Balanced Silver Minnow

The Balanced Silver Minnow has been a winner for me when I am targeting fish that eat forage! For the Red Deer River, I tie them in size 6 or size 4. I use marabou or rabbit for the tail, silver minnow dubbing for the body and 4 mm eyes. I have added a few photos so you can see how I build them!

Don't forget to tie the rabbit strip upside down so the fly hangs properly as it drifts along!

Make a dubbing loop!

 

Walleye on the RDR and a Special Visitor

I wasn't planning on fly fishing the Red Deer River today but I'm glad I did. My fly fishing day began at Dickson Trout Pond. It was completely ice free and I wanted to spend a few hours there so I could see what was going on. In a word, nothing!  Well I did get some exercise walking the causeway trying to hook up. After a few hours of being skunked, I decided to head back to just below the Dickson Dam. I had my walleye box along so I decided to give it a go!

I pulled on my Muck Boots then tied on my trusty balanced minnow pattern and drifted it slowly in an eddy about 9 feet below a strike indicator while making small jigs by pulling the line. The conditions were excellent. Quite overcast and very little wind was the order of the afternoon! It was not too long before I connected with a sizeable walleye. That turned my fortunes around. I hooked up again and landed a 5 pound walleye then I was broke off by a dandy walleye heading towards 7-8 pounds. Darn. Then something cool happened.

There was a commotion across the river. I thought it was a beaver but then it pulled its upper body way out of the water and I could see it was a river otter. It was huge too. I bet those walleye make for excellent dining for the otter. Before I could get a good shot with my phone, it was gone. 

Well the walleye fly fishing was excellent for the next 2.5 hours. I did change to a candy corn balanced fly and I had excellent results with it too!

I think the key to the walleye fly fishing on the Red Deer River is to fish slowly and set on any bobble on your strike indicator, even if you are late with the hook set.

This morning Karen and I walked along the trails and we saw just about every pond frozen. Lake water temperatures have dipped below 40F. Get out if you can. We have some warm weather coming later this week! Lakes will be frozen over very soon!

 

Back to Sylvan Lake, ...Just One More Day Until It Closes Until Mid December

Canadians have a preoccupation with the weather. That includes me. After filling my coffee cup, I checked the weather. -10C Burr! That is a wintery temperature. I was hoping to get back to Sylvan Lake today because the whitefish were quite active yesterday. Well the mercury finally crawled up above freezing at noon. Karen and I decided that even a few hours on the water was well worth it. We had our rods already set up so all we had to do was launch our pram and find a spot. When we got to Sylvan Lake, it was glass. So calm that there was a layer of ice along the shore.

We were fly fishing by 1 pm and it did not take long for our strike indicators to start disappearing under the 45F water. The whitefish were not as active as yesterday but we still had excellent action. The whitefish were definitely a bit spooky with the clear water and no wind. We had to stay out in 8 feet of water, going shallow just spooked the lake whites.

The sun felt great today. I even layered down as the air warmed to 6C.  We fly fished until 5 pm before we motored back to our Gulf Volkswagon. 

We saw just a few die hards on the water enjoying the last moments of the season before the lake has a closure so the lake whites can spawn.

Tomorrow is the last day that several of our local lakes are open until mid December!

It is not over yet everyone. Just bundle up and get out there!