Alpine lakes-got any advice on how to catch

[hawks33]

Planning on spending a night or two with my kids and wife on an alpine lake overnight. Any suggestions on how to catch some alpine trout? Not a flyfishermen... I've tried several setups and so far a horsefly cast out with a bobber has been the best for hits, just cant seem to get them to swallow the fly.  What do you guys use? Mt. Baker area.  Thanks!

[Not selected]

Dark rooster tail

[Turner89]

Planning on spending a night or two with my kids and wife on an alpine lake overnight. Any suggestions on how to catch some alpine trout? Not a flyfishermen... I've tried several setups and so far a horsefly cast out with a bobber has been the best for hits, just cant seem to get them to swallow the fly.  What do you guys use? Mt. Baker area.  Thanks!

I let you know in about 3hrs. 

[X-Force]

Throwing a rooster tail or other small spinner will work but depending on the size of the lake you may spook fish off in 30 min or less of fishing.

Flys I’d bring moth patterns, grass hoppers, maybe a leech and some nymphs. Sometimes a little bigger fly is easier to cast.

It’s ok if you can’t cast a fly rod. Watch a couple YouTube videos and try in your back yard with some yarn.

All lakes aren’t the same. Some alpine lakes fishing hot early am and late pm. Others will be dead at those times as the fish feed off of wind driven bugs during the heat of the day.

[OutHouse]

Dark rooster tail

Smallest black rooster tail you can find, ideally with red tinsel in the tail. Probably need to add a crimp weight about 10 inches above the lure so you can cast it far enough. Be persistent.

[jeffro]

I like spinners and casting bubbles w/ flies, I prefer wooly buggers in black and olive
Dark colors seem to work best
Also caught them on dicknites and red devil spoons
Biggest thing is light line and being able to cast to deep water

[hawks33]

Thanks for the advice! We're headed out mid august, I'll stock up and we'll see how it goes. If the fishings bad, the scenery never let's ya down.
J

[Dan-o]

I like spinners and casting bubbles w/ flies, I prefer wooly buggers in black and olive
Dark colors seem to work best
Also caught them on dicknites and red devil spoons
Biggest thing is light line and being able to cast to deep water

I agree.   

Black/olive Wooley buggers behind a bobber.   

Young kids can catch fish that way.   So can I. 

[jackelope]

Alpine lakes and trout on fly rods. Beetles and ant patterns are notoriously good in alpine lakes as are the water boatman imitations. Wooly buggers kind of always work. Unless you can throw a fly line 80’ it’ll be a challenge to cover a lot of water, but usually those trout are eager eaters. The casting bubble and a fly on a spinning rod is a good way to go. Use a tapered leader behind the bubble.

[huntnfmly]

Good point about throwing spinners spooking the fish
I’d go old school we use to use bobbers bite on some weights swivel and leader and killed using pautzke redball eggs cast it out wait and enjoy

[MR5x5]

Fished them a ton!  All I take these days are:

Red/White Mepps Aglia in size 0 or 1
Daredevil - Red/white on gold - small and med small
Gold Kastmaster - small and med small

Ultralight gear on 2-4 lb test.

If it is bright out the Kastmaster can be a little too spooky for them - slow retrieve the spinner.

Look for the deep water let it sink to the bottom before retrieve.

Strongly suggest clipping one or two of the trebbles and taking the barb off the remaining so as not to kill too many fish. If they bleed you need to keep them at whatever size.

Good luck? 

Where you headed?

[actionshooter]

We hit a small alpine lake weekend before last and threw almost everything mentioned above and couldn't hook a fish to save my life.. watched them move out of the way anytime a lure was cast and tried several flies on the bobber with no results..  pretty frustrating on the fishing ends but the scenery is worth it!

[Skyvalhunter]

As someone that stocks and surveys high mtn lakes and if Mepps or one of the other lures are not Woking. This is if you truly want to catch and keep the fish then go with bait. Worms, grasshoppers, power bait, eggs are good choices. You must remember that just because you don't see any damage to the fish it probably won't survive after releasing it. Handling the fish will damage it. Only catch what you will eat or consume later. If it's a lake where there are tons of small, skinny, stunted
 fish it doesn't hurt to weed them out.

[hawks33]

Fished them a ton!  All I take these days are:

Red/White Mepps Aglia in size 0 or 1
Daredevil - Red/white on gold - small and med small
Gold Kastmaster - small and med small

Ultralight gear on 2-4 lb test.

If it is bright out the Kastmaster can be a little too spooky for them - slow retrieve the spinner.

Look for the deep water let it sink to the bottom before retrieve.

Strongly suggest clipping one or two of the trebbles and taking the barb off the remaining so as not to kill too many fish. If they bleed you need to keep them at whatever size.

Good luck? 

Where you headed?

May head into Slide lake, but I'm not sure the road is clear. Have to do a little research. I've done really well before in dry summers like this one, but the last two summers I tried throwing a little bit of everything and had a tough time hooking fish. What's another $100 on fishing lures to test out some suggestions

[Boss .300 winmag]

We hit a small alpine lake weekend before last and threw almost everything mentioned above and couldn't hook a fish to save my life.. watched them move out of the way anytime a lure was cast and tried several flies on the bobber with no results..  pretty frustrating on the fishing ends but the scenery is worth it!

Curious if this lake gets lots of attention?

I’ve only been to one alpine piece of water that the fish wouldn’t bite, a small stream in a box canyon that I was fishing the side pools.

Other than that I always catch fish in them, I bit do fish the harder ones to get to.😉