Potential New Policy for Fish Stocking in Alberta

Do take some time to read this document everybody! It will affect all of us who enjoy our lake trout fishing!

Fish Stocking Policy

If you have any comments, take a look at page 11 of the document. It has individuals to contact with your concerns!

Bob

Troy Langelaar Hits the Bow River with Josh Nugent and OutFlyfishing Outfitters

Troy and his buddy from Abottsford spent last Friday floating the Bow River with guide Josh Nugent from Outflyfishing Outfitters. I am sure many of you saw "Destination Spain" and several episodes of Fly Nation where Josh was involved as one of the hosts. Troy was quite excited about his day and the first class guiding that Josh provided. The golden stones were done and the Bow River had risen enough to change tactics. It was streamer time and Josh was excited. Both Troy and his buddy spent most of the day casting double streamers with a floating line. The streamers were big articulated flies to boot! This was no ordinary day either. Josh kicked the day off at 6:30 am and they called it a day well past 10 pm. Josh was on those drift boat oars for a lot of hours and he provided the guys with a lot of shots at big browns and rainbows. I can tell that the guys had a great day. Streamer fishing with a floating line is a very visual game. You can see the strikes, misses and follows. I bet their shoulders were sore the next day. I can just hear Josh getting the guys to hit the top and bottom of a seam and encouraging them to strip those flies fast.

...love the pics guys!

...as the saying goes, "a picture speaks a thousand words." I wonder what all of those smiles would tell us?

...there is a day two to this story! Troy and his buddy were some place on a Bow River tributary chasing rainbows and bulls. They were into lots of fish. Some very cool images Troy!

...love the colour on this bull trout

More Pot Hole Fly Fishing with Betty and Steve

Betty and Steve have been cruising around Alberta enjoying trout fly fishing. Interestingly, they experienced a great bomber chironomid hatch in the Cypress Hills and had an amazing day. As you can see, there are lots of great fly fishing opportunities around Alberta.

...nice "stashe" Steve! 

Cutthroat Trout Fly Fishing Was HOT

Karen and I love to cutthroat fly fish. The scorching temperatures allowed us to shed the waders and wander along some of our favourite water. The cutthroat trout were looking up and that made the fly fishing spectacular. We love camping along our Eastern slopes river just as much as the fly fishing. The pictures below say way more than my rambling thoughts.

Tenkara Fly Fishing

Sooner or later I was going to give tenkara fly fishing a go. I ended up with a temple fork tenkara rod from the Central Alberta Trout Unlimited Dinner two years ago. I finally got Troy at TC Outfitters to order me a suitable polyleader and I was off to the river. It took me a bit of experimentation to figure out an appropriate leader length for the 11 foot 6 inch rod.  The casting is easy to pick up with a rod that has a soft flex to it. Karen and I just used small dry flies and the cutthroat were quite willing. Tustling with a trout with no reel and only 16 feet of line is rather interesting. The Japanese certainly knew how to simplify fly fishing. They usually fished with a single fly and they had a small container with more flies and a bit of tippet. Tenkara rods are meant for small streams and fish up to 10 or 12 inches. I really enjoyed being able to reach over seams and get my fly just where you want it with no drag! Pocket water fishing is a hoot with a tenkara rod as well. Once a fish is on, the rod has an amazing bend to it. The rods are strong yet you have to be careful, especially when attaching the polyleader to the rod.

We did have one fun experience when a larger cutthroat took Karen's offering while tenkara fly fishing. The fish broke her off unceremoniously. The cutthroat was on the upper limit of a tenkara rod.

They Grow Them BIG at Great Bear Lake

Reid continues to have an amazing week while guiding at Plummer's Lodge at Great Bear Lake. Below is a beauty of a grayling that one of his guests caught and another monster lake trout. 

Epic Day for Reid on Great Bear Lake

Reid had one of those epic days today while guiding in Great Bear Lake. His guests caught several monsters. Reid caught them all on a McGill Bay during a flyout!  It was Reid's best day ever at Great Bear. I bet his guests had gigantic smiles when they got back to the dock at Plummer's Lodge! I just just imagine the banter at supper.

Looks like Reid has paid his dues at Plummer's Lodge.

Well done!

...28 pounder!

...32 pounds of power!

...a 38 pound beauty of a lake trout

Nice brown trout Steve!

Now here is the Steve I know! Short sleeves in his float tube. Of course Betty is close by. As you can see, Steve has latched on to a beauty of a brown trout! Beautiful catch Steve and somewhere in Alberta! Awesome!

Popping Deer Hair Mice for Pike

Pike on the Fly on the Churchill River

Camping and Fly Fishing on the Churchill River in Northern Saskatchewan

It was time to escape reality for 8 days and we knew what the perfect location was. An island on Black Bear Island Lake on the Churchill River system. Karen and I have explored this wonderful 40 km long lake many times and we knew that slowing down the pace for a week was just what we needed!

After the long drive, our pilot was waiting to load us up and fly in to Pine Island Resort at the east end of the lake. Tiki and Pepper were ready to get out of the jetta and fly too! We loaded the Beaver and strapped the 18 foot prospector to the pontoons. Bill had us on our way quickly. The flight is only about 30 minutes and our friends Bart and Vicki were at the dock to greet us along with Jake the hound.

Karen and I headed off to Vanderwater Island, of course we named it!

The Churchill River System is long, over 600 miles long. It is part of the historic fur trade route that lead the Hudson Bay Company and the North West Company all the way to the Athabasca Region and beyond. Most of the Churchill is in the Canadian Shield. High rocks make for great camping spots.

Of course the fly fishing is amazing for both pike and walleye! We had a great time popping deer hair mice to unsuspecting aggressive pike along the weed beds. Large clousers were all we used to tangle with pike, several over 10 pounds. We ate lots of the plentiful mouth watering walleye. 

When the lake turned to glass, the walleye and smaller pike as well as lake whitefish were targeting the hexagenia mayflies that were all over the lakes.

The 8 days were a great escape to start our summer holidays. The pictures below are from this year's trip!

Beavers are a great plane to fly in. They are a work horse!

Our pilot, Bill, taking us to Black Bear Island Lake!

Tiki and Pepper enjoying the view!

Casting right out in front of our island yielded many pike and walleye!

I enjoyed reading John Gierach's new book, All Fishermen are Liars, in the evenings. Fun to read!

The hexagenia were everywhere!

Large 3/0 clousers were all we needed to catch loads of pike and walleye!

Thankfully the dragonflies kept the mosquitoes silent for most of the trip.

Walleye in the frying pan. Fantastic!

Pike are everywhere and lots of them!

Pine Island has a fishing camp on it and we were able to land at their dock before canoeing out the 

6 km to our island.

Our relaxing spot!

Walleye on the fly, lots of fun!