Western Sportfishing video

Thought some folks would like to see what has evolved from the folks at Western Sportfishing video. They've got a great short video on YouTube about fishing Prairie Cr and Raven R. It's a neat piece and some of their best work yet. The video is embedded in the header of this blog (until Feb 4, '08), or click the link above to visit the web page. Good job Andy, Tim, Nick, et all.

New Zealand Gallery #11

The day after fishing with Serge we decided to fish closer to Reefton. We stopped at the Information store and picked up a couple hats and a bunch of the maps to copy some information that Serge had given us, pick up a bottle of Coke and a couple lbs of Chocolate, and we were off to the river. Healthy, eh?
It was a bit of a tough day but we certainly had a good shot at a few trout, landing a few as well. The hilight came in one big pool with a rolling shelf at the head. A shot of it's in the gallery. I came up to it, seeing an 8+ lb brown holding, then feeding. I cast slightly above and to the side. The brown moved laterally, to pick the fly off once it drift to it. My fly certainly did just that, but as it did I tried my best to mend my line out of the rolling current at my feet. The fly drift toward me, so too the fish. The fish got close, too close. If I flinch there's no way the trout sticks around. Can't mend! BUGGER! I know the line is rolling, getting sucked down deep into the pool. The fly drifts towards the edge at my feet 10 feet upstream. The trout follows. 8 feet... 6... the trout finally comes over under my rod tip and a huge, white mouth comes up and sucks in my #6 Chernobyl off the flat water. My line is sucked under the rolling shelf and I try to set the hook. Lift! Strip-strip-strip Lift! Strip-strip-strip Lift! My fly finally gets a set and I pull it right out of its mouth. Bugger!!! But what a great moment.
We ventured upstream. We were warned by the folks at the sporting store that not many people fish this river any more as there aren't many trout and the sandlies are horrible. They're right! I worked several summers for the Forest Service, Timber Management in some gawd-awful swamps north of Rocky Mountain House, but I've never seen so many flies. Why mention this? Well, we hit one run where another 8+lb trout held in a tail-out flat. I couldn't see it but Amelia was up on the opposite bank staring at it. I needed to tie a small fly on and in the minute that took my hands, legs, arms, back were black with sandflies and they hurt when they bite, generally. I used my old Forest Service mind trick (freaked out inside) and got the fly on, cast into the run, spooked the fish, sat in the water to get the bugs off me, scratched my whole body and got the bug juice out in one motion. I was impressive.
In tomorrow's gallery we go for a drive along the west coast, taking a day off fishing for the first time in 8 days.

Trout Bum Tour in Calgary - started with a simple email

It's amazing how an email can make something happen - or at least start the wheels spinning. Back in early Dec, just after arriving home from New Zealand, we received the AEG emailer anouncing the tour dates for the Trout Bum Tour live show series. I took the time to reply to their email and my email hit a good nerve with the company.

"Greetings,
If I were you folks, I'd come to the Calgary FF Expo - the #1 show out west. 3-5000 folks attend religiously. Calgary is W Canada's ff hub with the highest GDP, income, housing rates, etc in the country - and the highest % of population of ff types in Canada right there. Work something out with the folks at www.flyfishingevents.com
I've CC'd Chris on this. If anyone, Chris'd make it happen. It's a natural fit. I wouldn't pass up Calgary as you'd get your 500 attendees without blinking.
Dave Jensen"

Within 1/2hr of emailing them and cc'ing Chris, I got this email back from Chris, along with a couple of emails thanking me from AEG. It was great to see this plan put into action so quickly! Here's Chris' reply:

"Subject: Re: Fly Fishing Film Tour
Hey Dave,
Looks like your e-mail has already gone a long way. We have received a flurry of e-mails from AEG as well as one from Bill Klyn (head marketing guy at Patagonia... a major sponsor of AEG). Bill "suggested" to the guys that they make Calgary one of the tour stops.
Thanks for the great plug.
Cheers!
Chris"

In case you haven't seen it, the Trout Bum Tour is coming to Calgary on March 12 and Edmonton March 6 - check out http://www.flyfishingfilmtour.com/default.asp for more information about tour dates.

Oh, and before someone says my ego is out of whack and that I think the show is coming to Calgary because of me, that's obviously not the point. The point is that sometimes all it takes is someone taking the time to email to point out the obvious to someone who doesn't know something, in order to help expand an idea or concept. It was good to be in that position and the Tour is coming to Calgary and Edmonton because of it. It's a neat reminder that in our day to day lives how such a small act can add to something. What a great day indeed! Hope everyone enjoys the shows, I know I will!
Dave Jensen

Back Cast Film Festival Update

Hi Dave & Amelia,

Congratulations on the launch of your new blog. It's a welcome addition to the Alberta fly fishing scene.

Special thanks for posting the announcement for our Back Cast film festival. We hope the publicity generated by this event will, in some small way, help attract the generous donors that Western Sky requires in order to be successful with their first project on the Bow River.

At the moment, we have just passed the "50% sold" mark. The total seating capacity is just under 200.

Kindest regards,
Michelle

New Zealand Gallery #10

Our final day with our guide Serge was as good as the day previous. The day started out well as we slid down the hill and into an exceptional run. I managed a nice trout, sighted from the bush above the run while Serge and Amelia sighted a few trout on their side of the run, deeper and not feeding. We worked up around the the bend and found 1/2 dozen in a row in a shallow run below a small gravel bar. Nailed them all, none under 4lb. What can we say, our guide put us on the water, good water, with good fish and lots of them. We made the adjustments in our fishing style to meet the NZ fishing and our last two days with Serge went off extremely well. I got squirrely and had a moment of being an s.o.b. when the wind picked up for a short spell ruining any shot I had at 4 nice trout lined up along a great shoreline. I guess it happens. Getting intense like that proved one neat thing for me personally - that I was living and enjoying being completely lost in being absorbed in fly fishing. It was simply awesome. The last day with Serge continued as I typed above. Every bend, bank, seam, trough, likely boulder... you name it, there were fish holding. Again, of the ones we saw without spooking we got takes from a really good %. What a day! In this gallery we're not posting all the shots, just some random ones that give an idea of our day. A great day...

http://picasaweb.google.com/jensenflyfishing/NewZealand10/photo#s5161301174826533106

Canvas Fish

Artist Derek DeYoung was present at the Fly Fishing Expo in Calgary over the weekend. A very vibrant artist producing extremely vibrant art, it was a joy to stand in his booth and look at the paintings on display. We watched several folks purchase prints of his art work, though we'd hope for far more interest as his work is incredible.
We just wanted to bring attention to his work, provide a link to his website, and encourage folks to take a look and consider his pieces.
http://www.canvasfish.com

New Zealand Gallery #9

We finish off one spectacular day with our guide Serge. The evening came on with wonderful light for photography, but the light killed the fishing as the silver glare came on the water. I guess we could have fished blind to some success but why? That wasn't what we wanted and Serge had put in a few great days already. We hiked back to the hut, had a bath in the "falls" on the little spring creek and settled in for the evening. Serge pulled out maps of the north part of the island and proceeded to hi-light more water than you'd get to in 3 years of fishing. I finally had to pull away at 1:30am to get some sleep. The early summer sky that evening was wonderful. A perfect day.

Tomorrow we enjoy another day with Serge before a drive back to Reefton.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jensenflyfishing/NewZealand9/photo#s5160900626176507730

Creep and Jab casting

Jim McLennan does a good video presentation at the above link to Fly Fisherman Magazine video section. If you are having some difficulties with your casting, this might help you out. It's a good, short, easy to follow video. The video was shot by Rick Harding, who does the video work for The Fly Fishing Life - a video magazine concept he's doing with partner Russ Webb that I think is supposed to be going live soon. I have a hunch that Rick & Russ'Webb's project will be part of the Fly Fusion on line magazine come April.
http://flyfisherman.com/videos/creepandjab/

Also see www.theflyfishinglife.com

A short New Zealand video

We go back to the very first day in New Zealand and watch this piece. To set it up Amelia is casting to a 6 pound brown sitting off the shoreline in perfect water. Amelia lays a perfect cast down, leaving the fly line well downstream and the fly well upstream. The fly drifts perfectly to the trout. The trout comes to look at the dropper nymph below the dry, pauses, then hi-tails it out of the run. He simply didn't like the fly. Back home on the Red Deer you can cast all day to most fish as long as you approach and present well each time. The fish will generally feed as long as the hatch continues and good casters can have countless drifts over risers. Not so much in NZ though. 80% of the trout we encountered said yay or nay on the first drift. You'd best have your game face on.

http://www.flyfishalberta.com/video/NZ/webnz1.avi

***Please do not ask us to load our videos to YouTube. YT compresses video and distorts the viewing of the video file which is unacceptable for most fly fishing video purposes. Small flies on the screen become fuzzy and the video is difficult to view. We welcome you to watch these videos by taking the time to download larger files - they're worth the short time and small bandwidth (7 to 50MB). Again, the files are in DivX codec which allows far better resolution at a smaller file size. Please download the FREE DivX player at www.divx.com if you have not yet done so. Simply right click on the link above and select save as and set a download location, then open the file. Thanks!

New Zealand Gallery #8

Yoiks! -47C windchill with possibility of -50C. Real temperature is -37C tonight as a low. So, let's get our heads back to New Zealand, shall we?
Last we looked on Friday, Amelia & I were just finishing lunch and landing a few nice trout on an epic day in New Zealand. So, let's continue! We only fished that bank, a run, and a bank above. It was a fine day so let's get to the photos! There's a few series photos in here, with the camera clicking endlessly. We're had to weed through quite a few sequence photos to spread the photos out. We took hundreds of shots this day and here's a few.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jensenflyfishing/NewZealand8/photo#s5160547103123406210

Warmer Times

Tonight's forecast calls for a blizzard. Fabulous. It was +3C in Calgary yesterday but now we've finally found winter. -50C wind chill and -35C overnight. I think it might be time to hibernate and watch some video. I see California is getting lots of rain, so too parts of Australia. I wonder how that drought in New Zealand is doing? Just think happy, warm thoughts!
The shot above was taken when Chris Seipio was being filmed for his short fiml "Reel Time". I had long wanted to cast below the falls but was always flying to various places in the mountains to guide fly fishing. When asked to take the film crew somewhere spectacular, this was the place! I was lucky enough to be used as a guinea pig as the film crew prepped for Chris to move in to be filmed. It was a fabulous day for sure! It was great to see "Reel Time" at the Expo in Calgary and to see how much of the movie came from our day in the helicopter.

New Zealand Gallery #7

The fifth day fishing in a row was certainly to be the most memorable with Serge. We met him in the town of Reefton, a town of 1000 people 60 miles in from the west coast. Imagine, 150 years ago Reefton was the first place in the entire southern hemisphere to have powered lights. Why here? Neat history, however. What wasn't so neat was the $25 frozen pizza we ordered at the local pub. Nor the $30 a plate fish & chips two nights later at another.
We met Serge and he drove us about an hour or so to a valley shroud in fog. It was a coastal feel but inland. The day was thick fog and an upstream wind. Had that wind been downstream, I doubt we have this kind of a day. Armed with my 4wt Scott with lime green line, Amelia with her 6wt Zero Gravity with green line, we hit the water. It started really tough with poor light conditions for spotting. We worked a few and Amelia got a few and I managed one or two before lunch. For 2 hours fishing it was really good, given the conditions. Serge led up the bank, looking for trout. He stepped on one (walked close to the bank and didn't see the trout until he was above it, thereby spooking it) and I heard him cuss. I suggested we eat lunch and see what happens, maybe it would come back. As we had lunch the fog lifted, the sun came out and the wind ebbed a little. In 25 minutes our world changed.
We hit the river again and Serge's fish was right back where he began. My turn! After that, Amelia & I had a whale of a day, taking turns casting at fish stacked every 10 to 15 yards, none under 4.25 pounds, the largest I had on was a fair bit over 10. We worked 2 banks of the river from 1pm to 6, working nearly 40 trout, hooking 75% of what we saw that day.
In this and the next two galleries here, we show a few neat moments from that day.

New Zealand Gallery #6

We spent our second day on our own on a piece of water that is easily accessed. It's a floodplain water with a lot of good looking water but little that actually could support large trout. The lies were obvious but few and far between as we hiked 6 miles upstream, then picked up a gravel road and walked 7 miles back - it would have been easier to walk the river back as it turns out. We stopped to talk to an 80-something farm owner who was pleasant and cheerful about the gorgeous weather, though she was beginning to be concerned of drought conditions. We chatted about the differences in our lives from Canada to NZ, quite a nice time. She volunteered at the local post office sorting mail two or three days a week - or as it was needed. She told us that most fishermen work a piece of water a mile or two up the road, parked just inside a certain gate and headed upstream. "Most people have a go at 10 trout or so," she told us. Off we went. We landed 4 or 5 trout, having had a go at 10 trout. Go figure. It was hot and sunny yet again, with +31 or 32C. Life was pretty good, indeed!
http://picasaweb.google.com/jensenflyfishing/NewZealand6/photo#s5159081814900832818

Back Cast Fly Fishing Film Festival

1st ANNUAL
BACK CAST
FLY FISHING FILM FESTIVAL
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29th, 2008

BENEFITING
WESTERN SKY LAND TRUST
"WHEATLAND PROJECT #1"
www.westernskylandtrust.ca
____________________________________________
SEVERAL BLUE RIBBON FILMS
"RUNNING DOWN THE MAN"

Obsessive fly fishing behavior is needed to chase the elusive
Roosterfish on Baja’s beaches. See the sport in its rawest
form through the eyes of some seriously crazed anglers.

Select Film Festival Screenings and Awards

Best Film: The Drake Magazine's Fly Fishing Film Contest
Finalist: Taos Mountain Film Festival
Best of Taos Mountain Film Festival Tour
Winner: People's Choice Award - Telluride MountainFilm

"SOLILOQUY TO A SALMON"
A Lee Wulff Classic
A reflection of Lee Wulff's thoughts as he plays
and releases an eighteen pound Atlantic Salmon
on Quebec's St. Jean River.

"TROUT GRASS"
Reminiscent "of the understated elegance of 'A River Runs Through It'"
Louis R. Carlozo, Chicago Tribune
Coursing from the verdant hills of Southern China to the sparkling streams of
Montana, this film covers the 10,000-mile journey of bamboo from plant to
fly rod. It travels even further to capture the allure of craftsmanship
and rivers, as well as the idea that fishing is about much more
than catching fish.

"...One of the best films on fishing related subjects I have ever seen"
Martin Joergensen, Global FlyFisher

Select Film Festival Screenings and Awards

WORLD PREMIERE—Jackson Hole Film Festival
Official Selection: Globians Film Festival - Germany
Official Selection: Telluride MountainFilm
Winner: Screening Award - Montana CINE
Winner: Best Short Documentary - Port Townsend Film Festival
Winner: Best Feature - Ellensburg Film Festival
Winner: Audience Choice Best Feature - Eugene Film Festival
Winner: Best Documentary - Flint Film Festival

"TROUT BUM DIARIES VOLUME 1" "PATAGONIA"
Experience the journey, adventure, and lifestyle of four trout bums
on an epic five month fly fishing expedition across Patagonia.
Do 5 pound brook trout in a creepy forest appeal to you?
Broken windows and snapped axles?
Uniquely-colored brown trout from a windswept spring creek?
Stripping mice for big rainbows with the ghosts
of Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid?
Horse-packing into remote rivers?
Tierra Del Fuego and the sea-run browns of the south?
Enter a new breed of fly fishing entertainment.
_________________________________________________________________

"DVD's are cool but nothing can compare to seeing something on the big screen
with a couple of hundred cheering fishermen" - Nick Reygaert

6:30 p.m. Jenkins Theatre, Mount Royal College
Ticket Sales: $12 in Advance, $15.00 at the door
Limited seating • For ticket information
call 403.278.9165 or contact michelle@bowrivershuttles.com

Doors open: 5:30 pm
Program: 6:30 pm SHARP

1. Ticket "Pick-up" is just outside the
Jenkins Theatre before the (first) show.
2. Have your valid photo ID with you.
3. If you fail to pick up your tickets we
shall not be responsible for this and
your money won't be refunded.
4. Please arrive EARLY for best seat selection,
and especially for "Pick-up" tickets.
5. As a courtesy to other attendees,
latecomers will be seated at the
end of the first film.

Tickets will be available at the Bow River Shuttles display
booth at the Western Canadian Fly Fishing Exposition
Friday-Sun, January 25-27, 2008
http://www.flyfishingevents.com/

For other options, please read on
Payment Options:
Payment Option #1. Purchase tickets OnLine
http://www.eventsonline.ca/events/bow_rs_film/
(Eventsonline service charge applies)
Payment Option #2. Cheque (payable to Bow River Shuttles)
Mail or Deliver to: 1279 Lake Sundance Cres. S.E. Calgary, AB T2J 2S7

Ticket Delivery Method:
Pick-up (in theatre)
or
Shipping - $3.00 charge (add this amount to your cheque)
Select only if it is 7 business days prior to show.

Registrations will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis,
as payment cheques arrive at our home address.
www.bowrivershuttles.com

New Zealand Gallery #5

The trip continued as we took a day or two to ourselves. We started the day in Hanmer Springs which is a small resort style community two hours or so north of Christchurch. Again, the big draw are the thermal springs, the mountains, and the various accommodations. It's a beautiful location. We drove west and north to find some water to fish. The fishing was slower for us but we found some good trout feeding. We watched one 22" brown feed in a seam for 15 minutes. The fascinating part was that as it was feeding, a massive trout in the 40" range swam up the seam underneath the smaller feeding trout. It sharked up the seam and back out into the depths of the huge pool we were about to fish. For a minute in time, Amelia & I each wished we were in place to fish for the massive trout. We weren't, of course. We each had some exceptional moments this day. Amelia worked one pool where two browns cycled together. The two had worked up a seam and were on their way back down when a snout took her dry. It was a 7 or 8 pound brown. Naturally, the light was just so that she couldn't see a thing from her angle but it was clear from mine. "Are you going to set the hook?" I asked. She then did, got two head shakes and "ping!" out came the fly. I was able to work a few trout as well, with one special trout. It held in a perfect lie to view and videotape. It refused my wulff pattern and I switched a few flies, ultimately going back to the wulff. It came and refused it again. I cycled through a few more flies before going back to the wulff. This time it rose up and took the wulff. Go figure!
There was another trout that Amelia worked that stood out as we had good discussion as to how to approach it. We both knew that the right way was to approach it differently than she wound up doing, but in the moment the temptation to cast was too great. The fish spooked with a perfect cast, frankly. It was done from the wrong angle, however. We both knew it going in but had to learn the lesson.
It was a gorgeous river that we fished. There were pools that begged to be fished. We stuck to our guns and only walked and looked for sight fishing opportunities as that's what we enjoy. The pools reminded me of water on the Ram River. However, on the Ram we would likely have caught 50 trout per pool whereas on this river - and most of New Zealand - there were only one to three trout. Patience in finding trout and making sure you don't squander opportunties are key components.
Tomorrow we are out on the same river by ourselves.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jensenflyfishing/NewZealand5/photo#s5158698278616266898

New Zealand Gallery #4

New Zealand fishing, day #2 with our guide, Serge. We woke to a wonderful valley of fog, quickly chased out by a beautiful, sunny day. Plenty of trout were sighted and cast to with several landed. None very large nor very small (4.5 to 6 pound), many spooked, and a lot of fun playing in the water. There are a few nice scenery shots in this album also.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jensenflyfishing/NewZealand4/photo#s5158211600032686770

Central Alberta Fly Tying

Bob Vanderwater is setting up a Blog for the group of fly tiers he hosts each week in Red Deer. The club gets 2 - 3 dozen folks out each week to learn patterns that members and special guest presenters lead tying instructions for. The concept for his blog is to keep the patterns and updates available on line. Prior to this, Bob has simply sent out an email to everyone that summed up the evening with photos of the evening, and the email's information would be lost. Now, a history "database" of fly patterns will slowly evolve.
Good stuff, Bob, and we hope the Blog concept makes things easier for you too!
http://rdflytying.blogspot.com/

Reciprocal Licensing

The Oldman Chapter of Trout Unlimited has an interesting link about the Alberta Government's assessment of reciprocal licensing. It looks at license fees for a wide range of jurisdications and essentially compares them to Alberta's current system and fees. It was done back in 2006 but is still applicable. It's interesting to look at. Have a peak at the link:
http://www.oldmantu.ca/Reciprocal%20licensing%202006.pdf

New Zealand Gallery #3

Well, we continue on day #1. Serge broke us off for lunch after an "exhausting" 800m of walking up the river. A little tongue in cheek but the fish were in good numbers and we had to learn the art of this New Zealand fly fishing. We went back for lunch and had a rest. Amelia convinced the farmer to chase down a spring lamb so she could hold and cuddle it. We have a year old lab pup, Jaz, that we left at home, so the lamb got all of her affections. After she finished playing with the lamb and a friendly calf, we walked back to the river. The lighting was stellar and I really wanted Amelia to settle in and get comfortable fishing, so I stayed atop the cliff to take photos and video, and watch from a bird's eye view of what would unfold. Amelia had a tough go the first two days due to the sheer size of the trout we were pursuing, and trying too hard. I'll touch on that in a future feature article, but it was interesting to watch.

Serge & Amelia walked around to get to the bank below me where we would all work 8 trout lined up along the bank. The two of them could see nothing in the water due to glare, but I yelled enthusiastically down where each trout was. It was a minor miracle any trout were hooked given their locations in the stream, but enough yelling and screaming brought the land owner over for a look at the event. His wife stopped over to look as well. So, Amelia had and audience of 4 as she worked 6.5 to 9 pound trout that would spook at a cast misplaced within 12 feet. "Have fun!" I yelled from directly above. We yelled and yodeled from above as she put some fine moves on the trout, hooking the first three. I wasn't able to take photos of her fish being so high above and the fish screaming downstream. We all helped her work the bank and spook a few with good casts that simply landed in the wrong spot due to miscommunication of where the fish held. It was a fabulous evening to learn how critical teamwork and good communication is in New Zealand as some fish were hooked while others were lined. Still, others moved about in a 4 corner box - step feeding pattern in between boulders. Good casts that would have caught fish 5 seconds later landed on the trout's head, sending it over yonder a spell. We have some fabulous video from this evening as well - clearly showing trout holding and various moves they and Amelia make. We'll get that loaded to the server soon.

For fun, we stopped at little creek on the way back and Amelia had a go at the tiny fish rising in 4" of water above a culvert. Why not?

This photo gallery shows a little of the fun on evening #1. A great day to be alive, certainly!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jensenflyfishing/NewZealandAlbum3/photo#s5157825916264472946

New Zealand Gallery #2

We get into a little fly fishing in this album. We met our guide Serge in Hanmer Springs and headed out to a beautiful river. The day started tough with clouds and fog, but by mid afternoon the lighting got better and sight fishing kicked in. As first days go, it was ok but adjustments had to be made. 18 foot leaders to 5 or 6X tippet with a big, bushy dry fly with a dropper nymph a foot below, casting into a breeze was wrought with frustration. I had brought my 4 wt Scott with lime green, double taper line and 12 foot leaders with extra tippet, but the guide laughed at me, telling me there was no way I'd catch fish with that. So, we went his way for 3 hours until I made my change. 3 hours without a fish was enough to force a change! I'll touch more on all that in an article at some point, but for now, we settled in to our farm stay and head out for the first 1/2 of our first day of fishing. The evening of day #1 was good, but that's Monday's photo series.

Click on: http://picasaweb.google.com/jensenflyfishing/NZGallery2/photo#s5157294736184139778

New Zealand Gallery (Part 1 or 15 or so)

Just in time for Friday...
Amelia & I never really took a honeymoon nor travel much. I have little interest in traveling to fly fish, with the exception of New Zealand. I first heard about New Zealand on Red Fisher's fishing show up here in Canada back in the late 70's. He went and had a great time, and came back with some grainy old video shot on a hand held camera. It wasn't that the fish were big or numerous on his video, it was that the fish were pretty, the mountains were stunning, and he said the people were the friendliest he'd ever met. As a kid of not even 10 years old at that time, I don't know how I remembered that particular show so well, but I did. I was unfashionably an early bloomer in fly fishing, far more than obsessed by the time I was 7. Not many kids were too obsessed with fly fishing in the '70s. Red Fisher's show stuck with me and through the years I heard more about NZ, in magazines and from our guests.
After 7 years of hard work together, building our guide company, and about the time Amelia & I were set to finally take the trip to NZ, we opted to spend money on buying a lodge/retreat on Fortress Lake and postpone our travels. Now, 2.5 years of really hard work and obsessing about making Fortress and our guide company thrive, and we finally took our heads out of the sand and realized we needed a break. 10 years together, working hard to get ahead, and we finally said it was time to travel. So, mid November to early December, '07, we traveled 3 glorious weeks on the S Island of New Zealand.
We've finally had the time to look through and sort photos from our New Zealand trip. We were able to only come home with 1000 or so photos as we deleted 1/2 the photos we took each day. We were quite religious about weeding out our photos daily to help alleviate the inevitable - coming home with far too many!
We'll post images from our trip a few times each week. Part 1, today's gallery, begins with the travel to New Zealand and our first glimpses of the country. Unfortunately the one omission from this gallery is any photos of Hanmer Springs thermal pools which were the cat's meow after a day and a half travel. Giant Redwoods from California line the pools and we had the place mostly to ourselves upon arrival. A gorgeous respite in a nice town north of Christchurch.
But, here's 20 shots of the first day or so on our travel. There's some neat shots, but none of the really good stuff that's to come. You know, like 7 - 8 pound browns taken on dry flies and such.
Hope you enjoy these. In the coming weeks we'll also share some of the video we took as well. It's pretty cool too.
Dave & Amelia Jensen
(PS - click the link that is the title of this post, or copy/paste:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jensenflyfishing/NewZealandPart1OfMany/photo#s5156875590325722802

Video - AK Best's Spent Cream Caddis

As you see in the video below, AK ties a spent caddis. We chose this video as spent caddis are an over looked lifestage of caddis. If you've ever been on the water well into the evening and waded or drift through slicks or the edge waters of a run, you've likely come off the water with scores of spent caddis on your boat or your waders. Trout can easily feed on spent or down wing patterns as they know that the insects aren't going anywhere. Hence, trout can sit in very slow moving current on the edge of the river and gently sip. The 25-1/2" brown to the right was barely breaking the surface film as it sporadically fed on spent caddis. We had to watch for 20 minutes to make sure it was a trout before Amelia cast into the shallow, slow seam. It was a subtle take but a violent fight as this fish screamed to the middle of the river. AK's pattern is a good one for sure, though you might want to tie patterns in slate gray and tan for Alberta, in sizes 12 - 18.

Please be sure to copy/paste the following URL

http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?video_id=qrjRzzMbNGk&rel=1&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//img.youtube.com/vi/qrjRzzMbNGk/default.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskImI5Q8dAFutJwGjehdaLIc&=

Good deal from Orvis

Get a FREE fly line and backing when you buy a Battenkill Reel For this month only, when you buy any Orvis Battenkill Bar Stock or Battenkill Mid-Arbor fly reel, you get a FREE floating Wonderline and 20-pound Dacron backing.
Just add the reel and fly line to your shopping cart and we'll reduce the fly line charge to $0 (the Dacron backing will not appear in your cart). We'll also load the line and appropriate amount of Dacron backing on your reel for free, just be sure to tell us whether you retrieve with your right or left hand. Don't delay as we're only offering this special deal for the month of January on our web site, in our retail stores, or at participating Orvis dealers.

New book by McLennan

Water Marks by Jim McLennan

Jim & Lynda McLennan are excited to announce that Jim's fourth book, Water Marks, will be available in mid-January.
It is comprised of 38 chapters of his best fly-fishing writing between 1981 and 2007. There are sections devoted to the people, places, techniques and values of fly fishing. Photography by Jim and Lynda McLennan. Art Ilustrations by Alan Hassall

The book will be available at the McLennan website, as well as a variety of fly shops and stores around the province soon!

Soft cover, 208 pages, $25.95

Hummingbird

This photo was taken by Greg Sikora of Red Deer while we constructed our dining/lounge yurt at Fortress Lake. The site we chose to build the new building was right beside where the main hummingbird feeder has been for the past 20+ years and we came face to face with hummingbirds the entire weekend. In fact, we had to close the dome of the yurt as hummingbirds kept flying inside. The feeder is getting a new home this year, close to a window of the main yurt so everyone can sit and watch our hummingbirds come and go. It was wonderful to have folks like Greg on site, helping us with continued site improvements. The building looks great, has withstood the winter's snow thus far, and getting wonderful photos like this in the inbox a day later is always great.

Reel Hookers Women's Fly Fishing Club

There's a new women's fly fishing club.
"We are a group of women fascinated with the beauty of our environment. We have way too much fun (thus, the name) and for many of us, we fly fish not because we want to, but because we have to. Once bitten by the bug - you do not recover. Our goal is to create a community of mothers, daughters (and sons), grandmothers and great grandmothers who pursue the art and tradition of fly fishing while developing relationships on many levels with those we meet. Those connections are stimulated by the wildlife, forest, and water encountered. For all of us, the river that runs through our lives is shared. The wonderful thing is that it flows down into our families and friends."
Please click the link above or http://www.reelhookersclub.com/

Shoveling Snow @ Fortress

Every year about this time we start to get a little antsy. With the snow reports of how much snow Kicking Horse or Marmot Mountain ski hills in Golden or Jasper have, tingling sensations start up in our psyche. Snow reports only mean one thing to us - time to head in to Fortress Lake Retreat and shovel snow! Winter of '07 saw heaps of snow on the ground with 8 feet or so on the ground and that much and then some drift on the roofs of our cabins. The wind makes the drift snow on cabin roofs set like concrete and it often takes 30 to 45 minutes of hard shoveling to clear the weight. Of course, if you don't get the weight of the snow off the roofs, the cabins collapse either under the weight of the drift snow or in spring when water from the melting snow combines with spring rain or heavy, wet snow and collapses the cabins. In 2007 we lost our large storage facility in the record snow.
So, on Sunday we got up at 4am, drive to Hinton (where there is almost no snow), and flew in to Fortress. We arrived on a mixed sky with flurries and a mild day and almost immediately realized that there was only 3.5 feet of snow. We got lucky indeed as there is record snow near Golden which is not terribly far away. We walked up to the first cabin and took one shovel scoop - the snow fell off both sides of the roof on its own! In fact, of the 14 roofs we cleared snow from, most followed this pattern. A few scoops and down the snow came. The reason was likely that we had a cold fall that saw snow fall instead of freezing rain. Freezing rain sticks to the roofs and prevents snow from sliding off. We got lucky. Within 2.5 hours of arrival, we finished our work and had a little bit of daylight to enjoy our surroundings.

We flew out in the late afternoon, landed in Hinton, and drive 4 hours back to Red Deer. We'll head back in February to do a little wood cutting for the summer. We might even stay a few days and do a little ice fishing.

It was a great day in the beautiful Fortress Lake valley.

Phil Rowley Tying Workshop

I was able to enjoy a day of fly tying @ Annie L Gaetz elementary school tying flies. Phil Rowley did a great job of teaching 27 eager students 8 different streamer patterns. He walked through the principles of why we fish streamers, what keys the trout are looking for in imitating different food sources (fry, leeches, dragonflies, etc), and the tips and tricks he knows in tying the patterns he shared. The day went from 9 to 4 and was quite involved.
The day was co-ordinated by Bob & Karen Vanderwater who host the Red DeerFly Tying Club. The club holds Monday Night meetings at Annie L Gaetz school on Mitchell Ave in Red Deer 7 - 9pm. Call Bob 403.347.3802 or email him at bvanderwater@rdpsd.ab.ca
Visit Phil's site linked above: http://flycraftangling.com/

Banff Mountain Film Festival

Oddly, I'd never been to a Banff Mountain Film Festival. When Amelia suggested that she'd heard the "BMFF World Tour" was coming to Red Deer we decided it was time to go. It was a good evening, with short films detailing some micro-niche interests such as kite boarding and extreme unicyclists; a satire of rock climbing by 1/2 dozen 50 something macho men; a short cartoon of 2 ravens, a badger, and warheads; a so-so film of kayakers playing in some of the fun waves in the world; a wonderful piece of a rock climber ascending an ocean rock arch for the first time and the psyche evolution the climber went through; and one all too self indulgent feature length film about a Euro gal obsessed with base jumping. The films were of excellent quality and generally respected the viewers' attention and interest spans. As you might gleem, none of the 4 in our group cared greatly for the self absorbed, base jumping gal as it became obvious the film "20 seconds of joy" was either the world's longest obituary, or going nowhere. It went nowhere for us. But, that was the point of the evening from the outset. We were told the evening would be about viewing the films - some would enduce elation, some motivation, and possibly some would simply make us mad. The evening of short films didn't really live up to that, though it was entertaining. The event was hosted by the folks at Kerry Wood Nature Center and took place at the Memorial Center. It was a good evening. 6 flies of 10.

"So Many Fish, So Little Time"

We were told by a friend last fall that we were featured in the book "So Many Fish, So Little Time", written by Mark D Williams. Pages 585 - 588 feature information about the Ram, Red Deer, Stauffer Creek, our guide operations, and information we assisted with.

The book is filled with neat locations to fish worldwide, certainly not just our region. It was a nice surprise to hear of our inclusion. Thanks to Mark for this.

Check out the book at Chapters or look for it at Amazon. If nothing else, it will make you long to hit the water on these winter days. Maybe, just maybe it will inspire you to join us on our charmed waters this coming season!

That time of the year once more

Every year it's the same. 6 weeks until the annual bout with SAD dissipates and our friends the waxwings are at it again. Flocks of hundreds, into thousands, can converge on streets and boulevards lined with mountain ash trees beginning early January. Sitting in my office on the middle floor of the house, I smile on sunny days as flocks of birds pass in twisting, turning waves. By mid February the same sunny days warm the house as we begin to pass into the start of a new season, one a little closer to the rising trout of April.

Alberta Cutthroat Trout Protection

Here's something worth considering and participating in. While it may reduce a few miles of fishing water, it may assist in saving our purest Westslope Cutthroat Trout population in Alberta.

Consultation Documents
Consultation Workbook on the addition of the Westslope Cutthroat Trout (Alberta populations) to the SARA List (2007-12-27)
Your opinion is being sought to assist the government of Canada in making an informed decision on whether to add the (Westslope Cutthroat Trout (Alberta populations)) to the Schedule 1 (the List of Wildlife Species at Risk) of the Species at Risk Act (SARA). Your input on the impacts of adding this species to the List is important. This workbook has been developed to give you an opportunity to provide Fisheries and Oceans Canada with your feedback, advice, and other comments regarding adding this species to Schedule 1 of SARA (Schedule 1 identifies which species are legally protected under SARA).

Red Deer Fly Tying Club presentation

Amelia & I presented last night to a couple dozen folks at the Red Deer Fly Tying Club at Annie L Gaetz Elementary School in Red Deer. We presented photos and videos from our trip late Nov - Dec on the South Island of New Zealand. It was fun to share the photos and videos from our trip with the folks!

If you live in central Alberta and want to learn to tie flies and meet a group of nice people that are interested in fly tying and fly fishing, please contact the group co-ordintator Bob Vanderwater. 403 347 3802, or email Bob bvanderwater@rdpsd.ab.ca

New Video Introduction

You'll hear a little retro music with Bob Seger and Boston chiming a little mood to the scenes for our new introductory video. It's a good quality (30MB) link so make sure you let the download finish.

PLEASE right click and save the video file to disk, then open in your video player. Simply clicking the links will open your player, however, the videos will take some time to download as they are larger, higher quality files (ranging from 30 to 150MB). Cable internet should download each file in 5 minutes or less.

The file is a direct download from the link above, or by copy/paste the following: http://flyfishalberta.com/video/webintro.divx

*NOTE for Safari Users - Safari adds a .txt to the .dix files, and the filename ends in .divx.txt. To view, you must delete the .txt at the end of the file name, ending only .divx. It's a Safari quirk.

FEATURE ARTICLE - "Rain or Shine" Dave Jensen

When I was 16 years old I worked as a cashier at a gas station. One day, an old crotchety character, two inches from his grave (I was sure he was at least 50) slowly made his way in to pay for his fuel. He slid his $20 bill on the counter to pay for his full tank and stood there, reflecting on how long it would take him to shuffle back to his car. Mostly out of breath, partly resigned to his plight in life, he slowly turned back to me on his way out the door. “You know kid,” he started. “Whatever the weather, we must weather the weather, whether we want to or not.” And he was gone. At the time I thought it odd he would say something like that, considering it was a beautiful, sunny summer’s day. I still find it odd 20 years later. But the bugger was right. I still look back on him as my prophet from Esso, saying what he did. How did he know I was going to be a fly fishing guide? Later, still working at that gas station near the old ITV studios in Edmonton, I met Bill Matheson, Edmonton’s weatherman legend, several times. (I also met Captain Highliner in full costume many times too. I recall accidentally yelling out “Hey, it’s Captain F*** Highliner!!!” as he walked through the door on my last day of work, but that’s another story.). Bill was an interesting old sort that was full of energy. I often asked him what the weather was going to be. One day he’d had enough of me asking the same question. “You know,” he started, “You remind me of what my dad tells me,” he began. “Whatever the weather…”

Through the years, I’ve accepted the fact that the old man’s mantra is true, especially for fishermen, and furthered by fly fishers. Weather patterns impact fishing in many ways, with cold fronts putting some fish “off”, while other species thrive. High pressure can be a blessing and a curse. Of course, then there’s the precipitation that falls and its impact on water levels and temperatures. When it comes to fly fishing trout rivers, I’m able to share a little of what I’ve learned. A cynic would say that I’ve discovered a rhythm to our western trout waters that runs on a 4 beat riff each year. “It’s on, it’s off, it’s off, pause.” It’s a little more forgiving than that, however. The reality is that it comes down to whether we wish to weather the weather, and just how much weather we truly can weather in order to catch trout.

Hot, sunny weather can be a blessing or curse, and the rules differ based on trout species, rivers, and time of year. I recall one exceptional day I guided on the Red Deer River, late May of 2003. It had been cold and miserable all week and few stoneflies were out, or any other insects for that matter. The forecast was for change. Knowing that stoneflies hatch consistently, eventually must make an egg laying flight back to the river, and rely on heat to become active, with the forecast calling for +30C weather the next day I made a call to a guest from Calgary. “I have a hunch that things are set to explode,” I hinted. He came the next day and before the launch was out of sight we landed two trout of 22”, while a third had been rising 2 feet from one that we landed. That day I counted over 4 dozen trout on the rise, all over 20”. It was a good day, indeed.

Hot, sunny weather weather in August of a non grasshopper and trico mayfly year on the Red Deer R is about as futile for fly fishing as sitting home to watch the Eskimos lose another football game. You’ll likely catch as many fish. It’s not a hard and fast rule, obviously, but knowing that the odds of catching a single trout are low no matter how hard you try doesn’t inspire one to fish. It’s on these kinds of days that we either reschedule our guide days or fish another water. In fairness to our guests, if we know only a trout or two is going to show on a long day’s float, we don’t force the issue on the temperamental Red Deer. Instead, we make suggestions of where we should fish on hot, sunny, August afternoons. The obvious answer is a cutthroat trout river. Cutthroat love high pressure fronts, with the reasonably “warm” (high country warm is 50 to 65F) water temperatures that come from sunny days. Prolonged high pressure means little precipitation, providing clear water. In other words, these are prime conditions because the 30 or 40 days a year a cutthroat trout experiences these conditions, it will feed aggressively to compensate for the other 325 days it must suffer through poor growing conditions. While hot, sunny, August weather might be potentially horrible to fly fish on the Red Deer River for brown trout, excellent fly fishing might occur further west on cutthroat trout waters.

In 1997 I charted my fishing success on the Ram River for an entire summer, about 120 days of fishing. The findings weren’t exactly rocket science but confirmed a lot of things. When the barometric pressure goes up, so does the air temperature, and so too in turn the water temperature. Again, these conditions generally see clear water in prime conditions and the number of fish caught sky rockets. During cold weather, the number of fish caught slowed, be it due to cold water temperatures, low barometric pressure, or poorer in stream visibility due to precipitation that comes with low pressure fronts. On several cold days there were hours of exceptional fly fishing as hatches came off, however, as a whole the fishing was slower as the good fishing windows were shorter than those hot, sunny weather days where the fish were on for 12 hours straight.

I recall the summer of 1999, the “summer of snow” (or SOS as I dubbed it). We had two massive storms dump 2 and 3 feet of snow in the high country respectively, the storms 10 days apart. During the first wave, I had a guest from the USA for 4 days of fishing who was literally open to anything. His attitude was simple “the weather sucks and there is nothing else to do around here, so where are we going?” It became a classic example of flying by our feet, and not only because of the slick mud under our feet. We managed to pull the trip off with fairly good success. The first day the rain fell steadily, I believe he called it relentless, but we fished a headwater tributary and landed dozens of cutthroat. The second he proclaimed the coldest day he’d ever fished and the streamer fishing was very good on the Red Deer. By the third day he was making sure I’d stopped at that coffee shop with two thermoses before we headed out to catch a few cutts by nymphing the N Ram. The fourth day he convinced himself that smoking and drinking coffee in two fisted fashion was indeed possible when you’re working rising cutthroat trout – especially if you’re waiting for risers on the bank of the river in a heated truck. I think it was then I shared that little saying I’d heard once.

I was launching at Fish Creek Park on the Bow River in 2005 just after the floods receded. Fellow guide Terry Johnson of Fish Tales Fly Shop was the only other boat at the launch that day. “You’re crazy like we are,” he giggled through the driving rain. A gale force wind would blow us downstream all day. “I live for this kind of day, Terry,” I winked back. The truth is that it is miserable to have cold, wet hands as a guide. The further truth is that these are the conditions that we live for, love, and cherish. Terry and I both knew what was going to happen at some point during the day, and it didn’t take long. About an hour into our launch, blue winged olives and pale morning dun mayflies began hatching. By mid afternoon the surface of the water looked like a furry blanket, the mayflies were so numerous. Trout rose in pods. I didn’t see too much of Terry for the rest of the day but knowing we each had ½ the river to ourselves, with pods of browns and rainbows rising and nobody else around, I have a hunch he might have had as much fun rowing as I did. We were both more than willing to weather the weather.

There was a day of infamy in my guiding life that, well, let’s just say I was less than prepared to weather the weather. I hosted a couple of fellows from Calgary on the Blackstone River north of Nordegg on a mid September afternoon. The day started beautifully. A few trout were caught and things were looking good for the afternoon. We came around a bend and we were able to see the horizon line. Big, white, billowing clouds were imminent to our location. It was then I figured things were going to get bad. I had decided not to carry an extra fleece nor a rain coat as the forecast was for good weather and I didn’t want the extra weight on my back. It began to rain heavily, then ebbed before a cold wave brought heavier precip which changed to snow. “Beautiful!” I thought. No better day to wear a t-shirt. But the more important thing is that the cold morning followed by the cold front kept the insects from doing much hatching and the river literally shut down. We fished another couple hours as the snow drove into us. We saw a couple of trout flash on the bottom of one deep run but that was it. Typical of cutthroat trout in rapidly changing, cold water conditions, little happened. To oppose that experience, of course, I hosted a couple on the Ram one day in 2003. The weather had been consistent, cloudy, and cool for several days. A light rain filled the valley. We came upon one pool mid afternoon and the blue winged olives were coming off in droves. Between us, we landed 54 trout in 50 minutes from the one pool. Im sure most fly fishers would be willing to weather any kind of weather for that kind of fishing. The difference in the two stories is stability and what it means to cutts. In cold weather, it becomes a matter of stability vs rapidly changing conditions.

Generally, the best hatches come from a given set of conditions. On western trout streams, these get to be quite predictable and so too the fishing in response to the insect hatches. Usually, the best hatches and insect occurrences coincide with stable weather. Mayfly hatches are usually good in low light such as dark, wet, cool, cloudy days. Mayflies will quickly dry their wings on sunny days and fly off the water. On cloudy days, the new wings take longer to dry, keeping them on the water and are available to trout as food for much longer. Pale morning duns (late May to late August) and blue winged olives (spring and fall) comprise a large portion of fly fishers’ mayfly hatch chasing. These hatches are best mid day during poor weather. Trout respond to sometimes heavy hatches from mid April through late October. That’s pretty much the entire western season and two mayflies can generally be relied upon to hatch. Pale morning duns can offer very good dry fly fishing on sunny days as well if you find a shaded bank. Olives, seldom come off in good numbers on direct sun filled days, regardless of how much shade is found. Other mayflies we focus on include green drakes, brown drakes, and tricos. Green drakes and their close high country cousin flavs generally offer the best fishing mid day and generally during nice weather, though you’d best stay a little later on a sunny day on the Crowsnest. Brown drakes are a hatch found northwest of Calgary in muddier bottom waters. These mayflies are quite large and also very light sensitive. They typically hatch when direct light is off the water, either late in the evening or on very dark, cloudy days. Lucky anglers can sometimes find themselves in the midst of simultaneous pale morning dun, blue winged olive, and brown drake hatches. Of course, fair weather fly fishers will never see such an event as it only occurs early June to early July during dark, miserable, rainy days where the rain falls sideways and the air temperature snuggles in to single digits.

Tricos love summer nights. Stable mid summer air and water conditions see perfect hatch conditions. Dusk to dawn tricos will hatch and mate. Folks wishing to weather all night fish-a-thons will no doubt have a tough time sighting fish but will no doubt hear slurping trout feeding in reckless abandon on heavy hatches of tricos. Usually, fly fishers take the easy road and fish rivers like the Bow starting at 9am and get to the river when the sun is in full glare on the water, the trico hatch over. The only bugs that show all float on those days are the massive columns of trico spinners in the air at the boat launch. Had they arrived a little earlier, weathering the early morning cool weather, they surely would have enjoyed “snout hunting” during the trico hatch: that is, casting small dry flies to large fish in very shallow water at the edge and tail ends of riffled runs. The extra 4 or 5 hours sleep gets in the way of good dry fly fishing for most anglers during the trico hatch.
Other insects offer different weather to weather and it’s usually good weather immediately following really bad weather that provides the best dry fly fishing. Stones hatch in the evening through night. Golden stones egg lay during warm, sunny days on rainbow and cutthroat trout waters, and many brown trout streams. On the Bow, Red Deer, and Highwood systems there is another golden stone species that sticks to egg laying at low light conditions.

Back in ’98 I had a family from the USA visit. We flew by helicopter to Michele Lakes in search of golden trout. That plan was short lived. As we drew nearer the lakes the heli pilot was chipper in announcing the temperature was -3. “What’s that in Farenheit?” came from the front seat. I smiled and asked what temperature gives them snow back home. “We don’t get snow back home”. This was early August, “Only 5 months until Christmas,” I shared. I had just spent three days previous this camping at another alpine lake with a father and son from Florida who loved the snow. We wok the first morning to 10” of wet, heavy snow, the first they’d seen. I went from them loving the snow to a family who wouldn’t get out of the helicopter for a day of fishing. They never stepped out into the 6” of snow on the ground but they did get me to take pictures of them inside the helicopter from outside of it. We then flew back to base and they apparently enjoyed a nice drive to Lake Louise as the family decided that they would not weather the weather. From a fishing perspective it was a poor decision because golden trout feed far more aggressively in low light conditions. We’ve enjoyed many excellent days in dark, wet, cold conditions than any other. Trout rise through the water column at the creek mouths and dozens of fish can be seen along the shoreline in prime sight fishing conditions. The shy to take a fly golden trout can be caught readily in such conditions. But tell that to 4 folks from the deep south looking out into a snowy, rock wasteland in the Canadian wilderness.

It is thought that bull trout are voracious feeders, that they are “stupid”. I’ve always thought it immature of anglers to see fish as “stupid”, showing signs of a lack of depth in understanding of a fish’ place in the grand scheme of things, and a lack of respect therein. Bull trout aren’t always voracious. We’ve hosted many bull trout trips through the years, targeting deep wintering pools known to hold good fish in the early spring season. Bull trout are also keenly astute to their environment and impacted by the weather. In fact, from what I’ve seen, bull trout are impacted like no other trout on the rivers I’ve fished, which are generally north and west of Calgary. Once the ice sheds from a river early in spring, it’s inviting to fish it. However, icy temperatures keep trout in their wintering pools, and often deep and sluggishly so. Bulls begin to move about once in stream temperatures warm. The trouble is that big bulls winter in larger pools of larger mountain rivers, the same rivers that, once warm weather begins to warm in stream temperatures, the alpine snow pack to commences to melt, causing the river to rise and turn murky. It’s an extremely delicate balance. On several trips we’ve hosted, guests cast heavily weighted flies to get to the bottom. Casts upon casts are made and the inevitable question arises, “What am I doing wrong?” when they’ve only caught a few trout through the first part of the day. First, there is a finite number of bull trout in a river due to low productivity. Secondly, there is a finite number of wintering pools to host those few fish. Turn the fish-switch to off, and things are going to be slow. There are tactics that will catch a fish or two most days, so long as visibility is good, but bulls won’t take a hook just because we want them to.
There are few days where bull trout actually are “on” en masse. One day in ’99 a friend and I worked every wintering pool and run on a mountain river for about 18km. In one run alone we had three double headers in three casts each. We had a dozen and a half double headers that day as we landed well over 30 bull trout each, the largest near 8 pounds. Conversely, we’ve had days where we had to ice break the eddy lines of pools due to the cold morning, and day time highs fared little better. Bulls are sluggish on these days and while several fish may be caught, their takes feel like the fly is wedged into a branch and the fight is like stripping that heavy branch in. Waiting for “prime” conditions on such mountain rivers is never a good bet, however, as warm weather is bound to melt the snow in the high country and send that crystal clear mountain river to a muddy, oozing, spreading river across the floodplain. If you’re going to fish bull trout early in the spring, you’d best choose to weather the weather, bundle up, suck it up, and head to the water before that beautiful water turns on you after waiting for that “perfect” day. It won’t happen but once in 10 years.

July of 2007 Amelia & I had three days off in a row together, a first since the floods of 2005. On the first day we floated the Highwood River on a hot, sunny day. It should have been prime time for golden stones and rainbows, but someone forgot to mention that to the bugs and fish. It was a nice float. We stayed with friend in Okotoks that night, getting to bed after midnight and barely sleeping in the stifling heat. We rose at 4 am and hit the Bow River pre-sunrise. On the first bank we landed 3 nice rainbow trout on the golden stone. Until we got off the river at 2pm, rainbows and browns slammed the surface, nailing our big stonefly pattern. We then drove to the Red Deer River to catch the evening brown drake and caddis hatch that the conditions were “perfect” for. We put the boat in at 5:30. We cast a few flies at the shore but nothing rose. Dusk approached and in the 6 hours we floated the Red Deer saw not one single insect on the water. We hit yet another drive through for supper and got to bed at 12:30am. We didn’t want to end our days off together like that, so we set the alarm clock for 2:30 am. Amelia was game for anything as long as I drove. We left Red Deer just before 3am and arrived at Policeman’s on the Bow to launch a hair before 5 am. We repeated the same experience on the Bow as the day before and got off the river just after 3pm, with whooped but thrilled smiles. There was no call to go back to the Red Deer as we had just 6 hours sleep in 3 days, and floated some 75km of 3 rivers in 4 drifts. By the end of the second day on the Bow we had easily turned 150 rainbows and browns on the dry fly, yet not seen a fish rise on the Highwood or Red Deer Rivers. 4 long, full day floats but only 2 produced trout.

Sometimes the conditions just don’t happen the way they should and you second guess yourself, though the other times that you make the call you feel like a genius. Even when you know the weather that you’re supposed to weather to find the best fishing, it might not happen. Life’s interesting that way. Even Dr Phil, Oprah, and Dr Laura are all wrong once in a while. In fact, even Bill Matheson was wrong in his weather forecasting back in his day. Shocking, I know. Just remember this when you’re weathering the weather to hit the mother of all mayfly hatches when I told you to go out in the driving rain to weather the weather, and nothing happens. In such instances I may not choose to weather your appreciation of this article.

The rub with weathering the weather is whether or not the angler wants to catch fish. The degree of expectation, hope, effort, and other intangibles come into play. Fish can always be caught by some means, either by playing the percentages and fishing the stream where the trout are best suited to the conditions or simply by trying every trick in the book for that location fished. Truly, whether we choose to weather the weather or not, a trout or two will always be weathering the weather. It’s what they do best. Whether you choose to join them in the weather is based solely on how much weather you can weather, and whether you want to badly enough to catch trout.

Dave Jensen