I had the opportunity to fly fish with my good friend Reid Stoyberg last week. Reid lives in Nipawin in Central Saskatchewan and he is just 90 minutes from the Narrow Hills and just 20 minutes from Tobin Lake. Reid picked me up from Saskatoon and we headed north to look find some big rainbows. The weather was cold and blustery. I brought the winter gear and off we went! Sadly fire devastated the Narrow Hills area this summer. Campgrounds were destroyed as were roads and infrastructure. The roads are being redone and we were able to visit and fly fish several of the lakes. We did shake hands with several large rainbows. We spent a day chasing browns with no luck and I connected on my first splake ever. Splake are not Reid's favourite fish. They are cross between a brook trout and a lake trout! I was intrigued. Apparently they are excellent table fare!
I was using a clear intermediate line with a blue flash damsel most of the time. The big trout loved to chase big flies including minnow imitations.
If you look at a map of the Narrow Hills. There are many lakes that have trout in them. Do a little research and you could spent several weeks in the area fly fishing and exploring! I think the campgrounds will be up and running by spring! You definitely have an opportunity to catch a wide variety of trout in the Narrow Hills.
The best part of my trip was spending time with Reid on the water and visiting his partner Kate and Baxter the hound. The weather was not the best but we were bundled up like we were on Great Bear Lake where Reid spends his summer as Head Guide of Plummers Arctic Lodge!
