Tying the Balanced Silver Minnow

As I stumbled to the coffee pot this morning, the mercury was a frigid -12C. I had to look twice. Crazy cold this morning! Yesterday, I had a few hours before our house was invaded by my grandsons and their families, so I decided to tie up some Balanced Silver Minnows. I use this pattern a lot on the Red Deer River for walleye. I have had excellent success using this pattern for lake walleye and lake trout as well! You will see that I use a rabbit strip for the tail. Marabou works great too! The body is simply silver minnow dubbing and I add stick on eyes although that is probably mostly for me!

I get lots of questions about fishing this little gem. I dangle it below a strike indicator and jig it. There are places on the Red Deer River where I put it from 7-10 down. I look for structure. Rock piles, drop offs and riffle water are excellent places to look! The hits are so light too! A bump or the indicator just stopping means, set the hook!  I bet this balanced minnow would work great on the Bow River too!

Build some chassises! I like sizes 4 to 8 jig hooks, a brat nail and a 5/32nd tungsten bead!

Add the rabbit strip tail

Form a dubbing loop and add the silver minnow dubbing. Twist it up and wrap on the shank of the hook!

Add the eyes (optional)

 

Happy Thanksgiving

 Hi Everyone!

I am very thankful to be a Canadian. This weekend we are celebrating Thanksgiving! Last night a cold front rolled in and dropped our beautiful autumn weather temperatures to the freezing level. Burr! Rainfall turned to snow and just like that my lawn is white with snow. The snow definitely will not stay but it feels like fly tying season is right around the corner!

I am very thankful for my family although we have had a tough last year because of losing several family members. I raise my coffee and say good morning to my dad, who passed away a little more than a year ago on a daily basis! I miss him. Karen talks to her mom who passed away recently as well!

This morning, I am tying some Balanced Silver Minnows for the walleye on the Red Deer River. 

I am looking forward to seeing all of our close family to celebrate Thanksgiving! I hope you have the chance to cross paths with your family too!

Stay warm. 

Bob and Karen

Unlocking the Puzzle in the Fall

Every day is different! The water temperature, wind, what is available to the trout and how deep are the trout feeding are all things to consider. Some days it is tough to figure it all out!

Today was quite windy. A south east wind that became quite strong. The water temperature is below 50F and it is fall.

All we had to do is catch a trout and take a throat sample. Today the trout were dining mainly on hyalella shrimp (fresh water shrimp), immature damsels, darner dragonfly nymphs and daphnia! Take a look at the throat samples.

Karen and I started off with blobs and a Tokaryk Special, ...no takes. I changed to flashbacks which I cast and retrieved while Karen switched to Bubba Gump Shrimp and a Glen's Leech! Karen started hooking up on the Glen's Leech although we saw nothing in the throat samples to suggest that was a good decision! I had no hook ups stripping Flashback Pheasant Tails, hmmm!

Well Karen had settled on putting a Glen's Leech 3-4 feet below a strike indicator. She got a lot of takes. Well I switched as well and it was game on!

Trout love to dine on shrimp in shallow water. We set up so our leeches were just 2 feet down, real close to shore. We caught several doing just that! I thought that casting and retrieving shrimp imitations would get action. Not today for me.

As you can see, if nothing is happening; experiment. Karen constantly changed depths until she settled on 3-4 feet down below her strike indicator. Glen's Leech is a fall staple. For some reason the trout will dial in on this simple pattern.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 

Herder's Ranch

All of my grandsons (we have 5) love to fly fish! Well yesterday Karen and I decided to take Edwin and Oliver to Herder's Ranch (just south of Sylvan Lake) to fly fish for their 13th birthday! The boys thought we were joking when we said it is a trophy 2 acre pond. Both boys quickly realized that we were not kidding! They had an amazing day! We fished from 9 am to 5 pm. The boys were "unplugged" and outside all day. They just loved the fly fishing. They certainly got a lot of casting practice and they learned to deal with big trout. There was a minimum of carnage and lots of laughter! Above you can see Colby Herder with Oliver!  Oliver caught a gigantic brown trout! That was an amazing moment! We also caught brookies! We used blobs and white balanced flies. The big trout loved the white balanced flies and the mid sized trout were all over the blobs!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 

Red Deer River-An Excellent Fishery

Hi Everyone!

I was able to stumble down to the Red Deer River yesterday for a few hours. I haven't spent too much time on the Red Deer River. It is an excellent fishery. I was targeting walleye and I managed to get into several. I was using a balanced minnow pattern and a balanced Candy Corn fly.

Remember that brown trout and walleye are catch and release on the Red Deer River!

Fly fishing for Rocky Mountain Whitefish can also be excellent this time of the year. Target whitefish with Flashbacks size 12-16, Wiggle Worms, Frenchies-size 14-16 and Rainbow Warriors size 14-16. Find some riffle water and you will probably find some Rocky Mountain Whitefish!

Brown trout are stagging for spawning so I do not target them this time of the year.

You definitely will have shots at goldeye and perhaps a sizeable pike.

 

Burr, It is getting Cccold out There!

Karen and I just got back from visiting family in Ontario. It was good to see my brother and mom. I had a bit of a shock this morning when I saw the air temperature, -9C. It was 30 C in Ontario and the leaves on the trees looked spectacular!

Water temperatures have now gone below 60F, finally! The trout will definitely be putting the feedbag on!

I have heard some excellent fly fishing has been happening on our local pot hole lakes. Stripping flashbacks and shrimp patterns as well as hanging micro leeches below indicators should definitely get the attention of our trout!

Whitefish will now be back to the shallows at your favourite lake.

I wanted to follow up on my grandkids using flies with a spinning rod at Boulder lake. They had a blast and caught lots of stockies. Grandma was kept busy helping the rec ed class untangle and set up lines.

Yesterday our twin grandsons wanted to go back to Boulder  Lake after their ski practice. We arrived just as the rain showers moved in. The boys grabbed their fly rods and got into rainbows right away. They fished the drop off areas and their casts only needed to be 15-20 feet out. They used size 14 flashbacks with lots of success! Once they got soaked and cold, it was time for a hot shower and dinner!

Time to get out there!

Lots of fly fishing opportunities before our lakes and rivers freeze!

Leaves in Ontario near Muskoka

A Spinning Rod,  Bobber and a handfull of Flashback Nymphs

me and My Mom

Rain, who cares!

 

An Experiment

My one grandson was going fishing with his outdoor recreation class. Well it was probably best that we set him up with a spinning rod or some sort. I went down to the basement and finally found a casting rod and reel. I put on 6 pound line and then I went to Canadian Tire to get some small bobbers. The plan was to hang flashbacks below a 25 cent bobber.

Well it was time for an experiment. I used my fly rod and Karen used the spinning rod with a bobber and two flashbacks about 5 feet down. Our set ups were the same except Karen had a bobber big enough so she could cast it out!

Well after and hour, it was a tie, 5 each! The only challenge that Karen had was setting the hook was a bit harder. It was a lot easier to cast, especially for our grandson. I hope his day on the water is lots of fun!

Sometimes, fly fishing with a spinning rod just makes sense. It certainly will help kids get out and have a chance to catch some trout!

 

Cow Lake

Karen and I decided to check out Cow Lake the other day. They stock so many trout in Cow Lake and we wanted to see if they were catchable or not! Well it was a beautiful day with a "chinook arch" stretching across the western sky. The water temperature was 61 to 63 degrees. Not bad. We looked for trout in all the usual places that we have caught them before. We only caught pike. We set up with Tokaryk Specials. There was about 2 feet of visibility in Cow Lake. We fished undercuts, deflections, etc. We hooked lots of pike but not a single trout. The pike are in great condition too.

We were not surprised by the result but disappointed that after stocking the lake with over 50 000 trout, rarely results in catching them. Hmmm, no wonder the pike are fat and happy!

Three years ago the trout fishing at Cow Lake was amazing. The trout had over wintered several years and they were big. I hope that will happen again. Cow Lake is such a fertile lake although it is shallow and often winter kills.

Go to Cow Lake and strip some streamers. Take some time to try for trout but be mainly ready to chase pike. They are lots of fun on a fly rod!