Darren and his good friend Blake spent a rare sunny day recently on a central Alberta lake with Rainbows and Tigers that they had been meaning to try out for a couple years. It quickly became evident that conditions were perfect for fishing backswimmers. The challenge was providing them with the right backswimmer pattern. Blake had a simple version with a white bead that did well at the start of the "hatch" then petered out as they got more keyed in on the bug. Darren was having poor luck with his 4 variations on backswimmers but had caught a few fish on balanced leeches.
Then out of desperation Darren tried a pattern from fly tying night which he only had one of. At the time when Larry Prowse introduced the pattern (Hans Stephensons "Frosty the Snowman"), Darren liked the fly but wondered if any self-respecting trout would actually eat it. Turns out the aggressively feeding fish on this lake appeared to like it as a backswimmer and that one fly turned around his day. Darren fought and netted each fish carefully to avoid losing his only one. Thanks to Central Alberta Fly Tyers for introducing new patterns to try in challenging situations. Darren will be tying up more of these to have in his arsenal.These Alberta Tigers have less vermiculated patterning than what he saw in Manitoba, more like leopard spots. They sure pull hard!
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