Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Brook Trout in the Backcountry of Banff National Park


I love brook trout! Their colours are amazing and better still, the places they reside are beautiful. Yesterday was Labour Day Monday. I usually love to watch CFL football but Steve, Taryn, Chili the Dog and I decided to hit the backcountry in Banff National Park. We hiked in close to 10 km to a backcountry lake teaming with brookies. I had tied a bunch of chernobyls and put them in a corner, hoping to get out brookie fishing.  I suggested to Steve that we should get out to chase brookies. He was up for the adventure. We shouldered up our packs at shortly after 10 am and a little more than two hours later, we were at the lake. We layered up and then strung up our 4 and 5 weight rods. I was determined to just use dry flies. The brookies are usually quite responsive to chernobyls. It was about 10 C at the lake which is just below tree line. The brookies were quite aggressive and they absolutely destroyed my chernobyls. Steve was using a fly called the "Blue Bastard" and the brookies were all over it! Taryn was using a hot spot nymph and she caught her share of brookies too! All too quickly the afternoon passed. The daylight hours are getting shorter so by 4 pm we were heading back to Taryn's Tiguan. Out feet were tired after out walk out. I think Taryn said we walked 30 000 steps and we climbed 157 flights of stairs. That was 22 km of walking! We were hungry. We devoured our supper in Canmore and then rolled back to Red Deer. It was definitely a satisfying day. 


Chili the photo bomber!







Chernobyls are simple to tie and so effective! Foam rocks!








 

No comments: