Snowy Long Weekend in the Nordegg Area

My furnace in the trailer worked overtime the last 5 days while we camped at Fish Lake just west of Nordegg! Karen and I loaded up the trailer with warm clothes and fly fishing gear and headed out to camp with the usual suspects from our family to enjoy May long weekend. Everyone knows that typical May long weekend weather in Alberta can be rather unpredictable. Well we knew there maybe snow but we all decided to go anyway. We still had a lot of fun! A big tarp and a warm fire made all the difference in the world. Even our grandkids didn't mind the snowy cold.

We did have some very interesting fly fishing experiences.

There were very few trout in Fish Lake. The lake had not been stocked and it is usually the place we take our grandkids. Ice off was late and it looks like the stocking truck just had not arrived. We still fly fished and caught some carry over trout and in a couple of spots we caught several suckers. The suckers fought hard and of course we released them back into Fish Lake, aka Shunda Lake.

Well we decided to try Goldeye Lake, just a few km west of Fish Lake. We discovered that that it had been stocked and we found out it contained lots of very decent carry over trout from the last few years. We fly fished with balanced Pumpkin Heads until we discovered through throat samples that there was a chironomid hatch on! Once we started to fly fish with Rusty Nails and a modified version of Smoke on the Water (greyish chironomid), we were getting into a lot of trout. That included several decent ones in the 18 -20 inch range. What a nice surprise. We spent two days at Goldeye Lake. It was well worth the time and effort. I was surprised to see that Goldeye Lake was deep, up to 45 feet in some areas. There are several beautiful hiking trails in the area too!

Goldeye Lake

My Son-In-Law, Alan with a decent rainbow

We found the rainbows were eating chironomids. We tied on size 12 Rusty Nails and Smoke on the Water and caught a lot of trout! Smoke on the Water (chironomid below) was a great match! The rainbows were all over these chironomids!

Mornings always started off slowly!

Fish Lake-burrrr!-

Suckers on Fish Lake!

There is plenty of great hiking in the Fish Lake area! We even ran into a beautiful Great Grey Owl who even allowed us to photograph him!

Several opf the gang got out to the Fish and Game Lake, east of Red Deer on Sunday. there was a decent chironomid hatch and the rainbows really reponded to Rusty Nail Chironomids. Below, you can see two large rainbows landed by Hal!

Daphnia from a throat sample a few days ago taken by Adam!

Scuds! Thanks Adam for the recent throat sample!

May Long Weekend is Approaching

Hi Everyone!

May Long Weekend is upon us. How can you tell? Well a cold front seems to be rolling in with big wind. Typical.

I just got back from spending a week with my mom. Celebrating Mother's Day was a lot of fun. As we approached Calgary on our return to Alberta, we flew over the Red Deer River. That made me smile. I looked straight down from 30 000 feet and I could see the Bleriot Ferry Crossing. That was cool!

Most lakes in Central Alberta have been stocked. Kerbes Pond out Erskine way has been stocked and my neighbour and his friend confirmed that the fishing was excellent. I see that over 20 000 trout were stocked in Dickson Trout Pond. That should make for lots of excellent fly fishing!

Check the Alberta Stocking Page to see the current lakes that now have been stocked.

On May 15th, the Red Deer River below Dickson Dam opens. Be sure to read the regulations. Walleye and brown trout are catch and release only! Sylvan, Gull and Pine Lakes also open on May 15th.

Please be aware that some of the usual side roads off of Sylvan are closed to launching boats. See the pictures below. I assume that parking and damage at these "local" launches maybe the culprit! Bigger boats will need to run over to Sunbreakers and pay the launching/parking fees. I think there is a spot in town to launch for a fee but parking in town is super expensive.

Well, bundle up; get your kits ready. Be sure to get your fishing license from Alberta Relm. Be careful, there are some scam licensing web sites out there. Alberta Relm is the only place to get your fishing and hunting licenses on line. Of course you can purchase these licenses from reputable shops.

Stay safe and have a fun May Long Weekend.

My mom and I on Mother's Day

Photos around Sylvan are courtesy of Sylvan and Gull Lake Fishing Facebook Page

 

Early Season Fly Fishing in the West Country

Ice is just off of most of our west country pot hole lakes. Karen, Rick and I have been out having a great time sampling the early season fly fishing! Look at the fish finder below. The water temperature was a frigid 41 F just below the surface. The fishing yesterday was slow in the morning but once the water temperature got to 43 F, the fish became active. We sampled several trout that were feeding on tiny, size 24 chironomids. Rick and I had to laugh! Our best fly yesterday was a Tokaryk Special 2.0 although later in the afternoon, we found trout actively feeding on size 16 chironomids in a different location. We still fly fished with Tokaryk Specials but we added a chironomid dropper that got us several trout!

Today, Karen and I made a return visit! The water was a balmy 46F and by the end of the afternoon, it had edged up 2 more degrees F. Karen and I just fished with size 16 chironomids all day. We connected with browns, rainbows and tigers all day. We messed with our depths here and there but anywhere from 8 to 10 feet below a strike indicator got us into trout! Our best fly, was a variant of "Up in Smoke" chironomid size 16. 

The birds were a serious distraction while out on the lake. Sandhill Cranes, loons, eagles and osprey along with many shoreline birds made the lake feel alive.

The last two days were cool. We all brought our layers and that helped us be comfortable. It was a lot of fun out on the water. The last several trips have allowed us to shake down our gear and get everything set up just right!

Get out there when you can. The season is definitely off to a great start!

Size 24 chironomids, can you find the water boatman and backswimmer?

Bigger chironomids later in the day!

Lots of colourful tigers!

Leeches and chironomids. What a combination!