cutthroat

Posted on by
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

Posted on by

“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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

” 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

Posted on by

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.

crab flies

Posted on by

Crab Recipes: Crab Cakes; Crab Imperial: Deviled Crabs; Classic Crab Boil…

Crustaceans. I saw a variety of them on a recent DIY saltwater fly fishing trip in late November. The sand I was wading was a whiteish-tan color. Many of the small crabs I spotted matched the sand bottom (coloration) in order to blend in. Creatures in nature tend to camouflage.

Below are some pale size 2 and 4 crustaceans flies tied with a tan/sand colored Furry Foam and weighted lightly (bead chain) for hopefully a soft landing in ultra-shallow water. I used a dime (coin) to cut out the body /shell shape. Although crab shells aren’t perfectly round, if Redfish can differentiate between a round and an oval shell then I’ll have to tip my angling cap to them!

There are many crab fly recipes out there. They range from super realistic to wildly impressionistic patterns. I picked and copied a simple recipe that required minimal materials, matched my novice saltwater tying skills and modified it a little to make it my own. I’ll have to cast the impressions on a future trip to see how they sink and perform when tugged along the bottom, and also to check-out their durability.

Ultimately it is the Redfish who will decide whether the crab recipe is a visually appetizing one, or not…