Photo: Kerry Reed

The snow is disappearing fast and the weather is warming up, just in time for spring break and the latest Kootenay Lake fishing report.

February started off mild and provided some decent fishing for the middle of winter and, as the month continued, we saw some cooler temperatures for a week or two and the water temperature finally dropped to winter temperatures.

As usual in the winter, when the water temperature drops, the fish’s metabolism slows down. This means that they take longer to digest and they don’t have to feed as often. However, when they feed, it’s on. So, the past month gave us some unreal days of fishing followed by some slow days when the fish were full.

Some of the crazy days we had were consistent bites throughout the day, landing up to 14 rainbow trout on that magic feeding day. Rainbows up to eight pounds have been caught in the past few weeks, as well as the odd bull trout.

What are they biting on?

The rainbow trout have been hitting on our favourite lux flies.

Lucky numbers: 203, 204, 210 and 223 have been our best. And our go-to secret spoon has been catching both rainbow and the odd bull trout on the surface. The magic Gibbs croc in the hammered brass/fire stripe has been our favourite.

And for the downriggers, we have been running the usual STS flasher, or the yellow/green mist flasher followed by the green pistachio “hoochie.” The bites on the downrigger have been few and far between, but when the bull trout are biting, we’ve been getting them between 80–150 feet.

Stay tuned for more reports as we plan on spending more and more time on the water as the weather warms up.

And remember, you just have to put your time in at this time of year. Some days might be slow, but one of the days is going to be a feeding frenzy.

Hope this helps with your next adventure.

Tight lines….

Captain Kerry