Happy Easter

Have a fantastic Easter everyone. I hope you can get together with friends and family. I am very grateful to be a Canadian and living in such a beautiful place. 

Time to get a new fishing license (AlbertaRELM), clean out your kit bag, put on a new leader and figure out what holes need to be filled in your fly boxes. Open water season is upon us now. Several rivers opened up to fishing yesterday and it will not be too long before our pot hole lakes are ice free. A new fly fishing season is all about anticipation. It is going to be awesome!

 

Fantastic Turnout for the Final Tying Session of the Winter Season-Backswimmers

 

Deer Hair Backswimmer tied by Rick Miyauchi

What a fantastic way to wind down the 2025-2026 fly tying season. We tied up three different types of backswimmers. That included tying up a deer hair backswimmer. That was a real challenge and I was impressed with your results!

The best part about the evening was the great turn out! I absolutely love seeing everyone working together, visiting and just plain having a great time!

...as we bring the tying season to a close for the group, the fly fishing season is amping up. I'm excited just like many of you! I do want to thank our presenters. We have such a diverse amount of tying expertise in our group. I am very appreciative to all of you who helped with the tying sessions. I especially want to thank Adam for all he has done to keep our gang tying at Reliance Oilfield Service Learning Centre. 

Keep checking back on our blog! There will be fly fishing reports, flies that are working and bug hatch information throughout the fly fishing season! See you out on the water!!!!

Head over to Alberta Relm to get you 2026-2027 Alberta Fishing License.

An example of the smaller boatman, tied up by Rick Miyauchi with deer hair! This is an Alfred's Boatmen!

If you like to work with spun deer hair, this is a tool you will need.

Rinse and Repeat (Phil Rowley)

Deer Hair Ultimate Boatmen

Reinforce your boatmen and backswimmers with clear Gorilla glue!

Boatman/Backswimmer Challenge-The Final Tying Session of the Season on March 30th

We have one last fly tying session this Monday, March 30th at 6:30 at Reliance Oilfield Services Learning Centre. The theme is backswimmers/boatmen. We will be tying two foam patterns that definitely need to be in your fly box. 

...and then we are going to try to  spin up a deer hair boatmen pattern. That will be a lot of fun and an excellent challenge!

Bring some white 6/0 and 8/0 thread as well as some olive 8/0 (70 denier) thread with you! It will be a great way to wind down the tying season! 

...also bring red, olive and black markers. We can share these around too so bring them if you have them!