Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting How many of you do backpacking fishing trips?

With a few months left until hunting season I plan on doing a few backpack fishing trips, and was wondering how many of you guys do the same, what you fish for and what gear do you bring?

I usually do a few spring-summer backpack fishing trips a year.
I fish NH White Mountain senic remote ponds for brook trout, using mostly spinning equipment (brush overhanging) or fly rod. My gear consists of an old REI or Badlands 2800 backpack, solo tent or Hennesy Hammock (warmer months) and a Snow Peak gas stove or home made alcohol stove depending how I feel. Its been great exercize and pratice for fall hunts. (co elk) I plan to hike/fish Maine's Baxter park in the future.

Never done it but always wanted to backpack in and fish the high mountain lakes in the Beartooth Wilderness just outside NE Yellowstone.(flyfishing)

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I intend to do a few "shakedown" trips this summer in anticipation of a Fall mule deer hunt. Plenty of places I can pack in in NC mountains with a trout stream nearby. Maybe I'll carry a flyrod!

Thanks for the idea!

Irning_D:

I do several summer backpacking trips every year. I really enjoy the high mountain ecosystem above timberline. Coincidentally that's where the elk like to spend the summer grasing on the alpine grasses.

There are lots of lakes just at timberline. I usually take some spinning gear and use dry flies. But I'm not a very good fisherman. I wait until I see the fish hitting the surface before I bother to try catching them. I use a #12 or #16 elk hair caddis for just about everything and that seems to work pretty good.

BTW I've tried fishing in streams below timberline and my strategy/gear doesn't work very well.

KC

One of my favorite summer activities.

I carry a lightweight flyrod and reel as well as a lightweight spinning reel. Flyfishing is my fav, but there are times when you need to get further out in the lake to have much luck. This can be very important when you're counting on catching fish for your dinner. :-)

I've found flyrods generally work OK with a light spinning reel and help when fish are out of traditional fly casting distance. My current setup uses a fairly stiff flyrod (8'-6" long) with 4wt floating fly line and standard reel, and is supplemented with a small spinning reel loaded with 3 lbs test line. The rod and spinning reel attached to a small water filled bubble with a fly behind can be very effective at times, especially when fish are feeding away from the shoreline or vegetation and trees do not allow for proper fly casting.

I will do a few each year, don't get nearly as far in as I would for hunting.

Usually try for brook trout but have did a trip a couple years ago for Goldens.

i will be taking my 8 year old daughter on her first backpacking trip this year and it will be to go fishing.she loves to fish and im hopping she will love to backpack.ive never done a backpack fishing trip,just hunting.so this will be a first for both of us.cant wait,late July early august in the alpine lakes of Washington state with my little girl.sounds like heaven to me

Love to backpack fish, and have done many such trips. For me they are more relaxed fun than big game back pack hunting. If my grown sons come along we pack outrageous good food and equipment to cook it. We won't be staggering out under loads of meat so go in with less concern about weight. I've done backpack fishing trips with kids and grandkids in recent summers. Great way to get in shape as well.

Fish: rainbows, cutthroats, brookies, and tried unsuccessfully for Atlantic salmon stocked in a high lake. Longest trip: 8 days to a series of four lakes, one of them 17 miles from the road.

I have a 5 wt four piece 9' pack fly rod. Also have an ancient Daniels telecoping fly/spin rod that is an amazingly good handling rod. Have never seen another telecoping rod in its class, and usually I don't like telescoping rods. I'll grieve when this one ever bites the dust. Have caught more backpack fish on a fly behind a casting bubble with spin gear than any other way.

Have fished many high and or remote lakes in WA State and in BC.

Alpine lakes are gorgeous. Advice from one Dad whose kids are now grown and I wish I'd followed better myself: Make it fun for her as your first priority, over catching fish, early starts, anything else.

I've been thinking about a light weight belly boat to take on some of our llama trips. Of course I'd need light waders, too. An hour dangling in that cold water might shrink some things beyond recovery.

I love to fish the high mountain lakes and streams, whether it's an overnighter or just a blast up the mountain and down in the same day, the fishing is much better than easily accessible places.....just like the hunting, come to think of it...except that you can go a lot lighter on a summer fishing trip:

That is the kind of fishing I'm talking about, I live in the adirondacks so there is no shortage of lakes and streams to fish. I have a small radison canoe that weighs about 50 lbs that we pack in to give us better access to the fish. This year I'm going to try to shave some weight by leaving the tent at home and just bringing a light weight tarp. My gear is slowly accumulating and getting lighter and more effiecient. So this trips are getting easier and more enjoyable. We are doing a 5 mile trip next weekend to a lake with a nice supply of brookies and browns so it will be a blast. My fishing gear is generally a small take down ugly stick with a array of mepps and panther martins, and a few spoons.

Awesome pics smokepole thanks for posting

I LOVE troutpacking. I always said it's 3/4 of the fun of an elk hunt for 1/2 the work. Sleep in a little, relax more, don't push it near as hard, but still catch the heck out of the trout and take in the ridiculously beautiful scenery. I went to the Beartooth's a few years back and it was awesome. Going to the Sierras and the Sawatch's this summer to catch a few trout with my wife. Absolutely love it.

I take spinning gear, it's just so much easier and simpler to catch tons of fish. Spinners in the streams and spoons in the lakes; guaranteed. My 2 buddies on the Beartooth trip were flyfishing, and they had a difficult time catching fish, but caught a few. I was tired of pulling them in. I'd recommend spinning gear unless you're ready to work a lot harder for fewer fish; but if flyfishing is your thing, then by all means have at it!

I do a bit of the high alpine lake fishing in the summer, usually as part of backpacking trip. I love the high lakes for brooks and cuts, and if you find the right lake at the right time it's a lot of fun.

I think the spinning vs. fly-fishing choice is highly dependent on the particular lake. At the first lake shown above, flies definitely out-caught spinners/spoons by a wide margin, that is, as long as you had the right fly. I've seen other situations where trout in lakes ignored hardware too. At the second lake, flies and spinners were both about the same catch-rate. All things being equal, packing spinning gear is the simpler less bulky option and you can definitely cover more water by flinging a spinner or spoon in a lake if you're fishing from shore.

Of course, the all-time failsafe in high-mountain streams if you want to catch fish to eat is an ultralight spinning rig, a few light wire hooks, a handful of split shot, and "garden hackle."

My favorite way to fish.

Absolutely! Still backpacking every summer in my mid 50's and I do haul a fly rod along. Lots of fun, and catch quite a few fish.

Have a small spinning rod & reel I ought to make more use of.

Guy

Yep, you bet. I combine backpacking, scouting for hunting season, and fishing in the summer. I fish for "trout". Mostly brookies and rainbows, sometimes browns, and occasionally some sort of char like things.

Usually the first time into a new area I pack UL spinning gear. A good, small, open-faced spinning reel with 4 lb line, a selection of panther martins and maybe a couple other types of small spinners from 1/32 to 1/8 oz, and a cheap / disposable / replaceable pack spinning rod 5-6 feet long.

If I find there's room to back cast or roll cast, then on subsequent trips I'll also bring in fly fishing gear. I have 2 8-1/2 foot 4 weight pack rods, one an 8 piece LL Bean, the other a 7 piece Cabelas. I have a Pfleuger Medalist 1492 with 2 spools, one carries a WF floater, the other a WF sink tip. Mostly on hiking trips I only carry the floater. I use 1-2 pound test and #12 - #18 dry flies, mostly gray to yellowish off-white colors.

I've been thinking about a UL float tube. I see some in the 7-8 pound range which would be ok with my frame pack once I get my other gear weight down.

Tom

I have a pack raft that weighs a little over 2 pounds and 3 lbs with a takedown kayak paddle. Thats what I am planning on fishing some of the big alpine lakes with this year. http://flyweightdesigns.com/products.aspx

Sometimes I bring the fishing gear on a backpacking trip, sometimes I leave it at home. The times I didnt bring it the lakes were alive with fish and I was wishing I packed it along. I will not eat any fish out of the small alpine lakes, I put them back for the next guy. The lakes are so small they can be over fished very easily. The only fish I do eat are the ones that die on the way in.

I use a small lightweight spinning setup and a friend uses a fly rod. It goes back and forth but the spinning rig usually comes out on top.