Just a heads up for all the Moms & Dads out there.  Here are all the Kids Can Catch Events coming up in Alberta.

• Lacombe Kids Can Catch (June 1, 2019)
• Slave Lake Kids Can Catch (June 7, 2019)
• Grimshaw Kids Can Catch (June 8, 2019)
• Fort Saskatchewan Kids Can Catch (June 8, 2019)
• Taber Kids Can Catch (June 8, 2019)
• Beaumont Kids Can Catch (June 9, 2019)
• Cochrane Kids Can Catch (June 15, 2019)
• Lamont Kids Can Catch (June 22, 2019)
• Hinton Kids Can Catch (July 6, 2019)
• Coronation Kids Can Catch (July 7, 2019)
• Gibbons Kids Can Catch (July 13, 2019)

If you are not familiar with these events, each year, multiple Kids Can Catch events are held across the province. Volunteers are on-hand to help teach new anglers the proper ways to bait a hook, where to drop a line, and what to do once a fish has been caught.

Interested in helping make Kids Can Catch a success in the communities where you do business? There are many ways to get involved from employee volunteering to sponsorship. Contact Sheila Campbell at 780-410-1979 or sheila.campbell@ab-conservation.com.

For more info, visit the Kids Can Catch page here... https://www.ab-conservation.com/events/kids-can-catch/

Went For A Quicky :)

Finished work today and jetted home. It was 21c when I left and such a nice day I figured it was time to get the boat on the water, even if just for a couple hours. After ensuring I had everything I needed (or so I thought), I hooked up the boat and away I went. I pulled into the parking lot and started preparing the boat for launching when I realized, I forgot the depth finder. Oh well, I know Muir Lake pretty well and I fished for years at that lake without a finder so I wasn't going to let that stop me.

I steered the boat to the south end of the lake taking notice of the plentiful amount of chironomids on the surface of the water and anchored down in about 14ft of water after seeing some trout activity in the area. I noticed all different sizes of chironomid pupa and adults including some bombers so I set-up my rod using my usual set-up when I'm seeing chironomid activity or when I'm not sure what the trout are feeding on. This static presentation setup includes a long tapered leader, an indicator and either two chironomids or a leech patter and chironomid combo. I decided my first fly would be small olive leech pattern and the point fly, my Big Ass Bloodworm patter.  It was 6:30 PM before I made my first cast. As usual, I set my point fly one foot off the bottom and after about 4 casts, I'll pull my rig up and secure the indictor one foot closer to the flies. The wind was whipping up pretty good and probably offered a little to much action on the flies so using the boat as a wind break, I kept my presentation only about 10-15ft from the boat. It was about 30 minutes in when I got the take. It was aggressive

and the indicator went down with purpose.

She took the bloodworm pattern and as I was fighting her and trying to get her on my reel, I looked down in the boat and realized, I forgot my net. It all worked out however, I was careful to remove the hook after hand landing her. I picked it up for this quick photo and released her back to her lair. If you're not familiar with Muir Lake, the regulation stipulates, you may keep one trout per day over 20 inches, all trout sizes 20 inches and under must be released back into the lake. In all honesty, from my experience fishing local pothole lakes for the last 42 years, anything over 14" tastes muddy anyway so you may as well release them, even on the lakes where you can keep 5.

I headed over to the north side and fished by the dock until 8:30 PM. I don't have to check the stocking report to tell you Muir has already been recently stocked. I caught a bunch of them and they look to be about 5 or 6 six inches. Fun couple hours anyway, nice to get the boat wet.

First Venture Of 2019

 It's been a really long time since my last blog post. I'm not even sure people still blog, do they? Well, I'll start my first fishing venture of 2019 with how things went at Salters Lake.

I started the day off, arriving to the water at about 9:30 am. When I left my house the temp was 0c and when I got to the lake it had risen to +2c. I finished setting up my first rod with a two chironomid/indicator set-up. Then I went to the truck and warmed up. Back outside and set up a washing line using a weighted leech pattern with a size 16 boatman on the point. Then I went in the truck and warmed up again.

After I pieced together my smaller pontoon boat (the IR9 has a bladder leak and the Cougar takes longer to set up), I went back in the truck for one more blast of heat, then I headed out on the water, it was around 10:30 am.

On May 17th I turn 52 years old. They say age is just number but I’ll challenge “they” because as I sat there in my truck staring out at the lake, warming up for the 2nd time before I embarked on my first fishing adventure of the year, I came to the realization that I am no longer a 'hard core' fly fisherman. Yes, I’ve gone soft. I so wished it was +21c with the sun shining on my face. I even thought about packing up the rods and going back home.

The wind was pushing over 20km/hr, the water was about +6c and air temp did eventually reach +10c but that wasn't until home time. The water was stained, almost a tea color and the lake had recently been stocked with little 6 inchers just days before which is known to put down bigger trout in the lake. I know I should have spent more time changing flies and moving around the lake looking for active trout but I didn't. My buddy Joe did hook into one decent size trout but other than that nothing over 6 inches was caught. Did I mention it was cold?