Taking my nephew out for his first time fishing

[Barrus]

Hello,

As my title suggests, my nephew is coming out to Calgary mid-July for a visit from Arizona. He's never fished before and I'd like to give him a really good mountain experience.

When I was a kid, my old man took me to Allen Bill Pond and a few other ponds/lakes in the mountains which I can't remember. What I do remember is that the ones you had to walk in to were the most fun.

What I'm looking for is a pond or lake in the Kananaskis area that's less than a 90 minute walk (he's 11) from the car with a good chance of catching a few fish. We won't be fly-fishing, and we'll be fishing from shore.

Thanks very much in advance!

[Nakoda boater]

Upper k lake, fish along and towards the creek on the west side

[Barrus]

Thanks Nakoda. I drove down there yesterday just to look around and I noticed that the water level seems to be crazy low. Is this normal for this time of year? There were a few guys fishing at the boat launch, but no one was catching.

I also walked up above mount lorette ponds to another pond up there (i remembered going there with my dad when i was a little guy when we drove by it), and it seemed like it was a fraction of its previous size. The river seemed normal...am I missing something?

[TroutTracker]

You may want to look into Rawson Lake. It's a bit of a hike from upper K (def under 90min) but a really fun place to fish for cutts plus great scenerary. If small spinners aren't working, you may want to try small chronomids under an indicator/bobber.

[Barrus]

Thanks very much for the reply Trouttracker, I'll scout that out next weekend.

As for my previous question regarding water levels, here's a pic I took on Saturday to show what I mean. It looks like the water is 20' too low! Is this a spring flooding mitigation strategy or is this normal for this time of year?

[Kingfisher]

Go to McLean Pond by McLean campsite out past Bragg Creek. Lots of small willing and mostly stupid rainbows. Also another great place would be to take him to Pine Coulie Reservior. There you can fish off the dock and catch walleye. Lots of fun for the kids.

[Barrus]

Thanks very much Kingfisher, I will check out both locations!