Tag Archives: fly fishing sw alberta

spotting trout

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big sky joe

” The towels were so thick I could hardly close my suitcase”

-Yogi Berra

I just spent five days in my region watching water with a visiting friend. We stuck with one river because we kept locating trout. They were mainly on mayfly emergers and being very, very selective. As usual, as on most tail-water rivers, it was challenging angling. The more we watched the more we saw and learned. The drift boat anglers that floated by didn’t even notice what we were experiencing. They covered the water we fished in seconds whereas we did it in hours. They were probably thinking about what was up head; the promise of water beyond. We were thinking about what was right in front of us. There is something special about picking a small stretch of interesting water, staying relatively still, spending time and simply watching it for signs of life. We did that on two different short sections of the same river for five days. In total we probably only covered only 100-150 yards; however, we caught some beauties. It wasn’t “numbers fishing” although one day we did have that. It was more quality over quantity. Great trout on size 20 and 18 flies. All tiny stuff and all sight fishing. Sometimes the slower you go the more you see…and we went slower than stop!

Here are some images…

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net

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bifocal trout spotting

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trout spotter extraordinaire

 

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back eddy fins

downstream

the big wide open

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cutthroat caught by Joe f.

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the bonefish flat

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handmid

 

 

early summer, long days

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Overheard at a Baja taco stand:

” You know why I love this place Frank? We’ve been here for a solid week and I haven’t seen one person wearing Lululemon! Absolutely nobody! And we’ve been here for a week”!

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Some riverside photos from past two weekends in SW Alberta. The trout were caught sight casting, Pale Morning Duns, size 18 and 20…small stuff…and one fish on a beetle. The trick was landing them while an eight month old retriever new to the game was in hot pursuit.

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riverside trout bum, trout chaser

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drive back to mountains

 

 

 

Roman’s Royal Coachman

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“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be”.

-Yogi Berra

roman

The last couple of weekends I’ve fished a local tailwater river 2 or 3 times. Hatches have been sparse with the bright sun. Due to the same weather conditions and clear water, however, spotting trout has been possible. And fortunately some have been willing to rise.

On my last outing I was with a friend, Roman, who was visiting the region. Early on he landed a great rainbow on a black cricket like pattern. Later on we located several large bank fish that were feeding  inconsistently. They were picky and rejected most of what we tossed their way. Bug life seemed minimal and their feeding behavior was somewhat of a mystery.

Roman changed flies several times and then pulled out an old attractor fly pattern, a Royal Coachman, from his Magician’s top hat and started casting it with authority as if commanding the trout to rise. And they did. Mesmerized, they kept coming to the fly.

Then he reached out, his hand palm up and said, “try this”. It was another Royal Coachman. I tied it on and then magically, Presto, just like that, landed a large rainbow with the fly.

We missed several others that day but the fish we landed were very spectacular. All were caught sight-fishing with dry flies.

Here are some photos from the Royal Coachman day and from the weekend before when there was more cloud cover.

 

A Rainbow

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It was all clouds above. Alone in the river valley. In the middle of the foothills; middle of nowhere. A storm was coming. Then a fin broke the water. Just one. A rainbow.

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rainbow trout on dry fly

 

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the rainbow bent the hook

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crowsnest river

 

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The Price Of Gold

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AN encounter with two young boys while walking my dog:

Hey, look at that dog! Mister can we pet your dog?

– Sure. She’s young so she might be a bit hyper at first and jump a little but she’ll be ok.

She won’t bite?

-No, she’s friendly.

What kind is she?

-She’s a retriever, a Golden Retriever.

How old?

-Just six months…still a puppy.

I have a Lab, a black one….called Bruiser.

-Labs are great dogs. Kind of like a retriever in temperament.

What’s your dog’s name?

-Abby

Hi Abby…thanks for letting us pet her.

_No problem.

Hey Mister you know why they call them a “Golden” retriever?

-No why?

Cause they’re worth the “Price of Gold” ! (smiling with hand outreached in front of his face rubbing his thumb together with his finger tips).

-Hey, I like that. I’ll remember that. See ya.

 

Here are some riverside photos from past weekend:

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rainbow on dry

 

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skwala stonefly and crude impression

 

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same trout

 

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Simple Trout Flies

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Some simple, durable, quick ties (size 18 flies) that often get the attention of trout on rivers nearby and afar. Tied on a hook that dangles: trailing shuck; some weight (wire) on body to hopefully tug it below the surface (saliva on shuck and body helps); exaggerated thorax dubbed; wing of polypro or deer hair, sometimes hackle used to keep top half (head) floating and most importantly visible. A white or black wing allows you to see the small fly in most light conditions. If I can see a small fly then I feel I can get it on the nose of a feeding fish, and then I at least have a chance. If I can’t see and follow the drift then I might as well be blindfolded! Deer hair and hackle is often less visible but can be seen if you can get close to a trout. The pattern can be fished as a dry/ emerger (mayfly hatch). I simply change body and thorax color and size depending on the season/hatch. The wing can be tied or clipped real sparse (less wing) for flat water, or CDC used. No fly works in all situations but some flies work in a lot of them.

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master fly tyer (abby) taking a break

Favorites

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Some favorite photos from the past several years…

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Favorite tree

baboo

favorite license plate

 

river trial

favorite river trail

 

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favorite trout on trico

 

snowsun

favorite sun

 

pic nic far

favorite picnic bench

 

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favorite riverkeeper

 

herder

favorite sheep herder

 

kutar

favorite brown on dry

 

patriarch of valley

favorite patriarch of valley

 

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favorite peanut shack

 

chairs

favorite porch

 

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favorite reel

 

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favorite riverside burrito place

 

 

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favorite bug shot

 

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favorite net shot

 

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favorite address

 

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favorite pier

Cutthroat Surprise

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“I’m gonna win. There’s no way I’m goin’ down. I don’t go down for nobody”.

-1940’s Boxer, Jake LaMotta

20 cutthroat

A local tailwater river that I frequently dry-fly on has a healthy population of sizeable rainbow trout. This is not surprising as they are the predominant trout species in my region. It also has a good population of brown trout. Also not surprising.

What is surprising is that in spite of this river section being a fair distance from the mountains and the water quality being far from pristine, it has some very healthy Cutthroat and the hybridized Cuttbow trout. These fish can be quite large but what is extraordinary is that they are especially robust. Hook into one on a broad section of the river and they race for the horizon, and can take you into your backing.

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I go there when I expect a hatch and look for surface disturbances. It is  “technical” water: whether it is rainbows, browns or cutthroat, or a hybridized version, you have to pay attention to what the fish are focused on (eating) and also their rise forms to figure out whether you fish on top, in the film, or have to go slightly subsurface. I sometimes get the subsurface feeders to tip up and take a dangling, klinkhammer style fly, or a helpless easy floating target such as a cripple pattern. Some people have success using soft hackles in this situation.

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The river has very impressive rainbows and brown trout but I consider the cutthroat and their hybridized brethren to be the “Raging Bulls” of this neighbourhood. Think Jake LaMotta… they just don’t give up.

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Here are some pictures of these fish caught (this and last summer) on small dries: size 16 and 18 pmd’s and one fish on a tiny beetle. All fish photographed on this blog have been released.

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