Fly Fishing at Fish Lake(near Nordegg)

Karen and I just got back from camping at Fish Lake, a few kilometres from Nordegg. The camping was amazing. While everyone was swatting mosquitoes in Red Deer, we were enjoying shorts and t-shirts with few bugs. The camping was superb.

We did get out to fly fish Fish Lake several times. The rainbows are not huge but there are a lot of them. The rainbows were also quite cooperative. Karen and I usually fished micro leeches with orange beads about 5 or 6 feet down below a stick indicator! The rainbows fight very well and every once in a while we connect with a second year fish or two.

The other neat thing at Fish Lake are the raptors. The osprey and eagles are constantly at the lake putting on a show. The loons are plentiful and they will almost certainly pay you a visit.

If you like camping, book a site and stay a few days. Now that gas prices have come down a bit, it is more reasonable to enjoy our eastern slopes fisheries.

 

Have You Ever Been Obsessed With Trying to Catch a Specific Trout?

Refusal! Arg! Change flies! More importantly get the presentation right! 

I found a brown trout a few days back that I had tried to catch but I was denied. I was camping not too far from the wily brown so I was able to try and catch him several times. I wanted to fool this fussy brown with a dry fly! Our last evening camping, everyone knew what I was up to. I got my waders on and trudged through the high grass and trees. The brown would occasionally rise to small bugs. I did see some BWOs when it was overcast. There was caddis on the water too! I decided on a size 16 elk hair caddis with an olive body. The wings on the caddis were light and there were spinners everywhere. There was a well beaten path by me to where this smart trout hung out!

One of the things I have learned about browns is to just watch and see what is going on. I do not cast unless I know the brown is actively feeding. I got to my spot and stood slightly behind the location. It was getting dusky and the sun just slipped over the horizon.

The brown started to feed but sporadically. Just wait I thought! Then his rhythm of feeding started to increase. I could see where to cast. It has to be accurate and not sloppy. My third cast, the brown hammered my elk hair caddis. Redemption!

Karen heard all of the commotion while walking with Pepper our elkhound and came to see. She laughed at my persistence. She took a quick picture. I headed back to camp to sit by the fire with the gang! 

 

Chasing Mayfly Hatches

Karen and I were out in the west country camping with family and friends the past several days. There was very little moving water that was fishable. We did take our grandkids out for a few hours but the lousy weather put a damper on things. I was lucky enough to walk along a creek at dusk. I was hoping to see some mayflies popping and possibly some hungry trout. The creek had lots of caddis on the surface but no trout were on them. I kept up my search. The visibility in the water was very low as were my expectations. I came around a bend and saw some brown drakes. Not many but enough to possibly get the attention of some trout. After some bush bashing, I found several risers. I was rather surprised. I rigged up with beefy tippet and a brown drake imposter. The trout were greedily slurping down every brown drake. It did not take long to connect with a number of brown trout and some rocky mountain white fish. The very low visibility did not deter these fish.  What a Canada Day treat!