The Fishing Was Great!

Finally; we have open water around the Edmonton area. Muir, Star, Chickakoo, Hasse, Morrinville Reservoir, Cardiff, etc.. are all open. Brent and I headed out to Muir Lake today for my first full day of stillwater fly-fishing in the Edmonton area since October of '07. Brent had been out to Muir a few times before today and knew a little about where the trout were feeding so around 9am, we made our way over to the south-east end of the lake where the shallow flats are located. The trout were schooling up in these flats feeding and frolicking in two to five feet of water. The odd thing about this is the numbers of trout that were schooling. There were large numbers instead of the two to four trout I usually see. They were stacked up like you see in the streams so I'm thinking maybe they were looking for a confluence to head up and spawn. Unfortunately because I was in my pontoon boat, I couldn't sight fish to the trout but Brent did well sight fishing using an olive baby bugger. I tried many different flies but only hooked into one on a damselfly nymph and lost it right beside the 'toon. At around noon I decided to head back to my vehicle because I forgot something and just as I oared past the island I noticed hundreds quickly turning into thousands of chironomid shucks on the surface. It was one of those hatches that every stillwater fly angler looks forward to and it just so happened we were right in the middle of it on my first day out. I'm sure I don't have to mention (but I will) the huge smile that grew upon on my face when I saw this. Brent came motoring up behind me and I pointed out the midge hatch now taking place. He then towed me into shore and by 1pm, we were back in the middle of the hatch. We tied on black chironomids with a bloodworm dropper to both out lines (not sure what patterns Brent was using but I had on my Thread Midge and Redd October). We were instantly into fish and it stayed pretty much consistent with only a few lulls until we were done at 4:45pm. I lost count of the numbers of trout I caught but Brent kept track of his 17. The biggest of the day was Brent's 22 incher and all were really fat even the 14 incher I caught. Here's one of the 19 inchers I caught today. Great day, glad to get out.

Camping With A Pot-Head

Saturday morning I headed out to Prairie Creek campground near Rocky Mountain House for the Alberta Fly Fishing Forum 1st annual conclave. Originally we had about 15 people interested in showing up but because of the weather reports calling for bad weather and the fact that the local stream and lake reports for the area were less than desirable, only five members and a wife showed up. The participants included; Jokey, EHC, Tee and his wife, Troutfisherwill and myself. Turned out the weather was absolutely beautiful and we didn't see any rain or snow. Will showed up late on Saturday afternoon and we had all taken off to fish Mitchell lake by that time so he just hung out in the campground and made himself some supper. Word has it that Nordegg Sonya showed up as well on Saturday afternoon but Tee's wife couldn't remember where we went fishing so Sonya left and unfortunately didn't return on Sunday. The boys tied up some flies after lunch but before hitting Mitchell lake we checked out Ironside Pond. Only the shallow water was ice-free so that made our choice easy. Fishing was decent, Tee seemed to hook into quite a few, not sure what his final numbers were. I netted eight rainbows with the biggest taping in at 18 inches and I lost three. All were caught on either the Redd October blood worm or my Black Thread Midge pattern. EHC & Jokey both caught fish as well so nobody got skunked. Talked for a bit with Don Anderson, that's always interesting as Mr. Anderson is such an interesting gentleman with a wealth of information.

When we got back to the campground, we introduced ourselves to Troutfisherwill and then cooked up some supper. After dinner we all headed over to Jokey's campsite and sat around the fire telling jokes and sharing stories. It was worth the trip just for this portion of the evening as things got quite interesting.

Once it got dark and the fire was roaring I noticed Jokey look over to the picnic table. I wasn't really sure if he was looking at the table or looking beyond it into the woods so I asked him what he heard thinking that he may have heard a bear or something. He said he thought he heard something fall off the picnic table. Then a few minutes later he looked again. Jokey then gets up and says he thinks the water in his frying pan may be freezing as the temperature had really fallen by this time and that's what he thinks he hears. As he inspects the pan I see something hit the ground at a very high speed. So I got up and grabbed one of the two Coleman lanterns on the picnic table and lower it to the ground by Jokey's chair. That's when I saw it. One big ass bug. It's called a Giant Diving Beetle (Dytiscus spp) and are seen throughout Alberta. So now that I knew what was making the noise, I felt better especially knowing that it wasn't a bear. But the satisfaction quickly turned into hysterics as these falling bugs became more frequent in the next half hour or so. So frequent, It got to the point where they started hitting folks in the head. Now, I found this all rather amusing but Jokey was rather disturbed by the whole 'attacking beetle thing' and after getting hit by one of the bugs in the head he decided a helmet was the appropriate course of action. At this point he decides to place a pot on his head. Of course upon seeing this I'm laughing so hard that my eyes are tearing. None of us know much about these bugs like whether they bite or not nor did we want to find out but luckily the frequency of the diving beetles eventually diminished and Jokey's helmet came off but not before we all had a good laugh. Who would have known that Jokey was a pot-head.

Sunday we made the decision to fish Prairie Creek. Jokey packed it in and didn't fish with us on this day as he wanted to get home in time to play hockey for his men's league team and he had come a day earlier so had already done some fishing with EHC on Friday. The lower potion of Prairie was like most of the streams in the Rocky Mountain House area looking a little like chocolate milk but up stream of our campground, it was fairly clear. I always wanted to fish Prairie Creek but my interests lie in the sections that hold the bigger brown trout and not so much the sections we were fishing for small brookies. That of course didn't stop me from enjoying a fun day on a stream with good company so after packing up our camping gear into our vehicles we drove to the nearest bridge. Tee and Troutfisherwill set out up the stream and EHC and myself followed. We found some really nice water with many very fishy looking pockets of water but the brookies were not interested in any of our offerings on this day as no fish were caught. After a few hours and a sandwich on the stream we decided it was time time to start the second half of our day and head back to Mitchell Lake. Not sure how many fish were caught on this outing but EHC and myself both netted one 16 inch rainbow and I lost a nice 18 inch brown. This was my first trout trip of 2008 and I want to thank all the folks that showed up, I had a blast. I hope the next conclave sees more anglers come out.

Tying My Favorite Midge Patterns

I spent both Saturday and Sunday tying midge fly patterns. Three patterns in sizes 16, 14, 12 & 10. In the order they appear here, these three are my all time favorite stillwater midge patterns.

#1. Redd October

This is a very simple midge larva pattern and the most productive pattern I've ever used. I invented this bloodworm pattern based on the red holographic butt section of my third favorite midge pattern, the X-mas Chronie. The trout's response to the Redd October was simply unbelievable. I've never had as much success with any other fly before or since. For step-by-step tying instruction and recipe go to my web site here.


#2. Doc's Thread Midge

I came up with my version of the thread midge in the summer of 2006 after a day fishing deep for lunker rainbows at Star Lake. Black chironomids were emerging and I was doing well until I ran out of black colored patterns. When I got home I went to tie up a dozen but didn't have and black material for the body so I just used black 8/O thread. When I went back to Star the next day, the fishing was even better so I've been tying them this way ever since. Click the pic for a larger view.

RECIPE
Hook: Mustad C-49S sizes #18 - #8
Thread: Black 8/O (other colors can be used)
Head: Black Bead size 3/32
Body: Black 8/O thread
Rib: Fine gold wire
Thorax: Peacock Hurl
Gills: Stillwater Solutions Midge Gill (white yarn)
The shine on the fly is from applying Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails.





#3. X-Mas Cronie

I invented this pattern at a Flies 'N' Beer night at my old club (Santannas). I wasn't sure if the fly would work or not but when I got out to Muir I couldn't keep the trout off. I tie this pattern on a Mustad C-49S Caddis Curved hook but it can be tied on any caddis hook. I've had outstanding success with this pattern on every stillwater fishery I've wet a line and if you give it a try, I'm sure you will too. For the recipe and step-by-step tying instructions, visit my web site here.

Entomology Continued

I found some more videos regarding entomology. These videos are fly fishing related as apposed to the last ones I posted. I hope you enjoy them.

This first video deals with the bugs you find in streams.





This next video deals specifically with the Damselfly nymph.





So as of today still not able to get out to any open water around Edmonton. We had a horrid snow storm that started Saturday and finished on Tuesday. Even up here in north-central Alberta, we don't usually get snow storms like that in April. The storm dropped over 30cm's of Snow (that's just shy of a foot for my American friends). The snow is starting to melt now and should all be gone by Sunday (again). Let's hope that that's the end of the snow 'til October. Since I'm wishing, I might as well wish for no snow 'til the end of November.

For all you hockey fans out there, you probably heard that the Calgary Flames (Edmonton Oilers arch rival) were eliminated last night by the San Jose Sharks. Being an Oilers fan, it's hard to root for the Flames but since they are a Canadian, I was hoping they would win. Since they didn't win though, I'd like to add...

This post has been brought to you by

Entomology Classes

You ever wanted to go to university and take an entomology course? While searching around YouTube I found some videos called Introduction to Entomology both parts 1 & 2 brought to you by the University of California. The videos an hour each and are not specific to fly-fishing but they do give you some detailed information about insects and their life cycles. Very informative videos that move along quickly but not highly entertaining by any means. Anyway, if this is something that might interest you then give them a look.







Here's a great little video called: Midges: Chapter 5 of the "Bugs of the Underworld" DVD. This video is a little more fly-fishing related and gives you stillwater fly anglers are great look at emerging midges.




And finally (nothing really to do with entomology though) here's a podcast from Fly Fish Radio with Mike Andreasen on Stillwater Fly-fishing. Good information here.




Stillwater Fly-fishing
(Click this link to hear it now)

Muir aerators are out

Dam! I forgot my camera at home today and didn't realize it 'til I was half way to the lake. I'm sorry to say I have no pics for this post and especially no photo of Emerson falling off the dock into the lake (he's so lucky no cameras were out). What a glorious day though. It got up to 23 Celsius which is 73F for my American friends. That's really nice for this time of year way up north here in Alberta. Our regular temps are around 9 degrees Celsius (48F) for this time of year. Anyway, I headed out to the lake but unfortunately not to fish. No, It's that time of year we take the aerators off of Muir Lake. If you're not sure what aerators are, they are like fountain sprayers that shoot water into the air to capture oxygen and it then gets cycled through the lake so the fish don't die during the winter. There are other forms of aerators as well but we use this kind. For more info click here. About 10 or 11 of us showed up all under the umbrella of the Fisheries Enhancement Society of Alberta (FESA). Included under that umbrella are four local Edmonton clubs: Trout Unlimited Canada (Edmonton Chapter), the Edmonton Trout Club, the Northern Lights Fly Tyers & Fishers and the Edmonton Old Timers Fishing Club. We have two aerators on Muir Lake and it took approximately an hour for each aerator. After that we enjoyed some BBQ'ed smokies and BS'ed for a while. There are some exciting things in the works for FESA and TU for this summer but I'll save those for another day. Anyway, Muir does have some open water but it's not open to fishing until May 1st. I didn't see any trout rising while I was there but I did see tons of water boatman, a couple of backswimmers and one damselfly nymph as well as a few adult midges. Michael Dell and I also saw two diving beetles, one was huge which he picked it up to show some of the guys. I thought it would bite me so I didn't even bother. Now that we've been out to Muir though, I'm getting really itchy to wet a line. Might have to make that Bow trip soon.

Naked Chick With Dick?

So what's all the internet buzz about right now? Well it has to do with fly-fishing. It also has to do with a naked woman. And a very well known someone by the name of Dick Cheney. This Whitehouse photograph of Mr. Cheney shows a great big smile and some nice dark sunglasses. But check out the reflection in the glasses. You gotta admit, it does look like a naked woman. For the whole story click here and draw your own conclusion. Oh; and how 'bout that title for todays blog post eh? Ya, I came up with that all by myself (Doc pats himself on the back). I wonder how many perv's will end up here?



Nice catch! But is it really fishing? I guess it could be considered fishing but it's definitely not my idea of fishing. This trout was caught at an indoor fishery located at Ouldleusen, near Dalfsen in the Netherlands.

Just outside of Edmonton close to Spruce Grove and just off the Devon highway, there's a pay and play pond. The name of the place slips my mind at the moment but my buddy Brent and I stopped in there one day just to take a look. We were told it's stocked with both rainbow trout and steelhead. The way it works is whatever you catch, you must keep and at the time we were there it cost $2.00 an inch. Now in my mind, that's not fishing as the pond is so small you could easily cast across it. I guess it would be ok to get a small child started into the sport of fishing but for an adult, I just don't see the sport in it. So an indoor pond would definitely be out of the question even at this time of year when our waters are either frozen over or closed to fishing. Your thoughts?

Stillwater Fly Fishing School

I must be a really good friend or just plain stupid. (I'm not looking for feedback on that statement). I'm now going to send potential clientel to my buddy Phil for close to the same thing that I offer (only I offer one on one instruction). What the hell, Phil's been a good friend and has taught me much since he's been in the Edmonton area. So with that said, if you're interested in a two day introduction to stillwater fly fishing school, here's your opportunity to learn from Mr. Rowley himself.

Fishin’ Hole – Stillwater Fly School Itinerary – May 24 & 25 2008

Saturday

9:00 – 9:15 Introduction and Opening
9:15 - 10:00 Understanding Lakes
10:00 – 10:15 Coffee Break
10:15 – 11:15 Equipment (Rods, Lines, Reels, Boats, etc.)
11:15 – 12:00 Knots and Rigging
12:00 – 2:00 Lunch Break (on your own)
2:00 – 3:00 Entomology (Bugs)
3:00 – 3:15 Coffee Break
3:15 – 4:00 Approaching a New Lake
4:00 – 4:15 Closing and Review

Sunday

9:00 Meet at Lake (to be determined)
9:00 – 9:30 Observation tricks and techniques
9:30 – 4:00 Fish ‘til you drop

NOTE: Course participants MUST have their own boat, pontoon boat or float tube

Course Cost is $150.00 + GST

Register Today at your nearest Fishin’ Hole retail store.




I'm almost finished my indoor spring cleaning and fixing. It's a week long process, you know, cleaning the storage rooms, vents and light fixtures, the covers for the bathroom fans; all the things you leave for that once a year cleaning. Plus I fixed all the loose and broken things around the house like the toilet paper roll holder as well as changing all the burnt out specialty light bulbs, tightening bathroom toilet seats and replacing the spray nozzle in the kitchen sink, etc, etc, etc. I just have the windows left to clean and then the garage. Ya, that #&%$ing garage! That might take me a week. If you saw my garage, it's pretty much a holding tank for everything we've accumulated over the years and don't want in the house. I'm really gonna have a garage sale this year and get rid of this stuff (of course I say that every year). So what does all this have to do with fly-fishing? Well here in Edmonchuck, there's really no fishing possible at this time of year as the trout lakes are frozen over still and the open water at Wabamun is closed to fishing for the spring spawn. So it's the perfect time for fixing and cleaning. You see that way when it comes time to hit the open water, my wife can't hold me back for unfinished tasks. There's nothing worse then telling your wife that you're going fishing and hearing that hated reply: "Are you forgetting you promised to fix the...". Of course if I'm feeling really sneaky I could just say I have a client. That works until she wants the income for the bank deposit but by that time it's too late. And then I pay for being sneaky.