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.