Tag Archives: dry fly fishing

Road trip: Bwo’s, Blue Jays and Bat flips

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“The Blue Jays won the bat flip contest hands down. Some of the best ones I’ve seen since Jose Bautista was at the plate. They showed-up, stood tall, faced the payroll Goliaths of the league and slugged it out inning by inning…best attitude, team spirit, comradery and most enthusiastic, loud and appreciative fans…all players winners in my mind…the most entertaining team I’ve seen in a long time “. — Bob

Road trip. Fishing, not Baseball. Last one for the trout season. It’s been sunny and blowing for weeks along the eastern slopes. The two conditions often go together in Autumn. The upcoming weather prediction was for 2 or 3 days of calm and overcast skies. A perfect set-up for a late season Blue Winged Olive (BWO) hatch. So I decided to take advantage of the incoming low front and drove due south in full sun and high wind, and woke up next morning under a heavy sky and best of all calm.

The riverside campground where I stayed in mid-canyon was empty. Harper was left off leash as there was no one around to bother. She chased squirrels and some deer, and nosed the fire pits. Fortunately no skunks showed up when it got dark. Most mornings it was 32f or slightly above. In the afternoon it was 40s or low 50s f. There were a few anglers around and some floaters. The fly shops were open but quiet. A great time to look at angling stuff. Local restaurants were closed.

The night is long at this time of year and daylight short, and dry fly opportunities brief. One or two hours in the afternoon, maybe slightly more, depending on the intensity of the hatch. My first day I experienced a weak hatch. The second day it drizzled a bit, was colder and the sky ominous looking. The hatch was strong. The river section I was on came alive, and I connected with size 18 and 20 parachute BWO dries. Rising trout on November 4th. It was a good day. So good I flipped my fly rod in the air.

Some images…

Visible flies

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” Black: the absence of light; the absorption of light”.

The clouds rolled in. Just for one day. So I took advantage of it as the dry fly season is winding down in my region. Soon local Brown trout will be on redds. Maybe some already are. With the overcast sky I was hoping some trout could be found rising to Olive and Mahogany mayflies. There were quite a few bugs on the water in the afternoon but unfortunately it was windy. I didn’t see a lot of fish surfacing but did find one decent one feeding just off of the edge of a current line. It ate a size 18 Olive tied with a black wing. The black wing allowed me to see the small fly from some distance even in the low light, high glare conditions. I was able to get the tiny impression on target.

When fishing wide open places I tie at least one third of my small dries/emergers with a black wing or post. I can’t fish what I can’t see. Flies that become invisible once casted are useless. When tying dry flies for rivers that tend to produce a lot of small bugs I pay attention to size, color, attitude (how it sits) in the water but just as importantly, or more so, visibility. I need to see where the fly lands to know if my cast is accurate; I need to see it tracking (drift) to the fish; and I need to see the trout’s response if I’m going to fish effectively. Put simply, I need to see it…

When I glance over various online fly tying forums I see many exquisitely crafted fly patterns (beyond my skill level) but many would be hard or impossible to see on a lot of the rivers that I fish. Maybe these tyers fish a lot of small water with streamside foliage and shadows that darken the water and therefore their dry fly patterns, even small ones, contrast well and show-up. A lot of the tailwater rivers I fish are not like that. They are broad and flow in wide open terrain and their hatches are generally small mayflies and caddis. And the dry fly fishing is usually best on overcast days which often means a grey, silvery surface and eye straining glare. That’s when a black wing or post can be helpful.

Surprisingly it’s hard to find fly shops even in big broad river destinations that have small fly patterns in their bins with black wings or posts. Most have some High Vis patterns in fluorescent colors but my eyes simply don’t pick them up as well in extreme glare as solid black.

Here’s an Autumn colored Brown trout that I caught on a size 18 Olive pattern with a black polypropylene wing.

Showing up

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“Eighty percent of success is showing up” — Woody Allen

I’ve been fishing east and west of the Divide with a friend, Roman. Mostly west. The good weather has been hanging in: clear skies; warm Autumn afternoon light…the best light. Some rivers have been spectacular. Some bugless and lifeless. I’m fortunate to live in a region where a 30-45 minute drive can deliver you to a variety of rivers if the one you are on is unproductive. The key, as always, is to show up, look, explore.

Large Bull trout are on redds in the mountains streams. The Brown trout in the lower rivers are not paired-up yet. There are fewer anglers around. It’s a great time of year to squeeze whatever juice is left out of the dry fly year. Hopefully BWO’s are still to come on some of the tailwater rivers. And maybe even some Mahoganies. I’ll wait for a low front, overcast skies and light wind and then show up. That’s the recipe to find a late season large colorful Brown trout sipping on the surface.

Some images from a week ago.

life ignites

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AT MY LATITUDE DAYS are noticeably getting shorter. Mornings cooler. The sun archs lower. Shadows are longer late afternoon. Some trees are coloring and shedding their leaves. September has arrived in the Rocky Mountains.

It was 46f (water temperature) at 11:30 am on a nearby mountain stream the other day. It always runs cold. It’s cold in July. It’s cold in August. Same in September. By mid afternoon the creek probably was a few degrees warmer. Maybe it hit the 50f mark, probably not. Some hatches especially the larger Drakes are only suppose to emerge when the water temperature climbs above 50f and into the mid fifties. In the stream I was on Drakes can pop below 50f, some of the large ones and definitely the smaller, Flavs (Flavilinea Drunella). In my experience it just takes sunlight to flood the river bottom. That seems to be the trigger. That’s the spark that gets a really good hatch going in a frigid flow. With the mid-day sunlight the submerged rock clinging nymphs then let go and make their way to the surface. And trout wake-up and begin chasing their ascent, and start feeding on those riding on the surface. The river comes alive. Witnessing it is always special as is searching for the best that the stream has to offer when life ignites…

creeks, drakes & trout

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CLEAR MOUNTAIN CREEKS. I’ve been out on them the past few weeks treasure hunting. A fair amount of stream miles/kms covered while walking the cold flows over uneven stones. The smaller version of the Green Drake (Flavs) family (Mayfly) were around on some of the streams. A few of the bigger Drakes too. Cutthroat trout are always willing to take them on the surface. The hatch never gets ignored. Survival in mountain streams requires that trout feed when opportunity knocks. And this relatively large mayfly means calories and thick healthy fish. Some streams have Drakes. Mysteriously others just a valley or a few miles away do not. The fish in those rivers are not as robust; not as wide.

Some gems found while treasure hunting…

comparaduns/haystacks, a simple pattern

pierre

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“We fish for hours only to hold a trout for seconds”– Unknown

RECENTLY FRIENDS FROM the Montreal area visited the region. Pierre had experience fishing lakes but never trout streams in the Rocky Mountains. We spent four days combing a few freestone rivers. He said he did not have a lot of experience casting a fly rod. With some basic tips, however, within one-half of a day he was able to consistently get the fly where he wanted to and in front of trout. He even threw tight loops into the wind. In short order he became a natural at casting, wading rivers and reading the water. His athleticism and calm, patient manner and positive attitude were a real advantage. And with all of that came great success. Some beautiful Cutthroat trout were caught on dry flies, admired and released. It was an easy and enjoyable hosting/guiding experience for me. It was a breeze. A great guy to spend a day with on the river. I hope he returns to visit again. Some images captured on our outings…

The Originals

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Original: “Present or existing from the beginning; first or earliest”.

COOL FOR AUGUST. Overall a cool summer here. And a fair amount of rain. That’s bad for campers. That’s good for trout. Everywhere else in the northern hemisphere it seems to be cooking.

Stream banks, intact ones, great spot to search for trout

I visited a local stream up in the mountains. Clear water up there. Water like air. I was hoping for a hatch. I’m always hoping for a hatch. The conditions looked perfect. It never happened. Just a few Drakes. More as the day progressed. The odd rise. I would have got skunked if I didn’t know the river section I was on well. I walked more than I fished. Last time I was on the river it was late spring, early summer. Today I connected with a few good ones. My reel sang. I believe a reel with a good sound helps me play/ land fish. It’s the feedback.

I casted barbless dry flies. Makes for an easy release on the native trout. A couple of beautiful ones came to hand. Cutthroats with a strong, pronounced slash. The originals…”existing from the beginning”.

Slight undercut

small fly

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Here’s a photo of a brown trout I caught a few weeks ago on a size 18 Pmd. Basically the fly was pale yellow thread, a small puff of light dun cdc for the wing to keep it afloat and to see it as it tracked to the fish, and a tiny amount of yellow dubbing below the wing to accentuate the thorax. A quick simple tie. The fly sits low/ flush in water. The trout was on the feed. Eating regularly; eating aggressively. Therefore in my mind a very makeable sizeable fish on what anglers would describe as technical water. I presented something similar to what he was eating: similar size, color and footprint/ impression on the water’s surface. No other anglers were around. The trout probably hadn’t been casted to that day. That makes things easier. And it was a low light, overcast day. All I had to do was make a good cast and get a good drift and hope my fly impression would past the test. I always get anxious casting directly from behind a fish; having to cast my leader over it. So instead I spent some time circumventing the trout, crossing the river and making a long down and across cast. I’ll choose that every time if the river and trout position gives me a chance to do so.

I got lucky that day: an aggressively feeding trout, a good hatch, no angling pressure, low light, a passable fly impression, and the small fly held…

This is where…

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This is where I covered many miles of river the other day. Mostly along its bouldery edge. Walking on round rocks all day is an art. I usually take shortcuts between river pools on the softer ground through the Cottonwood forests, meadows and brush in the river valley in order to get a break from the boulders. However, I didn’t this time as it’s wild berry season. There’s a bumper crop of Saskatoons this year. And bears love to feast on them.

The pools on this river are far apart and there’s not much fishable water between them, so you have to cover ground. You keep telling yourself “maybe the next distant pool has a good fish in it” and you rock-hop onward. The river holds a few quality trout so that’s the incentive to keep going mile after mile. It’s kind of like fishing New Zealand. There can be great reward for your effort, or sometimes not. That’s the deal.

I spotted a few fish with the sun overhead but mostly “fished the water” (prospected). I tossed a large black foam beetle. I had to twitch it to get the best one of the day to take notice and rise off of the bottom.

Before I know it my water bottle is empty, lunch and snacks are all gone, my shadow lengthens, and Harper, my dog, curls-up and naps riverside. It’s the sign(s) that it’s time to turn around and head back downstream; back to my vehicle.

While walking back I remind myself this is where Dinosaurs once roamed. This has long been the home of the Blackfoot. This is where giant prairie Grizzly bears wandered. This is where Buffalo once lived and travelled freely.

This is where I spent my day…