The fishing on Kootenay Lake is great right now. Excellent numbers of Gerrard Rainbow Trout 10 - 15lbs.

It's interesting how it goes. Some days it's just fairly steady action, and other days you have a 1 to 2 hour window of opportunity when the bite turns on, and the big guys hammer your flies.

The boys from Slocan were out for a day of fishing. We didn't have a bite by 11:00am. Then we got a small trout on the 215. We kind of laughed at how small it was. Then we trolled for about a half hour and one of the reels lights up and starts singing to us. We land an 11 lber. Then we troll for about an hour, and are starting to get ansy again when Kevin see's the planer board clip pull way back almost flipping the planer board, snap free, and the reel starts screaming. Happy grabs the rod and has a great battle with a 12 lber. Well that's awesome, but Mike is feeling a little left out, so we're really hoping for one more big one. An hour later the rod straight out the back of the boat starts screaming. I run out the back of the boat and go to the wrong side fumbling around. I still hear a screaming reel, but can't find it. Fortunately the guys are yelling at me to get to the other side. I grab the rod and set the hook and Mike battles his 10 lb trout to the boat. Three Gerrards over 10 lbs was a great day.

Then a couple of days later Alex and Deb come up for a trip. Alex has been fishing kootenay lake for years out of Schroeder Creek, and absolutely loves the lake. The only problem is that his wife Debbie usually out fishes him, and has been rubbing it in all these years. Well for his retirement his company sent him on an all inclusive trip up to Kootenay Lake to fish with me.

The first day out it's hot and sunny, and not a ripple on the water. My nightmare. However after fishing for a few hours the wind picks up a bit, and we get a couple of small ones. Then around noon the rod screams at us. Alex fought this fish for about a minute, and not once did he gain any line, he was mostly loosing it. Then the fish decided that enough was enough, and spit the barbless hook out. Major Bummer !!! But that's fishing, so we hope for just one more chance at a big fish that day. A couple of hours later our wish comes true, and we have another screamer on. Again after battling to get it under controll it just comes off the hook. Well it's all we can do to keep Alex from jumping off the boat. I watched both times when the fish came off, and he didn't do anything wrong. They were just biting light, and the barbless hooks probably didn't help at all. So off we go home to lick our wounds, hoping for another chance tommorrow.

The next morning again dawns bright and sunny and calm. Tough conditions again, but at 9:00 am the rod behind the boat lights up and Deb grabs the rod and is battling a nice trout. As the boat is slowing down, I notice the planer board has a small hit on it, but it didn't stick. Deb continues to battle her fish, then about 30 seconds later the planer board pulls way back and releases. We got a big one Alex, double header !!!. Debbie does a great job landing her 8 lb trout, and we release it because we know that Alex's is bigger. After a great battle Alex lands a beautifull 13 lber. Lots of hooting and hollering as Alex got his fish that he wanted. We went on to land some more great fish over the next day and a half.

Have a great retirement Alex !!!! Catch lots of fish.