch for those thermoclines and downriggers highly recommended in the later afternoon as the water temp climbs. Early morning top 30' usually is pretty good, thats what my buddy does fishing the arrows as he lives in Nakusp and he's been pulling some decent fish as of recently. 5pm - Dusk is good timing as well as the fish tend to come up to feed around those times usually.

Ive always run all my single action mooching reels thats all I ever run and my buddy as well.

 

[Soup Knot Sea]

water temps are a big player when it comes into getting those bigger bows and bulls out there, all your salmon gear will work, spoons, hoochies, lyman plugs or even tomics, also LARGE bucktails or bull trout fly's work really well. The flys id run on top with maybe 1 or 2 oz of weight like 300' back. same with lyman or fishinator plugs they dart around really nice causing large strikes.

Watch for those thermoclines and downriggers highly recommended in the later afternoon as the water temp climbs. Early morning top 30' usually is pretty good, thats what my buddy does fishing the arrows as he lives in Nakusp and he's been pulling some decent fish as of recently. 5pm - Dusk is good timing as well as the fish tend to come up to feed around those times usually.

Ive always run all my single action mooching reels thats all I ever run and my buddy as well.

Awesome intel. Thanks KB! Appreciate it

 

[Fisher_dude]

I dunno what the surface temps are out there but on Okanagan, they were 21° before 10am on sunday. I even went for a swim and dove in off the gunnel without noticing much of a change. I did catch a couple fish before the sun was up and even those fish were below 30ft. I know the guide out there uses flashers and hootchie down deep for bulls. Like 100-150ft.

 

[leaseman]

Fished around Kaslo as a teen...two weeks for many summers.....Loved fishing the area!

First off we found out the burbot off the mouth of streams, what a great eating fish!

Couldn't believe some of the fish sizes! One old timer showed me the ropes, took me out and all he used was big plugs with 4-6 oz weights.....

We stayed at a Camp Paradise, bet it is gone now, but this old guy would head straight out from this camp an hour or so and would return with one very large fish! Day after day too....

Was a special place, lots of fish and fun.

 

[RalphH]

I am an old Kootenay Lake visitor myself. Fished it many times at various times of the year during the 70s and 80s. Sadly the lake has changed big time. Not many 20lb plus rainbows these days as the delicate balance the lake once had has been disturbed. Mid- to late summer was always a quiet time for fishing. Kokanee usually started to change over for their spawning run at the end of the summer. Water temps were generally too warm for trout though these days down riggers should help you reach where ever the fish may be. Fish can still be caught I am sure. My best was close to 23lbs taken on drizzly early September day right on the surface with a blueback Mac Squid salmon plug. it's always worth a try.

 

[Soup Knot Sea]

Thanks for the replies, appreciate it!

I’ll be running downriggers, and have already confirmed I can pick up the rental boat at the crack of dawn. Will definitely report back. Pretty stoked to give it a go!

SNS

 

[Adrenafin]

Green flasher, army truck needle fish style hootchie down deep. Bull trout

3.5 coyote spoons, fire stripe copper gibbs spoon various depths on the rigger

Bucktails on the surface more springtime but still try (faster troll 3.0 mph +)