Steve Luethi's Spectacular Photography on the Water

Steve Luethi is a passionate fly fisher. He is always seems to be off on another great adventure. Steve is ready to wear the soles down on his wading boots to get to the places less travelled. This year has been no exception. Steve has been all over the province fly fishing.

What I truly love is Steve's photography skills. He takes outstanding pictures. His images have made fly fishing publications a number of times. Many can be seen displayed at TC Outfitters here in Red Deer.

Take a look. Several thing will strike you. Steve gets out a lot on the water, and he is both a skilled fly fisher and photographer. Thanks for sharing some of you shots Steve! Awesome!

Remember to click on the images to make them larger!

Cutthroat Fly Fishing with Family!

Boy it's HOT! It was a perfect time to latch onto the trailer and head west with Karen along with Kate and her husband Adam. We set up camp and the kids and Karen disappeared for the day while I watched the hounds (Tiki and Pepper) as well as fly fished around camp. Well they came back at dinner time with big smiles. The dry fly fishing was awesome. All three of them latched onto some beautiful cutthroat. Sweet! We fished for two more days. The cutthroat were willing most of the time. The camping was fantastic. Better still, our kids have developed a great appreciation for escaping into the backcountry to fly fish. It is a great way to escape the city, noise and enjoy being outside. What a great way to escape the heat.

Karen and Kate in action!

Kate with a nice cutthroat!

Adam was constantly into the cutthroat!

Nice shot Adam!

Rise Forms and Fussy Browns

Getting schooled by some smart brown trout teaches you lots. Sometimes just stopping and watching them can give you a clue about what they are dining on! On the long weekend, I was camping out west of Red Deer with my family! I wanted to fish along one of our few spring creeks in the evening. There were brown trout actively feeding. It seemed that on each stretch, the browns were focussed on something different! One one stretch it was caddis, on another small pale morning dunes and on yet another stretch it was brown drake emergers. 

If you stop and watch the trout rise for a bit, you can tell if they are cycling and if they are eating on the surface or just below it.

I have also learned not to cast unless you see an active fish and have a plan. Randomly casting will just spook the browns and they will be gone.

If you see a bubble in the rise form, the trout are probably eating on the surface, if there is a dimple, look carefully and see if they are actively feeding on emergers!

This brown was eating very small bugs off of the surface and also just below the surface.

A brown drake emerger finally got this brown. Caddis, brown drake duns, PMDs did not get the hook up.