I wasn't planning on fly fishing the Red Deer River today but I'm glad I did. My fly fishing day began at Dickson Trout Pond. It was completely ice free and I wanted to spend a few hours there so I could see what was going on. In a word, nothing! Well I did get some exercise walking the causeway trying to hook up. After a few hours of being skunked, I decided to head back to just below the Dickson Dam. I had my walleye box along so I decided to give it a go!
I pulled on my Muck Boots then tied on my trusty balanced minnow pattern and drifted it slowly in an eddy about 9 feet below a strike indicator while making small jigs by pulling the line. The conditions were excellent. Quite overcast and very little wind was the order of the afternoon! It was not too long before I connected with a sizeable walleye. That turned my fortunes around. I hooked up again and landed a 5 pound walleye then I was broke off by a dandy walleye heading towards 7-8 pounds. Darn. Then something cool happened.
There was a commotion across the river. I thought it was a beaver but then it pulled its upper body way out of the water and I could see it was a river otter. It was huge too. I bet those walleye make for excellent dining for the otter. Before I could get a good shot with my phone, it was gone.
Well the walleye fly fishing was excellent for the next 2.5 hours. I did change to a candy corn balanced fly and I had excellent results with it too!
I think the key to the walleye fly fishing on the Red Deer River is to fish slowly and set on any bobble on your strike indicator, even if you are late with the hook set.
This morning Karen and I walked along the trails and we saw just about every pond frozen. Lake water temperatures have dipped below 40F. Get out if you can. We have some warm weather coming later this week! Lakes will be frozen over very soon!
