Kananaskis Lakes, Skunked again...

[floppychicken]

Man,
Since the bait ban, I have had the worst freaking luck on the upper lake ! It's incredibly frustrating. What is the best way to fish these types of lakes ? I've trolled, jigged, spooned, whispered kindly, and 'nothing', NADA, squat !

Before the ban I used to pull out 'tons' of 2 pounders and the occassional 4 and 6 pounder from the shore on the upper Lake. I've had many hits on the lower using spoons and plugs, but never landed one of those bad boys... Since I'm not crazy about eating trout, they all went back for another day.... but sheesh, where are the sympathetic fish gods !

What can I do to change my luck out on that body of water ?
Does anyone have any good tips on how to fish either lake ?

Cheers,

/FC

Pickup a flyrod.

[Scott N]

I have had some limited success (nothing to brag about though) on the lower lake for the big bulls fly fishing streamers right along the bottom. The only advise that I could give is to fish close to the bottom as that's where most of the fish that I have caught have been hanging around. I've seen guys to fairly well using spinning gear and white jigs too, and again, they were fishing the bottom of the lake.

[Mudslide]

We have had good success on upper K trolling small flatfish with a split shot 18-24 ahead of the lure. Try black with sparkles or the frog pattern. I use fire line with a fluorocarbon leader and an electric motor. Troll in an s pattern with the lure let out as far back as possible. Troll between the waterfalls cutting close to shore and then out again in the s pattern. If you want to improve trolling results hold your rod instead of using rod holders and impart some motion to your lure. A darting forward motion, followed by a pause, and then dropping the lure back to the original position helps to increase hits. With flatfish if you can't feel the lure vibrating on your line it's probably fouled. Use a small snap (no swivel) and line the hook eyes of the lure up to insure they run properly.

Hope that helps
Greg

[floppychicken]

Awesome info....

Much obliged. I've got at least a couple more tries in me before I 'snap' like a dry twig, so this great advice should help prevent that !!

Cheers,

/FC

Also if you are trolling, try Apex's (similar to flatfish) as well as some different spoons; key thing is to GET IT DOWN THERE.

[iliketrout]

I've only been there once, so I am far from an expert, but I had no luck with spinners or spoons. If I worked them on the bottom, they tended to get snagged on rocks or stumps (I was on shore). No bites working them mid to high. I switched to a tube jig simply because they don't get snagged and that's when I had the only hits of the day.

[Mark]

Has anybody been up to Upper K lake lately? Is the ice off? Any sucess?

Mark

[goldscud]

You guys just need a good guide like this guy. He makes it easy