Back to Backcountry Brookies

There are special places to fly fish in Alberta! Karen and I are lucky enough that we are able to load up our backpacks and hike into the backcountry in Banff National Park to fly fish these places. Yes sweat equity is definitely involved but we love camping and fly fishing in spectacular Banff National Park. We booked backcountry camp spots way back in February and we hoped that the weather would cooperate. As you can see the weather was amazing. We hiked up to close to 8000 feet to fly fish for backcountry brookies. Our packs were heavy because we planned on a 4 day stay. Where we went, the brookies are plentiful and it is a catch and release fishery. We fly fished two lakes that were close to each other! We caught the brookies on orange crush chernobyls and mico leeches. Remember that if you do fish in the National Parks, you need a Parks Canada Fishing license. 

There is nothing like enjoying your morning coffee watching the sun rise over glaciers and 10 000 foot peaks. The wild flowers were just starting to bloom. There is no hustle and bustle. Hikers go by. Very few of them carry a fly rod. We see so many marmots, columbia ground squirrels, deer, elk, mountain goats and at times a bear or two.

The best part of these experiences is the view. Often we just sit and take it all in. After seeing these pictures, you might even agree! The sweat equity is definitely worth it to us.

 

Our Eastern Slopes Cutthroat Rivers

Our favourite cutthroat rivers are slowly coming into shape. Karen and I decided to go and take a look. We were carefully following the river flows and we decided to do some bush bashing to get to a few runs that did not require crossing the river. We certainly had to be careful. The river was definitely flowing high and extremely fast. We tried dry flies and we were lucky enough to connect with several decent cutthroat using nymphs.

If you go, please be cautious. The rivers are coming down but yet they are still unseasonably high. Several rivers west of Red Deer are dangerous if you do not show them the respect they deserve.

 

Chasing the Golden Stones on the Bow River

My good friend, Steve Luethi, invited Karen and I to join him for a float on the Bow River last Sunday. The Bow is flowing on the high side of average and is definitely off colour. There was about 2 feet of visibility when we launched at Fish Creek at 5:30 am. The Bow was humming but we were all game. Steve guides regularly for OFF, aka Out Fly Fishing. He knows the river well and he is fun to spend the day with. We started with large golden stone dry fly imitations. We hooked a few and landed some nice rainbows. We switched to jimmy legs nymphs and connected on several rainbows. Karen lost a large brown at the boat on one run. The golden stone hatch usually coincides with the Calgary Stampede. Many fly fishers call it the Stampede hatch.

Once we arrived at the Highwood River confluence, we drifted out to McKinnon's Flats. The Highwood dropped the visibility on the Bow River to just 6 inches or so. The fishing was tough but enjoyable. The river definitely was flowing super fast.

Karen and I enjoyed our drift with Steve. We both owe him a big thanks for inviting us along!