Hike-In Fishing
 

      Some of the best, most pristine lakes you have to hike into. Unless it’s a very short hike, you’re not going to be carrying a boat in. Most of the time you will be backpacking in your gear. A float tube is a good option here. Most float tubes weigh somewhere around 5 lbs. They make some float tubes specifically hiking. The Trout Unlimited Togiak float tube is a good option. You can carry it inflated if it is a relatively short hike that has a good well-maintained wide trail. If this isn’t the case or if you just don’t want to carry around an inflated float tube, you can always pack it into your backpack deflated. When you get to the lake, you can inflate it by just blowing in it. Or you can use a pump. The most popular pump for this situation is a K-pump. There sort of expensive but they work really well.

       If your going to be using a float tube you’ll need fins and warders. Most of the time alpine lakes will be cold. Most lakes reach a peak temperature in late July/august of around 60-65 degrees. Neoprene waders would be the warmest but they are heavy and don’t pack very well. Breathable and lightweight waders are the best options. If its summer, lightweight waders would do. You’d still have to dress warm underneath the waders but it wouldn’t be too bad. For the times when the water is pretty cold, breathables would be better than lightweights. Lightweights have basically no insulating properties, breathable at least have some. As a result, breathable do weigh more than lightweights but its definitely worth it.

      Float tube fins can be pretty bulky and take up a lot of space; an example of this is force fins. These fins are top of the line and make kicking around the lake much easier than any other fins. They do weight quite a bit and take up plenty of space. If you have the space in your pack and are willing to carry the extra weight, you should definitely bring some higher quality fins. Another option is to buy backpacking fins, there cheap, around $35. They don’t weigh a whole lot and don’t take up much space in your pack. They’re not the easiest or most effective to use however. After you’ve hiked for 5 miles it can put a strain on your legs if you try and kick across a lake. Most of the time your just fishing an area and you don’t really need to do much kicking. In this case they would be ok. It really depends on how much space you have in your pack, and what type of fishing you’ll be doing.  
 If you really want to save space in your pack, you don’t really have to bring a float tube. You should still bring waders; you’ll probably have to be wading into the lake if you’re fly fishing. If you’re on shore, you can’t really get the fly out far enough and you will constantly snag brush or trees on your back cast. It is possible to fly fish from shore though; I have done it successfully from shore. It just depends on what the shore is like. Sometime you’ll get lucky and it will be fairly level behind you and the forest will be back form the lake a little bit.

      If you’re fishing a stream, you have to think about bringing stuff for wading. Depending on how cold the water is, you can wet wade. This is where you don’t use waders and just wear wet wading boots or wadding sandals. If the stream is small and low, you wont need anything. You can just climb along the rocks. If the water is really cold and you have to wade, you’ll need to bring waders. Lightweight waders should probably be good here, your rarely going to be wading more than waist deep so you don’t have to worry that much about being cold, you’re also going to be walking in the stream a lot so you wont just be sitting there like in a lake. It is important to have some sort of wading boots when wading in a stream. The stream will most likely be rocky and covered with algae; this makes for really slippery conditions. Brings in regular wading boots isn’t a great idea, you have probably thought of just wearing your wading boots on the trail. This isn’t a good idea; it just wears away at the felt sole, plus its really not the most comfortable and has bad traction out of the water. You can get away with this if it’s a really short hike to the stream but anything that more than a mile you’ll want to wear hiking boots and back your wading boots. Either wading sandals or wet wading boots are good. The sandals are more expensive but weigh less than wet wading boots. So it’s really up to you which one you choose.