Birch Lake

Karen and I spent the day at Birch Lake today. It is a lake full of challenges. Perhaps the biggest challenge is just launching your watercraft! You have to negotiate a hill down to the lake that is about 50 m. It is steep in a couple of spots too. Luckily we borrowed a wheeled frame from my buddy Doug that made getting our pram down to the lake easy. Even the grunt back up the hill at the end of the day wasn't too bad because of the wheeled frame we put under the boat.

Well our first stop on the lake was quite productive for Karen. By the time I had a take, she landed 2 brookies and three rainbows. The brookies belched up stickleback minnows. Karen was using her usual tried and true Tokaryk Special. We set up on a drop off and the trout were feeding on the shallow side of the drop off.

We headed to the far end of the lake and again fished along a drop off. I switched to casting and retrieving a black leech streamer on an intermediate line. I managed to hook three nice rainbows. Karen hooked another nice rainbow on her Tokaryk Special.

A bathometric map certainly helped us decide where we would set up on the lake.

We kept prospecting and found the active fish were about 8 feet down. That was interesting considering the water temperature was around 65F. 

Stripping the streamer got more action for a while.

Near the end of the day we set up in a spot I like. I hooked a sizeable brown and Karen followed suit a few minutes later. I continued to strip a leech and Karen stayed with her Tokaryk Special! Two different strategies. Both worked although at times one was better than the other.

The air temperature was climbing to close to 27C.  At 5 pm we called it a day. 

If the weather forecast is accurate, we have rain on the way. We definitely need the moisture. It is tinder dry out there!

Enjoy the upcoming weekend. Sunday maybe a wet one!

Brook sticklebacks were on the menu of the trout!

Celebrating a fun day out on the water!

 

Sportsman's Den Final Closeout this Week

 

Shrimp, ...or is it Scuds?

Will the fish in West Lake (Fish and Game Pond) survive the upcoming heat that is coming this summer? It is hard to tell. The lake has dropped 4 or 5 feet and there is 14 feet of water in places but the algae bloom and high water temperatures can cause a kill of the rainbows in the lake.

The team at F and G are trying everything in their power to raise the level of the lake. I hope they are successful.

Karen and I were back out today. The water temperature was 61F. It was unsettled weather this morning and we did not connect with any rainbows until we tried blobs and shrimp patterns. The shrimp pattern was definitely getting more takes. We fished with a Bubba Gump Shrimp about 3-4 below a strike indicator. We caught several thick rainbow trout!

We even had a visit from 2 tundra swans. That was cool!

Trying to raise the water level in the main pond!

 

Another fun day at Fish and Game, aka West Lake

I got everything ready last night while watching the Stanley Cup Play Offs! I had the rods all set up for chironomid fly fishing! I also set up an intermediate rod with a 3 inch black leech. Well after launching we motored to a spot we figured would be excellent for chironomid fishing! Nothing. Another spot, ...nothing; and another. Well it was time to change up our tactics. I started to strip a black leech while Karen got out her tried and true Tokaryk Special 2.0. It did not take long for Karen to connect on a 5 plus pound rainbow. I was connecting as well with the black strip leech. We could see chironomid shucks on the water, big ones, aka, bomber size. Well,  I tried a size 10 chironomid. I got some grabs but no solid hook ups. I went back to the leech and I had a decent amount of success. More shucks on the water. Back to chironomids. We then hooked a few, one dandy rainbow that had small shrimp in the throat sample. Well I went back to stripping my leech and soon after, I connected with a 6 plus pound rainbow. Bazinga!

Today did not play out the way we thought it would. The rainbows did not focus on the chironomids. Yes, we caught some with chironomids but Tokaryk Balanced Flies and stripping a black streamer was more productive. It goes to show, be flexible and willing to try different tactics!

Oh yes, there is an algae bloom building at West Lake. The lake was 60F today but it will not be long until it will not be fishable because of the algae. Lastly wash off your gear. Our anchors were covered with debris. It is well worth it to to wash gear so you do not spread any plant life, etc to another body of water!

 

Boulder Lake

Boulder Lake is a neat little fishery just west and a little bit south of Blackfalds. Boulder Lake has both rainbow and tiger trout in its depths. Boulder Lake is a great restoration project. Restoring an old gravel pit was well worth the effort. I commend the ACA and their partners. It is an excellent place to spend an evening!

 

An Editorial Well Worth Reading- Water Over Coal all the Way!

Water over Coal/Jobs, to me it is a no brainer. This editorial says a lot and is well taking a few moments to read!

 

Barry Mitchell Pond at Heritage Ranch

Our youngest grandson had a blast at Mitchell Pond catching rainbow trout at Heritage Ranch here in Red Deer. We armed him with a spinning rod with small nymphs that we cast out in the pond, just 3-4 feet below a bobber. The rainbows hit the size 14 and size 16 flashbacks and rainbow warriors hard!  We also hooked up with Glen's Leech and Bubba Gump Shrimp! Our grandson loved playing with sticks, getting muddy, getting into the water, watching dragon flies emerge and watching an osprey chow down on stockies in the pond. Keep the fishing session short.

For those of you who did not know Barry Mitchell, he and his dad started the Alberta Fishing Guide that is published annually, even to this day. Barry was a conservationist and supporter of clean water.

We the hit the Dairy Queen for ice cream after the 15 minute walk back to the truck.

Here is something that I find curious. They stocked over 2000 rainbows in Heritage Ranch but only 1200 at Boulder Lake just outside Red Deer! 

Its a great place to take kids.

 

First Trip to Sylvan Lake Was a Beauty

Beauty day at Sylvan Lake. Light wind and hungry lake whitefish made for an enjoyable 5 hours out on the lake. Many of the traditional boat launching places are now closed because of the low lake levels and reckless individuals who have damaged many of those areas. We still managed to find a place to launch! There was the challenge of getting away from shore so we could use our electric motor! Karen and I both have Muck boots that we used. Wearing waders would also be a great way to push your watercraft to deeper water!

Once on the water we motored to one of our tried and true fly fishing spots. We usually tie on chironomids (e.g. black and red ice cream cone size 12) or a blood worm type pattern. The water was hovering just below 50F. We set up in 8 feet of water and started to prospect. We keep our flies about one foot off of the bottom. Today was interesting. Our best depth was 10 feet of water and dangling our flies 9 feet down. Often this time of the year with todays water temperature, we fly fish in 7 feet of water. 

We saw a lot of whitefish in 5-6 feet of water when we motored back to our launch spot but they seemed spooky!

Sadly there has been verified evidence of Prussian Carp now in Sylvan Lake. If you catch one, take it home for supper (apparently they are good eating) or properly dispose of it! Prussian carp will destroy the biomass at Sylvan Lake or any lake for that matter quickly.

So many fishermen harvest fish at Sylvan. I would encourage all fishermen to limit the fish they retain. The catch rate is still decent but way down as compared to 10 years ago. Too many fish leave the lake. The walleye population is way down even though you can still harvest walleye. I would love to see a slot limit instituted on the lake. Pike of course is catch and release. Remember that possession of fish includes what you have at home. So many do not respect that.

I love the water quality at Sylvan Lake. We need to protect this fishery. I would encourage any guides to lead the way by example. It will benefit their business big time. The constant pressure, especially during the winter, has decimated the fish population. Unfortunately public pressure to retain fish has allowed the harvesting of fish at way too high a level.

Sadly our fishing regulations on Sylvan Lake are reactive and not proactive. When they are gone, rebuilding a fishery with a lot of public pressure will be a long and laborious process.

Enjoy the weekend. I hope you are able to get out on the water!

 

Teeny Tiny Chironomids and Daphnia-What to do?

Perplexing! Was there an answer to what tactic was best today?

Well the lake water temperature was perfect, 55F to 58F. We were armed with chironomids, streamers and balanced leeches. We caught lots of stockers and finally we got into some trout that were big enough to get a throat sample. The trout were eating tiny chironomids, size 22 perhaps as well as daphnia. Some of the chironomids were lime green and tiny. 

Well I shrugged my shoulders and stripped blue flash damsels on an intermediate line. Karen tied on Tokaryk 2.0 and a small chironomid. Karen caught a ton of fish. Most of them were stockers. I was hoping to connect with a big tiger trout! I caught several mid sized tigers but nothing amazing. I had several larger fish follow my fly but they stopped short of connecting!

The larger chironomids that were present last week were few and far between. Boo! 

Nevertheless our day was still amazing. It sure beat the snowy 4 days we had west of Nordegg during the long weekend! 

One odd thing. There were lots of bats flying over the lake. They didn't bother us at all. The sandhill cranes were kicking up a fuss, as were the loons, kingfishers and blue herons!

I am sure that tomorrow the hatching bugs will be different! That is the beauty of fly fishing. Solve the riddle of what the trout are eating and how deep the trout feeding at. 

 

Snowy Long Weekend in the Nordegg Area

My furnace in the trailer worked overtime the last 5 days while we camped at Fish Lake just west of Nordegg! Karen and I loaded up the trailer with warm clothes and fly fishing gear and headed out to camp with the usual suspects from our family to enjoy May long weekend. Everyone knows that typical May long weekend weather in Alberta can be rather unpredictable. Well we knew there maybe snow but we all decided to go anyway. We still had a lot of fun! A big tarp and a warm fire made all the difference in the world. Even our grandkids didn't mind the snowy cold.

We did have some very interesting fly fishing experiences.

There were very few trout in Fish Lake. The lake had not been stocked and it is usually the place we take our grandkids. Ice off was late and it looks like the stocking truck just had not arrived. We still fly fished and caught some carry over trout and in a couple of spots we caught several suckers. The suckers fought hard and of course we released them back into Fish Lake, aka Shunda Lake.

Well we decided to try Goldeye Lake, just a few km west of Fish Lake. We discovered that that it had been stocked and we found out it contained lots of very decent carry over trout from the last few years. We fly fished with balanced Pumpkin Heads until we discovered through throat samples that there was a chironomid hatch on! Once we started to fly fish with Rusty Nails and a modified version of Smoke on the Water (greyish chironomid), we were getting into a lot of trout. That included several decent ones in the 18 -20 inch range. What a nice surprise. We spent two days at Goldeye Lake. It was well worth the time and effort. I was surprised to see that Goldeye Lake was deep, up to 45 feet in some areas. There are several beautiful hiking trails in the area too!

Goldeye Lake

My Son-In-Law, Alan with a decent rainbow

We found the rainbows were eating chironomids. We tied on size 12 Rusty Nails and Smoke on the Water and caught a lot of trout! Smoke on the Water (chironomid below) was a great match! The rainbows were all over these chironomids!

Mornings always started off slowly!

Fish Lake-burrrr!-

Suckers on Fish Lake!

There is plenty of great hiking in the Fish Lake area! We even ran into a beautiful Great Grey Owl who even allowed us to photograph him!

Several opf the gang got out to the Fish and Game Lake, east of Red Deer on Sunday. there was a decent chironomid hatch and the rainbows really reponded to Rusty Nail Chironomids. Below, you can see two large rainbows landed by Hal!

Daphnia from a throat sample a few days ago taken by Adam!

Scuds! Thanks Adam for the recent throat sample!