A perfect Evening

It's amazing how the first hour on a quiet trout stream takes over your mind on days we need it and allow it. In the first hour from stepping out the car door, slipping into waders, and sliding the rod together, to finding the first riser, something happens in our minds that removes any trepid thought. Perspective is indeed not always found, but removal from one reality to another allows us to return without the previous thoughts and emotions, ready to revisit what requires attention. Summer evenings, indeed.

When business collides with pleasure

The plan was simple enough. Fish. The trouble was the planning to head into Fortress Lake, waiting for ice to shed, our schedules completely topsy turvey the past week. I'd set in stone that I was fishing Wednesday. I found myself staring into the computer screen, emails coming in. We're also in the process of selling our house and there has been a ton of activity on it, and we were on call for the afternoon. But, the clouds were rolling in. Clouds meant hatches. Good hatches. I knew that I could go fishing and likely get called home before I cast, or stay home and never know. To the river.
Within 30 minutes I managed to drive to a favorite bank, walk down and across, and came upon two browns cycling a flat between two submerged boulders 15 yards apart. The fish were only about 10 feet apart. The plan was simple - time the cycle to get in position at the tailout to work the lower fish before it came back to the tailout. A gimmie, really, as far as trout go. I pulled line from the reel and was flipping it out to cast when the phone began ringing. Bugger. Naturally it was tucked in my pant pocket, under my waders. My wader belt was tucked under my pack belt. In the process of scrambling to get to my phone, I dropped my rod in the water at the exact time the lower trout rose literally 5 feet from my left knee, and the other fish rose about 15 feet away, up from my right knee. I got the call and the house is moving, but the fish! The fish were gone. They never came back.
A cell came in quickly and the hatch literally stopped. But there were two fish cycling up on another flat 100 yards up the bank. I walked up and followed them upstream as they finished the last of the duns on the water. I tried to get into position before they reached the head of the run and cycled down, but couldn't. I watched their last rises for the hatch, and they simply stopped feeding on top. I never saw them again.
Amelia again called to let me know that we'd have to get together with our realtor sooner than planned. I had an hour. I walked up and across the river. Luckily, the hatch was coming off in droves on the next bank and came upon a nice brown going to town. Ahhh, another gimmie. This time, I played the smart guy, tucking the phone in my waders' front pouch, leaving it open. No doubt what would happen. And it did. I cast 3 casts and hooked up. As I hooked up and the fish took its first run, the phone rang again. Beautiful. I tucked the phone to my ear and talked to Amelia for a moment, not really worried about whatever was going to happen as the exciting part was already accomplished. But, for kicks I told her I was hooked up. And, as I positioned the phone to talk as she had an update, I jammed the reel knob into my pack harness as the fish bolted, snapping the tippet.
I've not ever had a tele in my pocket while fishing. I only had it with me to deal with selling our house. If you are on the Red Deer R this summer and you hear a phone ring, it won't be mine. Never again.

Red Deer R Update

As an fyi, the Red Deer R is fishing relatively well this opening 10 days. The river is producing fish, there are some sporadic hatches, and fish sizes are varying a great deal. It has been a pleasant 10 days of fishing the river, certainly, with some good days, some shut down days, and several in between days where the fishing occurs in spurts. Here are a few shots from Monday's fishing:

Sundre Residents leery of town flooding

SUNDRE — Hundreds of people from Sundre and beyond marched through town on Sunday afternoon in support of efforts to divert the Red Deer River before it makes another charge up Main Street.
Packing signs and spades, people rallied at the shores of the river and marched up the street to the hotel, chanting, “Get us a permit.”
There, they heard from retired MP Myron Thompson and other members of Save Our Sundre, a group organized earlier this year to lobby federal and provincial governments for permission to move the river back to an older channel before it chews its way through homes and businesses along its west banks.
Holding his shovel high, Calgary resident Louis Melanson, who owns a lot in Riverside RV Park, said his place will be among the first to go if the river floods this year.
“I want to make sure that something happens that we do fix the river, because we don’t want to lose our town,” said Melanson.
The Red Deer River has churned closer to homes and businesses every spring since 2005, when heavy flooding swamped parts of the town and dramatically changed the river’s course, said rancher Cy Newsham, whose family has lived along the river for the past 115 years.
He took part in studies on the river from 1972 until 1981, when the Dickson Dam was built, and is a member of the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance.
“It’s a fast-moving mountain stream that floods depending on weather conditions and it has a history of many different years that goes back to 1915, when it had a flood that tore out the bridges and broke the Great West Logging Company.”
It flooded again for four years straight in the 1950s and the town has been flooded several times since then, said Newsham.
There’s so much snow in the watershed right now, one heavy rainfall would make the 2005 flood look “like a squirt from a water pistol,” said Newsham.
A simple and fairly inexpensive solution has been on the table for years, said SOS member Paddy Munro. Promises have been made, but a long-term solution has not materialized, he said.
“We’ve had quite a battle here, trying to get things figured out and moving.”
Sundre’s biggest obstacle has been getting all the permits it needs from various levels of government, including Fisheries and Oceans Canada and various provincial departments, including environment, public lands and culture.
MLA Ty Lund has indicated his support for SOS’s plans and there are indications that the province will fast track the permitting process as much as possible, said Munro.
“The indications are that the provincial people and the federal people are going to step up to the plate. If they don’t, there’s going to be a picnic with Ed (Premier Stelmach) at the fountains in Edmonton,” he said.
Provided permits and money can be acquired, SOS hopes to build up and armour the riverbank right next to town this fall, he said.
“The SOS group just wants to see a properly engineered and constructed riverbank protection project. We want it done in a tight time frame at a competitive price. It’s not rocket science. It’s not too much to ask.”
He encouraged the group to pressure their elected officials, particularly Mountain View County, for help getting a project underway.
While the Sundre group is working on diverting the river to its older channel, Mountain View County is working now on stabilizing banks upstream. The stabilization project needs fewer permits because the work is being done at the edge of the river rather than in the water, said Reeve Al Kemmere.
The County has committed more than $600,000 for the bank stabilization project, said Kemmere.
bkossowan@reddeeradvocate.com

Spring Alberta Fisheries Round Table Minutes

Please see the link below:
http://srd.alberta.ca/fishwildlife/fishingalberta/albertafisheriesroundtable.aspx

Banff Legacy Trail

125TH Anniversary Project Will Safely Link Canmore to Banff, Lake Louise and Beyond

BANFF, ALBERTA, May 19, 2009--The Honourable Jim Prentice, Canada’s Environment Minister, Minister responsible for Parks Canada and Minister responsible for Southern Alberta, today announced the creation of the Banff Legacy Trail, a multi-use non-motorized recreation trail through Banff National Park of Canada. “The Government of Canada is pleased to announce the creation of the Banff Legacy Trail – a new multi-use recreation trail that will be completed in time to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the creation of Banff National Park in 2010,” said Minister Prentice. “This trail will provide Canadians and visitors from around the world a safe, spectacularly scenic and environmentally friendly way to link mountain communities.” Designed to incorporate scenic views and run primarily along the Trans-Canada Highway right-of-way and wildlife fence, the hard-surfaced trail will form part of the Trans-Canada Trail network. The trail will be a non-motorized multi-use recreational trail suitable for activities such as walking, bicycling and in-line skating, and will enable users to safely travel from Canmore to Lake Louise and beyond on a combination of trails and parkways.
This new segment of the Trans-Canada Trail provides residents as well as Canadian and foreign visitors with a unique opportunity to experience the area’s world-famous Rocky Mountains. "This announcement represents a great opportunity for communities in our Wild Rose riding to enhance tourism, recreation and pure enjoyment of our great outdoors in this beautiful part of the country," said Blake Richards, Member of Parliament for Wild Rose. "I know this announcement today represents the culmination of a lot of hard work by community residents who have long sought this investment, and I am pleased that our government is able to deliver with this level of support for a very worthwhile project."
"The Banff Legacy Trail will allow outdoor enthusiasts to explore the majestic Rocky Mountains while respecting an environment that attracts millions of visitors to Alberta each year," said Cindy Ady, Minister of Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation. "Trails help encourage healthy, active lifestyles and help foster an appreciation of our natural world. This investment is a great way to mark the 125th anniversary of one of Canada's most cherished spaces." Bridge design and trail layout will be finalized concurrent with completion of an environmental assessment. Trail construction could begin as early as this summer, with bridgework completed by fall 2010.
Minister Prentice recognized the work of the Province of Alberta, as well as the Lands Ajacent to the Town of Banff committee (LATB) and members of the Bow Corridor Regional Mobility Partnership, the towns of Banff and Canmore, the Municipality of Bighorn and the Trans Canada Trail (TCT) and Alberta TrailNet Society for their work on the Banff Legacy Trail concept.
Information:
Michelle Macullo Communications Officer Parks Canada Ph: 403.762.1526

Brown Trout Streams article

http://www.gocanadianrockies.com/Travel/TravelTips/Fish-for-Brown-Trout-Guide-to-Sweet-Streams/?redirect=false&cid=69005_AA&linkid=fishStoriesBtn

The link above gives way to a Travel Alberta web article on Alberta's brown trout streams. Guide Dave Jensen was interviewed as a back grounder to the article.
Cheers

Amelia Jensen featured in Western Sportsman article

The current issue of Western Sportsman features an article by Duane Radford,"The Fair Sex Fishing Guides", featuring women guides. The center spread of the magazine features Amelia & Dave fishing together at Fortress Lake and Amelia with Deanna McLennan on the Red Deer R. It's on store shelves now through end of June:

A Good Day

Amelia & I took a couple of hours to fish by ourselves on the Red Deer R last evening. The trout were on, to say the least. There aren't a ton of browns in the river, but this seems to be a good spring, with trout responding to low and relatively clear waters. This brown took on the dry after a fairly impressive cast to the far bank was well received.

There were more than one along the bank, with another 4 takers in a 50 yard reach. In 2.5 hrs we only fished about 750 yards of river.

We stayed out a little longer last eve as the fishing was steady and quite exciting, all told. It was gorgeous sunset, though the temperature was +4C. Having stood waist deep in water influenced by a foot of snow 2 days ago, we were ready to get into the heated seats and head home.

Guided fly fishing on the Red Deer R right now is $425 for the day (reg is $500), boat total price (not per person), 1 or 2 anglers. http://www.reddeerriver.com/

Cheers!

A Bad Day

There are days when you just shouldn't wake up, that life isn't so rosie, that things just aren't going to go your way. On the walk through the river valley the other day, we stumbled across this photo of a piece of deer. We aren't too sure what happened to the rest of it, but the leg was dangling like a windsock attached to the barbed wire fence. Just remember, if you're having a bad day, it could get worse.

Stoopid is...

Hmmm, see the snow forecast before going to bed, wake to a dump of snow, new forecast says lots more snow, so... let's hit the river and face a headwind all day. Great!

We could have stayed in bed...

Remember, no overnight camping tonight...Bob either not feeling the rope burn or delirious to be rowing...
The trestle on a beautiful day on the water. A really pretty day to be out.

Someone caught this. Either Bob or Brian. I rowed to keep my hands warm. I mean, I sacrificed a day off, a day of personal fishing time to make sure my friends enjoyed their day thoroughly. ;)

It's going to be cold and slow a day or two yet!

More snow on the way yet!

Heavy Snowfall Warning
Total accumulations 20 to 40 centimetres of snow are expected.
Snow continues to fall across west central Alberta with a few reports of snowfall accumulations of 15 to 20 centimetres as of 2 PM. Snow will intensify tonight as a pacific disturbance moves into the province overnight. As the system continues eastward snow will begin to taper off early Tuesday morning. Total snowfall amounts are expected to be in the 20 to 40 centimetre range with the heaviest amounts in the foothills areas

Snow Day :)

Well after being tied up for the majority of the long weekend. We were determined to fish monday come rain or shine. Well we were definately suprised when we awoke to a layer of fresh snow.


Headed out to a new section of water and had a good day with a few real nice fish coming to hand. Had a cool experiance with a smaller bull trout that was caught today. As we went to remove our streamer we were shocked to find a 4" fish sticking out of his mouth. Neat :)





Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable long weekend :)

Byron

More dry fly fun

It took all day, but a big set of lips finally showed. And with a fine set of lips, the battle was on. Amelia won this go round.

AJ & DJ in a happy moment

A nice head shot of the 25+" male

Always time for a smile with a trout. :)

Again, join us on the Red Deer, through May 24. $400 for the guide boat. We're back on the water today but you can email us info@flyfishalberta.com

Opening Day RDR

It was a good day to be out on the river again. Normally don't share guest photos but we moved a few nice browns on the dry fly to start the season. Remember, join us to float the Red Deer River until May 24, $400 for the guide boat (1 or 2 anglers).

So you want to be a guide?

In the current issue of Canadian Fly Fisher Magazine, in stores now, Dave Jensen explores the little things that happen as a guide goes about the day to day hosting of guests, and the psychological aspects of the various quirks that guests display. The first of a three part series, "So, you want to be a guide?" Look for it, out now.

It's that day

Every year there is a day sometime earlier in the season that really kicks things into gear for bookings and inquiries. Today is that day. While our schedule is filling for the season with previous bookings, today the tele has been off the hook and a full email box with requests since 7:30 am. Just to let you know, if you've emailed or called and had to leave a message, we're definitely getting to your email or message, we're just trying to keep up. So, thank you all that have inquired, you are important to us, and we look forward to hosting your fly fishing trip this season!
Dave & Amelia Jensen and staff,
Fly Fish Alberta & Fortress Lake Retreat

A few shots

A few shots from the past couple of days:

A nice take and a good fight - the brown comes to hand:

An approaching storm, a few bugs on the water and a riser presents:

A sunnier moment and a good fish for this small water:

Sending Sally home:

Interesting weather blog

Friends of Amelia, a local central Alberta couple hosts a blog with some neat photos, sat images, weather fact type of stuff. It's worth a look in as there are many good photos and thoughts.
http://blog.boomerphoto.com/

Things that hit stoneflies

Another day of exploring tiny, forested spring creeks. Well, 1/2 a day. We marched for 3 hours through an old series of beaver ponds, through spruce and pine forests, with a keen eye out for any sign of life, movement of a dark shadow. None was found. Bugger. It isn't until it's time to walk back to the car that you realize that you've walked across 3 quarters and 2 range roads, now only to have to pick a line and walk the lines proper to not trespass, meaning the hypotenuse just walked becomes simple math of total distance of height + length to get back.
After the stroll through the countryside, which included only seeing one car go by on quite out of the way roads, turning out to be friends of ours that live a long way from where we were. Yet, there they were driving, taking photos of random nature things, and there we were, sweaty, geared up in waders, carrying rods still in their tubes, nowhere near any kind of water walking a Twp road. Naturally, we were 300m from our car when a likely ride showed up.
After lunch to recover and rehydrate, we made our way back to a creek that we knew held a few fish, then moved on to a favored spring creek later in the day. The surprise of the day wasn't the number of fish on the dry nor how easily they were fooled, it was one pocket of water AJ fished blind, having me yell to her to set the hook for missing the take due to glare. The fight was hard, the fish heavier. The fish was a 24/5" bull, having just taken a stonefly riding the surface. A pleasant fish on a great day of working good browns.

Bow River Launch update

From Michelle @ Bow R Shuttles:

"Except for a few slabs of rotting ice just downstream from the midpoint of the gravel bar at McKinnon Flats, the rest of the gravel bar is now free of ice. Similar to the past couple of years, some caution is needed in deciding which route to take to the water's edge. The gravel is soft in some places, and easy to get stuck in. It was a challenge for one of my clients to get off the gravel bar with his two wheel drive vehicle several days ago.

The ice has melted away completely at the Legacy Island boat launch. However, more silt has been deposited in the "ramp window" that leads from the parking lot to the river's edge.

Kindest regards,
Michelle"

Ironside

Well, we finally managed to get out on Ironside. A year ago, we'd be 2 weeks late, but a cooler, more typical spring is here and we'll take what we can. The day was ssssllloooow when looking around the lake while we were there. We saw 2 fish landed between 7 or 8 others on the water. A few hits and bumps here and there. We stuck it out and landed a few nice fish. Friends called to make sure we were still going to be there when they arrived from Red Deer. The day had been cold, cloudy, sleet, showers, with little sun. Our friends arrive to a clear spell, the wind died, sun came out and the fish turned on for not quite an hour. The working folks got a huge break, so good on them, everyone needs a pleasant surprise like that. :)

American Angler Magazine article

IN OUR MAY/JUNE AMERICAN ANGLER ISSUE...
Angling on the Edge
In this month's cover story, writer Dave Jensen takes you streamside for a closer look at strategies and tactics to land big brown trout. The secret? Concentrate on stream edges, and you'll consistently find more trophy-size browns.

The current issue of American Angler is in stores now.

Central Alberta Lakes Update - today's drive around

Alright, today we did the big drive to help everyone out. No intention of fishing the lakes but wanted to give everyone out there an idea of where the main lakes are at with ice off. So, your weekend planning can take the follwing into account:
Fiesta Lake - They were putting the new floating dock in so we don't have to tippy-toe across the swamp. Should be in by the wkd.
As per Fiesta Lake - 1/5 ice off. Should go quite quickly now, especially with wind from the unsettled weather forecast.

Beaver - The N bay is opening and the area around the aerator is open. Past that the SW corner is likely next. The S & SE are going to be a little while longer. Maybe more water by the wkd.

Mitchell - good to go really. 1/3 of the ice remains but it's slushy and dark. By the wkd the rest should be off.

Ironside - 1/3 the ice is gone. The other 2/3 is right in the middle of the lake. It'll be after the wkd that the ice is completely gone but in the meantime the open water could hold 3 or 4 pontoons. Get there early on Sat am if you want a seat. If there's not enough room, please go elsewhere as moving around will be a bit of a chore with any more.

Hope that helps. Happy planning for the wkd!

Dave & Amelia

Alberta Wilderness Association May / June events

AWA BACKPACK TRIP
Saturday May 23 – Monday May 25 (2 nights)Lakeland Backpack With Aaron Davies
Lakeland Provincial Park and Recreation Area Lakeland Provincial Park, 2.5 hours east of Edmonton, contains 12 major lakes, and some of our province's finest old growth forests. Rarities in Alberta's Boreal Forest region, old growth forests are nature's museum, a genetic storage bank to continue biodiversity. Click here to read more

AWA BUS TRIP
Tuesday June 9Parkland and Grassland Mini Bus TourJoin us on a driving tour through Alberta's Parkland and Grasslands Natural Regions, including stops at:
TK Ranch
Little Fish Lake
Rumsey Natural Area
Click here to read more

AWA DAY HIKES
Thursday June 25Porcupine Hills Hike With Vivian Pharis
Lying between the mountains and the prairies, this area is unique for its mixture of Rocky Mountain, Parkland and Grassland Natural Regions. This hike meanders up the hills through grasses sprinkled with wildflowers, passing through thickets of Douglas fir and aspen. From the west escarpment of Trout Creek Basin are gorgeous views west to the Whaleback and Livingstone Ranges. Ruffed and sharptailed grouse are common and you might spot wild turkeys and deer. Click here to read more

MUSIC FOR THE WILD #2
Saturday, May 30, 2009, CalgaryFeaturing CHARLIE EWING
cold roots & blues, eclectic folk and stripped-down pop
Location: AWA Office, 455 – 12 St. NW, CalgaryTime: 7:00 p.m
Click here to read more

INTERNATIONAL ECO-CONFERENCE
May 7-9, 2009University of CalgaryCalgary
Building Bridges, Crossing Boundaries.
Click here to read more

Defining success

There are days when you get to redefine what success is. Yesterday we were skunked. Nothing so much as close to our flies. But that's not the story. Recently, we've given up the usual known spots, the ones where we go and the fishing is a known rhythm. The past 2 weeks we've gone exploring a little bit. We've had a good run of finding some neat spots and a couple of real gems. Yesterday we headed out, walked a mile in to a stream. We wanted to check out a tiny little tributary to that stream and see what we could see. At the start of the day I told Amelia the day would either be boom or bust. After thinking a minute I offered a possibility of maybe something down the middle. We walked up the main stream to where the tiny spring creek came in.

It looked perfect, though a little small for some. Not for us. We walked a little upstream and found the first beaverdam. Deep, crystal clear, blue - green water so typical of spring creeks in our area. We watched a spell and decided to slowly walk upstream. After 20 minutes we covered 100m of shoreline, looking into the depths. Finally, we saw a 25 - 27", FAT male brown cruising downstream, past us. We were in heavy cover and had no chance to cast and watched it swim away. We continued up. We got to the head of the pond and heard a wake of a rise. And again. So, we walked down and around and did the run over again. Amelia got on the other side of the pond where we could cast, I set up the video camera just in case. A smaller trout rose a couple of times and the wind picked up - that was that. No fish.

We moved upstream on the tiny trickle No water was more than waist deep all the way up, and we methodically walked and looked for 5km. No wintering habitat, no fish. So be it.

Was the day a bust? No. We certainly found a place to go try a hand at a 7 pound brown. Perhaps a couple of smaller ones. Was it a great day? For fishing, no. For finding a new spot, for sighting fish in a crystal clear pond, yes. Was it a successful day? You bet. I was able to give this one a 2 out of 10 rating on my map of places to visit. A low rating, but a place to keep in the back of my mind to visit on a day when conditions will be good, with a few bugs to entice the fish to the surface... maybe even a late evening mouse event. Will I flock to the creek every week? No. That's why it is on my map with a low rating. Last week's spring creeks are on my map with a high rating - a place to go any old time to enjoy some good fish. All are on the map for different reasons, each representative of a successful recky tour, with a different notation of what to expect.

Catch Magazine

The latest issue of Catch Magazine is now available:
http://www.catchmagazine.net/

Alberta a-la New Zealand

Well, with time to ourselves once more, we decided to poke around looking for other hidden spring creeks today. Boy, did we find one. Not a ton of fish, and we didn't catch much of the bigger ones we saw, but for another day we walked softly up a tiny creek for a few miles. At one point we were going to turn around as the water was skinny and not much happening, but we noticed a dead 25" male brown under a branch, likely left over from last fall's spawn. Hmmm. We kept heading up. We only saw 2 more trout in the 3/4 mile after that. The first was a male that held on the wrong side of an edge of a shadow. Amelia just gave me the rod and told me to prospect the water. As we switched hands and took a couple of awkward steps, a massive male brown jolted and headed upstream under the only root mass. It was in the 28 - 31" range and heavy. For the size of both the creek and the trout, it was like seeing my 9.5 pound, 34" brown in New Zealand. The next trout seen was a female holding tight to a left-over weed patch from last year. We saw it only when across from it, her tail stiff and body curved, ready to bolt, which she did the second we cast. A 22", skinny female. Some incentive here to return. Which we will. :)

Prior that we were able to sight fish the crystal clear waters to a variety of browns in the 14 to 19" range. Nothing heavy but some nice trout certainly. The peak of it was a little riffle that had a couple of browns popping to stones. Just when we thought we'd tagged the only two in the run, another came. Then another. And another. And 2 more to boot. It was a wonderful spot for lunch, for sighting, and hooking too.
Oh, and if you're wondering where we are fishing, I've copied the lat/long for you here:

I guess that copy paste didn't work so well. Ah well. ;)

Have a great weekend everybody.

DJ / AJ.

Don't forget these critters

If you're headed out this weekend, don't forget these little critters. Skwala stones are out and about and chances are they'll be on the water you're going to fish. It's mid hatch on many streams and the weather hasn't been great, but they'll produce for you if you time it right and hit the right water.