Fly Tying Mondays Start December 8th

 Good Morning Everyone!

I hope to get Fly Tying Mondays started on December 8th at Reliance Oilfied Services Learning Centre starting at 6:30 pm. Thanks to Adam Karras, we have an excellent facility and we are grateful for the the use of the learning centre. 

We are looking for presenters as well! You do not need to be an expert just willing to share a couple of your favourite fly patterns! The group will pay for the materials that are used!

Fly Tying Mondays is for everyone! Whether you are a beginner or an expert, we welcome everyone!

...Colin Allison photo

Here are the dates for fly tying Mondays.

Monday December 8th- Bob Vanderwater-Pumpkinheads and Blue Flash Damsels

Monday December 15th-Dr Bill Young- A Tribute to AK Best

Monday December 22nd-Bob Vanderwater- Christmas Theme

Christmas break

Monday January 5th-Bob Vanderwater- All Things Pheasant Tail-Part 1

Monday January 12th-Rick Miyauchi

Monday January 19th-All Things Pheasant Tail-Part 2

Monday January 26th- Bob Vanderwater-Tying with Pine Squirrel

Monday February 2nd-Doug Pullan-ants

Monday February 9th-Rick Miyauchi

Monday February 16th- Family Day-No Fly Tying

Monday February 23rd-Bob Vanderwater- Mitchell Lake Chironomids

Monday March 2nd-Raymond Evanson

Monday March 9th-Garnet Clews

Monday March 16th

Monday March 23rd-Ralf Kuntzeman

Monday March 30th

Here We Go. Another Tying Season!

Bring 

$5 to cover the cost of materials

Tying vice

Bobbin with basic threads UTC 70 black, olive, red, etc

sharp sissors

whip finish tool

dubbing twister

crazy glue or resin

hair stacker

There is always extra tools to share and most importantly mentorship for any tying skill level! We welcome one and all. There is no charge to join our group. Just come and enjoy the fellowship, learning and sharing with fly tyers from Central Alberta!

 

How to Get Started in Fly Tying-Charlie Craven

Charlie Craven offers excellent advice about how to get started on your fly tying journey! Take a look!

 

Thanks Dr. Bill for the Pheasant and Partridge Feathers!!!

We are just a few weeks from Fly Tying Mondays starting up! I asked Dr. Bill Young for some pheasant and partridge feathers after he went wing shooting. Well yesterday I got a delivery. It made me smile. Thanks Dr. Bill! I hope those pheasant breasts taste great! We now have enough feathers to cover the two workshops I will be doing based on this excellent book! Pheasant feathers are so versatile.

 

Simplicity

The fly fishing season is quickly winding down and that leads directly to fly tying for those who enjoy making their own flies. I enjoy fly tying a lot but I now find myself tying fewer patterns.  I keep using the same chironomid, backswimmer, boatman, bloodworm, callabaetis dragon, damsel patterns, etc because I know they work!

Yvon Chouinard, Craig Matthews and Mauro Mazzo just published a new fly tying book. You can see the cover below. I love tying with pheasant tails but what really caught my eye is the word, simplicity. I had to get a copy of this book for myself! The book came to my door shortly after it was published. It is an excellent reference and the fly patterns are mainly made from pheasant tail.

The final section of the book is a pheasant tail bonefish fly. I was definitely curious. I had no idea that there was a pheasant tail bonefish fly. I finally found Yvon Chouinard tying this simple pattern and talking about his experiences using this fly on You Tube.  Well you know I had to tie some for an upcoming trip to the flats in Belize. I will definitely put them to the test!

I will be sharing several of the fly tying patterns from this book during the tying season with our club! They are straight forward to tie and they are definitely fish catchers.

Some would call them "Guide Flies!" It is all about simplicity!

 

Another Great Day at Dickson

Another bonus day at Dickson. Doug and I headed back to Dickson and we were not disappointed. It was warm (15C) and the trout were mostly active as were the perch! Doug tagged several decent tiger trout on Tokaryks in the morning, I was catching mostly perch and the occasional tiger trout. We did connect with a few rainbows as well!

I had an excellent afternoon stripping blue flash damsels on an intermediate sink tip line. The tigers were chasing and I was able to connect a lot! That was a lot of fun! Doug started stripping blue flash damsels as well and he connected several times too!

There was ice in the back corner at Dickson but I would estimate that Dickson was 95% ice free and the water temperature hovered around 40F!

Geese were quite active today as well. I was distracted by three eagles chasing geese. You can imagine the noise. It was cool to watch!

Fishing slowed mid afternoon. That was just fine. It gave us an opportunity to explore although we ended up in the same area for most of the day! The weather forecast looks like colder weather is on the way!

...but today another bonus day at Dickson!

Blue Flash Damsel on an Intermediate Line

Migration

 

Bonus Day at Dickson Trout Pond

It's November 10th and the mercury was forecast to climb to 15C. The big question of the day was wondering if Dickson Trout Pond was still ice free. When Doug and I arrived at Dickson, it was already 11C and yes Dickson was ice free. It was windy in Red Deer but calm at Dickson. We could hardly believe our good fortune. We unloaded Doug's pram and off we went.

We motored to few spots that we like and caught mainly stocked rainbows from this year. We kept trying several spots and we finally found an area that had lots of tiger trout and they were hungry! They devoured our Tokaryk Specials for several hours.  Tokaryks about 6-8 feet down definitely got the attention of the rainbows and tiger trout! We also ran into a school of perch! Once we caught several, we left that area and found some more trout!  

I also streamer fished with a clear intermediate line and a blue flash damsel. I caught several perch! Sigh!

It was a beautiful warm day. When we got a light riffle on the water, the fly fishing really picked up. The geese were cruising above Dickson as were several tundra swans. It was noisy at times when the migrating birds kicked up a fuss! It was definitely a bonus day out on the water. Oh, by the way, the water temperature was just below 40F. I think we still have several days before Dickson freezes up! 

We saw Rick out along the causeway catching trout about mid afternoon!

 

Safety First

 I noticed that aerators are on within many of our Central Alberta Lakes and beyond. I know many fly fishers love ice fishing. Just remember that aeration will keep ice thin in parts of the lake. Please ensure you have the appropriate safety gear and don't take chances! Thanks to the ACA, many of our lakes' trout winter are able to survive winter!

Back to the Red Deer River for Walleye

Doug and I had a fabulous day on the Red Deer River today fly fishing for walleye! We had the truck all loaded up ready to make a last visit to a reservoir but we woke up to -11C. We figured that the small lake was frozen. Recent intel revels that Beaver Lake and Mitchell Lake both have partial ice on. Mitchell Pond at Heritage Ranch in Red Deer is completely frozen over as is most ponds in the area. Interestingly enough, Dickson Trout Pond was ice free today! So after a second cup of coffee, Doug and I headed to the Red Deer River to fly fish! We brought lots of nymphs figuring we would be trying to connect with Rocky Mountain Whitefish but we rigged up with balanced silver minnows and we chased walleye for the next several hours. Snow geese came over us as we tried to entice walleye to our offerings. We were both pleasantly surprised at our success. There is a bit of finesse in catching walleye. Jigging really helps to get the walleye to strike. The takes are so soft. You really have to pay attention. Doug had a surprise when his line ripped away. He hooked a sizeable river pike on his 5 weight rod. Doug landed the toothy critter without a break off! I told Doug he had a 1% chance to land the pike. 

Balanced Silver Minnow

Take a look right below to see how to tie this excellent walleye catcher:

https://rdflytying.blogspot.com/2025/10/tying-balanced-silver-minnow.html

There was very little wind today. Sun felt great on our faces. We both love being outside!

Just a reminder that Sylvan Lake, Gull Lake, Pine Lake along with many eastern slopes rivers are now closed. Always check the regulations if you are unsure. 

Hey, that isn't a walleye!

We landed several decent walleye!