by AnglersAtlas
A picturesque and winding trout stream, the Kettle begins its 280 kilometre journey at Holmes Lake in the Monashee Mountains, flows though the Christian Valley to Westbridge where it is joined by the West Kettle, and ends at the Columbia River in Washington State.The river is home to several species of fish, including wild stock (fluvial species) rainbow trout that can grow to trophy sizes in perfect conditions.
For fly-fishers who love rivers, it’s nearly as good as it gets.
“In terms of a true western trout stream fly-fishing experience in our region, the Kettle River is it,” says Lowe, a long-time CHBC cameraman and the founder of the Okanagan chapter of the conservation group Trout Unlimited.
“If you love to fly fish in a river for rainbow trout, it’s the only place in our region that offers the experience.”
For two decades, Lowe has fished the Kettle, tromping through the woods to access pools and riffles where fish hold.
He is passionate and obsessive about it, zeroing in on where the fish are, what they are feeding on and trying to replicate it with rod and artificial fly.
But it didn’t take long for him to notice things were changing.
“The fishing just kept getting worse,” he says.
“There were massive die-offs. It went into this cycle of drought and fish kills. As an angler that has fished there for 20 years, I’ve seen the populations dwindle."
From an article by Kevin Parnell published in the Kelowna Capital News on April 21, 2014:For the past 20 years, Kelowna angler Travis Lowe has been heading east to try his luck on the Kettle River.
For the complete story: http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/256048001.html