Another Beauty of an Afternoon Below the Dam

It felt like the calm before the storm. Warm, no wind and active walleye! I had three hours out at the dam. There is a nasty snowstorm rolling in tonight so I wanted to take advantage of a barometer dropping, beautiful weather and maybe aggressive walleye. It all worked out too! The larger walleye were on the prowl and I had the good fortune to connect with several. The interesting thing for me was I used ice minnows. My usual blue and white clouser minnow did not get very much interest.

Retirement does have its advantages. Awesome afternoon out on the Red Deer River!

Walleye on The Fly on the Red Deer River

What a delight. I love swinging clousers on the Red Deer River with my spey rod! The warm air was going to be around for a few hours, so good timing was important! I am not ready to put the fly rods away quite yet! Most of our trout lakes are now covered in ice and our eastern slopes rivers are mostly closed. The options narrow. The Red Deer River, the Blue Ribbon Bow, the Crowsnest River and of course certain sections of the Oldman River remain open. They are all great choices when warm air spills over our mountains. Usually warm air is accompanied by wind this time of the year. Thankfully today that was not the case.

I was using my spey rod today. I used a clear intermediate sinking line and clousers that has a stinger hook. Worked great! Keep an eye on the weather forecast. There will be some warm air around for the next little while!

It Was Snowy, Cold, Blustery, Icy and an Awesome Day Out on the Water, ...Freeze Up is Close

The recent snow almost discouraged us from going. Yesterday I actually skied so it was time to shift gears. Right? Wrong! We had to go and we were glad we did. Karen, Colin and I bundled up and had a great day chasing rainbows. The pot holes and sloughs as we travelled out to fly fish were pretty much frozen. As we bumped the last few kms down the gravel road we held our breath and surprise, there was open water even though the shallow bays were indeed frozen. The wind was a big factor in keeping the water open. We lucked out! I am sure the migrating ducks, geese and tundra swans were in a rush to head south.

The edges were frozen and we had to break some ice in order to set up and fly fish with our ice minnows! Well the fishing was about average but perhaps excellent for this late in the year. We targeted shallow areas. 

The entire area looked wintery but with open water, it was a great place to be. Pepper loved nosing around the snow as we fly fished.

The temperature crawled above zero so tromping around was lots of fun, especially on the leeward side of the lake.

I am sure there is more open water but the weather is going into the tank this week. Try and get out if you can!