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Kootenay Lake Fishing Report

Contributor
By Contributor
October 7th, 2020

The latest fishing report is out for October and things are slowly picking up.

Cool mornings and evenings are starting to drop the water temperatures and the fish are becoming more active as things cool down.

Here’s the latest:

Kootenay Lake

September started off slow and has begun to ramp up a bit.  Although with the warm weather that has continued, the water temperature has remained fairly warm.  At the beginning of the month, we were seeing some pretty slow days of fishing, as the fish are still a bit lethargic due to the warm water, however we did see a couple really good days at the end of the month.

Our crew who joined us at the end of the month for a couple days managed to have one good day and one exceptional day of fishing.  Day one started out with a quick fish-on in the first 20 minutes and then another fish about half hour after that.  Sounds like a good start to the day?  Well, then the fish decided to take a break for most of the day.  They managed a few more hits later on, but that was about it for action on day one.

Day 2 we tried a different location, and that paid off big time.  A slow start to the day when we finally boated our first fish about an hour and a half in.  But from then on, it was fish on!  Every 20 minutes we seemed to hook another fish and that lasted through most of the day.

By the end of the day, the guys had landed about 14 fish and lost a few in between.  That goes to show you, it’s different every day.  And sometimes it’s better to book a couple days to ensure the best chance at success.

Since the nights have been colder and the water temperatures are slowly dropping, we should see some more consistent fishing in the next few weeks.

We have been catching more Bull Trout than Rainbows lately, but that should change with the cooler days.  Looking forward to the Rainbows coming back up to the surface and the action to begin to pick up.

Our favourite time is coming up from mid October through to end of December.  The days of hooking 10 – 20 fish are coming.

Stay tuned…

Columbia River

We have been out on the river a fair bit in the past couple weeks, and it has been very productive.  A good mix of Rainbows and Walleye to keep things exciting.

Most Rainbows are the usual Columbia size between 16 – 20 inches, although we have managed to hook a couple bigger fish around 24″lately.  Fly fishing has been good along the banks and we’ve been getting some bigger ones in the deep.  Also, spin casting has been very productive in the holes and on the seems.

Walleye have been very consistent lately as well.  Most of the usual hotspots are producing for us.  Both trolling or spin casting has been productive.

We managed to get the kids out for a day on the river as well.  Lots of Walleye action to keep them both entertained throughout the day.

There seems to be lots of small ones around this fall, but we are still getting a mix of decent Walleye thrown at us.  Ranging from 1 Lb to 5 Lbs seems to be the normal lately.

Although we did see a nice 7 Lb Walleye come in the other day.

Fishing should remain consistent throughout October as the Rainbows continue to fatten up before winter and the Walleye continue to congregate.

Stay tuned for more river adventures……

What are they biting on???

On Kootenay Lake, it’s been a mixed bag.  We’re getting the odd Rainbow on the bucktail flies on the surface, however most of the fish are a bit deeper right now.  So, we’ve been using weighted lines with some of our favourite Gibbs/Delta spoons.  The favourites this month have been the brass/fire stripe croc or the skinny ‘g’ outfitter.

And the Bull Trout have been chomping on the Highliner flasher in Lemon lime or the Oki big shooter flasher in yellow/green mist followed by either the green spatter back or green pistachio hoochie.  Favourite depths have been 81 – 121ft.

And on the River, its been a good mix of jigs with curly tails or bottom bouncers with bling blade or wedding band for the Walleye.  And the Rainbows have been chomping on some of our Gibbs croc spoons or bottom bouncers with bait.

Flyfishing has been good using larger nymphs as well as some of our bigger caddis fly patterns.  The October caddis should provide some exciting dry fly action coming up.

Hope this helps with your next adventure.

Tight lines………

Captain Kerry Reed
Reel Adventures Sportfishing
www.reeladventuresfishing.com

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