Fall is in the Air

What an interesting day out on the water. Migratory birds were getting quite active. We saw so many groups of geese and sandhill cranes today. Sloughs seem to have more resting/feeding birds than normal. We also know that boatman and backswimmers are getting active. Trout start to focus on shrimp as well! It is my favourite time of the year. The tiger trout start to colour up as do brown trout! Today we got a little bit of everything. That includes fall winds and trout moving shallow to feed. Karen and I loved our day.

 

Beaver Lake

Dr. Bill Young and I finally found a day that we could share his Marlon and get out on the water. The weather was less than perfect but we decided to make a dash to Beaver Lake that is a bit west then south of Caroline. It was pouring rain in Red Deer but if the weather radar was accurate, there was a window of opportunity. We got on the water and had an enjoyable day out on the water. We set up in several areas and were fly fishing with leeches hoping the boatman/backswimmer action would get going. We kept trying different depths and areas but the fly fishing was slow. We caught trout but the lake was not very active. Few fishermen caught anything all day!

Our intel told us that the lake was fishing well but later in the afternoon. For us and others on the lake the anticipated boatman/backswimmer action was sparse. Sigh!

What got us into several fish was hanging a size 14 Flashback Pheasant Tails about 3-5 feet below an indicator along edges/ drop offs. The Flashbacks were slightly modified with a red bead and biots for legs.

Dr. Bill has a 14 foot Marlon. It is a joy to fly fish out of the Marlon. The boat is incredibly stable and comfortable with lots of room for gear. I hope to get one soon!

As we packed up, I talked to several fishermen who told us, "We should have been there yesterday and the day before." Sigh!

It was a pleasure to fly fish with my friend today. Also, the weather radar was accurate. We had light showers here and there but for the most part it was just an overcast, cool day!

...also, if you go, be sure to have some flying ant patterns with you as well!

 

Rinse amd Repeat-Backswimmer Pattern-The Video is Now Out

Boatmen and Backswimmers are getting active here in Central Alberta. Rinse and Repeat, a Phil Rowley pattern, is an excellent backswimmer pattern that I would highly recommend you add to your fly box. It is easy to tie and it is an effective backswimmer pattern. I have successfully used this pattern already this year. Fish this pattern on a floating, midge tip, hover or intermediate line. Your choice. It just plain works! 

Water temperatures continue to drop slowly! The fish are getting active!

 

Backcountry Brookie Bonanza

Karen and I laced up our hiking boots yesterday and walked a bit over to 10 km into one of our favourite lakes to chase brook trout! We have visited this area many times in Banff National Park! Remember you have to have a National Park Fishing License if you fish in the National Parks. We were lucky too. The weather was cool. We saw frost on one of the bridges. The wind even behaved itself. The brookies were all dressed up for Fall too! After the two hour hike (we hike a good clip), we strung up our rods. We fly fished with chubby chernobyls for the 5 hours that we were at the lake. The brookies would rise up and smash our chernobyls. It was amazing. We were also impressed by the quality of the brookies. 

The 11 km hike out seemed longer than the trek in but we had smiles on our face after an outstanding day.

Yesterday was special. We both loved the hike and the beautiful place we were in. We are lucky to have such gems in Canada.

Take a look!

Chernobyls

Frost!!!

 

Fall is in the Air

Fall is definitely in the air! Cooler mornings, shorter daylight hours, leaves turning vibrant colours and most importantly water temperatures coming down. As water temperatures drop, the trout will ramp up their feeding in preparation for winter.  One of my favourite times occurs when the boatman/backswimmer activity ramps up! I have seen light activity the last two times out. I have caught a few trout on Ultimate Boatman and Rinse and Repeat fly patterns. Oh, the video of how to tie a Rinse and Repeat Backswimmer will be out in the next few days! Get out there when you can!

 

Rocky Mountain Whitefish on the Red Deer River

Rocky Mountain Whitefish are usually not on the radar of fly fisherman. Karen and I love to chase rockies, especially on the Red Deer River. Today we decided to spend a few hours trying to catch whites. We had a blast too! The river flows are near perfect! We wandered to a run where we have found rockies in the past. We rigged up with Wiggle Worms and Rainbow Warriors. We have had a lot of success with that combination before. We fly fished through the run extensively and caught nothing. Hmm, what to do. We decided that maybe our flies are not deep enough so we decided to add split shot. We usually set our strike indicator at about 2 to 2.5 times the depth of the water. We went a bit deeper. Well we started to connect with rockies after we added the third and fourth split shot onto our leader. Finally we were in the zone. Lots of mending helps the flies sink down too! 

Where do you find rocky mountain whitefish?  Riffle water and a riffle with a drop. The surprise of the day occurred when Karen decided to fly fish with Lance Egan's Blow Torch. The whitefish certainly liked to chase this fly. Often, all you need is a Wiggle Worm and a size 16,  Rainbow Warrior.

Blow Torch (Lance Egan)

Karen did connect on a decent brown trout today. It shook off but browns will certain respond to these nymphs. 

Rocky Mountain Whitefish are definitely worthy adversaries, give it a try!

The Golden Stone hatch on the RDR must have been decent this year!