Our Eastern Slopes Cutthroat Rivers

Our favourite cutthroat rivers are slowly coming into shape. Karen and I decided to go and take a look. We were carefully following the river flows and we decided to do some bush bashing to get to a few runs that did not require crossing the river. We certainly had to be careful. The river was definitely flowing high and extremely fast. We tried dry flies and we were lucky enough to connect with several decent cutthroat using nymphs.

If you go, please be cautious. The rivers are coming down but yet they are still unseasonably high. Several rivers west of Red Deer are dangerous if you do not show them the respect they deserve.

 

Chasing the Golden Stones on the Bow River

My good friend, Steve Luethi, invited Karen and I to join him for a float on the Bow River last Sunday. The Bow is flowing on the high side of average and is definitely off colour. There was about 2 feet of visibility when we launched at Fish Creek at 5:30 am. The Bow was humming but we were all game. Steve guides regularly for OFF, aka Out Fly Fishing. He knows the river well and he is fun to spend the day with. We started with large golden stone dry fly imitations. We hooked a few and landed some nice rainbows. We switched to jimmy legs nymphs and connected on several rainbows. Karen lost a large brown at the boat on one run. The golden stone hatch usually coincides with the Calgary Stampede. Many fly fishers call it the Stampede hatch.

Once we arrived at the Highwood River confluence, we drifted out to McKinnon's Flats. The Highwood dropped the visibility on the Bow River to just 6 inches or so. The fishing was tough but enjoyable. The river definitely was flowing super fast.

Karen and I enjoyed our drift with Steve. We both owe him a big thanks for inviting us along!

 

Fly Fishing at Fish Lake(near Nordegg)

Karen and I just got back from camping at Fish Lake, a few kilometres from Nordegg. The camping was amazing. While everyone was swatting mosquitoes in Red Deer, we were enjoying shorts and t-shirts with few bugs. The camping was superb.

We did get out to fly fish Fish Lake several times. The rainbows are not huge but there are a lot of them. The rainbows were also quite cooperative. Karen and I usually fished micro leeches with orange beads about 5 or 6 feet down below a stick indicator! The rainbows fight very well and every once in a while we connect with a second year fish or two.

The other neat thing at Fish Lake are the raptors. The osprey and eagles are constantly at the lake putting on a show. The loons are plentiful and they will almost certainly pay you a visit.

If you like camping, book a site and stay a few days. Now that gas prices have come down a bit, it is more reasonable to enjoy our eastern slopes fisheries.