After an excellent evening of fishing for Westslope Cutthroat in Valhalla Lake, my wife and I hiked over to Janus Lake the next morning for another afternoon, evening and morning of what I hoped would be excellent fishing for Coastal Cutthroat in Janus Lake. Much to my dismay, however, we arrived at the lake to find that the shoreline from the camping area is extremely shallow, extending at least a good 75' out into the water before getting more than probably 4' deep. I didn't despair though, figuring that fish would probably push into the shallows late in the day or early in the morning.

After getting camp set up and eating dinner, I worked my way along the south east shoreline of the lake through the somewhat marshy meadow that surrounds this side of the lake. Luckily for me, the drop off in this area wasn't quite as bad, probably only taking about 20' to get down to 4' deep, the bad part however was that there were numerous lily pads that had to be navigated each time I cast. As I fished my way down the shore, primarily using a 1/8oz gold and crimson Kastmaster and a size 0 copper Vibrax, I could see fish rising within casting distance but I couldn't get them to hit anything. I tried at least one other spinner (size 0 gold Aglia), and maybe more, but I don't think I had a single tap throughout the entire evening. Of the rises that I could see near to shore though, it appeared that the fish that were in my area were pretty small. I may have had better luck if I had tied on a fly/bubble float combo, but the light was fading and I didn't want to take the time to bother with that.

The next morning I tried some casting right from the beach at camp, but proceeded to only catch the bottom and lose my black and silver Roostertail. Oh well, you can't win them all.

I will however offer some observations that can hopefully help out others who come to this lake.

First, it looks like the best shore to fish at this lake is the long side of the north west shore. As opposed to the south east shore, which as I mentioned is marshy, the north west shore drops down fairly quickly. It certainly isn't an underwater bedrock cliff, but it looks like the water drops to at least a good 20' or more within casting distance.

Second, with the above statement in mind, I would highly recommend packing a float tube or small raft into this lake. The north west shore looked great, but it is very difficult to get to, trust me, I tried. I know that there are some super die hard fisherman out there who wouldn't let brush and undergrowth stop them from getting to where they want to go, but believe me when I say that if you try to access the north west shore on foot, you are in for a challenge. I tried to get out there the evening that I was on the lake but wasn't able to get nearly as close as I wanted to be due to the terrain. This is why I suggest bringing some sort of flotation device.

Third, consider giving flies more of a workover at this lake, rather than lures. As I mentioned, I think I wasn't getting hits on my lures because the fish that were near me were small, but there were many many fishing jumping throughout the lake; a very good sign that they were keying in on some sort of bug.

Fourth, I think there are some big fish in this lake. Not huge as in 18", but I think the lake holds a decent number of fish in the 12"+ range (remember, this is an alpine lake) simply judging by the size and sound of some of the splashes that I saw.

Tight lines!

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