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View Full Version : Jasper - opening weekend report


SNAPFisher
05-24-2016, 06:24 PM
Holy rain coming up from Calgary on Thursday. Then rain all day Friday to Jasper which turned out to heavy snow past Evansburg. Got to Jasper, cleared off :sHa_shakeshout:
Had a nice day hanging around town, eating great food and drinking draft beer.

Head up to Maligne for opening day on Saturday. Got out on the water around 8 a.m. Far from the first one out. It was cloudy and cold. Got into a huge rainbow right away. Kept trolling around until about 10 a.m. and landed around 10 fish. Most were really good sized rainbows. Then I set up for still fishing and wondered if it would repeat from last year...it did! Everyone else kept trolling. I timed it right because the fish started moving around. You could see them in the shallows and cast to them. By now the clouds disappeared and the sun was out. Perfect! The fishing was right stupid. After landing a bunch I started to count how many casts with a fish landed. I got up to 49...49 on the same fly and 49 where nothing went wrong. Some were rainbows over 20 inches and I kept my first brookie at 19 inches. A couple of guys pulled up and asked how it was going. I told them about my count so they watched as #50 took the hook ...but...got off. So they setup near me and we had a good time shooting the breeze, making fun of each others casts and the number of double and triple headers soon lost count of. By 2 p.m. my muscles had cramped out really bad, no really, and I was at around 100 fish landed...that was enough. Headed in early with 2 nice brookies in tow.

http://i66.tinypic.com/dwyhk0.jpg

http://i68.tinypic.com/s5cwev.jpg

http://i67.tinypic.com/2ev6gm0.jpg

Started raining Sunday overnight and kept on. Went to Talbot to check it out. It snowed like crazy for about 3 hours. Just watched movies in the RV :)
I finally launched when it went back to rain. I could not find a white :(
Spent about an hour tooling around the lake without seeing anything. Didn't even cast out. Came back in to warm up and hope for calmer weather. Talked to a guy at the launch and he said he found a bunch of dead whites...uh oh....

The nice weather showed again on Monday.
No wind at all and no rain. Went back to Talbot. Found some good sized pike but didn't even bring the pike rod. Traveled pretty far and didn't see a white. Came back towards the launch and ran into a school of them. woo hoo!! 2nd cast and one of them turned on it and took it. What a fight!! Lots of good runs high up and into the muddy bottom. Just awesome. Managed to land the big white and put it on the stringer. For the next bit I tried following the school around but they seemed to become elusive. I went a bit away from the launch and started seeing fish. I thought they were pike at first but they were huge whites! Soon a was surrounded and they kept coming from all directions. Hard not to hook up with this many - you could sense it coming. About 4 casts and another one on. This one was slightly smaller but fought even better. Managed to land it too and onto the stringer. Checked the watch and it was 9 a.m. Limited out :)

From there I just boated around to see what I could find and it was then that I found some pretty big dead pike and dead whites. It did winter kill. It will be interesting to see if it impacts the white fishing as they disperse throughout the lake.

Pics:

Elk on the side of the road taken from the boat
http://i66.tinypic.com/2dv065z.jpg

http://i66.tinypic.com/25z0cwg.jpg

The first and larger fish was 24 inches and just over 5 lbs
http://i67.tinypic.com/aombcz.jpg

Jasper never disappoints! What a blast.

RavYak
05-24-2016, 06:37 PM
I wanted to go out there this weekend but it seems the rainy season has socked in and I am too much of a fair weather fisherman lol.

pikester
05-24-2016, 08:35 PM
Congrats, I am most jealous!! I haven't done a fishing tour of Jasper for at least 20 years & miss it a lot. Maybe this will be the year to get reacquainted :fishing:

Speckle55
05-24-2016, 10:18 PM
Grats SNAPFisher...

saw you at Maligne Saturday when my son and I went camping down at Fisherman's Bay for 2 nights ..

was the same down there lots of fish but we never got your numbers ..:test:

Sunday was a wash out as it snowed on and off all day ..:kap:

going tomorrow to fish home bay ..:character0053:

got to love Maligne in the spring:love:

thanks for sharing

David:)
http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a488/Speckle55/2016/IMG_2129_zpsxg2usqhr.jpg

SNAPFisher
05-25-2016, 06:41 AM
Hey Speckle, I was wondering how you 2 made out with the not so good Sunday weather. Must have been cold out there. At least the snow makes the vistas even that much more impressive.

Caught a lot of spawned out rainbows in home bay and made sure to give them extra time to revive.

If you are thinking of Talbot, they are pretty concentrated right now so once you find them, it is on, on :)

Best of luck out there!

McLeod
05-25-2016, 09:33 AM
SNAPFisher thank you so much for the report. Really appreciated. Nice pics.

waterninja
05-25-2016, 11:32 AM
Congrats on a great weekend. Some very nice fish there.

Sumara
05-25-2016, 04:31 PM
Nice weekend you had there! Here's hoping i can make it over to jasper soon!

CK Angler
05-25-2016, 05:16 PM
I was there this weekend for my first time and got skunked lol tried under the Athabsca falls for Bulls, had a small one follow and hit but couldn't connect. Hiked into the valley of 5 lakes, fished #5 but the fish weren't interested in what we had to offer. Made one last pit stop where the maligne River meets the Athabsca to see if I could hook into a bull but nothing.... Still had a blast, such a beautiful place and I cannot wait to go back ! Good to see you had luck! Cheers!

CK Angler
05-25-2016, 05:56 PM
Pretty sure I got a picture of that same elk haha