Whitefish on the Fly at Sylvan Lake

We had to get the G3 out for a test run before heading to the Parkland Region of Manitoba next weekend! We decided that we would take a run out to Sunbreakers Cove at Sylvan Lake and chironomid fish for lake whitefish! The fly fishing was amazing. We fished for 4 hours and caught whitefish after whitefish. We even caught two walleye on chironomids. Of course Karen schooled both Larry and I.

The boat launch at Sunbreaker's Cove is excellent although you can avoid a long walk from the distant parking area by being early and getting a parking place near the launch! We headed over to the last point before the bay at the north west corner of Sylvan Lake.

We all tied on black and red ice cream cone chironomids and the lake whitefish were extremely obliging. The water temperature was 50 C. We set up in 8 feet of water and the action was continuous.

Thundershowers were hovering just west of the lake so it was time to head back to Red Deer before we all got drenched.

Sylvan Lake is mostly over looked by fly fishers. It is definitely a cool place to catch loads of lake whitefish!

Lots of double headers today!

Walleye on chironomids is not that unusual!

Tiki and Pepper love to go fly fishing!

Betty and Steve at Bullshead

Betty and Steve were at Bullshead Reservoir in the Cypress Hills just after ice off. As you can tell by the wintery cloths that they were wearing, it was rather cold. Now if you know Steve, he is usually paddling around in his float tube in a sleeveless t-shirt. So it is unusual to see Steve with all of those layers on!

Looks like Betty and Steve are now fishing out of new inflatable. Looks great you two!

The rainbows were biting and the Cypress Hills wind made it tough at times to anquor. Looks like chironomids were working as were balanced flies and Todd Oishi's, Vampire Leech!

Well done you two! Thanks for sharing your experience at Bullshead!

Barbecuing with Mayflies

It is a beautiful warm Friday. It was a perfect night to light up the barbeque and cook supper. As I was getting ready to cook, I noticed a mayfly on the kitchen window screen. Nothing unusual about that but after I started to look at the side of my home, I could see lots of mayflies and at least 2 different species. Of course I had to get out my camera and multitask. Cooking supper and photographing mayflies are certainly an unusual combination. I don't own a great macro lens but the images turned out not too bad! I love to take fly fishing related pictures and these Blue Winged Olives and March Browns were quite a distraction while I cooked! Luckily the chicken thighs tasted great with the awesome salad Karen whipped up!