Fussy Cutthroat

Karen and I do not usually fish too close to the road. Today we did because we needed to get back to our camp in a timely fashion! We knew the trout have seen a lot of flies of all descriptions so what was our strategy! Small nymphs and tiny dries were the answer. We had to nymph way more than we expected. We had an excellent morning. Our "go to" flies did not work. There was no hatches and we definitely had a lot of refusals.

The bummer of the day was the number of beer cans that were lying along the river. Some with bullet holes in them. Picking up someone else's garbage is disgusting but it seems to be a norm these days. I do not understand the lack of appreciation of some of our special fisheries. 

By the time we got back to near our truck, we saw 6 fly fishers in a hole we had fished. That is ridiculous but that is the amount of fishing pressure we often see in the summer. Karen and I for the most part put our fishing rods away during the weekend. We do understand that is the only time many can fish! We understand that.

In a few days we are off to the backcountry in Banff National Park. The fishing pressure there will be way less!

 

Getting the Drift Right

Karen and I just got home from camping for 5 days. We managed to get a few days out on the river. It is the busy season so we decided to go early and be satisfied with fishing a short stretch of water. It was extremely cool in the morning as we bumped our way down the gravel. We decided to do a short bush bash into a few runs. We have been to this spot in years past and we hoped it would have a few fish to tangle with.

Karen tied on an orange crush chernobyl. She connected with some cutthroat right away. We did get several refusals. We tried several different dry flies and then I switched it up to nymphing. The current was messing with my drift and I was not fishing the spot I wanted to. Well I decided to scramble up on a log jam on the other side of the river and that seemed to help a lot! I finally got the drift I wanted with very little drag. I connected with several decent cutts. It was a good lesson learned to look at where you set up to get the best possible drift.

We often just set up at the top of pool and get after it! Taking the time to watch the river and working from the bottom to the top of a run is time well spent!

 

Damsel Adults Can Create Some Heart Stopping Action

Karen and I were recently fly fishing at a private trout pond with some friends. The 1 acre pond is amazingly enough feed by a spring creek that allows the water to never climb over 15C. There were damsel adults everywhere on the pond and several of the trout were slamming these tasty morsels! Well Karen and I decided to tie on an adult damsel dry that I got from my buddy! It did not take took long to see that damsel disappear into the jaws of a very large rainbow trout! 

Adult damsels are usually tied with a piece of 2 mm foam. They are easy to tie and when the trout are on them, it is well worth the effort to try and hook one on the dry!

 

Filming For Outcast Boats.

I had the opportunity to help my buddies Phil Rowley and videographer, Barry Acton do some filming for Outcast Boats. There is a tremendous amount of work involved in getting short tips properly pulled together for the consumer to watch and easily understand. Watching a carefully prepared script being pulled together by two pros teaches me a lot about camera work and being properly organized. Getting all of the pieces collected, adding the appropriate voice over and adding "B-Roll" to get it right is a lot of work. There is a lot to learn from these two pros!

 

Finally Cutthroat Fly Fishing

What a fabulous day. Karen and I have been following the flow rates of many streams and waiting for an opportunity to hit the eastern slopes for cutthroats. Well the river flows are not perfect and neither is the visibility but we just had to get out there! Oh man the dust was crazy on the way out but that is what a car wash is for. The golden stones were out and about so Karen and I tied on the foam Orange Crush. 

Lots of the places that should have cutthroats was flowing so fast, it was tough to get a take. We did find lots of willing cutthroat today. The water temperature today was in the high 50sF. The cutthroat were fiesty.

At the end of the day, I asked Karen how many steps did we take. She knew. Almost 30 000 steps, over 15 km of walking and lots of up and down!

Just a safety reminder. Many rivers are high and fast flowing. Karen and I hooked arms to cross the river for safety. Always remember to angle downstream when crossing. Safety first!

The fishing will hopefully get better! Don't forget your sunscreen!

 

Water Temperature on the Raven River is High

 A friend of mine headed out to the Raven River. He is a big hatch chaser but he also knows that if the water temperature is too high, it is time to put the rod away or find cooler water, fish for warm water species.

Yesterday evening , the water temperature was 68.9 F. The temperature is way too high for the trout to withstand any fight with a fisherman!

Do take a thermometer with you and then do the right thing!