Glorious Fall Fly Fishing in Central Alberta

The last few days have been special. Fall colours have been glorious the last 10 days in Central Alberta. If you have been out on the water, you probably have experienced decent fly fishing! Water temperatures have been close to 50F, and if you have been lucky water boatmen and backswimmers have made the trout quite active!

Yesterday Karen and I spent our time at Fish and Game Lake (West Lake) casting and retrieving backswimmers. Throat sample told Karen and I that the trout were feeding on daphnia and immature boatmen. Karen fished with blobs and micro leeches while I was casting and retrieving. I was doing very well while Karen was getting the occasional hook up.

My set up was a floating line with a weighted backswimmer 12 feet away with a floating backswimmer on the point about 4 more feet back. The weighted backswimmer made the floater dive. The hits were hard.

Today I spent some time at Boulder Lake near Blackfalds. My buddy Rick was there. He was doing well with a small Tokaryk Special while I was using my Bubba Gump Shrimp. I managed to land two rainbows in the 16 inch category! We both were waiting for the boatmen action to heat up. Well a chinnok was right over head and the wind was blowing quite hard so there were few risers. I did hear that Boulder was restocked just recently!

The weather will cool in the coming days but the fly fishing should be outstanding. I hope you can get out!

Boulder Lake under a Chinook Arch

Bower Ponds

 

A Hiking Adventure in Scotland

Karen and I just got back from a fantastic hiking trip in Scotland. We started to plan our hike on the West Highland Way two years ago and then Karen badly broke her right leg. What to do? Well Karen's surgeon thought that she might just recover fast enough to do the trip. That in itself made her quite determined to do the training to be ready. Karen only started walking in April. This was going to be a challenge. The training was tough but Karen's determination to be ready was impressive. Karen started off with crutches hobbling down the street a few hundred meters and the week before we left for Scotland, she walked 20 km. I knew she was ready. After only 7 months, Karen's dream to walk the West Highland Way was going to be a reality.

The hike itself was fabulous. Waking in the highlands is absolutely stunning. Some of the days we walked 25 plus kms. We also walked by many a trout stream that had brown trout, lochs with trophy brown trout and rivers that had amazing Atlantic Salmon fly fishing. Yes I was twitching but this trip was about something else.

I do have to say that the rivers we walked by seemed to be run by fly fishing clubs or by land owners. 

It was good for us to put the fly rods away and do this trip. We owe Dr. Bill Young a big thanks for encouraging us to do this trip. The 154 km walk was spectacular and we will remember it for years to come.

Well it is not winter yet. Time to get the fly rods organized and get out there!

 

John Geirach has Passed Away

John Geirach had a massive heart attack two days ago and passed away. John was an amazing author, trout bum and lover of bamboo fly rods. I enjoyed reading his books. Many of his books offered his insight to a lot of his thoughts about being on the water. He shared lots of his adventures some of which I had also done. I still reread his books. The fly fishing world is going to miss John.