Fly Fishing Talbot Lake – Jasper National Park
Our two planned activities while we were in Jasper National Park were 1) hiking to Wilcox Pass, and 2) fly fishing. Those were the two things we knew we had to do while in Jasper, with all other free time reserved for searching for bears (we ended up seeing a grand total of zero bears). We booked a half-day fly fishing trip through Currie’s Guiding, one of the two main guiding companies in town. The morning of our fishing trip turned out to be a cold one, so rather than head to the famous Maligne Lake which is located at higher elevation and was expecting a September snowstorm, our guide Chris recommended we try our luck in Talbot Lake. Talbot is a fairly small lake located about 20 minutes north of the town of Jasper just across the Yellowhead Highway from Jasper Lake. While Maligne may be a more beautiful lake, the fishing had been better at Talbot at this point in the season (early September), and the scenery at Talbot was more than sufficient. Catching fish was our top priority anyway, and we had already had our fair share of incredibly beautiful glacial lakes earlier on our trip.
Fly Fishing for Northern Pike
Opportunities for world class trout fishing are abundant in Jasper National Park, but Talbot Lake is the only body of water in the park with a significant presence of northern pike. That’s really the only species of fish in the lake but it was a fish we were excited about catching. We were each provided with a fly rod equipped with large colorful streamers and started trolling along the shoreline. Chris (our guide) had been fishing this lake for years so he knew exactly where the best spots were. It took probably 20-30 minutes before getting the first bite and Laura reeled in the first catch of the day – a ~33″ pike which ended up being the largest either of us would catch. From what Chris was telling us, there aren’t really any monsters in Talbot, but this was a good size fish. We threw him back and continued our trolling.
It wasn’t long before we got another bite and reeled in the second pike of the morning. This one wasn’t quite as large as the first but we were officially tied with one fish apiece….Who knew it was a competition?
We spent about 4 hours on the water and caught a total of 8 fish (4 apiece). We’d consider this a success. In addition to the fishing, the surrounding mountainous landscape was beautiful and we spotted a few loons floating on the lake and bald eagles perched on top of trees along the shore. Not to mention, our guide was as entertaining a character as you’ll ever encounter. A true Canadian through and through. There was never a dull moment on the boat all morning.
Final Score: Laura (4) – Chris (4)
Map