The Central Alberta Fly Tying Club meets during winter months. Weekly tying sessions begin at 7pm. Call Bob Vanderwater 403. 347. 3802 or email rdvanderwater@gmail.com
A few days ago, my electric motor started to vibrate. A quick check told me to take the prop off. I had inadvertently picked up someone's fishing line. An easy fix. Sometimes we do not take the time to inspect our gear and have it running in top form. The difference in performance was amazing!
A few days back, Warren was launching his pontoon boat at West Lake. He saw a damsel migrating to shore to climb up in the reeds and transform into an adult. Karen and I tucked that little moment into our memory banks. Yesterday, I saw two damsel nymphs swimming just below the surface. They were migrating to shore. At that point, I took off my blobs and changed up. I lengthened my leader to about 15 feet, took off my strike indicator and tied on two damsel nymphs. I started to fan cast because trout were definitely near the surface. It took about 20 minutes before I got my first take but the strike was hard and vicious. The trout was several pounds and the tussle was impressive. In the next 45 minutes I was lucky enough to connect with 3 more trout doing this. At the same time, Karen was indicator fly fishing with blobs. She was connecting too!
I love casting and retrieving. What I should have done is set up a bit closer to shore. The reason is that the damsels are heading to shore to transform into adults. Yesterday the weather was quite unsettled in the afternoon. We had just 3 hours out but it was so interesting.
One of My Favourite Short Videos of Brown Trout Eating Damsel Adults
Karen and I had a few hours yesterday afternoon so we slid out to Sylvan Lake. We launched at a small side road at Palm Bay. The wind was coming up but it held off enough that we had a few enjoyable hours of fly fishing. We used our small blood worms and we just kept our flies about a foot off of the bottom in 5 -7 feet of water! We motored over to the west end of the lake. The lake whites are great fighters and at times you will get into walleye and perch! Sometimes we use chironomids. A size 12-14 black and red ice cream cone or a black sally is all you need. Sylvan Lake is definitely a destination to check out with your fly rod!
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller
Yesterday felt like Ferris Bueller Day! Karen, my buddies Jay and Doug and I were out on the water enjoying a big blue sky day. The conditions were perfect too! There were others out on the water from our club too! The fly fishing was a bit challenging at times although the blob and rusty nail got us a decent number of trout! Yes, those midge sized chironomids were still hatching. The trout must have a stomach ache after eating all of those minuscule morsels! Well blobs saved the day again although we did catch a half dozen on Rusty Nail Chironomids. It definitely was a day to enjoy the beautiful weather and do something you loved!
Karen and I got out to West Lake yesterday. What a beautiful day. We arrived about 11 am. The chironomid fishing was outstanding for the first 90 minutes using a Rusty Nail (Chromie with a mahogany rib). Then the action slowed down. Out throat samples were quite amazing. Teeny tiny chironomids and I mean small. There must have been an enormous hatch going on because every trout was on them. I don't have anything that would match these mini me's so Karen and I decided to fly fish with blobs. Then we started to catch fish again. We think that the fish were simply straining these tiny morsels. That means the trout were swimming around with their mouth open and eating.
It was awesome to talk to other fly fishers. In this case, sorting out depth and what presentation works was key to success!
Everyday is different and it makes the fly fishing interesting!
The weather seemed to change every 20 minutes today. Pulses of showers moved in and out. It made for constantly changing conditions. Karen and I decided to stick with a Rusty Nail Chironomid until we saw what the trout were dining on. What we learned was that the trout were eating a variety of different foods and not just one. Take a look at these two short videos of throat samples. Water mites, shrimp, chromie like chironomids, and leeches were in the throat samples. I would have to say that shrimp seem to be the main food item.
What was the most important factor in success today? DEPTH. We experimented with depth until we got into fish. For us that was 10-11 feet down in 12-14 feet of water.
We did catch several sizeable rainbows today, mostly a factor of depth although our trusty rusty nail made a big contribution!
The last few days have been quite interesting on our local lakes. Yesterday's overcast rain showery day included a very sustained callebaetis hatch. These mid sized grey mayflies are great little morsels for the trout to feed on. Splashy rises to eat a dun can make this hatch quite visual. The trout could be on the callebaetis emergers or the actual nymph so you have to be prepared. A grey parachute adams, a pheasant tail, a herl may are all great patterns to have handy as is a flashback that you can cast and retrieve.
Today, Karen and I tied on a Rusty Nail Chironomids (John Kent pattern) and we both had an outstanding day of fly fishing. Chromies with black ribs or mahogany ribs fished very well when fished 10 plus feet down in 12-14 of water. A Bubba Gump Shrimp early in the day would definitely get you into fish as well. Take a good look at the throat samples from today. They can definitely tell you what the trout are dining on!
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