What's on your hook? — Lures and Flies

The easiest method to catch rainbow trout is to troll with a lake troll followed by a small spoon or spinner; a wedding band spinner is an excellent choice, with just a bit of worm or maggot on the hook. This method also works well on Kokanee.

The most-sporting method of catching rainbow trout is to tie a fly that closely matches the insects on which the trout are feeding, then cast this fly without spooking the trout and retrieve it in such a way that the trout mistakes it for a real insect. This often requires very light leaders, forcing you to play the trout carefully in order to release it.

Squid type plugs like J-Plugs, Mac’s Squid Plugs and Tomic Plugs are trolled on very long lines and often with no additional weights. Other productive lures include Apex and bucktail flies. Downriggers take lures as deep as 37 metres (120 feet) when fishing larger lakes.

From mid-May to late July, mayflies appear and 90 percent are consumed by large trout in their nymph stage; bead-head pheasant-tailed nymphs are therefore a great choice for fly casters. The bead helps the nymph to sink quickly and to the trout, looks like the air sack on a natural nymph. Nymphs should be fished on dry lines with strike indicators and six to eight feet of very light leader. If you prefer to use dry flies, Blue Duns or gray Bivisibles work well.

Char, like Dolly Varden and brook trout, prefer slower moving lures that still have plenty of action. Flatfish and Kwikfish plugs and the Canadian Wiggler are excellent choices. Large spoons like the Daredevle, the Williams Wabler and the Canadian Wonder are often irresistible for these fish, as are jigs such as Buzz Bombs, Spinnows and Zzingers. Brook trout are often found in the same lakes as rainbow trout and will readily go for flies.

Sockeye salmon in the coastal streams and rivers like green and green-and-chrome spin-n-glos and green-bodied Doc Spratley flies work well. Pink salmon readily take flies and coho salmon take a variety of small spoons and spinners. Chum salmon can be caught by casting large spoons near the tailouts of large, deep pools. Chinook salmon are caught by bar fishing - using an eight-ounce weight with a large Spin-n-Glo and minimum 30-pound test line. Other methods include casting large weighted spoons like the Kitimat Spoons or drifting with plugs such as Hot Shots and Wiggle Warts. The very largest chinook might be hooked by anglers on gravel bars, but are often not landed unless the angler can follow them down the river in a boat.

Bass offer fantastic fishing action when casting surface lures or weedless spinners.