Author Archives: troutondries.com

roosterfish flies for trout – no bull

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Bull trout. A Char. The ultimate Rocky Mountain river predator. While fishing a small Cutthroat stream a friend and I spotted two of these meat-eaters at the tail end of a small pool. They were lying tight to a log jam (structure) simply hovering in the shadows. This is not an uncommon sight on many clear SW Alberta Cutthroat streams. Walk enough river miles and you will find some.

One of Bulls slashed twice at a small streamer but no hook-up. Then repeated drifts with large nymphs were ignored. My friend returned alone a few days later with several Roosterfish flies I had tied for a recent Baja trip. He risked navigating the rough, narrow forestry road with potholes that could pass as archeological dig sites in his super-sized truck camper rental. No small feat. The Bulls were calling. When he hiked to the river he found them in the same location. He enticed both Char to take a large saltwater fly and managed a few photos…

photo by Roman

photo by Roman

Low light

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“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity”–Seneca

A few weeks ago there was cloud cover, rain, some hail and lightening. Then smoke filled skies followed the inclement weather. It produced low light conditions for two or three days. We ventured out, weathered the storms and the heavy smoke, searched and luckily found some good ones sipping. Low light and insect life triggered by the rain brought opportunity. Some nice brown trout…

photo by Roman

cutthroat

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clear water

Late June in SW Alberta. A Cutthroat stream. Clear water. Cold water. The weather was suppose to be mainly sunny today but for the most part it was a mixed sky. Mainly cloudy with some sunny breaks. It made wet wading chilly. My feet quickly became numb. River temperature was 49f in the shallows. It felt much colder in the deeper water when I crossed sections of the river when making my way upstream. Sunny breaks heated the riverside sand and fine dry gravel beds. I knelt down in these soft spots absorbing the heat radiating from the ground and watched a number of pools for rising trout. I only saw two slight surface disturbances all afternoon. Fine Cutthroat they were.

There were a variety of bugs but not a lot of anything. The sum total of PMDs, Drakes, Yellow Sallies and the odd Golden Stone was not enough to entice many fish off of the bottom. Not enough for the river to come alive. Hopefully that will change in several days when the water temperature breaks through the 50f mark. I’ll come back then.

I covered a mile or so searching the clear water. The Cutthroat were caught on a size 12 Drake dry tied on an emerger hook; body of the fly breaking the surface. The river was low for this time of year. All rivers are low. I fished barbless for a quick hook release. I’ll do that all season. Alberta once had a barbless policy. No more.

abby

a bit of color

mountain trout

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“Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.”

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Cormac McCarthy. One of my favorite writers. I’ve read most of his novels. My favorite, Suttree, and then the border trilogy: All the Pretty Horses; The Crossing; Cities of the Plain. He recently died at age 89, probably writing to the end.

The past few days I visited some mountain streams that are “older than man” and casted dries to Cutthroat, Cuttbows and Rainbow trout.

bug life

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In the past several years I’ve felt there has been a decrease in hatches (bug life) on many rivers in my region, SW Alberta. Last year it was very noticeable on some of my favorite tailwater rivers which usually have an excess of small mayflies and caddis which hatch all summer long often well into the Fall. People on various fly fishing forums have noticed the same. What has also been observable is that many of the trout I’ve been catching in recent years seem “leaner”; much less robust and energetic.

I’ve attached a brief article and video below called, “no fly zones” regarding bug life decline. Check it out. It is from a fly fishing perspective but there are numerous non-angling articles on this worldwide phenomenon in publications like the Guardian: etc. Google “bug apocalypse”.

Here’s a nice brown trout I caught on a tailwater river where bug life was especially poor last season. It was cycling in the sunny shallows and I caught it on a size 14 black ant. It was more slender than trout I’ve caught at this location in past seasons…lack of bug life?: tough winter?; lower flows?; warmer water?; additional variables?; all of the above?…

“No Fly Zones” a Film by Patagonia

scruffy usuals

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” If these flies listened to music it would be grunge”

Usual style fly tied in PMD colors. Tied on Emerger hooks, size 16. A Snowshoe Hare wing, dubbed body, and CDC for shuck. I saliva the body and shuck so they sit low and/or break the surface, and cast them to trout boiling/ bulging in the riffles. The wing is easy to see and floats well. A simple pattern originated in the East; not far from where I grew up. Works out West too! Cotton candy for trout on the feed…

Spring

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Flows are low for this time of year on a local tailwater river and water clarity, for now at least, is excellent. Usually it is high and off-color in late May. I took advantage of the good river conditions and a forecast that called for cloud cover and minimal wind, hoping for a good hatch of Blue Winged Olives. The hatch was good. Fish were up. I casted emerger patterns mainly size 18: fly body breaking the surface and a wing (white or black depending on surface glare) simply for a bit of flotation at eye of fly and for visibility. A few photos of Rainbow trout.