05-25-2008, 02:14 AM
We have just returned from Kootenay Lake, in British Columbia, just three hours north of Coeur d'Alene, ID. This lake is 100 miles long! If you have ever wished you could have fished Lake Pend Oreille in the good old days, then head up north for your chance at giant Gerrard (Kamploops) rainbow trout and bull/dolly varden trout. Run-of-the-mill fish run from 4 to 8 pounds. The larger fish go 10 to 15 pounds. Bragging rights don't start at less than 20. If you don't think these fish are big, think about the fact that one of the most popular lures is a 9 inch Lyman plug! We fished the surface with a bucktail fly behind an online side planer. The other pole pulled a Gibbs "Illumination" spoon, black with purple. We fished this 10 feet deep. The first day we fished two hours before we got a hit. In the next half hour we caught 5 rainbows and one bull trout, between 4 and 8 pounds. The next day we fished half a day with two lost fish. This isn't fast fishing, but the chances of catching a trophy fish have been getting better each year, since they have been dumping nitrogen in the lake. This has brought back the kokanee, which run up to 4 pounds. The kokes have brought back the big ones. We saw 10 pound Gerrard rainbows jumping by the boat numerous times. The fellow who owns the fishing tackle store in the little town where we were fishing had been out several days earlier, and caught nine fish up to 15 pounds, and had one on that they chased for half an hour, and were finally spooled, and this was a salmon rod w/ 20 pound test! If you google "Kootenay Lake" you will find Kootenay Kingfisher charters, and you can see these fish in their photo section, or read past reports. I have attached the first fish we caught, a nice rainbow picked up by my wife. We had several similar fish. Mike
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