An Amazing Introduction to Fly Fishing!

Darren Petersen had the great pleasure recently to introduce a young friend to fly fishing.  Nick has enjoyed fishing for years but had not tried fly fishing.  He attended our tying sessions a couple times this past winter and is now equipped to tie his own flies.  For his recent 18th birthday Nick's family set him up with a fully equipped fly rod.

Darren considered his first outing to a lake west of Red Deer primarily to be a casting introduction from shore but the fish had other ideas.  The bruised leech pattern we started with was what they wanted on the menu and the trout were cruising the weed edge tight to shore.  Darren and Nick caught several beautiful rainbows each and Nick's first fish ever on a fly using a fly rod was over 20 inches and 4 plus pounds of excitement.  A great first fish to confirm that one does not need bait to catch the big ones.  

Urban Fly Fishing on the Red Deer River for Goldeye

Goldeye are plentiful in the Red Deer River! They are also lots of fun to catch with a fly rod. Nymphing can be effective but they are a hoot with a dry fly. The Red Deer River is coming into shape thanks to a reduced flow at the moment. As the visibility improves, gold eye will be after all the classic mayflies and stones that hatch on the Red Deer River.  Goldeye are great scrappy fish! They jump and pull quite hard! There are so many spots to find Goldeye on the Red Deer River. Get a fly rod and go exploring along the bike trails. The spot we fished was a 5 minute walk from our house. Great fun! My daughter, son-in-law and Karen had a great time. 

Whirling Disease is Sadly Now Confirmed to be in the Red Deer River

You can read about it right here:

http://www.reddeeradvocate.com/news/red-deer-river-watershed-infected-with-whirling-disease/

Piper Creek Restoration Project

It was so ironic that last night several of our gang from Central Alberta Trout Unlimited spent the evening planting willows and Saskatoon bushes along Piper Creek. This long term project has been coming along nicely thanks to a sizeable donation from RBC, leadership from Trout Unlimited Canada, and volunteers from RBC, City of Red Deer, Central Alberta Chapter of TU Canada and volunteers from the community.

Tiger Trout at Twin Lakes in the Parklands of Manitoba

One of the big attractions when fly fishing in the Parkland Region of Manitoba is a trip or two to Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes has tiger trout. Tiger trout is a cross between a brook trout and a brown trout. They are aggressive and can grow to impressive sizes. They love to eat forage fish but they will at times, key into chironomids and other lake staples like backswimmers and boatmen! What I love is their tenacious fighting power. They always seem to have another gear when you think you have them subdued. Of course their unique vermiculations and their fall colours make them a great trout to photograph.

...Scott Fink photo

Some Days Guiding Can be Rather Tough

The sky became darker and darker. Larry Prowse, Phil Rowley and I had 9 guests out on the water. We were at Twin Lakes north of Roblin, Manitoba. About mid afternoon, the deluge began. The volume of rain was amazing. My boat had 3 inches of water in it when we headed to the dock. We were all soaked. Our rain coats were put to the test. The intense rain battered us for almost two hours. Now that was just crazy!

...and yes, the fly fishing was still pretty good!

...all images courtesy of Ron Blaikie!

A Manitoba Provincial Tiger Trout Record

At some point, it had to happen. One of our gang tied into a record breaker. Michael Burgess was fly fishing with our very own Larry Prowse. Michael was chironomid fly fishing at Twin Lakes near Roblin, Manitoba. Larry netted Michael's record setting fish. It is an amazing trophy caught on a size 12 chironomid. The old record was 28 inches but this monster topped out at 30.5 inches!

...Scott Fink photo

Sight Fishing for Brown Trout in 2 feet of Water in Manitoba

Larry and I spent a Sunday afternoon stalking brown trout in the Parkland Region of Manitoba at Patterson Lake. The browns were chasing forage fish well in behind the tules. We had to work the big 1756 G3 into position with lots of pushing and grunting but once set up, we saw several aggressive browns busting minnows. We set our indicators at 10 inches and then the fun began. Casting three or four feet in front of a feeding brown worked great. One twitch, let the bruised leech or ice minnow settle, usually got the attention of the cruising browns. It was one awesome afternoon! We used stout tippet because we were fighting these fish in very tight quarters. Who knew that browns would hit a fly only 10 inches below a strike indicator.