A Perfect Day Out West

The alarm rings at 5:15 am. It is already light outside as I stumble to the coffee maker after letting Tiki and Pepper outside. My two elkhounds want to have their breakfast at 5:30 am. I load up lunch, drinks and check my fly fishing kit. I'm ready to head out west for the day with my buddy Byron Stearns. Byron and I try to get out together when he is home and on days off from his job in Fort McMurray. The weather forecast looked perfect. Not too hot and a small chance of thunderstorms.

A little more than two hours later we were gearing up in a meadow out on our eastern slopes. It was a brisk 4C, perfect for a long walk. Byron and I walked for close to 90 minutes before we started to fly fish. Once we stepped into the river, we knew it was going to be perfect. The river was clear and in great shape. The water temperature was low and not an issue at all!

Nothing was rising although I got several refusals on my royal renegade fly! Byron caught a dozen cutts nymphing and then switched to hopper-dropper fishing. Well he lost the dropper and he stuck to his black/brown foam hopper. It was a great choice because the cutthroat slammed that fly all day. I decided to fish with mayfly imitations and attractor dry flies. I too had an outstanding day. Yes, the fly fishing was amazing, the weather was perfect and the cutthroat were cooperative all day! The day was a slam dunk that was made even better when a grader smoothed out our gravel road for the trip out.

An interesting side note. Byron's chernobyl pattern performed better than my mayfly imitations. I caught lots but Byron caught a ton. I was using 5x tippet and Byron was using 4x tippet. Again Byron's fly was the clear winner. The cutts wanted the big meal. I was lucky to catch some amazing cutts on long smooth glides with my royal renegade. When you can see a trout slowly rise and leisurely take your offering, it is a snapshot that is easily visualized with a smile.

Lots of walking and getting away from the road can pay dividends. Today was perfect. Byron and I could not have asked for a better day!

...take a look!

Bug Pictures from Central Alberta by Darren Petersen

Darren Petersen thought the group might enjoy a bit of macro photography that he has been doing recently.  A little fly tying inspiration for the next tying season.  Darren was not sure what the beautiful yellowish mayfly dun is, perhaps a sulphur species?  Maybe you are familiar with it. Darren photographed it one day as a dun and the next day it had transformed into a transparent spinner, about a size 14-16, very pretty mayfly. Maybe a Pale Morning Dun?

The sedge was about an inch long not counting it's long antennae. 

Darren shot the brown drake perched upon dill weed blossoms.  Not conventional but a neat setting.

Every summer Darren encounters new species of insects locally that he am not familiar with.  There are so many beetle species that this shouldn't come as a surprise. He often finds it difficult to determine species but the colorful Nuttall's Blister Beetle was one of the easy ones.  This beetle is long at an inch plus.  Darren found lots of them not far from the Red Deer river mating in a meadow of wild legumes (vetch).  They are a rainbow of colors and if you wanted to tie a sinking version rainbow beads would represent the head and thorax perfectly.  They were slow fliers so he was able to capture a few of those elusive flight shots.

Goldeye on the Fly on the Red Deer River