BULL TROUT FLY FISHING GUIDES

Bull Trout are a member of the char family as are brook trout and lake trout. Similar to their lake bound cousins, bull trout often spend time in lakes and reservoirs where they feed on anything that swims and generally grow quite large vs their river resident siblings.  During summer months many large adult bull trout will begin their migration from these reservoirs or lakes into smaller mountain streams where they seek clear, cool rushing water to begin their spawning cycle.  

We avoid targeting them on their redds in the upper parts of the drainage and focus more on their pre spawn and post spawn periods.  Timing can vary from drainage to drainage but we have some areas we fish these beasts during their swim up river in July and August.  Come mid September to late October, these fish start dropping back down to their wintering grounds in the lake bodies and this generally overlaps with the spawning migration of the kokanee salmon which use much of the same water to spawn in.  

Bull trout are one of those species that look old; a species that grew a big enough mouth to eat all the other fish around it and never had to evolve from it's bad ass self.  This mouth stays busy during this period eating rotting kokanee, fresh kokanee, spawning whitefish, eggs and just about anything it can get it's huge lips on as it prepares to enter it's winter months in the reservoir.  The food is much easier to get at in the smaller, confined river system than in the large lakes and they capitalize on this gorging on these offerings.  The bull trout can eat up to 30% of it's body weight in a day and despite coming out of spawn skinny and beat up, they quickly regain their size and then some.  

We employ a variety of streamer techniques to connect with these fish as well as using beaded nymph rigs to get the more selective fish.  The streamers can be upwards of a foot in length so eight and nine weight rods are suggested for the throwing the meaty patterns and 7's and 8's for the 'smaller' patterns and eggs.

This is a fishery that demands a bit of patience and persaverence but the reward can be huge.  Fish over 15 pounds are common and the odd 20 pound fish gets hooked ever year....not necessarily landed...but hooked.  We use the same jet powered jon boats to fish for these as we do on the Columbia.