Alta lake Cutthroat

As soon as the ice comes off Alta lake sometime in late march (new regs say the lake is open for fishing on April 1st), there is good fishing to be had for a few months for some of the largest Cutthroat trout you will find in the corridor. Originally Alta lake was stocked a few years ago with sterile Cutthroat trout to control the local stickleback population. With the release of new Cutthroat trout in the lake every year or two and a single barbless/catch and release restriction on the lake, the fish have grown to an impressive size. Fishing for these Cutties can be quite good with some of the larger specimens surpassing the 24" size bracket.

Very nice Alta Cuttie

Rainbow trout also exist in the lake with the occasional one reaching larger proportions, but there are alot of them around. The weed beds at the north end of the lake were the River Of Golden Dreams outflows and Scotia creek inflow across from lakeside park are the best spots to fish, but any of the docks on the lake make great casting platforms and good spots to catch these fish as well. Streamers are the norm, but these fish have what you would call a "see food" diet... they see food, and then they eat it, everything from midges/Chronnies to deceivers seem to work for these fish, but micro leeches, buggers and Muddlers are your best bet with full intermediate lines.

Rainbow trout looking deceiver patterns apparently work too

Whistler lakes are fishing great

With the Steelhead run over and the local rivers running high with spring runoff, most people are now turning their attention to the local lakes such as Alta, Green, Lost, Ivey and Loggers, which are fishing better and better as the bugs start hatching and the weather warms up.
local lakes right in town are fishing exceptional as the large carpenter ants that fly around in the first few weeks of hot weather are devoured by the fish. Flying ant patterns in a size 8-10 work great but Leeches, dragons, damsels, caddis and mayfly patters are all working great as well.
A personal favorate setup for the local lakes that rarely fails me is a 5-6wt setup with either a floating line down to type 3 sink tip with a 15 foot leader and a size 10-14 black micro leech fished slow. The micro leech is a very versitile pattern and in different colors and sizes can imitate almost everything the local fish feed on such as leeches, dragons, damsels, chronomids, black ands, caddis, etc. This method of fishing is very simple and I rarly switch up flies unless there is a prolific hatch happening. Fish in the local lakes will seldomly pass up a well presented Micro leech.