A good year, certainly

I've thought about what I'm about to type for a 2008 year review and no matter how I look at it, I can't think of anything but calling myself, indeed ourselves, spoiled. What can be said about a 13 month run of fly fishing that started and ended with a month in New Zealand, saw good fishing on the Bow February and March, had fantastic brown trout fishing from March through mid May, saw a neat weekend visit to Manitoba for Tiger Trout, saw us completely miss the high water and cold temperatures of June and early July while hitting some of the best fishing at Fortress Lake late May, through June, August and September, with July spent fishing the Bow, Red Deer and cutthroat trout waters, then finishing with a stunning series of almost daily visits to local trout lakes and frantic action before hopping a jet airliner back to New Zealand for a month?
I'm not sure how a fellow can justify looking forward to this coming year and remotely whispering to himself that next year might be better. With 2008 in the rear view mirror now, I don't think that I'm ready to look ahead. I haven't finished looking back just yet. After weeding out the photos from this year alone, there are still over 5000 excellent photos of enjoyable fly fishing moments, and nearly 30 hours of HD video to review. Something tells me that I won't be looking ahead to the 2009 fishing season in any hurry as the A/V room is just starting to warm up to the idea of editing.
The 13 month fly fishing foray ended with an intense thud in mid December, as we landed to the first blizzard and cold snap of the year back home. Sunny, warm weather was replaced by -35C with -45C wind-chill and snow. Our ride home from the airport couldn't reach us, so we hopped the Greyhound for an extended version of the drive home. After not being on the Greyhound in 20 years, I certainly appreciated my new VW in the garage. It was an abrupt change from the day previous, having spent an hour and a half changing 17 flies on a New Zealand trout stream to finally coax a 6.5 pound trout to take. It was a hell of a fish moment. -35C in a blizzard is one hell of a weather change from that.
One thing I learned this past year is continued patience with life. Be it the weather and water conditions on local rivers, people we work with, business or life partners, a large brown trout feeding in cyclical patterns, renovations, pilots, airlines... all require patience to allow them to do what they do. I wasn't in a place of fighting the above this past year, more furthering my ability to look at their individual need to have the time to do as they do, and make sure my mind didn't race ahead in expectation, rather, watch sequences evolve. Sometimes big brown trout that cycle a backwater pocket won't come on the first cast, shouldn't be cast to until the 3rd or 4th lap of the backwater, and might require you to watch in admiration as they pick off a hopper instead of your blue winged olive. You just don't know how they will respond to anything, though repetitious events in life tell you they should evolve "just so". So too go people, events, weather, and water. We were well blessed in 2008 with many great trout, weather, and water conditions in our lives and operations. We hope you found the same.
Looking now to 2009, we have plans that we hope to achieve. Brown and cutthroat trout streams in central Alberta, Fortress Lake, Manitoba's exceptional trout lakes, spring on the Crow, a look into steelheading, a few months in New Zealand, a few good trips on the Ram, chasing the midnight express on the Bow and Red Deer, Alberta's trout lakes, and a couple of smaller waters that beg to be explored. Add in a trip for Lahontans and hopefully a trip to retrace trout waters I haven't fished since the late 70's in the lower Interior of BC (Goat, Ashnola, etc). Is there time to check the boxes? You bet. We hope to host friends and past guests for excellent fly fishing adventures, be it BC, Alberta, or New Zealand. The fishing we enjoy is spectacular. We invite you to join us, either on this blog (viewing photos and video and reading our tales) or by joining us on a guided or hosted trip on these waters. We hope to see you soon.

Dave & Amelia Jensen & staff

A stunning day

Above: Looking east, back towards Alberta, Mount Quincy dominates the skyline. A stunning morning of various colours as the sun rose through the fog, the day emerged and the lingering humidity added to the sun's beams. Typical of warm, summer days with no clouds in the sky, not a breath of wind hit the lake until 1pm. Sight fishing on this day was sublime.

Trans-Canada Highway Twinning in Banff National Park

BANFF, ALBERTA, December 20, 2008-- The Honourable Jim Prentice, Canada’s Environment Minister, Minister responsible for Parks Canada and Minister responsible for Southern Alberta, along with Blake Richards, Member of Parliament for Wild Rose, today announced advances being made on Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) twinning in Banff National Park.
“The Trans-Canada Twinning Project in Banff National Park is critical to human and wildlife safety and for the efficient flow of travel and trade on Canada’s national highway,” said Minister Prentice. “ With the work being done this winter, we are poised to build on the progress already made and ensure construction continues without delay next spring.”
Nine kilometres of twinning work currently underway in Banff National Park, is scheduled for completion in spring 2009. The next phase, beginning immediately, will see the twinning of an additional 14 kilometres of highway west of Castle Junction, provide a minimum of eight additional wildlife crossing structures and will complete the twinning on this heavily used roadway up to Lake Louise. As well, clearing and gravel crushing work and structure design work to support the next phase of twinning is occurring this winter. Work is expected to be completed by 2013.
This project was made possible through a $100 million investment announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in August 2008. The investment is part of the Government's unprecedented $33 billion Building Canada infrastructure plan.
“This is the largest investment ever made to Trans-Canada Highway twinning in Banff National Park,” said Mr. Richards. “This project is yet another example of how our government is working to deliver infrastructure projects that will stimulate our economy, create jobs and ensure the safety of Canadians traveling on our roadways.”
Minister Prentice also recognized the project’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee for their efforts in working towards a common goal and confirmed a commitment to the objectives of the project: improving motorist safety, reducing highway wildlife mortality and habitat fragmentation, and improving the flow of goods and services.
“The Trans-Canada Highway twinning project in Banff would not have been possible without the support of the TCH Stakeholder Advisory Committee and the Siksika First Nation,” said Minister Prentice. “These groups represent a cross-section of interested parties that came together to express a strong consensus for the project objectives.”

Learning

It's been an interesting road the past few years. Since we put out the Fly Fishing Alberta's Hatches slide show series 4 or 5 years ago, we put new productions on hold as we bought and redeveloped our Fortress Lake Retreat. The creative side of our world's slipped off the front page - center and onto the sideline at times, certainly. In that time, however, we have accumulated countless hours of video from where we fish. We've shared some of it on our main website and some of it here on this blog, but not in any kind of presentation framework. Further, the break through process in online hosting and streaming of video has come light years. YouTube is popular, but certainly not the "best" technically for video. That's for the free video hosting programs. For server side software there are a few very good programs that allow users to do many unique things and create theater style atmospheres on their websites, or in the subsections of websites. Where we are right now, we're in the process of taking the time to learn that kind of software, to be able to take our video from stored tapes, capture to the hard drive, sequence the presentation, add voice overs - music - and still shots, then host the video productions at the website in a new software format that will allow users to pick and choose by category or interest. With 15 tapes of some exceptional moments of New Zealand footage alone, we have a lot of footage to share!

So that's what we'll be up to in the coming months. Learning. Trying new ways. Learning. Scrapping a week long project and learning some more. We'll see where this all leads!

Itinerant Angler Interview: Nick Lyons & The publisher's view

Nick Lyons is the founder of the Lyons Press, a longtime columnist in Fly Fisherman magazine, and a true literary luminary of the sport of fly fishing. Listen to his intelligent and insightful commentary on the nature of publishing fly fishing books, the lasting impact of Norman Maclean's great work, and the search for his successor.
http://www.itinerantangler.com/podcasts/podcast52.mp3

Changes at American Angler Magazine

Best Wishes to Phil Monahan @ American Angler Magazine:

"Dear friends and colleagues in the fly-fishing world,
Last Thursday, I learned that my tenure as editor of American Angler will end December 31, 2008. The January/February issue of American Angler that is on newsstands now is my 57th as editor, which means that I was at the helm for just shy of 10 years. Over that time, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a great many talented writers, photographers, public-relations folks, guides, and others in the industry.
I thank everyone who contributed to American Angler in any way during my tenure.From here on out, the magazine will be produced from the Augusta office. If you have outstanding assignments, please contact Russ Lumpkin at russ.lumpkin@morris.com. I’ll give them a list of all the future assignments I have, but some may have fallen through the cracks. Russ should be the target of all your future queries, as well.
This email address will still be the best way to reach me.Thanks again for all your fine work and help.
Best,PhilPhil Monahan
EditorAmerican Angler"

In the gorge of beeches

One of the neat parts of traveling is experiencing new vistas, new fish, new everything. This year we kept an eye on the internet while in NZ as often as we could - to keep track of the weather and hope it didn't bring new storms across the island. As we had to keep on top of this, it became obvious that a repeat of last year's trip and fishing the same waters as last year wasn't really in the cards. Hence, we found new waters and many new smaller waters to fish. One creek, 8 or 9 yards wide, flowed through a deep, rich, lush gorge full of beech trees and tree ferns. It was on property owned by folks that are becoming friends as we keep in email communication with them and they are happy to see us when we visit. The small stream flows in perpetual s-bends through a tight constriction between two mountain ridges. The lighting in the gorge is gawd-awful, but the water is enticing. Below: Dave is silhouetted against a lush background as he looks up at a great, old beech tree hanging over the stream's edge.

ACA - Conservation Magazine

The ACA Conservation Magazine's Fall-Winter '08 edition is on line. It shares a bit about the Raven River Project, an interesting project occurring in central Alberta.

http://www.ab-conservation.com/go/tasks/sites/default/assets/File/pdfs/04Publications/04ConservationMagazine/Conservation-Magazine-Fall-Winter-08.pdf

What do you enjoy?

Amelia & I were out on a small lake near Rocky Mountain House. We'd been there a couple of times and kept going back for the early season dry fly fishing. Sure, there were easier ways of catching fish, but none more exciting to us than to wait for a cruiser to come by just under the surface and try our luck at leading cruisers and hoping they swerved our way, to take our flies. We would be spending a deal of time at Fortress Lake in the season, so we opted to not fish under an indicator, nor with streamers. Instead, we were doing what we enjoy far more than anything else - sighting fish and casting dries. The day prior, we'd enjoyed great success as the hatch came off in droves. This day, we tried to time our arrival to the hatch, but arrived mid swing in a lighter, more sporadic hatch which didn't thrill us but we anticipated a few moments. There were two pontoon boats on the lake smack dab where we, and a couple other pontoon boats had enjoyed dry fly fishing a few days earlier. They sat there with their bobbers on the water and were catching fish, but the cruising and rising fish that used that spot stayed fairly deep by comparison to days previous. So, we simply dropped anchor elsewhere and waited for cruising trout. We only had 5 or 6 takes, and landed 3 between us in 2 hours. But the fun of sight fishing made the wait for those takes worth every second. "There's one", Amelia would say. She'd turn and cast to the trout. Her line laid out nicely but the fish went 2 feet to the left and took another natural and carried on. "Here comes one," I'd say. This trout might come to look but refuse the fly. So it went. A few would come and refuse, but most were so random, it became a game of trying to guess which way they would cruise. Ultimately, we would end up guessing right a few times and we got takes. The hatch waned after 90 minutes, we stuck it out another 30, and decided to pack it in because, frankly, we didn't have any interest in watching a bobber that day.

The odds weren't in our favor that day for sight fishing. It was a light hatch, there wasn't a breath of wind, and there weren't a lot of fish near the surface compared to previous days. But... that was the point. Anyone can sit off a shoal with a bobber and long leader with a leech-chironomid combo to catch fish. But, what is the ultimate goal, to catch fish or to fully enjoy your day by pursuing what you love doing even if the end result is of lower numbers of fish caught? If you don't like doing something, why do it just to prove that you can catch fish? Is the method or the fish the most important thing? Or, is the lower end result the point, based on the knowledge that your method is going to preclude you from higher numbers? Is there a comparable number, a ratio of success that proves you an ok fishermen, though you are catching fewer with a more difficult method?

Does it matter at all, when you are simply there to enjoy your time, using a method you really enjoy, knowing the odds are against you?

I raise this point because we continue to see, on internet forums, folks posting photos of the big Bow River rainbows and browns caught under an indicator. Other folks post of the fish caught at some gravel bar during salmon or steelhead runs, where a dozen other anglers are lined up and conflict has been endured over "turf" in order to catch that fish. Further, someone post photos of a far off international destination, where the method of catching lunkers is either at a river mouth of a lake at spawning time, or in the tributary itself, chucking streamers at aggressive fish during spawn or pre-spawn.

Then there is the aspect of dredging up a big fish to brag about in some ungodly destination. You will always see a couple of cars parked near the Calf Robe bridge, under the 6 lane Deerfoot Freeway in Calgary. Under the freeway is the water treatment plant which churns out warm water into the Bow River. Did I mention this is also the major landing route for Calgary International Airport? Yes, the location is a major winter hot spot for Calgary fly fishers as trout are drawn to winter in the warm, bio-mass filled water. But the ambiance of 6 lanes of traffic, overhead airliners, and competition for part of the 150m of water with 3 or 4 other fishermen makes this a little less than desirable. But, alas, it is open water in our harsh winter.

International destinations can offer some incredible fish, no question. But is the method of fishing worth the travel time and expense if it isn't the style of fishing you love? Will you find fulfillment, as a dry fly fisher, if you arrive in Argentina or Chile to constant, cold, howling winds to find that you must chuck streamers to intercept migratory brown trout? Is that really what you want to do? If you love chucking streamers and you have longed to travel to New Zealand, only to find that you spook every trout seen with the plop of your streamer landing on the water, is that fulfillment? If you arrive at some hotspot lake and have to chuck streamers into a massive headwind, to intercept large, spawning or pre-spawn rainbows, with the knowledge that you are targeting trout at that time in their life cycle and enduring brutal conditions to do so - is it worth it?

Obviously, these are all simple observations. Amelia & I enjoy certain facets of fly fishing far more than some, a little more than others. There are times of the year where all we want to do is cast streamers for aggressive spring browns, dry flies, pursue sight fishing, or watch a bobber during the chironomid hatch. Sight nymphing can be exceptional on many of our waters. Sight fishing the 6" shallows of alpine lakes can be wonderful. There are times and conditions that we have disdain for certain methods, enduring certain conditions, or given locations.

To bring the opening narrative of our day sight fishing a lake near Rocky Mountain House to its conclusion, we knew who one of the people in the pontoon boat was. Recently, a friend of ours was speaking to him on the phone and this person rambled on about how he had out fished us 12 to 2 that day. My friend tried to get him to understand the difference in our approach to fishing, but the bottom line to this person was the end result, the number of fish caught. How sad, yet this furthers my point - do you derive more true enjoyment from the end result or from comparing yourself to others and their (+/-) success by comparison, or do you find greater enjoyment in how you are fishing, what you are doing, and why you are doing it the way you enjoy?
The reason that Amelia & I love New Zealand is quite simple: large, spooky, solitary brown trout in as remote locations as you want to find them in. We walk 15 to 25km a day to try to get as far away from people as possible - hiking up chutes, massive boulders, rock gardens, etc - all in a beautiful rain forest. In the end, we're footloose and fancy free to fish for exceptional browns. It isn't for everyone and I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. But those who love it should give it a go.

When you find yourself having a great deal of success as a fly fisher, you look for other ways to enjoy your time. If it is a step backwards in numbers caught, so be it, but you are enjoying your time for yourself. Isn't that the point of going fishing - to enjoy what you enjoy based on you? I simply encourage all fishermen to not worry about what success others may or may not be having. Yes, some may catch more fish than you one day, but ask yourself if you would enjoy fishing how they are fishing. If you are a new fly fisher, give it a try. If you find success and enjoy doing the particular method, go for it! If you find success and catch all sorts of fish but find it boring, mundane, repetitive, or simply don't like it - find a different way to catch fish in given conditions. If you are an experienced fly fisher who has caught plenty of trout and don't fish certain methods as you dislike them, good for you - the point is to enjoy our time on the water.

The point to this article is simple, I encourage everyone, regardless of skill level or years of experience, to discover what you enjoy or don't. Try the given methods, locations, destinations, styles, and fish in a variety of weather conditions. There are pros and cons to each (a snowy, spring day on the Bow will leave you with the river to yourself and some good fishing but be brutally cold and windy). Discover what you like and don't like for yourself and apply it to your fishing. Remain open to what you don't like and try to find ways around it. If you don't like watching a bobber on a lake but have friends that love to fish lakes, find new ways of fishing with success so that you can enjoy time with friends even though you don't like sitting, doing nothing on a lake. If you love lakes and hate streams, discover new ways to enjoy streams if your friends want to fish a day with you on a stream. Remain open to the ideas of fishing in locations or conditions you don't like while spending the bulk of your time doing what you love most. When someone posts photos or brags about a large fish caught in some far off destination, using methods or enduring conditions you don't like, enjoy the story of excitement for that person. You might have lingering feelings about whether that person truly enjoyed the entirety of the experience but that's best left to that individual to determine. Listen to the tales and learn something from it. Sure, there might be big rainbows and browns, but if you know you wouldn't enjoy the scenario to catch them, what is the point? Go, try new things, learn whether or not you enjoy them based on your parameters. If you don't - so be it - you don't have to do it again. Be flexible, be adventurous, and leave the comparisons at the door because they don't mean a thing to anybody but you.

FlyMaxFilms

Fly Max Films AnnouncesNew Fly Fishing Television Series on WFN & WFNHD!

TORONTO - Fly Max Films, a Canadian production company in a long-term strategic partnership with The Canadian Fly Fisher Magazine, announced a ground-breaking new television series today dubbed “Fly Max TV”, set to debut on WFN: World Fishing Network this Boxing Day, December 26th at 7:00pm EST.

Fly Max TV Season 1 shatters the conventional fishing TV show mold! With over 30 hosts and a total of 11 Canadian and 2 international fly fishing destinations formatted into 13 half-hour episodes. The unique “less-talk, more fishing” approach is sure to give viewers more of what they want with no added fluff. During Fly Max TV Season 1, viewers will follow the Fly Max Films crew on a chase for over 20 different species of freshwater fish on the fly! Never before has so much variety been showcased on a fly fishing TV show in a single season. Best of all, Fly Max TV Season 1 is filmed in stunning full 1080HD!

“After nearly two years of production, we’re very excited to go to air with Fly Max TV in Canada and the US! We are out to redefine perceptions of fly fishing, and we believe we’ve got the right product to do it!” say Nick Pujic and Paul Langford, Executive Producers. “It doesn't matter if you've fly fished before or not, or if you have fished period, once you watch Fly Max TV you will want to go!"

Unlike most made-for-television shows, Fly Max TV is engineered to spark new interest in fly fishing while breaking down old misconceptions through a fast paced style that is fun and exciting to watch. It's all about the fishing and the passion that drives anglers to fish, without the typical host-oriented filler.

With Fly Max TV a cornerstone in a long-term strategic partnership with Fly Max Films, the addition of television programming to The Canadian Fly Fisher Magazine’s existing media platforms is significant, entrenching the publishing company as the clear cross-platform media leader in the Canadian fly fishing industry. Fly Max TV will reach an estimated 5 million households in Canada on WFN and an additional 15 million households in the United States on WFN & WFNHD.

For more information about Fly Max Films, or to see previews of Fly Max TV Season 1, please visit www.FlyMaxFilms.com

Be sure to tune in to WFN & WFNHD on Friday, December 26th at 7:00pm EST for the World Premiere of Fly Max TV!

About WFNWFN: World Fishing Network is Canada’s only 24/7 network dedicated to all segments of fishing with programming that covers instruction, tips, tournaments, travel, food, boating, outdoor lifestyle and more. WFN’s coverage includes a selection of the best international series and the most diverse species coverage of any outdoor network. WFN was originally launched in December 2005 as North America’s first channel dedicated to covering every aspect of the angling and sport fishing industry. WFN is distributed across Canada and is available in the United States on Verizon, FiOS and DISH Network.
WFN is online at www.wfn.tv

Fortress Lake Sight Fishing

Embedded into the blog at the page header is a short video on sight fishing for large brook trout at Fortress Lake. We invite you to see it in HD by clicking the link below:

http://vimeo.com/2526902?pg=embed&sec=2526902&hd=1

The sight fishing at Fortress can be wonderful at many points of the season, offering anglers the chance to pursue some of the largest brook trout of the year within sight casting range. If interested in a trip, please email us at info@fortresslake.com

Cheers!

NZ '08 Reflections

What can be said that has not been written about New Zealand before? At this point all we can do is share the stories of our trip, the tales of the fish or the very few that got away. This year's trip was a tale of weather, water, and some quite good fly fishing. With the exception of one river we fished, the results were quite good, not great, but consistent and impressive. Over the course of the next couple of months we'll begin to assemble photo essays of our month in New Zealand and finally get to sharing our 2008 season at Fortress Lake and fly fishing in Alberta.

Looking back at the past 12 months, it's incredible where we've been blessed to fish and how often we've been able to do so. We look forward to sharing moments in time with you, not by days but by the moments. There were many moments that we shared together and we hope that by sharing them on this site with you, you can enjoy them for what they are. The fact that we live in a world with such moments available is a treasure. We'll begin sharing in the coming days.

Dave & Amelia Jensen

Reg Denny passes

While away, Reg Denny of Denny's fly shop in Edmonton passed. This passing received some news on internet forums and in circles in Edmonton, but few in the Calgary area mentioned much about him. I recall going to the small, out of the way strip mall in NE Edmonton as a kid to load up on tying materials. It was a pain for us southside folks to get to the store, but once there we were in fly fishing and tying heaven. No shop in Calgary even today comes close to having what Denny's had 25 years ago in their shop. No offense to any shop in Alberta, but Denny's of the 90's could easily wipe the floor with their current stock and knowledge of their products. It was a shrine.
We received the following email while we were away in New Zealand and it reflects well on Reg's passing:
"Hi Dave & Amelia
You may have already heard. We don't generally follow any fly fishing forums, so we were sad to hear today from Deb Denny that Reg had passed away Nov. 22/08 at age 79. We were so privileged to be tutored and mentored by Reg. Reg was truly the fellow who inspired our passion for fly fishing and fly tying. On days when fishing is slow, we still find ourselves searching our memories for little gems of info dropped in passing during conversations with Reg,and generally, if we search long and hard, we'll pull out one of his patterns from the corner of a box and begin catching fish. Reg's contributions to the fly fishing and tying community, not only in Edmonton but throughout Western Canada and United States were many. Reg was a talented fly fisher and tyer, also an author of Fly tying pattern books and a regular contributor of articles to fly fishing magazines. He was an excellent tying instructor, both at his Denny's Fly Fishing Shop and at the Conclaves of the Federation of Fly Fishers. He developed many successful patterns and spent many hours on streams and lakes studying the entomology of various insects and their many forms. Reg was a true gentleman. Given his great knowledge and ability, his humility was so admirable. One really had to listen to hear the nuggets of fishing and tying knowledge that he planted during his tying courses and conversations. He mentored many fly fishers and tyers in his lifetime, including those in his family. His children have all learned well at their father's knee and now a new generation of grandchildren are carrying on the art form. Our sincere condolences to his family. Ann & Phil Cadrin - Longview, Alberta"

Borat - Oooops!

For a couple of years I've had people tell me that I had to watch the movie Borat. I'd seen the dvd at the video store and thought it looked silly or dumb, more in the sense of Will Ferrell, I don't much care for his style. But, there Amelia & I were at 2 am, with the lights turned low on the NZ Air 777 flight to Auckland from Vancouver. We were buzzed up on our way to fish for a month for the big browns again and wide awake. We were 2 of about a dozen awake on a jammed airliner. Scrolling through the movies, Borat pops up. Big mistake. We synched our little tv screens to play the movie and away AJ & I went. 5 minutes into the movie the person beside AJ was awake, AJ shaking uncontrollably in her seat. 10 minutes into the movie we were sure we'd get reported to NZA staff. My face was purple, my wife beside me as red as any time in our 12 years together. Eyes and ears popping from stifled laughter, we spent the next 90 minutes waking up the neighbours. Sufficed to say that watching Borat from 2 to 3:30 am in a stuffed jet isn't the way to make friends. Just a thought. Oh, and if you have any kind of funny bone, Borat might be worth a watch. That is, if you've not actually seen the show. We're a little late on the uptake on these things.