Kelly Rayworth of Backcountry Skinz joined me to talk about the backcountry alpine lake fishing he and his brother Mike do around Calgary and interior British Columbia — the drop-a-pin-and-hike-in kind, targeting cutthroat, bull trout, and brookies in lakes most anglers never reach. The gear side of that conversation is worth its own post, but the fishing technique is what stuck with me, especially how much a pack raft changes what's actually reachable in a day.

Why a Pack Raft Beats Hiking the Bank

Kelly and his brother used to work alpine lakes entirely on foot, which meant hiking an entire shoreline to reach fish holding along a rockslide or a far bank you could see but not reach. A packable inflatable raft changes that completely — it packs down small enough to carry in, and once you're on the water you can reach structure, inlets, and outlets that would otherwise cost you the rest of the day just to walk around to. His advice: budget your pack weight carefully, bring a real patch kit, and size your raft to your body and gear load before you commit to a multi-mile approach.

Balanced Leeches: The Alpine Lake Go-To

For cutthroat and brookies in alpine lakes, Kelly's number one fly is a balanced leech tied with a tungsten bead to get it down quickly — he specifically likes a red tungsten bead head. Rather than a dead-drift or slow hand-twist, he fishes it with a stripped retrieve, varying the speed and adding short, sharp ticks to make the fly look injured and vulnerable. He also fishes balanced leeches under an indicator with an occasional jig of the rod tip, which he says triggers fish that won't commit to a straight strip. Pheasant tails and squirmy worms round out his lake box, but the leech is what he reaches for first.

Targeting Bull Trout with Oversized Streamers

Bull trout get a different approach entirely. Kelly runs two rods for them: a weighted-line rod carrying 10-to-12-inch streamers — oversized Dolly Llamas and Deceivers in black-and-purple or blue-and-white — and a second nymph rod with a weighted balanced leech to probe a hole before committing to the bigger fly. His logic is simple: bull trout are aggressive, deep-holding predators, and profile matters more than exact color or pattern. He'll nymph a hole first, then follow up with what he calls the “big sweeper” to see if anything larger is holding underneath. For getting big flies down in fast tributary water, he prefers adding a large cone ahead of the fly over pinching on lead, since it casts cleaner and is easier to retie on the water.

Planning a Trip Like This

Kelly's practical tip for anyone wanting to try this style of fishing: look up regional stocking reports and back-country fishing diaries (he specifically references a self-published book cataloguing Alberta and BC alpine lakes) and cross-reference them with mapping tools like onX and AllTrails, since a lot of these lakes show up in hiking apps with zero mention that they hold fish. Do the research before you commit to the miles, and treat a blank day as part of the deal — the reward isn't guaranteed to be a fish every time.

Gear

If a backcountry lake trip is on your list this season, our Essential Elements of Destination Travel for Anglers eBook is a solid planning companion, and our Tips and Tricks for Fly Fishing eBook covers presentation fundamentals like the ones Kelly describes for leeches and streamers. We don't currently carry pack rafts or backcountry packs in the store, so for that gear, Kelly's own site (Backcountry Skinz) is the better resource.