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 f
ly-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 Bre
nt 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.
ly-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 Bre
nt 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.
3 comments:
Did you fish your flies under an indicator? Or some other method. Like your blog!
Awesome! What a fantastic day and amazing photos to boot!! Wish I was there.
Ya, I find fishing with an indicator gets me more hits as apposed to fishing naked when I'm fishing with chironomids. When fishing naked, you have to rely more on feel and at times the takes can be very, very soft making it much more difficult to hook up. Michelle, it was a great way to start the season. Thanks for the kind words.
Post a Comment