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Kootenay Lake Fishing Report

The Nelson Daily Sports
By The Nelson Daily Sports
October 13th, 2021

September was a fun month, and October has started off with a bang said Kerry Reed
 of Reel Adventures Sportfishing.

Reed is ready to give the latest update for fishing on the West Kootenay waters.

Kootenay Lake:

The water temperature has dropped, and the fish are coming to life.  So far, the past couple weeks have been great.  Rainbows are popping the clip and taking some line from both the planer boards and the downriggers.  Bull Trout are making their way back into the lake and should be putting the feed bags on soon.

Our boats have been busy with guests.  Lots of families, lots of kids.  These are our favourite trips.

It’s our favourite time of year for fishing on the lake.  October/November brings prime conditions with prime water temperatures.

Our latest couple trips saw consistent days with over a dozen fish hooked.  Rainbows up to 5 Lbs and Bull Trout up to 8 Lbs have been the norm.

Lots of smiling faces this month and looking forward to the fishing getting even better.  Here’s a great video showing what it’s like to be on our boat on Kootenay.

The Thanksgiving derby is being hosted once again by Jones Boys Boats.  This is usually the beginning of our good fall fishing.  There should be enough boats out there to give us a good indication of what is yet to come!

Stay tuned…

Columbia River:

The river is producing some nice fish lately.  Rainbows have put the feed bags on and are looking chunky.

The water has dropped and created some great seams and back eddies to find these fish in.  Our fly fishing trips have seen numerous trout taken on the nymph.  And we’ve seen some decent hatches on the hot days as well.  So, always have the dry fly ready to go.

Walleye fishing remains consistent.  We’ve found them in the usual spots.  The fishing should remain consistent for the next few weeks as the Walleye are stacked.

Looking forward to getting out on the river throughout the rest of the month.

Stay tuned.

What are they biting on???

On the lake, it’s been different each day.  One day the Rainbows are hammering the buck tails, then the next day it’s spoons.  Our favourite bucktails are lucky numbers: 210, 215, and 226.  And our favourite spoons have been the Gibbs/Delta crocs in Brass/fire stripe or fire wing.

And on the down riggers, it’s been our favourite flasher hoochie combo for both Rainbows and Bull Trout.  The Lemon lime flasher or the STS flasher have been working best, followed by the green spatter back or pistachio hoochie.  Favourite depths have been 80ft – 120ft.

On the river it’s been a combination of fly fishing or spin casting.  The Walleye have been chomping on the Gibbs/Delta bottom bouncer with a worm harness, or the jigs with curly tails.

The next couple months are going to be prime time on the lake, so stay tuned.

Hope this helps with your next adventure.

Tight lines…



Kerry Reed
, Reel Adventures Sportfishing

Categories: Sports

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