Run Forest Run

This defenseless sedge was travelling across Twin Lakes in Manitoba a few weeks ago. He was a tasty morsel for a Tiger. Grrrrrrrrrr, I mean burp!

More Brown Drake Action

Last Night the brown drake hatch was light although there were lots of spinners hovering above the water in places. There was very little surface action but, ...two nights ago the brown drake hatch was decent. Here is Amelia hooking into a nice brown that was having a great feast on brown drakes in about 5 inches of water. A perfect cast, pop, fish on! Yahooo!

Another evening

A fun night out on the water with several nice trout worked. Here's Bob with the 40 cast gimmie.

City Slicker

You got to love it when everything comes together. Been chasing this fish for two weeks now. But it always seems to find a way to elude us. Be it there too late, striaghtened hooks ;) or no bugs or my favorite inflatable tubes!! But last night I got the last laugh. #16 caddis and one heck of a fight later this hawg posed for a few pics. Before the night was done I managed to land another in the same flat. A great evening.

Grounded

Normally, you'll see one or two crows giving a hawk or eagle a hard time as they fly through the air. Last night we watched as an eagle contemplated the next move as nearly a dozen crows waited. "C'mon, try it", they seemed to be taunting. Alas, the young eagle simply bided its time, licking its wounds, not looking for any more.

National Recreational Fisheries Awards - Nomination Process

The National Recreational Fisheries Award nomination process is ongoing and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) invites the public to submit nominations at any time during the year.

More at the link:
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/peches-fisheries/rec/rfa-ppr/process-processus-eng.htm

Bear and a bridge

If you've driven the new section of highway east of Golden, BC, you're thankful for the new road design and ease of travel compared to the old route through the twisting, winding hills. Apparently there was also a curious onlooker who attempted the new crossing. These photos were forwarded to us today. It's kind of curious that this is apparently near Golden on the new route, but the lake in the background of photo #1 makes one wonder. Neat shots, regardless.

2009 Alberta Hopper Forecast

Click on the link above to see the map. Not a great hopper year for any region, really.

2 hours - at Fortress Lake

We were set to fly home for a couple of days. Our pilot was coming in to get us in a couple of hours. Chores were all done. The lake was calm. The clouds were coming in on a peaceful late morning. We opted to hit a couple of spots we'd had some fun at over the past few weeks. That streak was continued as we were blessed with a few good trout in short order before returning to hop the plane for the flight out:

Save Sylvan lake

This was forwarded to me by Jason Peck, and is a well thought out website presentation. It's again the issue of too many users, too many people wanting a part of what amounts to the only such lake in a large landbase, offering a non sustainable lifestyle. Who is to blame - gov, developers, etc? The reality is that our way of life in that kind of intensity just isn't sustainable, and someone out there is taking the time to be the voice of reason. Usually, that voice of reason gets to say they told us all so - about 25 years from now. Hopefully things get through to the powers that be as the website only conveys reality end results for high intensity use.
http://savesylvanlake.ca/

Brown Drakes on Father's Day

I love the brown drake hatch on the Red Deer River.  The browns on the RDR love a big meal and today's thick hatch had them on the feed bag! Today it is rainy. The brown drakes were seemingly everywhere on the river late in the morning. The gulls were even chowing down! I was on my own so I decided to put on the gear and started walking along the shore of the Red Deer River in the city.  I found this bruiser brown greedily gulping brown drakes in an eddy. Happy Father's Day.

Bob

A Great Combination

Happy Father's Day Everybody!

Karen and I hit a local pothole lake yesterday afternoon. It was a perfect 4 hours. Partly cloudy, 20C and a small chop on the lake. It was a the right conditions to hang a leech and chromie under a strike indicator.  The chromie is about 25 cm below the leech. The action was continuous. The interesting thing for the day was experimenting with depth. We have learned that the most important factor in fishing lakes is depth and not the pattern. Today the smallish fish hit when the strike indicator was 5 feet above the leech. When the indicator was adjusted to 8 to 9 feet, we were into the larger fish. It was about 50% strikes on the leech and 50% of the strikes on the chromie.

Bob

Glenn's Leech

Chromie

Patterson Lake, Manitoba

A must stop when you visit the Parkland Region of Manitoba is Patterson Lake. Again Patterson is a FLIPPR Lake.  

http://www.flippr.ca/

Patterson Lake is located about 60 km from Russell. The lake is about 3 km long and 1 km wide. There is a campground complete with power. It's cheap to camp there at $15 a night or $300 for the season.  The lake allows electric motors only. Take spare batteries. You are going to need them! Patterson Lake contains trophy rainbow and brown trout. There was talk at the Patterson Lake camp area that a 30 inch brown will probably be caught there this year. I believe it after Karen and I spent two days there sampling the fishing. I would recommend taking a fish finder when you go, not to locate fish but to find any underwater structure. The lake is about 25 feet at its deepest spot.We hit Patterson on two very hot days. The surface temperature rose from 59 degrees farenheight to 62 degrees farenheight while we were there. Luckily there is enough depth for the fish to find cool water.

It took Karen and I a bit to get to know the lake. We saw chronomid shucks on the lake and after locating a potential spot to fish them, we had our tried and true (at Twin lakes the day before) ice cream cone black and red chronomid on. 

It didn't take long to catch a smallish brown of about 16 inches with our chronomids. Soon after, a true trophy brown caused the strick indicator to dip under the surface. This bruiser estimated at close to 7 pounds headed for some wood. Luckily he didn't rub the chronomid off. After an excellent fight. Karen netted the 26 inch plus brown. We were both quite excited.

A 26 inch Patterson Lake brown.

We soon set up in another potential location and again fished chronomids. We were into rainbows that were consistently in the 20 inch range. They were all acrobatic and fiesty.

In the early afternoon we saw several risers. We tied boatman on an intermediate sinking line. In the next 30 minutes we had 3 hook ups, all rainbows. These rainbows put you into your backing in seconds. Karen was holding her 6 weight Helios with both hands. I was snapping pictures and enjoying the show.

Karen fighting another acrobatic rainbow.

A 21 inch rainbow caught on a water boatman.

By 4 p.m. the fishing slowed. We has a great day and our second battery was just about spent. Time to head for the dock! 

We drove back to Russell. We stayed at the Russell Inn. It was clean 

and quiet with an excellent restaurant attached to the motel.

We also spent the next day at Patterson. It was hot and the fishing was slow. We still managed 4 more fish, two more browns that were quite impressive. Again chronomid fishing was our ticket to the action. From conversations with the regulars in the parking lot, this lake does not give up its fish easily. But it is definitely worth the time to try!

If I was to recommend when to hit Patterson Lake or any of the lakes in Manitoba's Parkland Region, plan on the last weekend in May, early June and mid September onwards.

Take time to go to Bob Sheedy's web page:

http://www.mwflyfishing.net/

I have never met Bob, but you can learn a lot about the Parkland Region of Manitoba from his web site.

Karen and I had the opportunity to meet Andrew, a past Fly Fish Alberta customer. It was nice meeting you Andrew. See you in Alberta in July and  of course out at Fortress Lake Lodge.

Bob and Karen Vanderwater

A cool picture. The light on this big brown's snout is neat!

Another bruiser brown that gave a great fight.

Put a Tiger in Your Tank: The Parkland of Manitoba

Karen and I decided to return to the Parkland Region of Manitoba again this year. Just the two of us this time. Dave is at Fortress and Amelia is busy in the front country guiding and handling all the logistics. Well, Friday at 6 p.m. we hit the road. We loaded our new Jetta station wagon for the big run across the prairie. Tiki and Pinball road shot gun while Karen and I traded off on the driving. We were like colts, quite excited. We hit Saskatoon at 11:30 p.m., went to Tim's, added $30 bucks in diesel and set our sights on Twin Lakes, just outside of Roblin. We stopped for a 3 hour nap just outside of Yorkton. After our snooze, we were getting our Conservation Licences at the Co-op in Roblin. They are $20 bucks this year. It's a 10 hour drive to the lake. 

The pram rode on the roof of the Jetta easily.  It took $62 bucks to get to Twin Lakes. Diesel is cheap right now.

We were on the water by 9 a.m. Nobody but us. A quick scan of the lake and we could see risers right next to shore. We figured a damsel migration was in the works. We quickly had small green crystal leeches on and were casting to shore. My second cast hit the water, sunk two seconds and a large tiger hit. The fight was on. That was the start of a great day. We fished with chronomids, leeches, and backswimmers. One tiger was caught on a backswimmer on the surface. Sight fishing is fun and quite challenging. There was a small window to catch tigers on the surface. Its worth switching over!

The Tigers hit the chronomids hard. Karen had to switch to 8 pound fluorocarbon line. It did the trick after two break offs. The tiger trout are so aggressive. They fight incredibly hard. They don't come in without a struggle.

We didn't have any company at the lake until 4 p.m. Lucky us. By then we had already had 30 hook ups. 

Twin Lakes has two distinct lakes that are connected by a small channel. Neither lake is large and there is plenty of marl, holes and wood for the tigers to hang out in. The typical hatches are there. We used our pram but a float tube or pontoon boat will do nicely. There is no camping at Twin Lakes. You have to go back to Roblin and camp at Goose Lake. The fishing at Goose Lake is apparently very good too!

The fishing was a bit slower than our previous visit but the rewards were very high. These are neat fish. There are two more tiger trout lakes that started up last year. They will be excellent by fall. Check the FLIPPR web site for more information.

We also hit Patterson Lake. Patterson is the show case lake of FLIPPR next to Twin Lakes. More about Patterson on the next post!

Tiger trout are a cross between a brook trout and a brown trout. They have neat vermiculations and their colors certainly show off the best of brookies and browns. Apparently their fall colors are quite sensational. The tigers in Twin Lakes are big and fiesty. We have seen tigers as large as 27 inches this year and fat.

A typical Twin Lakes tiger.

Karen is holding the tiger of the trip. It was a big male that was the last fish of the trip. The struggle was fantastic. Karen was shaking once the big boy was netted. It was caught on a size 12 ice cream cone chronomid (black and red).

Nice colors on this mid sized tiger.

Karen always seems to catch the big boys. Two years in a row! What is with that?

Tigers are a neat fish!

Neat Photo Worth Sharing

We just recieved Blue Ribbon Flies newsletter and they had this neat photo, taken by Robert Lowe in Yellowstone County. You don't get to see this sort of thing too often. This Bison calf has a long way to go to fill out and grow up :)

Browns on the Bow

This gorgeous brown came out of a classic bend on the Bow River downstream of the city. I always love those stretches of river that don't disappoint and this day it just so happened that the fellow I was guiding landed the biggest brown trout of his fishing career on this bend. He was all smiles as you can see. It was a good solid strike on the streamer in only 1 .5 feet of water and then a good jump, which really showed his size and we got him landed just as the fly was popping out. Lucky us!

Things caught on my big bobber

From the files of the completely unexpected...

Amelia & I waded the shoreline together last night. That's the key point to this story. Together. I worked one brown trout on a caddis and had some fun. It was a beauty of an evening. A perfect sunset, no boats, no wind, a little cloud, a few bugs.


We crossed and waded up the next bank. Alas, the evening would be cut short. We noted a couple of people walking downstream toward us on the bank. We tried to cover as much water looking for risers up the bank before these people trampled on the bank and spooked them for the night. We tried to see if they were fishing or just bird watching. They got closer and it was fairly obvious in short order that it was a couple of young gals who'd had a few beers. They'd run into an unfortunate stick with their inflatable raft and had been hiking out in their bikinis, having covered themselves a little with their life jackets and silky skirts. No doubt their flip flops really helped them as they hiked the 2 miles of muddy shoreline to where we were. They asked how far they were to getting out and we said 3 miles, unless they wanted a ride. AJ & I had come together from separate directions and had 2 cars at the access point, which was just 1/2 mile downstream. I offered that Amelia go home and get supper ready while I drove the nice, tipsy girls back to their car, but it was suggested that things might transpire in an opposite manner. Sorry, guys, maybe one of you should have been there. Anyway, I was able to convince Amelia to take a photo of their bobber cooler. I held it up at an angle that you could get a good angle to see what I was seeing... yeah... it was a red and white bobber.

What else would a guy be looking at, right?

Fortress Lake beauty

Guest Dave Roberts plays a very nice fish at Fortress Lake on a beautiful afternoon of fishing. While the brookie turned out to only be a 4-1/2 pound male, it put up a whale of a fight. :)

June - July Fly Fish Alberta Magazine

If you are on our email list, you've likely already seen the magazine, but if you aren't, our latest online magazine is available!
http://www.flyfishalberta.com/magazine/june09/magazine/


"10 Random Things - For the Beginner"
10 photos that reveal considerations for the new fly fisher.

"A Taste of Bones"
Bruce Tilbrook checks in with a destination article.

Bow River - Golden Stones
Early or late, the Bow offers an excellent hatch to chase.

"10 Interesting Shots - Ram River"
We take a look at a few older photos, sharing a few neat angles and spots on Alberta's Ram River.

Entomology - "Salmonflies"
Not just a Crowsnest River extravaganza, Alberta's largest stonefly is found across the province.

View it online right now:
http://www.flyfishalberta.com/magazine/june09/magazine/

A deer hunter with a D.U.I.

Pretty straight forward, eh?

Morning Kiss

The swallows returned this past week to Fortress Lake. Against the backdrop of Mt. Sadlier, two share a moment together upon the flag pole, enjoying the sunrise. Later the same day, avalanches rolled like freight trains off the tall cliffs, filling the valley with echoing thunder.

Fish of her day

For the vision impaired, we simply catch bigger fish. My, what a big tail you have.
This brookie, somewhere in the 6 1/2 pound range, gave one hell of a fight.
The fishing at Fortress has been spectacular the first few weeks of the season. Sight fishing is simply amazing as the big brookies cruise, looking for our flies in crystal clear water. In the first 9 days of fishing, guests have landed about 40 trout over 5 pounds, to 7 1/2. Of course, there have been dozens more landed in smaller 2 to 5 pound ranges as well. :)

A neat moment from a blog viewer!

We received this email from a blog reader. AWESOME. This is exactly why we host this blog. Keep the stories coming!

"Well me and my cousin Bryce decided to follow some of your advice and explored and wandered around some of the spring creeks in the foothills area. Just over an hour or so up a trickle we came across a nice big beaver pond full of large brookies if you’d guess it (A surprise as we knew there were the odd small brookie on this creek), they were steadily rising to some caddis but we couldn’t fool em. I’ll blame it on the fact that they were taking them as they fluttered along the surface and anything dead drifted was ignored. So we decided to pull some maroon wholly buggers and within a couple casts Bryce hooked into a Brute... this fish was pure power and was a heck of a fight and we knew that if it was a Brookie it would be one to rival Fortress lake ;), however when we got him in we were blessed with a beautifully coloured brown. Measured just a tad over 27" but was thick and fat. Just thought I’d take the time to thank you as we may not have even bothered walking up that trickle of a stream if we hadn’t early read some of your posts.

Thank you.

Tight Lines

Dustin Parry"

Have You Ever Wandered Lonely through the Woods?

The last few days I have been fishing solo and I can't get a song out of my head. Brandi Carlile sings it and the line that kept coming to me today was,

Have you ever wandered lonely through the woods?

Everything feels just how it should

You're a part of a life there; part of something good.

If you've ever wandered lonely through the woods.

Wading up a stream and fly fishing is definitely a part of something good... the blue winged olive miniature sail ships coming downstream towards me, the nests full of eggs ready to hatch that I stumbled upon in their grassy canopy, the brownies I caught that were eager to take my stonefly.....it's all good, and today I got to be a part of it. Hope you did too.

March Brown Nymphs

The following video is from the latest issue of the Hatches magazine http://www.hatchesmagazine.com/ and it teaches how to tie the March Brown Nymph, which is a great nymph to have in your arsenal of flies for this time of year. March Brown duns are emerging and spinners are laying their eggs on many streams in central Alberta right now and fishing a nymph of this mayfly can be a successful tactic to use below a dry fly imitation of the adult mayfly. Give it a try and we hope you have success. click here to view video

1 Strip, 2 Strip, 3 Strip....Yours!

We awoke to another stunning day of brilliant blue sky's, warm sun and crystal clear waters at Fortress lake today. This is heaven on earth for opening day in our operations . Add to that a couple short hours of fishing where some chunky, healthy brook trout were landed, and you pretty much get smiles all around. My first and best moment of the season thus far was sight fishing to a cruising brook trout, which on my first cast of the day came to take a look, followed my fly towards our boat and after only 3, well timed strips of the line, she was on. A really nice female that weighed in at 3.5 pounds. With snow capped peaks all around, little wind, my best fishing/life partner with me, and the sound of the Rufus hummingbirds in my head, I couldn't ask for a better moment in time.