Morning walk, morning light…
abby
old rodeo grounds & dog
Tag Archives: landscape
Cumulus Nebulous
My Oh My! October was a tough month. The most challenging one I can remember. Usually it is an outstanding time to be on the river. Some of the best fishing of the year. No such luck this Autumn. There were few BIG blue winged olives around. It was mainly just the small guys: size 20, 22, and smaller…the size of mosquitoes…no, miniature mosquitoes.
Finding rising fish was also a challenge. I searched and searched. I drove from favorite river to river. My local water simply didn’t produce. It was hard to find a target.
abby on home water
calm morning on side channel
So I headed to the Missouri river (the Mo). I usually fish it in late October early November. Often it serves up a sensational BIG olive hatch around the time the World Series is on. However, like my local water, the Mo was tough going. Just the mini olives were out and not that many of them. Finding surface feeders was like trying to get a rally going in the World Series. Hits were few and far between. It was a low score game. I kind of suspected it was going to be a challenge as the fishing reports from the banks of the Mo weren’t clear. They were cloudy. They were nebulous…they were cumulus nebulous!
So, I walked around a lot, took some photos and persevered. I lowered my expectations. With the fast ball pitcher on the mound throwing at 100 mph I didn’t try to hit it out of the park. I shortened my swing and just tried to make contact. I eventually caught a few good rainbows on tiny dries; a simple little hackle pattern, clipped on the bottom to ride low…a half hackle. A photo of it turned out blurry. As I said October has been a tough month.
Looks like the season is done. Someone’s dimming the lights but I’m not ready to go home. I’m going to have to book a winter angling trip somewhere…
beautiful anglers path
railway path along the Missouri
early morning craig, montana
riverside deer prints
another side channel
Autumn, Rivers and Brown Trout
The wind last week was brutal, especially if you like fishing in open terrain as I do. I got lucky on a couple of days as a low front came in and it rained. Some blue winged olives and mahogany may flies made an appearance on my local tailwater, the Oldman river. Just about all of the fish were focused on emergers (eating just subsurface); few actually took on top. My standard dangling patterns weren’t very successful but I caught a few. I also connected with some fish in just inches of water on a terrestrial pattern I tie and call: the flat black ant.
Here some photos of old buildings taken on sunny days and brown trout caught when the weather turned bad and the fishing was good.
crowsnest river
ant
Enter a caption
abby in the wind
ant pattern
oldman river
river valley old homestead
One week, one fly, two feet
I just spent a week fishing in my region. Most of the summer I have been a weekend angler. It was nice to be off work and stretch several river days together. I fish better when I have more time. I also tend to stop and take more photos while roaming around searching for trout.
I had one cloud covered rainy day and a strong hatch of tiny olives, and a few larger ones, occurred. The trout were mainly on emergers. I fished a few different dangling fly patterns with some success. The key word is, “some”. That was the easiest day.
emerger pattern, foam post for flotation, hook bent out by trout
caught on olive emerger pattern
blue winged olive flat
The other days were full sun and therefore much more challenging. A few were calm, most were quite breezy. There were still some bugs around but not a lot. The rises were infrequent with the bright sky. And when they did occur they were real subtle. Just spotting the faint sips was an accomplishment. I often had to listen for signs of surface feeding on the blinding sun glazed flats. Most of the good trout located were hovering in just inches of water. It’s my favorite type of angling. In skinny water you have to be “sneakier than sneaky” in order to fool them. Mistakes are rarely tolerated… few second chances. To make things even more challenging the trout were generally only feeding on tiny stuff. Time flew by. Hours seemed like minutes. Relaxing? No. Engrossing? Yes. Fun? Yes.
On another river I used the sun and elevation when possible to my advantage in order to spot fish in the shallows. Then I’d drop down, choose my approach and try to fool them.
snow in the mountains
All week I casted olives when they were around, and fed beetles and ants to located trout when there was no hatch. While roaming around I found some old sheds; hiked some smooth wind sculpted hills; took pictures of small trees ( prairie bonsai) which always attract attention in the stark terrain; and caught a few wonderful trout. I also met a sheep herder taking a nap in the shade of my Jetta. He’s an old friend. Every year without fail we run into each other riverside.
One week, one fly, two feet…
beetle pattern
great Pyrenees herder
windshield time
Windshield time while driving to and from a river out on the flats. No stops. No lights. Nobody. Just a wily coyote chasing a blowing A&W wrapper.
sheds
Here are some mid august photos of riverside sheds. The trout featured were caught this past weekend on size 20 and 18 Trico dry flies.
abby
clean water officer
august fins
“August is like the Sunday of summer”
We’ve had some clouds, some summer storms, some sun and cool nights and therefore river temperatures have remained alright even though the water is low. It looks like we might get through August without any angling restrictions. South of the border (Montana) the situation seems quite different.
I’ve been sight fishing small terrestrials and on one river Tricos; one of my favorite hatches. It’s a good time of year as a few trout are rising and the Blue Jays (baseball) are in the hunt for the playoffs. I want to see Jose Bautista hit a late game homer and fling his bat again…the best “take that!” moment in baseball I’ve seen in a long time.
Here are some river images from the past couple of weekends…I struck out several times but did manage to hit a few long ones…
abby
round up
cuttbow
double trico
le soleil
“It was so hot I saw a roasted turkey fly by”
Summer finally returned after a cool spell and it was nice to wade in shorts and river sandals after spending three weeks in waders. Local rivers are low and heating up (temperature).
I was able to take advantage of the blue sky and full sun to spot some great fish and fool a few. It is amazing how tight you can get to a feeding fish in shallow water if you have the sun at your back and wade carefully, even on down and across presentations where you are in front or above the fish, not behind.
I learned how the sun can “blind” fish on the Missouri river many years ago while casting to a roaming pod of sipping trout. By standing still with the sun over my shoulder I watched a dozen large fish feed just a rod length away. They were oblivious to my presence.
For me, so much about fly fishing has to do with light; they are intertwined.
My favorite sight fishing river had few PMD’s on it this weekend and no other hatch. In response I fished beetles and crickets… my favorite way to go. I had the place to myself in spite of it being peak holiday season; lots of people on the road; local fly shops busy. The river was mine for a day. Amazing!
Here are some landscape and trout photos while sight fishing the past week. All fish caught on dries.
abby
spotting trout
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…
bifocal trout spotting
trout spotter extraordinaire
back eddy fins
the big wide open
cutthroat caught by Joe f.
the bonefish flat
early summer, long days
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”!
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.
riverside trout bum, trout chaser
drive back to mountains
trout on dries 