Another Beauty Day on the Water

What an incredible run on beautiful fall weather. I bet the harvest is ahead of schedule. Those warm dry September days allow our farmers to get the grains and canola off of the fields and in the bin.

If you are a fly fisher and in particular a retired fly fisher, fall days like today are not to be wasted. Karen and I waited until the frost was long gone before we launched our pram. Today was a slow day. We landed 8 rainbows, one of which was a dandy! We had to move and work at getting the depth right! The water boatmen were out in the afternoon. The boatman below was diving into the lake but landed right in our boat. A quick pic and off I sent him into the depths!

The weather forecast looks incredible for the next upcoming days. If you are not on a combine, try to find some time to get out on the water. The sunshine is great therapy for sure!

 

Spectacular Fall Afternoon

What a picture perfect day. The warm air spilling over the eastern slopes made the Central Alberta area pleasantly warm, almost summer like. You could even see a chinook arch in the western sky! The trees are all dressed up in their fall splendour and that made for an amazing backdrop for our day on the water. Karen and I arrived a bit late and after we launched the boat, we had a go at some rainbows eating scuds right against the shore. We landed two. Once out on the water, we fished about 13 feet down with scuds. We did very well. Our throat samples from the plump, well conditioned rainbows included shrimp, both the large and small kind, bloodworms, leeches and boatmen/backswimmers. The rainbows are bulking up for winter, it is a wonderful time to be a lake fly fisher. Enjoy!

 

Scuds-12 Inches down along the bank

I could tell there is a cruiser right along the bank cycling. It is eating. I even walked down the shore to look. Interestingly enough, there were several rainbows gorging on scuds not 2 feet from shore. We tied on a small balanced fly that had scud colours, and bam it was game on. I talked to another fly fisher who was kicking around with an intermediate line with a floating boatmen and a sinking boatmen in tandem. He also was doing great.

Fall is a great time to be out on the water! Get out there before it is time to winterize!

Red Deer River Trifecta on a Sunny Tuesday Afternoon

A beautiful sunny fall afternoon on the Red Deer River is to be cherished. I never know how the afternoon is going to unfold. Today I started out chasing walleye, then I switched it up to target whitefish and several browns were also hanging out in the same area! Pretty much a perfect afternoon except I was missing Karen and Pepper the Hound! 

The whites and browns loved Frenchies and Rainbow Warriors and the walleye, the candy corn balanced fly! Lots of split shot helps get the flies in the zone!

...tomorrow!

 

Fabulous Week of Fly Fishing and Camping with Family and Friends

What a fantastic week. We set up at Fish Lake. You have to book on line to camp there this year due to COVID-19. My kids, grandkids and friends came out joined us for a fun filled week. We fly fished a lot and hiked. Fish Lake is still fishing fantastic. We used chironomids, micro leeches and boatmen about 5 feet down with a lot of success. The rainbows are stockers and they sure were willing. We took our son-in-law and grandkids out on the lake. Great fun. We were also quite close to several fantastic cutthroat rivers. We chased cutthroat as well. Now that was fantastic. We celebrated birthdays, solved many world problems, and just stared at the evening fire. Nothing could be better than turning off reality for an entire week. My grandkids were the keepers of the fire. They took their job seriously!

We mostly nymphed while cutthroat fly fishing although we did see a BWO hatch and we rigged up dry flies and caught cutties with size 18 flies.

Still lots of camping and fly fishing out there before winter sets in!

 

Stillwater in the Early Fall

School is back.The mostly retired school teachers like Karen and I get to enjoy September without worrying about how difficult it is to be a school teacher right now. We have been enjoying the big blue sky and some decent fly fishing! The water temperatures are coming down and the trout are getting active again. We have noticed that the trout have been dining on scuds, boatmen/backswimmers, bloodworms, chironomids and leeches.

I have included some throat samples.