We had reserved a fishing charter for today, so after breakfast, we headed over to Lake Minnewanka to see what we could catch. Upon heading outside, it was immediately obvious that this was the smokiest day yet!

After meeting our fishing guide and captain for the day at the dock, we took care of the necessary paperwork for fishing licenses in the National Park, and we set out down the lake. The water was calm, but the visibility just horrible from thick smoke.

We tried a few spots, and Brian managed to catch a trout!

The wind started picking up toward the end of the lake, so we headed back to the other end, and fished in a nice spot where we saw some eagles fishing from their perch, and hikers walking along the trail above the lake. The eagles were much luckier than we were at catching fish, because Brian’s trout was the only catch of the day!

Below are the GPS tracks of our journey.

We headed back into Banff to grab some lunch, before returning to the hotel. Later in the day, Nadine and I returned to town, did a bit of shopping, and took a nice walk along the Bow River.

I’d post more photos from the day, but why bother? They’re all full of smoke!

For dinner, we had reservations at Saltlik, which is another of our favourite spots to eat in Banff.