...and Then IT HAPPENED

I love water boatman and backswimmer action. Yesterday was a great example. Karen and I were fishing the "edges' until the boatman activity heated up and it did. Karen caught some decent trout along the edges in three feet of water with her trusty Tokaryk Special 2.0 and finally stripping water boatmen and backswimmers got the attention of the trout!

All the throat samples told us to tie on boatman type flies and small ones. I set up with a three fly rig. A Rinse and Repeat (backswimmer) and two size 14 flashbacks (Boatmen). I rigged up a hover line. I made a cast and counted down to figure out depth (I settled at 15). Then I stripped back with short erratic strips. The takes were hard. The interesting thing was the number of hooks ups on the drop while counting to 15. After I caught 6 plus fish, Karen switched to an intermediate line with the same set up. She hooked up a lot as well.  Karen counted down to 7 (her line sank faster than mine). The flurry of activity lasted about 90 minutes. It was awesome too! The action slowed around 3 pm. We still caught trout but it was way slower.

You have to be careful when this action happens. We both caught fish while dealing with releasing a fish, our lines were dangling in the water and fish grabbed our flies. You can lose a rod and reel doing that. We had to be way more deliberate! You also have to coordinate your casting to avoid nasty tangles. We just say casting. That helps a lot!

Time to get out there. Water temperatures are excellent and they will continue to drop. You may catch a fish of a lifetime.

A modified size 14 Flashaback Pheasant Tail. Red Bead and biot legs.

Hawkins Cheesies Rock

 

Fall is in the Air

What an interesting day out on the water. Migratory birds were getting quite active. We saw so many groups of geese and sandhill cranes today. Sloughs seem to have more resting/feeding birds than normal. We also know that boatman and backswimmers are getting active. Trout start to focus on shrimp as well! It is my favourite time of the year. The tiger trout start to colour up as do brown trout! Today we got a little bit of everything. That includes fall winds and trout moving shallow to feed. Karen and I loved our day.

 

Beaver Lake

Dr. Bill Young and I finally found a day that we could share his Marlon and get out on the water. The weather was less than perfect but we decided to make a dash to Beaver Lake that is a bit west then south of Caroline. It was pouring rain in Red Deer but if the weather radar was accurate, there was a window of opportunity. We got on the water and had an enjoyable day out on the water. We set up in several areas and were fly fishing with leeches hoping the boatman/backswimmer action would get going. We kept trying different depths and areas but the fly fishing was slow. We caught trout but the lake was not very active. Few fishermen caught anything all day!

Our intel told us that the lake was fishing well but later in the afternoon. For us and others on the lake the anticipated boatman/backswimmer action was sparse. Sigh!

What got us into several fish was hanging a size 14 Flashback Pheasant Tails about 3-5 feet below an indicator along edges/ drop offs. The Flashbacks were slightly modified with a red bead and biots for legs.

Dr. Bill has a 14 foot Marlon. It is a joy to fly fish out of the Marlon. The boat is incredibly stable and comfortable with lots of room for gear. I hope to get one soon!

As we packed up, I talked to several fishermen who told us, "We should have been there yesterday and the day before." Sigh!

It was a pleasure to fly fish with my friend today. Also, the weather radar was accurate. We had light showers here and there but for the most part it was just an overcast, cool day!

...also, if you go, be sure to have some flying ant patterns with you as well!