Doc's Ol' Blog House

Happy New Year

2011-12-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

Another Christmas come and gone. Mine was filled with friends, family and good food. I hope you got together with loved ones as I did. Soon another year will be upon us. Looking back on 2011, with the late spring we had here coupled with a really wet summer, the season seemed to appear and then vanish in the blink of an eye. 2011 saw my first classroom setting fly fishing clinic which I taught along side fly fishing guru Phil Rowley. I also introduced beginner fly casting lessons this last year and spent many evenings teaching those new to our sport as well as many weekends on the water with my one-on-one introductory stillwater clinics. I finally put my plan into play to visit the Parklands region of Manitoba last June but things didn't work out quite the way I had hoped. New plans are now being made to make it there in May 2012. I did manage to make my way back up to Swan Lake after many years and spent some successful days fly fishing the Blackstone River with some great company. I also spent a few days fishing some of the nice lakes in the Caroline/RMH area, the lakes there are much more scenic than our lakes around the Edmonton area and just as productive. I hope when you reflect back on 2011, your fly fishing experiences also draw as big a smile on your face as they do on mine. I'd now like to take this opportunity to thanks all of those who booked with AlbertaStillwaters.Com in 2011, thanks for making us a part of your fly fishing experience. And I'd also like to wish each and everyone of you reading this, a happy new year and an enjoyable but safe 2012 fly fishing season.

Stillwater Fly Fishing... "it's the most wonderful time of the year".

2011-09-09T11:18:00.000-06:00

If there were only two months that I could be out on a stillwater fishery, they would have to be June while the chironomids are presenting themselves throughout the water column in huge numbers and then again in September. Staples office supplies has focused a lot of their advertising around this time of year with a Chistmas jingle... "it's the most wonderful time of the year". Of course they are referring to our kids going back to school but I like to think more along the lines of waterboatman and backswimmers. These air breathing insects are maturing now and becoming more active as they start their migration/mating flights and the trout are starting to key in on them in a big way.

Waterboatman Mottled Shellback

Boatman & backswimmers both need to surface for air. They trap a bubble of air once they've surfaced and head back down into the water. Boatman are the smaller of the two with a tan or masking tape colored underside and a dark mottled shell back or wing case. A mature boatman usually doesn't get any bigger than a size 12 and patterns using a size 14 hook would be typical. Water boatman feed under the surface on plant life like algae although some species are carnivorous. Backswimmers are the larger of the two and have a dark underside with a light, often cream colored wing case with darker markings. Backswimmers typically hang upside down in the surface film when looking for prey and when it finds it, with lightening speed will attack, then using it's piercing mouth parts, it will suck the juices of it's victim. Backswimmers will feed on water boatman, snails and other aquatic life forms but be careful, those that incorrectly handle a backswimmer could get a nasty bite similar to that of a bee sting. Mature backswimmer patterns can be tied up to size 8 but sizes 10 & 12 are typical. Propulsion of both species come from large oar like legs and are the key ingredient in pattern imitation.

Waterboatman Underside

The observant fly angler will notice these insects constantly rising to the surface then heading back down. As they use their long legs to descend, an erratic motion will also be seen caused by the boatman or backswimmer fighting the needed air bubble that wants to bob the insect back up to the surface. Using floating patterns and an erratic retrieve does an excellent job at imitating how the naturals move under the surface. Sinking lines and especially tradition sink lines will have your patterns working in a "U" shape as your patterns are stripped in. Most takes will come when the flies are ascending to the surface as trout will follow them up. Stopping your retrieve and hanging your flies near the surface will often be productive. On a day that triggers a mass migration/mating flight (usually a very cool night followed by a warm, sunny, autumn day), you may see what looks like little rain drops. These are the boatman/backswimmers falling from the sky. If there is enough boatman & backswimmers hitting the water, it will cause a trout feeding frenzy where the trout will stay near to the surface attacking rain drop after rain drop. The fishing on these days can be unforgettable and simply casting into or near a rise ring will bring instant success. Both waterboatman & backswimmers can dive down to 30ft or more to deposit eggs but shallower water will hold more of these insects. Try depths of 15ft or less.
If you would like to learn about stillwater fly fishing, book a clinic with me and experience how great this time of year can be. For more information on my stillwater clinics or casting lessons, visit my stillwater site at www.albertastillwaters.com.

Here are some patterns that have worked well for me, tie up some for yourself and go out and enjoy... "the most wonderful time of the year".

Doc Swimmer

For step-by-step:

http://www.flyfishingtechniques.co/fly-tying/2011/03/how-to-tie-a-backswimmer-fly-pattern/

Water Docman

Recipe:

HOOK: Dry sizes 16 to 12
THREAD: Black
BODY: Tan nymph skin
SHELL: Brown sheet foam

LEGS: Super stretch floss

L.R. Boatman

For step-by-step:

http://www.flycraftangling.com/index.asp?p=145&szArticleButtonCommand=view&nArticleID=43

Jennings Ultimate Boatman Video From SFOTF

Tying the ultimate boatman using white body foam and coloring up the top with a dark marker while mottling the bottom of the fly makes a great backswimmer pattern as well.

July 31st, Summer Finally Here?

2011-08-01T18:45:00.007-06:00

Another wet month for Alberta and summer, as we are used to, just never seemed to arrive. The rivers have remained high due to continuous rain, many are still unfishable but some are finally flowing clear and low enough to cast some dries and catch some fish.

Last year around this time, a buddy of mine talked me into fishing the Blackstone with him. Not being much of a moving water guy, I reluctantly accepted his request and ended up having a fantastic day on the river. So when the phone rang and Garnet asked if I would be interested in coming down to fish the Eastern Slopes with him, the name Blackstone popped out of my mouth instantly. After an ok from the better half and a confirmation from Joe that he too would be joining us, plans were made.

After a bit of exploring in Garnet's 4X4, we decided to park and get geared up. It was close to noon when we decided on a spot to park and hike down to the river. It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday and the weather report didn't call for any rain. We really didn't know what to expect when we started heading into the bush from so high up or how we would make our way down to the river but things worked out nicely as we were fortunate to come across a little camp atop a ridge overlooking the river. The camp was surprisingly in good shape featuring a good size fire pit, lots of cut wood, a prep table, an outdoor shower and what we have to believe is a bathroom. Although we all thought this little camp was quite clever, the fortunate part came while starting down the steep ridge. As Joe was traversing down he came upon a set of steps that have been carved into the side of the mountain. The creators of this little camp really did think of everything.

Outdoor Shower

This section of the Blackstone was new to us and a lot more remote than the section we usually fish from the bridge to the gap. It proved to be a good choice as the cutthroats were very willing to take a drifted fly. I decided to fish with a foam stimulator as we headed up stream and then switched to a large white and purple popsicle leech to fish on the way back downstream (hoping to hook into a bull), Garnet started with a small mayfly and later switched up to a stimulator and Joe enjoyed experimenting with several different flies and set-ups throughout the day. Between the three of us, we hooked up with about 60 cutties all between 6 to 18 inches. What's really sweet about the Blackstone is how close you are to the next great run or pool. Although we did a lot of walking, we also did a lot of fishing. It was hard to actually decide what pool we would stop at and start to make our way back, the thought of all the great pools to come could get a guy in trouble as time flies by quickly when the fishing is this good. I think one more trip before the snow flies is in order. Garnet, you can call me with an invite anytime buddy.

Dog Days Of Summer Special

2011-07-13T17:34:00.002-06:00

If you've always wanted to learn how to cast a fly rod or wanted help in figuring out the secrets to stillwater fly fishing, the time is now. Between July 15 and August 15, take advantage of these great specials at AlbertaStillwaters.Com. During 'The Dog Days Of Summer' we're offering 2 for 1, two hour fly casting lessons and $50.00 off one-on-one introduction to stillwater fly fishing clinics. Fall fishing, whether you're fishing streams or stillwaters, are known as some of the best fly fishing of the season. Get ready for fall now and by the time the leaves change color, you'll be practiced up and in prime condition to take full advantage of what autumn has to offer. Casting lessons take place on the north side of Edmonton and our clinics are just 30 minutes away. For more on beginner casting lessons and our stillwater clinics, visit AlbertaStillwaters.Com now.

A Wet June

2011-07-03T13:28:00.001-06:00

The month of June was a wet one. I believe the Edmonton region ended up with over 100mm of rain which was great for the our local lakes as we saw water levels rise significantly. It didn't seem to effect most of my clients as they proved to be real sports and showed up for casting lessons and stillwater clinics ready for a wet day. Although Muir Lake is showing signs of improved water levels, due to a partial winterkill, it hasn't been fishing as well as in the past. Gone are those days of 6-8 fish per hour but don't let it dishearten you, there are still some slabs to be found with trout still being caught up to 23 inches and I'm sure there are bigger ones yet.

On June 21st, I took some vacation time and headed up to northern Alberta's Swan Lake. My original plans of hitting the trophy lakes of Manitoba's Parkland Region fell through but I was happy to revisit some old stomping grounds in the Peace River Region.

I got to the lake around noon and set up camp. After pitching my tent I went looking for the pay box and after inquiring about it's location with my neighbors, I was pleasantly surprises to find out the camp sites were free. I had never camped at Swan before, only fished it and the sites aren't many nor are they all that pretty but free works for me. It was a windy first day but by the time evening fell, the wind died down and all was peaceful on this great fishery. That evening on the water saw lots of trout in my net but as with many fishing stories, the big ones got away. I was a little surprised to see the blue-green algae bloom so thick this early in the season, to compensate, I rigged up an olive wooly bugger with a BA Bloodworm on the point fished a foot off the bottom. For algae to flourish, it needs sunlight and plenty of it so it usually won't be found more than 10ft down from the surface. Getting my presentation below the 10ft mark proved to be successful. The two guys camped beside me were also fly fishermen from Edmonton and we spent some time on the water chatting. I helped out one of them in showing some chironomid techniques and then I ended the night fishing caddis dry flies near the boat launch and hooking up with a few risers.

Doc's BA (Big Ass) Bloodworm

Day two was hot, damn hot! I was on the lake early after a couple of campsite-made egg mcmuffins and a couple cups of instant coffee. I did well fishing in the center of the lake this time with a white beadhead Snow Cone chironomid as the dropper and a Red October bloodworm on the point fished in 15ft of water. I did get some 20+ inch trout to the net but again the big one got away and took my bloodworm with it. The algae bloom was thicker today and getting thicker by the minute. By the the time I got off the water at 1pm, the algae was starting to mat on the shore lines. To escape the heat, I took a drive into Valleyview with the air conditioning cranked and picked up some ice for the cooler and some sunblock. When I got back to camp, I decided it was still too hot to fish so I took a nap in the tent. I got back on the water at about 6:30pm and fought a strong wind while I worked my way over to the east side of the lake to find some shelter from the trees. The algae bloom was pretty intense so I looked for water deeper than 10ft. I finally found a spot that was 11ft and dropped my chironomid rig in the water. Success was quick and the trout were big. I got a 22 incher to the net and quite a few just under that mark but also lost a few bigger ones. The action finally slowed down near sunset so I drifted with the strong wind casting a black bead head wooly bugger on a clear intermediate sinking line. I landed another four on the way back to the launch.

Day three was not as much fun. I drove out to East Dollar hoping to hook into a few browns but the weather was not cooperating. After I set up the pontoon I got about a half hour worth of fishing in before the lightening forced me off. In that short time, I had to switch from a chironomid rig to a wooly bugger as the stockers wouldn't leave my chironomids alone. They wouldn't even let the flies sink before attacking them. Once off the water, I waited in my car for the thunderstorm to roll over. Two hours later I got back out on the water and again it was stocker after stocker. The action didn't last long however as the lightening was back and I left for cover again. After the heavy downpour was done I walked up to the highway to take a look at what was coming next. It appeared the thunderstorms were stacked up one after another with some very low cloud formations. Not quite funnel clouds but could have easily manifested into one with the rotation I could see in these storms. I decided I would head back to Swan and hopefully some better weather. After packing up and heading out onto the highway, I searched for a weather report on the radio and finally found one. A rainfall advisory for the Peace River Region including Valleyview and Grand Prairie. Great! As I got closer to Valleyview I could still see lightening but the cloud formations couldn't be made out anymore, it was just grey and dark with heavy monsoon type rains. It was so dark, the street lights were on when I entered Valleyview. I finally got back to Swan, not easy on those dirt roads and I thought I might end up in the ditch a few times as the car got pulled left and right with the soft, wet gravel. Once back at Swan, I sat in my car for a few minutes, staring at my soaked tent while the rain pounded down and I made my decision. I packed everything up as quickly as I could and got my wet butt out of there. They ended up with 70mm of rain in two days, kinda makes our 100mm for the month of June look like a sprinkle don't it?

1st Stillwater Trip In '11

2011-05-19T10:18:00.003-06:00

Another season underway. Spring came late to Alberta this year and I've been just as anxious to wet a line as my clients. 2011 is the first year I've offered beginner casting lessons and the response has been overwhelming with so many e-mails and phone calls. In the two weeks we've been open this season, I've managed several clients for lessons as well as the introduction to stillwater fly fishing clinics, all while still working my full time job. The wind hasn't been any help what so ever with many days of wind gusts to 100km/hr but luckily we've only had to alter the one clinic to a half day with the on the water stuff coming up on June 5th. I just hope the wind has showed the majority of it's temper for this season. If you or someone you know maybe interested in a stillwater clinic or beginner casting lessons, drop me an e-mail at mike@albertastillwaters.com.

Working with clients on their casting had really given me the itch to get out on the water and do some casting of my own. I had gotten out once this May to Salters Lake but the majority of the lake was still iced over so I'm not counting that one. My good buddy Joe (Jokey) and I headed out to Millers Lake on May 16th in hopes to get into some football shaped rainbows and maybe even hook into the odd brown that's known to be cruising around the lake. I watched the weather reports closely as once again the winds were wreaking havoc in Alberta. After some careful consideration of where we could stand a few hours of hurricane like winds with some possible shelter, we decided on Millers lake near Edson. The weather report for Edson stated; winds of 20km/hr gusting to 40 which was far better than what we could find in other areas relatively close to Edmonton. It was a pleasant surprise when we reached the lake and had to fight a stiff breeze at best. It did get a little windier later on in the day but I don't think the wind got stronger that 20km/hr the whole time we were on the lake.

Once on the water Joe headed into the shallows and picked up a few stockers while I headed straight to the drop-off at the south shoal. After some time Joe made his way over to my location and and anchored down about 40ft from me. We both hooked into a few but after about 10 mins I noticed Joe was hooking up on almost every other cast. After we realized we both were fishing the same flies, I switched over to a leach dropper with a bloodworm on the point. While I had no success, Joe continued hooking up. I then changed back to my original set up of a chironomid pupa as the dropper and leaving the blood worm on the point. I started hooking up again but nothing like what Joe had been doing. After some verbal abuse from Joe, he convinced me to move closer and start casting into his water. So I did. First cast, fish on. It appears Joe found a feeding lane right near the drop off. I should have poached his water a lot sooner. We never did hook into any browns but those little footballs fought very well. Final count, Joe 24 - Mike 13. All trout were between 14 and 18 inches.

Catch 22

2011-04-17T11:01:00.000-06:00

The last seven years in Alberta or at least in north-central Alberta had see very little precipitation. Water levels were the lowest I've seen on most of our stillwater fisheries with water tables getting lower each year. The spring of 2010 saw some much needed rain that appeared to halt the lowering water tables but was really just a drop of water in the proverbial bucket. Predictions for the 2010/2011 winter were optimistic as they called for a lot of snow. The predictions were correct as a lot of snow is exactly what we got. Although we'll most likely need another three or four winters like this year to get our water levels back up to where they were, it's sure to help but comes at a price. That same snow we needed so bad to help our fisheries has also been a detriment at the same time. A catch 22 if you will. All that snow has caused winter kill issues on many of our shallower lakes with reports coming in of dead fish being seen on the bottom of these lakes. Even Muir Lake which is aerated throughout the winter months was not safe from this snowfall as oxygen levels tests in early 2011 showed low levels. The last O2 tests showed an increase in oxygen and is now out of danger, let's just hope the trout made it through those tough times.

From Alberta Sustainable Resource Development Homepage:
Edmonton... The long winter with cold temperatures and heavy snowfall may cause low oxygen levels and winter kills of fish, especially in shallow lakes. Albertans can assist the government’s monitoring of fish populations by reporting any fish kills seen on lakes after spring break-up.

Many small, shallow lakes in Alberta, whether they contain native fish or stocked trout, can suffer winter kills. Thicker ice and above average snowfall minimize light penetration, reducing aquatic plant activity, which is a source of new oxygen in winter. In shallow lakes, the combination of decomposing plants using oxygen and a long winter can also result in low oxygen levels. Larger, deeper lakes may be able to better sustain the oxygen levels necessary for fish survival over winter.
Fish and wildlife staff have been monitoring oxygen levels on selected lakes in the province. They will continue to monitor fish populations and make adjustments as necessary. Albertans are encouraged to contact Fish and Wildlife offices of Sustainable Resource Development, if they see dead fish after spring ice break-up. Phone 310-0000 (toll-free within Alberta) to contact the nearest office.

Taking One For The Team

2011-04-14T19:41:00.000-06:00

Check out this true story of two Alberta fly guys who take one for the team and end up in court. With a little help from a F&W officer, they use the high water mark rule to win their case in court. Check out "Truth Prevailed" from the guys at For The Fly.

Floating Lines & Stillwaters

2011-04-01T10:14:00.000-06:00

Floating lines are by far the most popular fly lines amongst steam fly anglers. They are such a versatile tool when fishing moving waters, allowing anglers to fish dry flies, streamers or nymphs. But are you aware of just how versatile these lines are when fishing stillwaters?

Crossing over from fly fishing streams to stillwaters can look intimidating. Although the techniques used for stillwaters are not exactly the same, it isn’t quite as problematic as it may appear. [read more...]

Introduction To Fly Fishing Seminar/Clinic

2011-03-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

Back in November, I was approached by Camp Van-ES located just East of Sherwood Park in regards to a classroom style introduction to fly fishing clinic/seminar. Since I specialize in one-on-one stillwater clinics and have little experience teaching clinics in a classroom setting, I called up my buddy Phil who has a vasts amount of experience in these settings and we soon worked out a seminar featuring the two of us. The clinic is geared towards those brand new to fly fishing and will include basics for both stillwater fly fishing and river fly fishing. We originally had geared the clinic to 20 students and as of today have signed up 19. We are able to fit in another six students for a maximum number of 25 so if you or someone you know is thinking of getting into fly fishing or maybe you have a fly rod sitting in you garage and have always wanted to know how to use it, give Camp Van-Es a call at (780)796-3066 and take advantage of this opportunity. The following is the course outline.

Introduction To Fly Fishing Seminar/Clinic

Saturday April 2, 2011 9am-4:30pm

Presenters: Phil Rowley and Mike Monteith

Course Agenda:

9:00-9:15 Introduction and Opening including gathering class
expectations and agenda review

9:15-10:15 Fly Rods, Equipment & Casting Basics

10:15-10:30 Coffee Break

10:30-12:00 Hands on Casting Instruction

12:00-1:00 Lunch (Served on site)

1:00-2:00 Terminal Basics (Understanding leaders and essential
Knots for Fly Fishing-Hands On)

2:00-2:15 Coffee Break

2:15-3:15 Entomology 101

3:15-4:45 River Fishing 101

4:45-4:15 Lake Fishing 101

4:15-4:30 Conservation review, how to handle fish, conclusion
and wrap-up

Only 6 spaces left. All students will receive instructional booklets to keep and will learn on Sage fly rods. Clinic includes coffee, donuts and lunch.

Located just 15 min south-east of Sherwook Park. To Register call (780)796-3066 or email van-escamp@shaw.ca . Camp Van-Es Business Manager Bonnie Hauch.
Cost per person $75.00, cheque made payable to Camp Van-Es.

Fly Fishing Central Podcast

2011-02-04T10:32:00.001-07:00

Fly Fishing Central editor Paul Schmur and I made our way down to Calgary last Sunday for the Western Canadian Fly Fishing Expo. Paul was interested in meeting some of the contributors to our site face to face and introduce himself to others that we may be working with in the future. I had made arrangements to do a podcast with Phil Rowley but before the podcast, we visited a few of the booths and took notice of some featured products. I've never tied a tube fly before and honestly never gave them much thought but after visiting the Superfly booth, I think there might be some pike that will be quite upset this spring. Spey rods don't really have any place in my future plans but I found the casting demonstration to be both interesting and educational. I was also impressed with the Rite Bobbin, it gives the fly tier the ability to perform a hatch hitch and a whip finish with the bobbin itself. And of course saying hi to old buddies like Bill Robertson from the fishin' hole is always fun. As I had already stated, the main reason for going to the show was to record our first Fly Fishing Central podcast. This will be one of many podcasts to come and we kicked it off with stillwater expert and good friend Phil Rowley. Take a listen to the podcast here. [Phil Rowley Podcast].

Traditional Sink Lines

2011-01-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

The traditional sink line, also known as a standard sink line, forms a belly in the line as it sinks leaving the thinner tip section of line higher up in the water column. These older style lines have, for the most part, been replaced with uniform lines but can still be found and still perform extremely well in certain situations. I have to admit, when I reach for a sinking line, I’ll put on a uniform line 90% of time but there are still situations when the traditional sink line is exactly what is needed. [read more...]

Stillwater Retrieves

2011-01-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

The retrieve when fishing stillwaters should, for the most part, imitate the natural movement of the flies you’re fishing. Making your flies behave in a life-like manner is an important aspect of fly fishing and even though you may find at times a retrieve that in no way mimics the naturals seen in the water may induce a strike, concentrating your efforts to closely resemble the speed and swimming motion of the naturals [read more...]

Gettin' Our Fix

2011-01-03T19:33:00.004-07:00

My good buddy Joe and I headed down to the Bow River a few days after Christmas. We checked the weather in Calgary and it looked like it would be manageable. I'm sure it never got over the freezing mark as I was removing ice build up on my rod guides the entire day but as long as the sun stayed out we were pretty comfortable. When we first arrived there was another fly guy already in the run we wanted to fish chuckin' a nymphing rig with a big indicator (same thing we planned on doing) so small talk was made and we eventually asked him if he wouldn't mind us jumping into his run. He said he was moving on anyway so no problem, we thanked him and watched him disappear down stream. The fishing was less than stellar, I've had way better December days on the Bow than this day and only managed to net one Rainbow and one Brown. Joe? Well even worse for him. Petty sure he landed a few sticks (gotta get my jabs in where I can) and even had a couple of hits but nothing to the net. I'm really ok with how the day went, we got our fix and shook off the shack nasties. I'll be honest with you, I am 'not' one of those guys that are ok with catching nothing but on this particular day in December I can honestly say...it was nice just being out in the water.

Photo by Joe Belehorec

Here's another article I wrote for Fly Fishing Central about hanging flies under indicators.

When stillwater fly fishing, hanging chironomid patterns under an indicator is one of the most popular if not highly preferred methods of fishing a midge. This technique works whether fishing the larval or pupa stag of the chironomid although the pupa gets far more attention because of it’s slow assent to the surface and availability throughout the water column. For fisheries that allow using two or more flies, your options open up which can lead to improved success. When searching for the strike zone, a multi-fly system can both speed up your search by targeting different depths on the same rig and using various colors of patterns can more quickly determine color preference by selective trout. Another window that opens up [read more...]

It's Christmas Time

2010-12-18T13:06:00.001-07:00

How the time has flown this year. Feels like it was just yesterday I was enjoying the warm sun, relaxing in my 'toon and fighting big rainbows on one of my favorite stillwater fisheries. As I look outside today, with the white blanket of snow covering the streets and lawns, it makes me wonder where all the time has gone. How quickly the years seem to pass the older I get. When I was a child, the two month summer holiday I so looked forward to every year would last forever but now summer disappears in the blink of an eye. I guess the older I get the more I contemplate stuff like this as well. Anyway, here's hoping that you and your family have a chance to spend some time together and make some wonderful Christmas memories. Let's hope time slows down enough that you can actually enjoy this time of year (and then speed up afterwards so we can get back out on the water). Merry Christmas my friends and I hope it's filled with lots of Christmas magic.

Troll-Casting

2010-12-03T21:11:00.001-07:00

I don't fish nearly as much from a float tube as I do from my pontoon boat any more. And when in my 'toon, I usually anchor down and work an area pretty hard before I move on. There are days though when I feel a need to take the float tube out, dust it off and give my legs a bit of a work out. It's times like this that I go back to what I call 'troll-casting'. Troll-casting is simply a stillwater technique which combines casting and trolling, a term I came up with to describe my actions to students interested in learning stillwater fly fishing from a float tube... [more]

The Midge Larva (Bloodworm)

2010-11-21T20:20:00.000-07:00

Also known as chironomids, (from the word chironomidae, meaning non-biting midge) there are many anglers who believe the two flies are different but they are indeed one and the same. As fly fishers, when we speak of the chironomid, we are usually referring to the pupa stag of the midge which is more than likely what causes this confusion. To add to this misconception, we have yet another name for the midge when in it‘s larva stag. Commonly known as a bloodworm, the midge larva is not a true worm due to it’s... (read more on Fly Fishing Central)

Finding The Strike Zone

2010-11-08T22:54:00.002-07:00

Getting your flies into the strike zone is fairly important when it comes to stillwater fly fishing. Just a couple of feet can mean the difference between a good day, a great day and a day when you tell your friends, "it was nice just being out on the water". Finding the strike zone starts with techniques you use up on the surface of the water and ends with your flies at just the right depth below. But just how do you find the right depth? Let's start with maps. Bathymetric … [Read more at 'Fly Fishing Central]

Got Pike?

2010-11-01T22:39:00.001-06:00

Some fly anglers are reluctant to target pike on a fly rod. Maybe fishing for pike doesn't meet their definition of what fly fishing is all about or maybe it's because of their days spent targeting pike before picking up a fly rod. Whatever the reason, they have no idea how much fun they're missing out on. Fly fishing for pike doesn't have much finesse associated with it, chucking big streamers … Read more on Got Pike at Fly Fishing Central.

Fly Fishing Central

2010-10-25T22:18:00.001-06:00

Last week, myself and a select group of experienced fly anglers went live with a brand new fly fishing website entitled 'Fly Fishing Central'. The concept of our website is to offer fresh new content updated weekly on all things fly fishing with articles, tips and tricks, step-by-step tying and much more. The site also features a new online forum that's already starting to see some pretty decent traffic. Fly Fishing Central is targeting a global audience and will be looking for salt water and warm water specialist in the near future. So whether you like fishing cutthroats on a stream, fat stillwater rainbows, monster pike, powerful blue fin tuna, acrobatic bass or tropical bone fish, you'll find something that peaks your interest there. Come on by, take a look around, sign up on the forum then put your feet up and set a spell. Fly Fishing Central.
To view my fist stillwater article on FFC entitled Working An Area and Observation, click here.

Pike Time

2010-10-17T14:03:00.003-06:00

With the weather and the waters cooling plus the days getting shorter and the boatman / backswimmer action slowing down around these parts, that usually means pike time for me. The pike will be moving into the shallows so now is the time I start looking at trips out to Wabamun for some monster water wolves. Things have changed at Wabamun however with the closing of the power plant. There won't be any more warm water coming into the lake but how this will effect the fishing has yet to be seen. Wading the mouth of the outlet will be a lot colder on the feet for sure but I'm curious if the pike will congregate to this area in the numbers we're used to seeing. You would think that they would make their way to the channel just out of habit but if the food sources aren't there like in the past they may get wise and move on. Of course this area can't be any worse than any other shallow area of Wabamun so I would assume success can be found. The question is just how successful will one be? Are the cold days of the past with pike after pike on the end of your line over or will their instinct bring them into the area with the numbers we've gotten used to? Only time and the willingness to investigate can answer that I guess. We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks.

On Saturday I took a client out for a stillwater clinic to Muir Lake. Although he did catch one nice 18 incher under an indicator on a sparkle leech, we didn't see any trout even bump the boatman or backswimmers he was fishing. The surface action was almost non-existent and the bite never did really pick up near sunset like it usually does. I'm almost certain the trout were tight to the bank, but thought it was more important to continue my clients casting into more open water than to have him constantly hooking up on weeds. Unfortunately I can't upload any pics to my pc as my daughter seems to have misplaced the CDROM that came with my new camera. Hope I find it soon.

Protection Of The Lakeshore Within The Town Of Wabamun

2010-10-08T10:13:00.000-06:00

After 54 years of operation, this last March saw TransAlta shut down its last remaining generating unit. Their plan for next few years will be the demolition of the power plant and complete remediation and reclamation of the plant area including the wetland areas that were altered in the building of the plant back in 1956. TransAlta had built both a cold water intake channel from the lake to cool down it's generators and a warm water discharge channel to force the heated water back into the lake. Although, this reclamation would temporarily alter nesting grounds and spawning habitat, it would soon be wildlife friendly with birds and fish returning to this valuable area. Sounds pretty good heh? Well, it does until you hear what the town of Wabamun wants to do with it after TransAlta is done.

The town council is asking the Alberta Government for approval for development south of the CN rail-tracks. This area is currently where the warm water discharge channel sits and is an important nesting area for birds and spawning fish. The wetlands has no strong foundation for development meaning this marshy area would need excessive gravel fill to make it suitable to build on. According to the plans that are availble here (Discovery Wharf) the intake and outflow channels would be left behind and altered with shops, restaurants, homes, a wharf, etc, being built on the edge of them. All of the shoreline east of the channels would be filled in and developed north to the train tracks for housing, shops and a beach. These are huge nesting areas and massive spawning habitat to be lost. If you want to help at the very least, sign the petition here. http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/protection-of-the-lakeshore-within-in-the-town-of-wabamun.html.

To view this area, check out this video. The beginning of the video is the current boat launch and dock and that's where they want to build the new marina. The remainder of the video is exactly where they want the development to take place of the new wharf, all the land as far north as the plant you see and east back to the current dock would then be lost to development.

Website Updates

2010-10-02T23:09:00.003-06:00

2010 has been AlbertaStillwaters.Com's busiest season yet. This fall has seen many people become a part of the Alberta fly fishers fraternity through my one-on-one fly fishing clinics and the reviews have been overwhelming. Even with that though, we didn't have any clients booked for this weekend so I thought we should concentrate our efforts on some much needed website updates. As you can see on the right hand side of my blog, we now have an advertising section for sponsors of our web sites. If you're interested in advertising with us, we'll give you exposure from our three main sites (AlbertaStillwaters, Doc's Blog & Fly Fishing Edmonton) all for the price of what one site would cost you. As well, when available, we'll be removing the current ads off the Alberta Fly Fishing Forum and adding our own ads giving you another avenue to reach thousands more fly anglers.

The updates to the Fly Fishing Edmonton site consist of adding google map to all the listed lakes making finding a local fishery even easier. As well we've added Millers Lake to the list which we've been meaning to do for quite some time.

Also recently added to AlbertaStillwaters.Com, a new page featuring beginner fly casting lessons. Starting in 2011, we'll now be offering hourly casting lessons starting at $50.00 per hour available to kids 10 years of age and up and adults of any age.

If there is something you would like to see on one of our websites feel free to drop me an email at mike@albertastillwaters.com. I'll give consideration to all requests.

A Backswimmer Bash

2010-09-07T22:16:00.002-06:00

In my last post, I embedded some videos to help you get your boatman and backswimmers tied up. I've been tying myself lately and thought I would try a few out at Muir Lake on Monday. I got out on the lake in the late afternoon and fished into the evening. The action was really good. I got to talking to a fellow fly guy (Wayne) before I headed out and we started talking about how Muir has been fishing and he explained how well he had been doing using the Ultimate Boatman. I haven't as of yet tried tying any of these up but have used them in the past. I got a couple from Phil when we shot The New Flyfisher episode on Muir back in 2008 but those are long gone. Wayne was kind enough to give me a couple and they once again proved their effectiveness. The patterns he gave me were white so actually represented a backswimmer as apposed to the the dark shell of the boatman. I first anchored down near the weed edge close to where we install the aerators. I hadn't tied on the ultimate boatman yet as I already set up my rod before Wayne gave me the patterns. I started fishing my own version of a floating backswimmer pattern as the point fly along with a boatman pattern I came up with (still to be named) as the dropper using an intermediate clear sinking line. I was watching large trout rising on the surface right near the tall weeds so I anchored down in about eight feet of water within casting range. I saw what looked like a nice trout rise, it was rolling to the south so I placed my fly about five feet south of it's rise ring and it took the boatman. 1st cast, 18 inch rainbow. I knew this was going to be a fun day, or was it?

I stayed there for another 1/2 an hour without any more hook-ups so I decided to move. I pulled up anchor and made my way through the thick weeds which was not an easy task but using the oars sure beats fins and a float tube. I made my over to my favorite spring spot (Mansion Point) and anchored down again in about 8ft of water and within casting distance of both the tall mid-lake weeds and the shore line. It was a good choice. On my third cast just as my flies hit the water a nice 20 incher slammed them taking the backswimmer. After a fairly laid back fight (trout were a little on the lethargic side) I tied on the white Ultimate Boatman for my point fly and after watching a kazillion #18 brown shelled boatman surfacing for a new bubble, I decided to change my boatman pattern to more resemble the naturals as well. The rest of the evening saw nine more trout to the net. Two were under 17 inches, the rest were between 18 and 20. What a blast, I love this season. It's to bad it has to end with snow and ice.

Boatman Time Again

2010-09-05T18:38:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again. Up north here it starts a little sooner than more southerly water bodies. Last year at this time I wrote a short article on them. Of course I'm referring to boatman & backswimmers.Good reports of trout being caught at Muir Lake are already coming in using various patterns. This year I thought I would post some interesting videos to help you get ready for your fall tying and fishing. Enjoy.

Ultimate Boatman

Backswimmer sucking the fluids of another backswimmer

Water Boatmam Dorsal and Ventral Views

Smoke On The Water

2010-08-22T22:30:00.000-06:00

Joe and I decided on heading out to Dolberg Lake last Thursday. Joe is a good fishing buddy of mine, you may know Joe as the moderator of my Alberta Fly Fishing Forum (A.K.A Jokey). We always try and fish together but our schedules don't usually work out that way. Dolberg Lake is a two hour drive from Edmonton not far from the town of Barrhead and is known for producing some nice size rainbow trout and during the spring and fall is also known for decent catch rates. In the heat of summer however, the fishing can shut down quite often and may not be as productive. We were hoping this day would not be one of those days. Joe picked me up at 6am and as I loaded my 'toon into his van, I noticed how humid and foggy it was. When we got in Joe's van I checked the temperature and it read 15c but it felt like 19 or 20c. It wasn't until we turned onto highway 33 that I found it odd to still have all this fog in the air and it wasn't until we reached the lake that I clued in and realized that it was smoke in the air and not fog at all. We set up our boats and tackle and got on the water quickly. This was Joe's first time to Dolberg and asked what productive areas I've fished before. I pointed out five decent spots on the lake where I've had success before and since neither of us wanted to fish with 30ft leaders, we headed over to the old inflow. We both immediately got into fish, nothing big but they were biting and eventually I hooked into my biggest of the day at 18 inches.

After some time on the water, Joe and I both wondered if we were close to a forest fire as the smoke got so thick we could barely see the shore line. It wasn't until I got home that that I heard the reports that the smoke was due to BC forest fires out of the Williams Lake area. It was around supper time that I noticed the smoke starting to clear and as the sun started getting lower in the sky, the bugs came out to play. Caddis, boatman, backswimmers, midges and mayflies all became active.

Joe was catching a ton now but it wasn't until later that he started hooking into bigger ones and eventually beat me with about a 22 incher. He did hook into quite a few decent size bows but he just couldn't keep them on.

Joe stuck to the leech patterns and continued catching fish and I, like most of the day, kept experimenting with different flies. I finished the day off fishing dry flies without much luck. All in all though, a great day on the water with a good friend and many trout caught. What else could a guy ask for?

A Day On The Blackstone

2010-08-10T07:53:00.003-06:00

I haven't spent a lot of my fly fishing life on streams. As a matter of fact, other than the Bow River, the Little Smokey and the NSR, I could probably count on two hands how many times I've fly fished moving water here in Alberta. This last weekend, I was planning on at least one day to get away from my home stillwaters and head out to some waters I was less familiar with. Dolberg Lake, Swan Lake, Beaver Lake and Ironside Pond all came to mind. A couple streams did briefly enter my mind but hey, I'm a stillwater guy and there's nothing I enjoy more than spending a day figuring out and then catching big trout from my boat. It was during this debate of which water to fish that I received a phone call from one of my fishing buddies. I don't fish with Garnet near enough, usually once a year and when he called me and asked if I'd like to join him up near Rocky Mountain House I automatically started blurting out the names of the local lakes in the area. When Garnet mentioned a few streams, I was a little hesitant. Other than the streams I mentioned above, I've never had a banner day on moving water. Of course I've never really given them a chance either. So after a couple days of contemplation, I agreed to hit a stream with Garnet and we decided our short list would include Shunda, Prairie or the Blackstone.

I got an early start and left the city knowing the weather reports called for morning thunderstorms in and around the Rocky Mountain House area. I packed the pontoon boat into the car just in case the rivers got blown out (and I was almost hoping they did). About 70km's this side of RMH I did indeed drive through a thunderstorm and wondered how the weather was closer to the mountains. I called Garnet from my cell to get directions to the gun club he was camped at and after a quick stop in RMH for a packable lunch and some refreshments, I drove to the gun club and met up with him. We packed my tackle into his truck and headed out, still unsure which stream we would be fishing today. After some chat in the truck we narrowed it down to Shunda Creek or the Blackstone and made our way towards Nordegg. We took a look at Shunda and it looked small with a lots of trees and branches to loose flies on so I recommended we hit the Blackstone. I fished the Blackstone once before with another buddy but things didn't go so well for me that day, not even sure if I caught anything that trip, I don't think I did. A bit further up from the Blackstone camp ground the road came to an end. It appears to have been washed out and someone had made a small bridge big enough for ATV's or horses to cross but not a truck. We thought about hiking down to the river from there but neither of us could remember how far it was. So we turned around and figured we'd fish upstream of the random camping ground beside the river. As we got there we saw a Fish & Wildlife truck so we stopped and looked for the fish cops. They were up the river writing a guy a ticket, not sure what he did but it was good to see some enforcement just the same. As the young officer made his way back to the truck I stopped him and asked about the washed out road and how far the hike was. He smiled and said "no need to hike, there's another road that'll take you down" and proceeded to give me directions. So off we went and it's a dam good thing we didn't try and hike that, it would have been one long walk.

We could have drove right to the gap but instead we decided to park at the closed bridge and fish up to the gap, then hike back to the truck. As we were gearing up, the two F&W officers showed up again and explained to us how the younger officer was a part of the Streamwatch program and has been writing quite a few tickets since he started. We offered up our fishing licenses, talked some fishing and then they took off as did we. We started our day under the bridge and right off the bat, trout were rising to our flies. They were small but aggressive and we both changed flies to smaller versions of what we had on. I changed to a size 10 foam hopper and I think garnet changed to a smaller stimulator. We made our way up the river fishing every good pool and run we could find and hooked into quite a few, nothing big but we were having fun and Garnet caught his first Bull Trout ever and on a dry. We eventually made our way to a corner pool and it was Garnet's turn. I was slightly around the corner fishing the water he already fished when he told me there was a cutty rising and that he stung it once but now was going to sit down and have his lunch with hopes it'll start rising again by the time lunch is done. So I made my way over to Garnet and started eating my lunch as well. As we were eating we saw some huge mayflies coming off. Not a prolific hatch by any means but maybe one every couple minutes. The mayflies were a good inch in length, I didn't see one up close so I'm not sure if they were those big Hex's that has been getting a lot of talk in the last few weeks or they may have been green drakes. Just as garnet was finishing his lunch, sure enough that cutty started rising again. Garnet tossed his presentation at it a couple times with no success so I asked him what he had for big mayflies in his box. He handed me his fly box and I picked out the biggest mayfly I could find. He tied it on and started casting but no takes. From my vantage point I could see a large flat rock under the surface and told him it's probably hiding behind it so I explained to Garnet where to cast and as the fly drifted over, bam! fish on. I'm not sure who was more excited me or Garnet but it was the biggest fish of the day and a very satisfying team effort.

We continued our efforts up stream and came upon what looked like a really good run. It was my turn so I started casting to what looked like good holding water. I pointed out a particular seam to garnet and started casting to it and just like it should be, there was a nice cutty sitting there just waiting for my fly. Another nice size cutthroat and my biggest of the day. I was really enjoying myself.

We made our way up to the gap and caught a ton more fish on the way. I added a rocky mountain white fish to my list and Garnet added two more small bulls to his. The gap has changed since we were both there last, and the cutties were stacked up in there pretty good. Mostly small ones but we both hooked into a few larger ones as well. It turned out to be a beautiful day and although we heard thunder, the sun shone all day without a drop of rain. The gap was fun but it was getting late so we decided to head back. We only stopped at one run on the hike back and I hooked into a nice cutthroat there.

When we got back to camp, Garnet cooked us up some great steaks and we talked about the fantastic day we had. I really enjoyed the Blackstone and for sure will be planning a few more trips up that way for more stream fishing. Big thanks to Garnet for talking me into it and for being such good company. I think I'll leave the pontoon boat at home next time.

Outcast Pontoon Boats & Customer Service

2010-08-05T22:14:00.000-06:00

In todays world, we are constantly hearing bad things about company policies when it comes to warranties, guarantees and returned merchandise. More than likely you can think of more than a couple of times that you feel you were treated unjustly or felt shafted by a company regarding a product. I can personally think of at least a handful of unpleasant experiences without even producing smoke from my ears. As a consumer who's got the short end of the stick more than a few times I think I now expect the worst when dealing with damaged products. I go into situations with the gloves held high ready to come out swinging before I even get a response. And a lot of times my pessimism is just. In my last experience however, I was not only pleasantly surprised but almost a little embarrassed with the slightly annoyed tone in the e-mail I had sent. As I had posted on my blog a few months back, I've been having trouble with some air bladders for my Fishcat 9IR pontoon boat. My right pontoon had a leak in it. The punctured bladder was returned to the fishin' hole tackle shop and when the new bladder came in it was picked up and installed. During a trip to a local Edmonton area lake with Jokey and Tee, the bladder went flat just as I got out on the water due to a seam leak. That bladder was also returned. The next new bladder came and it was also installed. I then took the boat out to Star Lake after work and sure enough it lost air as well. I found the leak and decided to fix it myself using Aqua Seal as the leak although near the seam was not on the seam. After fixing it I took the boat out to MIller's Lake and it seemed to be fine. Then the bladder started loosing air, agian the leak was right on the seam and just FYI, the Aqua Seal worked fine. At this point I decided instead of taking the bladder back to the fishin' hole again, I would send an e-mail. I thought about sending the e-mail to Outcast but since the problem was with the bladder and not the boat, I chose to send the e-mail to Aire. Aire is a pretty big company in it's own right with a ton of products and is owned by Outcast Sporting Gear. In my e-mail I explained the problems I've been having and the inconvenience the bladders have caused. Their reply was unexpected, at least by this pessimistic consumer. They started off by apologizing for the trouble I've had with my aircells and then went on to write "We have a new airecell design with a lapweld on the seam which should eliminate the issues we’ve had in the past. They are universal bladders so I will send to you four new bladders which would give you spares should any of the others not work properly. Please forward me the mailing address and going forward please deal with us directly". The aircells arrived yesterday, and I'm happy to say, no problems with leaking yet. Of course we'll have to wait and see how the new bladder performs once it's on the water but what a breath of fresh air from the folks at Aire. I'm very happy to say, I'll stay a loyal customer to Outcast for many years to come and want to say a big thank you to Chris. I've already sent Chris an e-mail expressing those thoughts. Customer service is still alive and well folks and there are still companies around that will back it's product. Now if I can just figure out how to put the bladder in the the pontoon without any twists. He makes it look so easy in this video.

Wlidhorse Lakes

2010-07-18T12:00:00.004-06:00

Last week was supposed to be filled with sun and fly fishing. I took a week off of work and the plan was to spend a week in the north fishing stillwaters and tenting at some of our northern campsites. Mother Nature had her own plan however, a plan to soak Alberta with monsoon type rains. So instead of heading out on Monday up the Alaskan highway, I altered my plans and headed up to Hinton on Thursday. It's been far to long since I fished Wlidhorse Lakes and it didn't disappoint. On the way there, I must have drove through six or seven storm cells, it seamed like they were stacked up one after another. The last cell I drove through didn't appear all that menacing but was the worst out of the bunch and the only one that produced hail (at least along the Yellowhead Highway) and after I stopped at a rest stop to check for hail damage on the car, I noticed a small funnel cloud poking down. I tried to get a good pic of the funnel but by the time I got my camera out, it was almost gone. If you look here in the photo, between the trees and the light post, you may be able to see the tip of the funnel as it's dissipating. Notice the wall cloud to the right where typically funnels/tornadoes would form? (NOTE: You can click on any of the pictures in this post for a full view).

When I got to the park located about 10 minutes past the town of Hinton, I stopped at Kinky Lake which features brook trout and is the first lake in the park. I took a quick look at the campsites there but I was not overly impressed and wanted to be closer to Wildhorse as I was more interested in catching browns than brookies. So I drove on to my planned destination and after driving around the campground a few times to find a site that had some shelter, I set up camp and pitched my tent . Wild horse does have sites specifically for tents but all the sites are the same price at $22.00 and none of them include water or power so I picked a nice big site close to the bathrooms. After I was all set up and paid my fees, the site caretaker came by with some wood, $5.00 for a bundle or $7.00 for a box full. It was a tad wet but after splitting it into small kindling it lit up pretty good. I cooked myself some hot dogs over the fire and then headed down to the lake to have a look.

It's probably been six or more years since I fished Wildhorse and I've heard the water level had gone down but I didn't expect this. And I thought Muir Lake was down, wow! I was slightly shocked to see how low it actually was and wondered what affect this would have on the trout as Wildhorse isn't a very deep lake. Once I got over the initial shock, the scenery then reversed that shock into a calming awe. What a beautiful place to catch some trout. I didn't set up the 'toon that evening but did string up a rod and cast from shore. No luck, hmmm wonder how this will play out tomorrow?

I woke up a few times during the night, once to some rain pouring down on the tent and then again when I thought I heard some sniffing and maybe a grunt or two. As with camping in any area known for Bears, I put all my food in my car and had nothing in my tent to attract any large hungry animals. And no, I didn't get out of the tent to investigate, I just slipped off back to sleep. When I woke up, it was a bright sunny yet cool morning. I made myself some breakfast, and headed to the lake. After I setup the pontoon boat and watched the water for about 5 minutes looking for active trout, I decided on my spot and headed out. I decided to fish two flies under an indicator and started off with a grizzly caddis emerger on the point and a redd october bloodworm as the dropper fishing in about 10ft of water. I chose the caddis pattern because of the the large caddis hatch I seen the night before. The redd october is my goto fly so that was a no brainer. Would you believe on my first cast I hooked into a 21 inch rainbow? And you know when you do something like that, one of two things are gonna happen. It's either gonna be a banner day or that's the only fish you'll catch for the rest of the day. I'm happy to say, it was a fish a cast, almost all day. Although only three big trout were caught, this years stockers and last years stockers were very active and loved both patterns I had on. Now usually I'd not be happy catching stockers all day but I really didn't mind as these were the hardest fighting trout I think I've ever caught. Not sure if it's the cold mountain lake or what but man did these trout (stockers or not) put up an impressive fight. One 17 inch rainbow even bent my hook on my redd october pattern. I finally got off the lake at about 3:30pm as the weather was getting bad and I heard thunder (that's my sign to get going).

The showers came and went 'til about 6pm. In the mean time I had cooked up some supper and now it was time to head back out. The rest of the evening went the same way and I finally started getting bored so I changed up presentation just to make it more of a challenge. I went to a clear intermediate sinking line with an unweighted crystal bugger and caught a few on it. Then tried a boobie with marginal success and finally changed up to a floating line and a stimulator casting to risers and had a handful of takes on that. Off the water at 9:45pm and spent the rest of my waking time staring into a roaring camp fire.

Morning broke and the wind was howling, rushing through the mountains in these loud waves. I packed up camp and headed out straight to Miller's lake just west of Edson. When I got there I talked with a few guys (one of which is a customer of mine) and very few fish were being caught. It was breezy out but manageable as the wind came and went throughout the afternoon. I tried many different tactics on this day but only hooked up with five stockers. It wasn't until I was ready to leave that I decided to throw on a stimulator and cast to a trout that has been picking off top water insects (midges and caddis from what I could see). I anchored down within casting distance to where I seen him continually rising. I waited for him to rise again and cast my presentation next to his rise rings and within a second I hooked into a beautiful, silver, 20 inch rainbow. I ended my day on that.

Only fished for two full days out of the five that I had planned but I enjoyed every minute.

Miller's Time

2010-07-03T00:39:00.001-06:00

Another Canada Day come and gone. I had to work the day again this year but took in some fireworks in the evening. Most years, the family heads down to the river valley to check out the fireworks and the huge man made waterfall coming off the highlevel bridge. This year however, we decided to go somewhere else to celebrate and I think we've found ourselves a new Canada Day tradition. The Garison Army Base decided this year to open up its gates to the general public. Now we didn't get to see all the great things going on throughout the day which were many from what I hear but we did catch the headlining band, Jefferson Starship from 9:30pm - 11:00pm. Even my 11 year old daughter enjoyed this outdoor classic rock concert (which is saying a lot since it's probably the farthest thing from Justin Beaber there is) and to top it off the fireworks were way more than we expected. I even got to witness two styles of fireworks I had never seen anywhere before. We really had a great time and the folks that put it together did an awesome job especially considering it was their first year. We're definitely going back next July1st. Which reminds me, happy Independence Day to all my American brothers and sisters out there and a big happy birthday to my wife Sharmaine who also celebrates her birthday on July 4th.

On Wednesday June 30, I wanted to head out to Millers in hopes of hooking into a brown trout. I heard there were still a few kicking around in there and since it's been a long time since I both caught a brown and fished Millers Lake, I fueled up and away I went. Before I made my mind up however, I checked the weather report and the Edmonton area report said there was a good chance of thunderstorms with wind at 25km/h with gust up to 35km/hr in the afternoon. Then I though about Millers and the Edson report read 60% chance of showers with winds at 20km/h. Since I can deal with rain but hate wind, I made my mind up in a hurry. The drive there was looking pretty good at least up to Niton Junction. From that point on all I saw was cell after cell of bad weather. But I was persistent. When I finally got to Edson, I witnessed some of the ugliest clouds I had ever seen. Things were not looking good. When I pulled into the lake the rain was coming down hard with a soft type of hail mixed in (sleet maybe?) and one guy tightening up the straps on his boat and trailer. I sat in the car for about 20mins, watched the fellow leave and watched the rain and hail pound down onto my windshield. When the rain finally turned to a light shower I started setting up my pontoon boat. I've been having problems with the seams along the right pontoon bladder. I finally decided to fix this one myself using Auqa Seal instead of sending it back again. I wanted to see how well my patch job worked. It looked like it was going to be a great day after all, the sun started shining and just a good chironomid chop on the water. Then that all changed. The wind all of a sudden picked up out of nowhere and I was choked, it was strong enough that I feared if I stray to far from the boat launch, I may not get back to it. And of course there's that patch job making me think, "what if I need to get back in a hurry?" But I was determined and headed out anyway. I stayed pretty close to the launch, anchored down with both my front and back anchors (thank God I remembered both as I needed them) and with my second cast using a clear intermediate sinking line and an olive wooly bugger hooked into a nice 18 inch rainbow that jetted clean out of the water about 4ft above the surface and put up a great fight. Fished for another 45 mins without any other action and then noticed a big thunderstorm cell moving in my direction with lightening and decided to get into shore and wait it out. When the cell blew over, I made my way out again and got a little farther from the launch with the wind still pushing hard and got into another two, one at 16 inches and one at 19. Both of these were caught on a sparkle caddis as I observed cinnamon caddis emerging on the water and switched over to my floating line before I headed out again. About 30 mins after the 19 incher was caught the wind dropped down to about 25km/hr and I decided to head over to the south shore but when I went to pull the anchor I noticed my right pontoon was low. Ah hell, looks like the patch job didn't take. Back into shore. After some investigating, I noticed the leak was not coming from my patch job but rather the seam on the underside of the bladder. At this point, I was not a happy camper but the wind was letting up and I could still cast from the launch as I was the only person at the lake. So I grabbed my Sage with the clear sink line and the olive wooly bugger again and started to cast. Wouldn't you know it but I hooked into a 23 inch rainbow. She put a great fight with one fantastic leap and line screaming out of my reel. After I got her in and took a couple pics, I thought "it ain't gonna get much better than this, might as well leave on a good note". So I packed up and headed home. Nope, no browns but that lake has left me wanting more for sure. I won't be so long in getting back there next time.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-18T20:39:00.008-06:00

With the exception of some unwanted snow, it started off as a pretty decent spring. Of course we Alberta folks should be used to snow in May, we get it pretty much every year. Not sure why it's always such a surprises to us when it comes but once again... Surprise!. What was nice though was all the rain we got. The talk before the rains got here was another year of drought, maybe the worst we've seen in a hundred years. And the lakes around these parts needed rain and bad. Although we got our fair share, it was a mere drop in the proverbial bucket. Lakes are still way down but just imagine what shape they would be in now without all that rain. So the rain made me feel somewhat at ease. Then that ease turned to panic. Seven years ago, my wife and I had our house built on the North side of Edmonton. We watched as our house went through the stages from an empty lot to it's completion. Along the way, after the foundation was poured, I noticed they had an opening for a window in one of the downstairs bedrooms right where the cement steps were to go out of our kitchen. I quickly pointed this out to Pat (Lupa homes) and he had them cut a new window into the foundation around the corner. They took the slab from the newly cut opening and filled in the misplaced opening. After that they slapped on the window well, threw in some gravel and everything was good, right? Wrong! I just found out they forgot (or were to cheap) to put weeping tile from the window well down. How did I find out? The water had made it's way into my oldest daughter's room under the window jamb, down the foundation wall, along the floor through the bathroom and into my youngest daughter's room where it pooled under her bed until it made it's way out into the downstairs living room. If you're wondering, my insurance does not cover this (*Note: neither does yours). If it was caused by sewer back up, the hot water tank or even the sump pump, we'd be covered. But because water from outside found it's way through the foundation, no coverage. So what's the damage? New dry wall and paint, new carpet, new beds, new dressers, the loss of stuffed animals and toys, the cost of weeping tile in the window well (no quote on that yet) and the cost of a huge garbage bin in the drive way. I also lost three new fly fsihing customers (although I hope they will book in the future) due to the countless hours of getting out everything wet before the mold takes over. So in case you're wondering why no blogging lately, now you know.

I did get out with a client right before the flood. Tom was in town from Detroit on business and wanted to spend the day going after stillwater trout.
Wasn't a banner day but the action was ok. We headed out to Muir and he ended up catching a few good ones and seemed to really enjoy the relaxing methods of fishing chironomids and balance leeches under an indicator. I actually didn't have any balance leeches on me so Emerson ended up lending me a couple. Emerson was doing well hooking into them, not so well keeping them on however (been there). This trip was actually my first guided trip of the year as all my clients up to this point have booked my introductory clinics. I actually prefer the clinics as I find it much more rewarding but it is nice to mix things up. I'm now looking forward to a nice relaxing day on the water to celebrate father day. Hope you all have a great Fathers Day, maybe take the old man fishing eh.

A Day At Muir

2010-05-21T22:04:00.001-06:00

On Thursday, I finally took a day just for myself to go out and enjoy a day at Muir Lake. It was a little cool outside and although mostly a misty, drizzly type day in the city, I don't think I got a drop of rain on me while on the water. If you are wondering at all if Muir has been stocked yet, the answer is a most definite; yes. The pesky little buggers wouldn't leave my flies a lone, I must have caught a kajillion of them. I tried fishing in three spots on the lake, near the dock (nothing), the narrows (just stockers) and then my favorite spring time spot (which wasn't so hot last spring) known from this day forward as mansion point. Oh I did well there. If your definition of "well" is a bazillion 5-6 inch stockers and one 18 incher.

Caught this one on a Red October bloodworm but then switched up to a wooly bugger to try and keep the stockers off. Then switched up to a bigger wooly bugger and finally just gave up. Those little dinks were some hungry, eating flies almost big enough to eat them. All in all though, how can a guy complain, I could have been working. I have to admit though that I'm quite concerned about Muir's water level. Just click this photo and take a look.

When we stocked Muir in 2003, the water level was well into the cattails and reeds you see here and the green vegetation was all underwater. It's easy to see just how far the lake has dropped and with Muir's already shallow depth and warm water temperatures during the heat of summer, I'd say there is a very good chance of seeing a summer kill this year. Let's all hope for the best.

Another Season Underway

2010-04-25T14:13:00.000-06:00

Next week is the start of a new season for me. Clients are booking up fast and I've been busy tying up flies and getting equipment ready. Although the lakes have really dropped this year, I'm hoping to have some good fishing and hope the same for my clients. I've added another pontoon boat to my arsenal and lots of new terminal tackle. Just recently, I finally took the plunge and got a few pages on facebook. My personal page, the Fly Fishing Alberta page and my AlbertaStillwaters.Com page. Drop by for some interesting articles and posts. I've also revamped my Float Tube page on my information site Fly Fishing Edmonton. I gave it some much needed updates, more tips and added an accessories section. If you're looking to buy a float tube this year or to learn how to use the one you have, check it out for some great information. And if you're looking for a one-on-one introduction to stillwater fly fishing clinic, feel free to drop me a line at mike@albertastillwaters.com. Hope to see you on the water.

Pimpin' Your 'Toon

2010-04-10T09:21:00.000-06:00

With the warm weather arriving, the excitement of getting out for your first trip of the year is always at the front of your mind. Up here in north-central Alberta however, the lakes are still locked in ice. So not much to do but tie some flies and get your equipment ready. Or you could try Pimpin' Your 'Toon. There are many pontoon accessories available at your local tackle shop that will make your day on the water a little more simplistic and enjoyable. But what do you do if money's a little tight or you can't find exactly what it is that you envision? For the handy guy, why not just build it? While recently visiting the Alberta Outdoorsman fishing forum, I came across Badger's pimped out pontoon boat. Most of it he built with his own hands and out of his own imagination. Check out his ride here and let me know of some pimpin' accessories you've added to your 'toon.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

2010-03-28T12:03:00.010-06:00

If you've never lived in Edmonton, you wouldn't know what we as fly anglers go through every winter. Living here in the summer means you're either a stillwater fly guy or you spend a lot of time behind the wheel looking for a likely place to dab a fly on some moving water. We're not blessed with near by streams or rivers that hold trout. We do have the the North Saskatchewan River running through our city that offers up a variety of game fish like Walleye, Pike, Sauger, Goldeye and Mooneye and I have to admit, this river is highly underutilized but down this way, it doesn't hold trout. So yah, we got it a little tough here in the summer but we get by and we are blessed with some of the most fertile stillwater fisheries anywhere in the country. The winters here however make it really tough. Three hours south of us, the fly guys in Calgary have the opportunity to shake off the winter shack nasties whenever a Chinook rolls through town as the Bow River remains open all year offering up trophy Rainbows and Browns. In Edmonton, our salvation during our six months locked in ice and snow came in the form of a trophy Pike lake. Lake Wabamun not only offers up really big Pike but because of TransAlta's coal burning power plant, also gave us open water when all other waters are frozen over. The plant would draw in cold water from the lake to cool down the generators and push the warm water back into the lake via a man made channel. For years, anglers with the need to wet a line could head out to the lake at the mouth of this warm water discharge with expectations of good catch rates and bigger than average Northern Pike. This year that all changes as TransAlta is shutting down the last remaining generator by the end of March. So, what the hell are we gonna do now?

On Thursday March 25, 2010, Garnet, Joe and I headed out to Wabamun for what would be our last open water, winter/early spring fly fishing trip. We were happy to see the water was open right to the boat launch as our previous trip a couple weeks before had us dragging our pontoon boats across the ice to the open water at the end of the peer. The forecast high for this day was +8c with the wind diminishing to a calm breeze by afternoon. With a forecast like that we were hopeful that top water flies would entice some strikes as calm water helps the pike see your top water presentation better. We all got into Pike right away, with some good size wolfs being caught but none of us could hook up with a 40+ incher. It was an on and off again day and we found that changing up flies brought better results. We all tried a variety of flies, at first I did well with an orange and green half & half but then had to change to a white and purple Popsicle leech to see more action. The Popsicle leech was definitely my hot fly for the day as I took eight pike on it. The top water flies didn't hook up any fish although Joe did get one follow but it turned away at the last second. Final tally for the day... Garnet five, Joe 14 and 15 for myself. A great day to the end of an era. I'll still be fishing Wab for many years to come, but I'm gonna miss this lake when the shack nasties set in. Guess we'll be watching the Calgary weather forecasts a little more closely and crossing our fingers for those Chinooks.

Fortress Lake Resort

2010-03-08T20:07:00.005-07:00

Just caught the new video from Dave and Amelia Jenson. What a beautiful place to catch trophy brookies. I've never had the pleasure of fishing Fortress myself, just not in the budget. Hopefully someday. For now I'll live vicariously through others that have videos like this. Great job from the two of them, I hope to see more videos like this.

Say Goodbye To Winter Wab Pike On The Fly

2010-02-17T11:47:00.014-07:00

The slightly warmer temps we've been getting the last few days has got me to thinking about Pike on the fly. Every spring and fall I usually head out to Lake Wabamun in search of some monster Pike. It is possible to find these huge northerns in the winter as well due to the warm water discharge that's released via the power plant. This winter will be the last for open-water fishing however as they plan to shut down the last remaining generator. Taken from their website at http://www.transalta.com/facilities/plants-operation/wabamun "TransAlta plans to stop operating the Wabamun power plant in four phases with the final shut-down of Unit 4 slated for March 2010. Until then, the plant will continue to be an important source of low-cost power for Albertans." I'm pretty sure you'll still find those big females hanging out there for a while yet as they are probably pretty used to this area being one of their favorite grocery stores. Eventually though and depending on what they do with the channel, this will be just like any other area for the Pike to bask in the spring sun. If you've never fly fished for Pike and want to give it go before the Lake is closed to spawning, bring along some long needle nose pliers, jaw spreaders, a big net or cradle if got if you one, an eight or nine weight rod and reel spooled with matching line. You'll also want some big flies (4-8 inches), waders, boots and some warm clothing. Also don't forget your camera. Although it is considered trespassing, I don't know anyone that has been ticketed for fishing here, just stay out of the fenced off area. When you enter town, turn right at the stop sign before the tracks and follow the road to just before the first bridge. This is the discharge channel. Park at the gate that is closed where the train tracks are and follow the path along the fence. Although most of our local lakes are too muddy to wade fish, at the end of the channel you can indeed wade where the channel opens up to the lake. Your best presentation is to cast upstream with a strip-pause-strip retrieve after letting the fly sink a bit. Heavily weighted flies on a dry line and a six to eight foot pike leader or a 20lb mono leader with Rio's wire tippet will do you well. My favorite streamer to fish here is a white Popsicle leech but you'll also have good results with deceivers, clousers and Half & Half's (1/2 clouser, 1/2 deceiver). If you do head out and you find yourself there on a windless day, try some top water poppers and sliders too. This is my favorite way to take pike on the fly but is usually nowhere near as productive as sub-surface flies. Here's a video to show you what kind of fun you can have on top water flies.

Marc Petitjean's MP Thread Through Bobbin

2010-02-10T11:18:00.006-07:00

You may have heard of Marc Petitjean. In these parts he's pretty famous for his Magic Tool and his Magic Heads. I've used the Magic Tool and it really is a great tool to use for tying flies, I've personally found this tool to be remarkable especially when working with CDC. In my last post, I let you know about a wonderful website that features mostly fly tying videos and while searching through some videos on The Fly Tying Channel, I came upon a great video showing a new Marc Petijean Bobbin. I'm gonna see if I can source one of these out and give it a go, it looks to be very innovative.

Tying Videos

2010-02-08T21:44:00.004-07:00

There are tons of videos out there featuring fly tying. If you're anything like me, you can spend hours upon hours searching the web for different patterns. Of course you tube is a great place to find such videos but you have to be specific for the pattern you're looking for or you may end up watching videos other than fly tying. I just found this site however, it is mostly just fly tying videos so it's easy to search around. 235 videos and still adding as I write this. Check it out here... http://flytyingchannel.vodspot.tv/

Their latest video is the RS2 Sparkle Wing

RS2 Sparkle Wing from Juan Ramirez on Vimeo.

2010

2010-01-05T11:24:00.006-07:00

Wow, 2010 already. Time just keeps moving faster and faster. I have one daughter who`s turning 20 in February and another that just turned 11. Seams like yesterday they were learning to walk and talk. Hell, seams like yesterday I was playing cops and robbers with my childhood friend Gary Reynolds or going fishing with my dad in his 12ft aluminum car topper. And 2009 blew by way to fast, never did get up north to Swan Lake like I promised myself or to the Little Smokey River last fall. We did however see some positive things happen like the new Wholesale Sports store open on the south side of Edmonton featuring a fanstastic fly fishing department. The Northern Lights Fly Tyers and Fishers Club merged with the Edmonton Chapter of Trout Unlimited opening a door for a whole new world of fund-raising and conservation projects. The new Northern Lights chapter of Trout Unlimited brought in Dave and Emily Whitlock on April 25 & 26 for a fly fishing presentation and then an intermediate fly tying presentation on November 21 with Leroy Hyatt, the popular PBS TV show host of Anglers Art. And we saw a new stillwater fly rod appear on the scene. The Amundson "Wind Warrior" which I can`t say enough about. It`s a high end rod with a mid level price and it shoots line like a canon. But there were some negatives in 2009 also. The biggest one for the Edmonton area was the lack of precipitation. We needed rain and bad but didn't get anywhere near enough. All the local lakes around Edmonton are very low and need a real good topping up. None as much as our pride and joy however, Muir Lake. Muir is not deep to begin with and if these low water levels continue over the 2010 season, our trout will be in for some trouble. A lot of volunteers have put a lot of time and effort into making Muir the great fishery it is is but Mother Nature may have other plans. When we fist stocked Muir, you could sit on the end of the dock and just get the tips of your toes wet. Now, the supporting barrels under the dock aren't even in the water. Let`s hope for a real wet summer this year.

So what does 2010 have in store for us? If I could tell you that, I`d be picking up more than a few cheques from the Lotto649 office. I can tell you that NL/TU are presenting a Gary Borger / Mike Lawson fly fishing seminar on Saturday & Sunday, Jan. 16th & 17th at the main campus of Grant McEwan University. Tickets are $50.00 for the two days. Go to the Northern Lights / TU website for more information. Also coming up is the 2010 Western Canadian Fly Fishing Exposition in Calgary. The exposition runs from Jan 22 - Jan 24 at Spruce Meadows. You can expect some big names in fly fishing there with many workshops to choose from, some of them free. And of course 2010 will see my online fly shop start up with good quality products at affordable prices.

I hope you have a great 2010 and I hope to see you on the water.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T21:15:00.007-07:00

I had the privilege of introducing many new fly anglers to stillwater fly fishing this past year. This is something I really enjoy, so much so that I've been steering away from simply guiding as I find that teaching is so much more fulfilling and my one-on-one introduction to stillwater fly fishing clinics are very rewarding for both myself and my clients.

Some exciting things are planned for 2010 including my new online store and some added opportunities for the Edmonton fly angling community. I've been asked by Amundson Outdoors to give a stillwater fly fishing clinic sometime in May at the new Wholesale Sports which is a new aspect of fly fishing I've yet to experience. And I have hopes that my revamped stillwater jonboat will be available for the up-coming season.

I want to thank you all for your past support whether it be through the Alberta Fly fishing Forum, AlbertaStillwaters.Com or just following me here on Doc's Ol' Blog House. I hope for your continued support in the new year and I wish you all the best for this holiday season. From my family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year.

P.S. Dec 23 is officially the holiday "Festivus". For the Seinfeld fans out there, you already know about Festivus. For those that don't...

Fall Pike On The Fly

2009-11-01T15:51:00.013-07:00

I recently got my hands on a new Wind Warrior 8 weight 9'6 and had been chomping at the bit to get out and try it on some of Wabamun's monster Pike. I don't fish for Pike a whole lot, maybe 5 or 6 times a year. I had upgraded from an 8 weight to a 9 weight fly rod a couple years back hoping for a little more backbone to cast those big Pike flies. Since I don't spend many days fly'n for water-wolves, spending a ton of money on a rod that sees less than 10 days of action per year wasn't something I felt compelled to do, so ended up purchasing a TFO LK signature series. Although I was content with the TFO rod, it made for some sore/stiff arms and shoulders at the end of a long day on the water. I got out to Wab twice in the last week and I have to say, casting the Wind Warrior was a pleasure. The rod has got plenty of backbone making it easy to cast those big Pike flies yet light enough that I didn't have any pain or stiffness in my arm or shoulder the days following. And like my 5wt, it lived up to it's name and casts like a cannon even in 25+ km/hr winds.

My last trip out to Wab was with good friend Phil Rowley on October 29. When we arrived at the lake it was -3 degrees Celsius and windy. We got on the water and headed over to the warm water discharge and although the fishing was pretty good (5 Pike each) we didn't last to long. I'm guessing we fished for about two hours then we headed back in as the wind picked up and Phil and I both felt like a couple of Popsicles. We were planning on shooting a video covering all aspects of fall Pike on the fly but because we couldn't stop shivering, we only shot about 1/4 of what we intended. The following video is made up of that footage and still has quite a bit of good information. Hope you enjoy it.

Fly'n The Bow

2009-10-08T16:29:00.006-06:00

I got a PM (personal message) on my site, the Alberta Fly Fishing Forum, back in the spring from one of my members who offered me a guided jet boat fly fishing trip on the Bow River. Tracy (AKA Swede) bid on this trip to help raise money for the Southern Alberta Stream Watch auction. A worthy cause which helps fund students throughout the summer months to keep an eye on our streams and rivers while working under the Alberta Sustainable Resource Development. Tracy and his wife Marlene offered up this trip to myself and two others that play an important role on the forum. I chose Jokey (Joe) who helps me moderate the board and keep things flowing smoothly and Phil Rowley who hosts "20 Questions With Phil". Phil is our forum expert and answers technical question about fly fishing, fly tying, entomology, fish behavior and more.

Because of our busy schedules, it wasn't easy picking a day when all three of us could get together and head down to Carseland but after many e-mails and PM's to our guide Mike (tungsten) we finally decided on Friday October 02.
Mike is not a professional guide but spends many, many hours on the river every year and as we found out, knows the Bow River waters intimately. He put this trip up on the auction block to include jet boat, lunch, refreshments and guidance. He also refused to take any money as a tip.

We left Edmonton Thursday night and drove straight to Strathmore. I previously asked Mike about a cheap Motel we could stay in for the night. I knew we would only get about 6 hours of sleep so I figured the cheaper the better. We booked at Leroy's Motel and it was a little run down to say the least. The rooms could use some upgrading, the bathrooms need some caulking around the tub and a coffee maker in the room would be nice but I do have to say, the rooms were very clean (and we checked thoroughly).

We were up by 6:30am, dressed and off to breakfast by 7. After some Macadon's we headed down to the river and showed up about 15 minutes late. I was pleasantly relieved when I saw Mike's jet boat. I was expecting one of those shiny fiberglass jet boats or maybe even an aluminum river boat (I don't like those big-ass jet boats when I'm fishing the Bow. They blow by you doing like a zillion miles an hour leaving wakes high enough to get into your waders). Mike's jet boat was a long jon boat (I think it was 16ft in length) with a jet motor on the back. It was fairly quiet but moved us along the river quickly (not a zillion miles an hour though).

I hadn't fished below Carseland before so I was excited to experience some water I had never seen before. It was interesting to see so much featureless water but when we did find some slack water or little feeders, the trout were right where they were supposed to be. I'm not used to fishing these types of water and I probably should have brushed up on reading trout streams before the trip but Phil knew exactly were to drop his fly and out fished all of us. I ended up catching five, Jokey about eight (I think) and Phil, well he cleaned up. Jokey and I tried nymphing for a bit but the hot fly on that day was by far a weighted boatman pattern.

For highlights of the trip, you can view the video below.

Northern Backswimmers & Water Boatman

2009-08-30T12:55:00.019-06:00

There are large numbers of anglers (many experienced) who are not sure what the difference is between a water boatman and a backswimmer. Just to clear things up;

A backswimmer is the larger of the two. It has large hind legs for propulsion and swims on its back. It's underside is dark and it's wings are light, often a cream color with a mottled look to it. The backswimmer does indeed bite and reports are that it's bite feels similar to a bee sting. You'll usually find backsimmers on the surface of the water.

A boatman is the smaller of the two. It also has large hind legs in the shape of oars but it's front legs are scoop shaped at the tips. It's underside is usually a masking tape color and wings are a darker mottled color (I've seen olive, brown and black in the Edmonton area). The water boatman does not swim on its back but right side up. It hangs near the bottom in shallower water near plant life and does not bite.

Both insects are prisoners of the shallows as neither of these bugs have gills and must rise to the surface frequently to trap an air bubble used for oxygen. This air bubble is what gives them their erratic swimming motion as the bubble tries to rise to the surface.

Most literature regarding boatman and backswimmers inform us that September and October are times when these aquatic life forms are most prevalent. Through my years of stillwater fly fishing however, as far south as the central Alberta, I've noticed that this time line is off by about a month. I've confirmed this in both the Edmonton regions and the Rocky Mountain House regions with observation of both boatman and backswimmers becoming quite active as early as late July. By mid August, fishing imitative patterns become progressively more productive and by the time September rolls around, trout start keying in on these bugs. By mid September, the water starts cooling due to colder nights and shorter days and trout will spend more time in the shallows feeding on the large number of these bugs.

There's also a lot of literature available that states fishing boatman and backswimmer patterns are most productive after the first frost. It's quite possible for this to be true in some areas of the world, but in these parts I find a cool night followed by a very warm autumn day in the mid to upper 20's (Celsius) seems to kick these bugs into their migration flights (also known as the boatman fall). If you happen to be on the water during a heavy fall, you'll notice they actually do look like little rain drops hitting the surface of the water. Once hitting the water, the boatman will pause almost as if stunned and then spin to break the surface of the water where they will dive to the bottom and lay it's eggs. It's at the pause and spin when trout take full advantage of the falling boatman. Unfortunately, the window of opportunity to hit this fall is more of a 'being on the right lake on the right day' sort of thing. If you're fortunate enough to be on the lake in the middle of a boatman fall, tie a floating boatman patter onto your dry line, wait for a rise and cast directly into the rise ring. Hits are usually immediate. It truly will be one of the best days you've ever spent on a stillwater fishery.

By early October, the boatman and backswimmer action starts to slow down. This is when I start to concentrate on slower or static presentations using bloodworms, scuds and leech patterns in shallower water. Boatman and backswimmer patterns can still be productive but the frenzy is usually over once the middle of October rolls around.

If you haven't already tied up some boatman and backswimmer patterns, you better get to it. Before you know it, the action will be long gone and your favorite stillwater fishery will be locked in ice for another six months.

Here are some links to a few good patterns.

http://flyfish-edmonton.webs.com/flypatterns.htm
http://www.flycraftangling.com/flies_arc.html?a=7
http://www.guidebc.com/flypatterns/waterboatman.asp
http://flydesk.com/Fly%20Patterns/Backswimmer.htm

My Trout's Got Swimmers Itch

2009-08-19T07:19:00.010-06:00

Every summer I receive a few e-mails from curious anglers asking if I noticed bumps or cysts under the skin of our stillwater stocked trout. These type of question also appear on many of the fishing message boards and forums. As the water warms, we see these bumps appear on a lot of our trout pretty much every summer and disappear once the water starts to cool. So what are these bumps, are they harmful to the trout and are they harmful to anglers handling these fish or more importantly, consuming these fish? Click on the pick of this trout caught at Muir Lake (courtesy of Phil Rowley) for a closer look.

I noticed these bumps more frequently about six years ago. With the lack of precipitation we've seen around the Edmonton area, the lakes have been dropping and warming in the last six years. This combination not only causes more stress on the trout but appears to increase infection of a flat worm parasite which mistakenly uses the trout as it's host. I say mistekenly because these trout are not native to these bodies of water but rather stocked every spring.

Back when I first noticed these bumps becoming more profuse, I sent off an e-mail to Stony Plain area fisheries biologist, Stephen Spencer. He explained that the bumps were caused by a flat worm parasite. Cercaria (the larval form of the parasite) is actually intended to affect it's true host the snail. Once in the snail, it relies on consumption by a bird where it then matures into its adult stage and lays eggs in the bird's gastrointestinal tract. The eggs are then dropped back into the water through feces and the cycle repeats. The trout (like humans) are not its intended host and other than some ugly bumps (and itching for us - see "Swimmers Itch"), the parasite itself really doesn't harm the trout or humans but the bacterial infections caused by an overwhelming amount of parasites could be lethal to trout.

A couple years ago, A.S.R.D did put a warning out about these bumps for anglers eating fish showing signs of these parasites. Although these infected fish are not harmful to humans, it was thought to be a good idea to cut out any black spots (bacterial infections) caused by the flat worms and for the flesh to be cooked thoroughly.

Most years, Edmonton's local trout lakes see these parasitic bumps on our trout but some years they've been very prominent. This is one of those years. They aren't pretty and don't feel very nice when handling the trout. On years like this, it is beneficial to the trout to decrease your fishing activity until the water starts to cool again as there is a coalition to very warm water and numerous bumps under the skin of the trout. If the water is that warm, think how stressed these trout must be.

The Chironomid Cult

2009-07-29T12:18:00.008-06:00

It's funny you know, when I first heard about chironomiding I didn't understand the whole chironomid craze. I got away from still fishing because I wanted to become more involved in the catching process. The fly rod to me was the "next step" in the fishing evolution. The art of tight loops, the constant searching for your game, trying to imitate food sources through different techniques and presentations. Chironomiding or fishing static presentations almost seamed like taking a step back. Staring at an indicator (a fly anglers name for a little bobber) for hours on end just wasn't my vision of what fly fishing was all about. Then I tried it. My first impression was less than favorable, I didn't see why it was so dam popular. I wasn't catching as many fish as when I was working weed beds and drop offs with a nymph on a sinking line. Of course I still didn't understand a lot of the intricacies of chironomiding like how important it was to be anchored. Like most things in my life however (with the exception of my guitar), I couldn't give up on it until I mastered it. So I did tons of research (mostly reading) and putting what I read to practice. I started catching more and more fish but still didn't see why so many had gone crazy for this style of fly fishing.

It was a warm afternoon in May on a local Edmonton trout lake when the "light bulb" finally clicked on. I launched my float tube and was making my way out onto the lake when I saw these large midge shucks (bombers) floating on top of the water. There were thousands of them with more hatching right before my eyes. I became rather excited as everything I had been reading about fishing chironomids had told me this should be an excellent day. I let my anchor down, slid on a strike indicator and tied on the biggest bomber pattern I had in my fly box. Well, it didn't even have time to sink when I saw the indicator rush under. I played a nice, active, 17" rainbow, brought it to the net and happily released it. Of course I didn't think the fishing would be anywhere near this kind of excitement but I was optimistic that it may be fairly active. Nope, I was wrong. For the next three hours, it was almost exactly like that. Maybe not a take before the flies sunk (although that happened frequently) but a strike on nearly every cast for almost three hours. I caught lunkers, stockers and all sizes in between. Now I understood the chironomid craze! Though the hour and a half to follow wasn't as stellar, I probably caught more fish in that short time than on a normal day of fishing. Although I never knew it at the time, that was my induction into the "Chironomid Cult".

Today I teach others how effective chironomiding can be as well as other styles and techniques through stillwater clinics and guided trips. It's a lot of fun to watch folks get there first hook up on a chironomid and sometimes I even get to see their light bulb turn on. If you're interested in a stillwater clinic or a guided trip, you can cut the learning curve in half by sending me an e-mail and booking a trip with AbertaStillwaters.Com today.

Here's fun video called The Chironomid Cult. I wish it was as exciting as this video all the time but when there's a good hatch on, this video is pretty close.

Here Comes The Rain Again

2009-07-11T10:07:00.009-06:00

June in Alberta was one of the driest on record. Farmers in the Camrose area declared a local state of agricultural disaster as extremely dry weather conditions damaged to up to 80% of their crops and cattle producers are struggling as the majority of their pasture lands dried up. July however has been a complete turn around. Some parts of Alberta has seen well over 100ml of rain in a couple of days and reports of funnel clouds have been spotted in many areas throughout Alberta. We even had a tornado touch down near Bentley Alberta. If you had plans to hit some streams and rivers this week, you may be a little p.o'ed as the reports coming in on the Alberta Fly Fishing Forum are seeing blown out conditions. High, chocolate brown water around the Hinton area have been reported with the Wildhay, Berland and the Muskeg rivers having very high flow rates. A high streamflow advisory has been issued for the Smoky River and all its tributaries in north central Alberta and more rain is predicted for the future days ahead. Well, I feel for ya. But all is not lost. Alberta's trout lakes got some much needed topping up as lake levels have been very low since last fall and water temps in these lakes needed a litlle cooling off. The fishing around Edmonton's local lakes has been good and hopefully should get even better. Got out to Star Lake on July 5th with my buddy Phil and we did well fishing in deeper water using a static presentation with chironomid and leech patterns. We both got into some good size trout with the largest of the day being this 23" rainbow caught on a Redd October bloodworm. If you've had trouble finding big fish in the past or find stillwaters a little intimidating, why not book a stillwater trip or clinic with me and I can show you how to find Walter for yourself. Visit my website AbertaStillwaters.Com for more information.

Happy Canada Day... Eh?

2009-07-01T07:28:00.003-06:00

I want to wish all my fellow Canadians a happy Canada Day. I, unfortunately; have to work today (so no fishing for this hosehead) but I hope all you folks that get the day off have a great time pulling in some lunkers. I am looking forward to the fireworks tonight however.

Here is a video of some of my proud Canadian brothers and sisters when my beloved Oilers made it the Stanley Cup.

Fathers Day Fishing Trip

2009-06-21T23:47:00.010-06:00

The plan was for my 10yr old daughter Hunter to take me fishing for fathers day. That was the plan, but things changed. When we checked the weather report this morning it called for showers and a good chance of a thunderstorm. Hunter really didn't want to be standing out in the rain all day so she graciously bowed out. I can't blame her, she's fairly new to fly fishing and hasn't yet become obsessed with the sport. I on the other hand am beyond obsessed (see definition for addiction). So I loaded up the vehicle and headed out to Star Lake. I was going to meet up with Phil and his boys at Millers Lake near Edson but because of a dinner date with my oldest daughter Cassandra, I had to stay somewhat close to home. So off to Star I went. When I got on the water I headed out to the center of the lake and decided to fish the deep water before heading over to my favorite spot. I tied on 15ft of tippet to my 9ft leader and attatched a black thread midge on the point and a Redd October (blood worm) as the dropper. I got into fish right away and caught about 6 or 7 (all this years stockers) before I pulled the anchor and moved on. I then headed over to my favorite spot and anchored in 10ft of water. I fished the same combination of chironomids for about a half hour with another 5 or 6 stockers brought to hand. I was getting pretty tired of catching the small ones however, so I thought I'd target the bigger trout with some larger flies. I tied on an olive wolly bugger as the dropper to my black thread midge and on the second cast hooked into a nice lunker at 23 inches. Got one good jump out of him and then some bull-dogging but the fight was fairly quick. I fished this combo for a good hour and only caught two more stockers, both on the chironomid. Tried some other combos with mostly the same results (more stockers) and about twenty minutes before home time, decided to go back to the Redd October blood worm with a X-mas Chronie on the point. Hooked into a few more stockers and then finally on my last cast, I hooked into another gooder. It wasn't as big as my 23 incher (18&1/2 inches) but it fought a hell of a lot better. All in all a great day to be on the water. Only way it could have been better was if Hunter could have been there with me. Oh btw, I didn't see one rain drop all day, just dark clouds with the constant threat of rain.

Here's a very short video of the two bigger trout I got to the net.

How much do you love your fly rod?

2009-06-01T21:20:00.011-06:00

I posted back in February about how I won a new fly rod. I don't win stuff very often, I'm just not one of those lucky types and usually if I do win something, it's not something I can get overly excited about. This time however, I won something that totally blew me away. The rod is called the Wind Warrior - Stillwater and made by a Canadian company (Amundson Outdoors). It was designed with me in mind. By that of course, I mean stillwater fly anglers. The model I received was a #5 - 10ft - 4pc and before I received it, my expectations were fairly low. After all, it's a new product from a company I've heard very little about. I already own a St.Croix Legend Ultra #6 - 10ft - 4pc which I consider to be a great casting, fast action rod. I can shoot line out of my St.Croix pretty good and although I originally bought it for casting big nymphs and streamers on the Bow, it quickly became my go-to-rod for hard blowing days on the lakes. Things have changed however as I now have a new go-to-rod for my stillwater fishing. I've had the great pleasure of casting the Wind Warrior Stillwater on my last four trips out and I'm really enjoying this rod more and more with every outing. The rod shoots line like a canon, has some good back bone that cuts line through the wind like a knife and the sensitive tip aids in detecting strikes. I don't plan on retiring my Sage RPL anytime soon but it definitely won't see anywhere near the use it once did. As a matter of fact, I like this rod so much, I've looked into selling them online at my new site AlbertaStillwaters.Com. Which makes me pose the question: How much do you love your fly rod?

Sometimes the fishing gods smile on you. And sometimes they just laugh!

2009-05-07T21:42:00.019-06:00

It's been a long, cold winter and I've been looking forward to getting out on the water and hooking into some big stillwater lunkers since ice-on in November. I decided Wednesday was the day to finally head out and could think of no better way to spend it than on the water hunting for big trout with a good friend. So Phil and I made plans to hit Muir lake. Phil picked me up at about 12:30pm and we headed out, looking forward to some of those football shaped trout Muir is so famous for. Word was out that the trout made it through the winter even though the aerator on the south end of the lake shut down while the lake was still frozen (thanks to some furry critter that chewed through the power cable). My expectations were high, the thoughts of hungry trout and high catch rates filled my head (sort of like sugar plums dancing through a kids head at Christmas time but way better). When we got out onto the lake we headed over to one of my favorite spots trying to stay out of the wind. It was too shallow for strike indicators so we tried boatman and backswimmers using a washing line technique (floating boatman on the point with a wet boatman or backswimmer as the dropper). We saw many boatman in the water so we just knew we'd do well ('cause we're experienced stillwater fly guys). And after about 30 minutes we decided to move (so much for experience). The results where Phil one, Doc zero. Phil decided he wanted to try a little bay neither of us had fished before, so off we went. We anchored in about 2ft of water casting out to about 8ft. We tried leech and chironomid patterns under an indicator. End result here? Phil zero, Doc one bump. The day wasn't turning out the way I had visioned it. We fished in every decent spot on the lake and the trout were just not in the mood to feed. They were however in the mood for other things (like sex). Spawners were rolling, splashing and chasing in the shallows and we could have targeted them all day and probably done very well but apparently this is bad form (or so says ex-"BC" stillwater guy Phil). So we stuck to our normal fishy hangouts and kept plugging away. At the end of a cool, rain soaked day; the score was Phil six, Doc nothing. I did hook into and loose a few but couldn't get 'em to the boat. I'll tell ya, getting skunked on Muir is a humbling experience. Makes me re-think everything I've learned over the years. The fishin' gods were smiling on Phil yesterday but laughing at me. Not laughing as hard as Phil though, he was having a real good ol' time. Not sure if he was laughing so hard at me or my funny jokes though. Hey Phil, "Maybe I thould wefwase that, I'd like to thee her gallop thlowly".

Here's a real quick video of a male spawner that Phil caught on a booby. Hmmm... horny males going after boobies; who'd a thunk?

Spring Has Sprung

2009-05-03T23:22:00.012-06:00

I guess it's time for me to start blogging again. I've been so busy with work, updating The New Fly Fisher website and just life in general, I haven't really found any time for blogging and I guess it shows since my last post was in February.

According to the rest of the world, the 1st day of spring is March 20. Of course if you live up here in the Great White North, the first day of spring is really when the ice comes off the smaller lakes (at least that's my interpretation of the first day of spring).

Friday May 1st was that day. Up until April 30th, most of these lakes still had ice on them but stillwater anglers all over the Edmonton region watched the wind clear our local lakes (at least enough to get a boat on the water). Our most popular lake in the area is Muir Lake located just west of Edmonton and on May 1st the lake opened for the first day of fishing. May 1st every year sees loads of anglers (usually of the fly fishing type) and the lake resembles more a bowl of cheerios than a trout lake due to all the float tubes. I heard that the fishing was pretty decent with some nice 24 inch rainbows being caught (at least for those that found a parking spot). I heard is was a lot of fun but i wouldn't know for sure as after three hours doing up a ton of paper work with month end reports, I headed over to Phil's house where we loaded my 'toon and tackle into his truck and headed east to meet up with Jokey (Joe). Jokey doesn't want me to post where we were as he likes this quite little fishery all to himself, so I won't mention it's name. I will tell you that we all caught just over dozen trout each. My biggest was a fat twenty incher, Jokey landed a nice 22 incher and Phil's biggest was about 19". When I pumped the throat on a few of these trout I saw loads of blood worms (midge larva) up to size 10, some size 14 boatman and some lake lint. Odd I didn't get one on a bloodworm or a boatman pattern even though I tried for a good 45 mins. Seems they sure liked the leech patterns though. We fished them suspended under an indicator and they almost always took it right after we twitched it. They didn't want lots of movement but other than the odd trout, they wouldn't take it sitting completely still either. Had a great season opener with a couple of great guys and some nice fat trout. Welcome back spring.

Need A New Fishing/Camping Machine?

2009-02-25T15:02:00.002-07:00

I found this on you tube and I'm likin' it.

Now if a guy could get a hitch on there for his boat and they could make that a 4X4, it'd be perfect.

Staying Busy In The Off Season

2009-02-12T22:56:00.011-07:00

Already February and I haven't wet a line since November. I have been staying busy however. With the new job, learning all the ins and outs of a new management position in the liquor industry, running my five online sites and tying a few flies here and there, I really haven't found the time to even plan a trip to drown some feathers. On top of this, I've been asked to update the New Fly Fisher web site. Nothing to major really just adding new pics, links, text and a new video. The site is looking pretty good if I do say so myself. You can check it out here.

A couple days ago I got an e-mail stating that I won a new fly rod. I've entered lots of things with a chance to win fly fishing tackle of one sort or another and this is the first time I ever won. I was checking out Tim & Andy's web site not to long ago and they had an online survey on their forum for the Amundson Fly Fishing/Outdoors company. taken from the Western Sportfishing Fourm "The company is Canadian, and they offer a wide variety of fly fishing products to the fly fisherman/woman. The purpose of the survey is to provide feedback to the company about what fly fishermen like about their gear, and what they would like to see." Anyway, I filled out the survey automatically entering me into the draw and now I got a band new WWF4-1005F Wind Warrior "Stillwater Series" rod which was designed in BC, for the interior stillwater type of fly fishing and is valued at $289.00. Big thanks to Jack Simpson from Amundson Fly Fishing/Outdoors for drawing my name. I guess I'll have to write a review on it this spring.

Another Chance To See Dave & Emily

2009-01-22T20:27:00.005-07:00

So you missed the Dave and Emily Whitlock show? Actually, due to circumstances beyond the control of the Whitlocks, or the Northern Lights, Dave and Emily could not appear. In their place, Jim McLennan and Phil Rowley jumped in to save the day(s). Phil presented expert stillwater information and Jim with some outstanding stream advise. A high percentage of those who attended were very pleased with all the information presented and very thankful that these two gentlemen stepped up to the plate on such short notice.

If you would still like to see the Dave and Emily two day seminar, they have been rescheduled to appear on April 25 & 26 at the club's meeting hall. For those that had already purchased their $80.00 tickets, you can purchase tickets to the Dave & Emily presentation for only $25.00. For everyone else, you can purchase tickets for $80.00. For more information, check out the NLFT&F's website here.

Dave & Emily Whitlock Seminar

2009-01-14T11:04:00.006-07:00

The Northern Lights Fly Tyers & Fishers in conjunction with the Edmonton chapter of Trout Unlimited are presenting a fly fishing seminar with presenters Dave & Emily Whitlock. The seminar will be held at Grant McEwan Community College at 106 St. & 104Ave in Edmonton Alberta, Room #6-212 from 9am to 4pm Saturday and Sunday January 17 & 18, 2009. You'll have the opportunity to learn from one of the most well known Fly Tiers & Fly
Fisherman in North America along with a number of raffles featuring some outstanding prizes to support this event. Tickets are available for $80.00 from the Northern Lights Fly Tiers during their Wednesday evening meetings and from the following Edmonton retail stores: The Fishing Center, Fishin' Hole West & North and Wholesale Sports.

Dave is a well known author of many published books including Dave Whitlock's Guide to Aquatic Trout Foods. For more about Dave and Emily Whitlock, visit their website here.

The New Northern Lights Chapter Of T.U.

2009-01-10T17:38:00.009-07:00

I can't believe it's already January 10 of 2009. Time feels like it's just whipping by and yet in the same breath, it feels like I haven't wet a line for a really long time. Another Christmas has come and gone and a very long cold snap here has finally ended. We had many, many days of -30c temps (or colder) and not very many warmer then -20c in the last three weeks. Today it hit 0c for the first time since, well, I don't remember (a long time). The new job is going well. Another month at it and I should be ready for a few trips south for some Bow River fly-fishing.

Some news for North Central Alberta fisher folk. The Edmonton Chapter of Trout Unlimited will be merged in with The Northern Lights Fly Tyers & Fishers club. TU Edmonton was originally started by fly anglers as a way to get together to #1, start conservation projects on the waters in North Central Alberta and #2: meet once a month in the winter for informative, educational and entertaining programs. With the formation of the Rocky Mountain House chapter of TU, most of the waters we fish have now fallen under their chapter and with the NLFT&F's popularity growing each year, members were reluctant to come out to TU meetings as much the same programs can be seen at their weekly club meetings leaving conservation as the Edmonton chapter's only draw. And conservation just isn't sexy enough to put warm butts in the seats. This last Wednesday, the executive of the NLFT&F's and T.U. Edmonton pitched the concept of a merger of the two clubs with one meeting per month dedicated to Trout Unlimited and cold water conservation. The club will now be known as the Northern Lights chapter of Trout Unlimited. Memberships will have to be worked out as far as this coming year but eventually, to join you will need a T.U. membership. This will open up a lot more doors for the Northern Lights club as far as raising money for worthwhile causes as well as giving conservation efforts more exposure. I'm really excited about this merger and if you're in the Edmonton area, I hope you are too.

2008-12-12T10:48:00.004-07:00

No fishing for this guy since November. The snow isn't going anywhere now, it's settled in 'til spring with a new blanket every couple days or so. The temps have been ok so far in December but they're forecasting for -32c on Monday (that's -25.6F for my American friends). Ya I know that's dam cold. I started a new job, back into management and back into the liquor industry. I'm basically concentrating on that right now but I am working on a new video project. It's going slow, might have it done by middle of January. I haven't started my Christmas shopping yet, like most guys I wait 'til the last minute. I can usually find some really good deals in the last days before Christmas so it's all good. My yougests daughter Hunter just celebrated her 10th birthday on Wednesday. She's making me feel old, seems like yesterday we brought her home from the hospital all bundled up with that little touque and the little mits. I can't beleive it's been ten years already. Back in Novemeber I got an e-mail from JibJab regarding their make a dancing Elf website. I did a few up, one with Phil and one each for both of my daughters but just the other day I was checking out the Rogue Angels Blog and seen they did one with their fishing buddies. So I decided to do another one up with some of the guys at my fly fishing forum.

Your feature presentation. Staring: Gums (monster Pike), Jokey (forum moderator), Phil Rowley (forum expert), Ayer (he posts the most pics on the forum) and myself (administrator). Hope you enjoy.

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/ukIhayqfhFz3ChjTGmZ4

So Now What?

2008-11-22T11:31:00.019-07:00

Up here in the Great White North, at this time of year, fly fisherman (and woman) are storing their rods, cleaning their reels and lines and accepting the fact that fly fishing is over for another season. The lakes are icing over and the days are getting shorter. Some are breaking out their ice fishing tackle and may even be getting excited about the hard water. Personally I can't get excited about staring at a hole in the ice while freezing my nuts off. Ice fishing just doesn't appeal to me. Oh, I've tried. I even built my own ice shanty a few years back. I was pretty proud of it, making it from scratch out of plywood, hinges, latches and a tarp. It even looks pretty cool and I made it to fit in the back of my van (the fish mobile). But it isn't fly fishing. So now what? Well of course there is fly tying. It starts out by cleaning your bench, putting everything in it's place, maybe even labeling some things so you can find things easier. Then you get down to tying. All the patterns you use the most are done first. Make sure you tie enough to get you through your next season. After that it's the patterns you thought about tying last summer. Maybe a pattern you seen somewhere or one that someone introduced you to. After that you start searching on the net for something new, something you either think would be fun to tie or maybe something you could see working on your local waters. Winter is a great time to fill up your fly boxes and experimenting with new patterns and new techniques or tricks you learned can be fun. But it isn't fly fishing. Some guys get involved with clubs. It's another great way to learn new things maybe even a secret or two and you get to bond with folks that have similar interests. But it isn't fly fishing. So now what? This summer I bought a new digital video camera. I plan on making videos throughout the winter. Maybe some fly tying, maybe some set-ups I use for chironomids or Pike. That should keep me somewhat busy over the winter. But it isn't fly-fishing. So now what? I'm not willing to accept that the season is over. There's still the 3+ hour drive to the Bow River downstream of Calgary. You can fish there all winter as long as it's warm enough (pray for some chinooks) that the ice chunks melt off. The North Raven can be fished as well if you can find some open water on a warmer winter day. And of course there's Wabamun for monster pike. The water at the power plant discharge stays open all year and I beleive this is the last year for open water as the plant is shutting down it's last generator next year. All options for a fly fishing fix, that is if the temps are warm enough to keep your guides from freezing. Now I just gotta find some buddies who are willing to brave the cold. So now what?

Project Healing Waters

2008-11-12T16:58:00.006-07:00

Mission Statement from Project Healing Waters USA:
Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc., initiated and conducted by members of the Federation of Fly Fishers and Trout Unlimited, serves military personnel who have been wounded, injured, or disabled to aid their physical and emotional recovery by introducing or rebuilding the skills of fly fishing and fly tying and by using and enjoying these skills on fishing outings and as lifelong recreation.

While initially focusing on the military personnel in the Washington, DC area, the Project has expanded nationwide and is offering its services and program to active military personnel and veterans in Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals throughout the country.

The Project’s program provides basic fly fishing, fly casting and fly tying classes and clinics for the wounded and injured personnel ranging from beginners to those with prior fly fishing and tying experience who are adapting their skills to their new abilities. All activities and services are provided to the participants at no cost. Fly fishing and tying equipment and materials are provided to the participants, including equipment that accommodates their special needs.

The Project’s training and educational activities are designed to ignite or rekindle the participants’ appreciation and enthusiasm for a wide variety of fly fishing outings. While most of these fishing trips are conducted within a half-day’s travel from a hospital, the Project actively seeks opportunities to offer outings in quality fishing sites across the county.

Currently, a passionate fly angler and contributing author to the flyangler.ca website, Kerry Pitt; has put in motion steps to bring Project Healing Waters to Canada. At this time he's asking people to consider how they would be able to contribute to this project as it comes to pass, not a request for money but rather more a request for their time. I sent him a personal message for information and to let him know that I'm very interested in this project. If you think you could give up some of your time to help our Canadian Veterans click here: Bringing Healing Waters and here: Comments and suggestions for more information.

Video Blog #3

2008-11-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

Scarrrry stuff kids; scarrrrry stuff!

2008-10-30T21:17:00.003-06:00

Have a great Halloween everyone!

The Muir Lake Project

2008-10-25T20:10:00.013-06:00

For those of you that frequent my blog, you've seen many posts regarding Muir Lake. I fish Muir more than any other lake for two reasons. First, the trout are now passing the 24 inch mark which means they are almost as big as the trout in any of the other fisheries in the Edmonton area and second, it's only 25 minutes from my door step. I recently bought a new video cam and have been experimenting with some projects. This is one of them. I hope you enjoy it and I hope it gives you a look at what Muir Lake is all about.

For a more detailed look at the Muir Lake project visit my information web site Fly Fishing Edmonton, and click on Edmonton Lakes.

Video Blog #2

2008-10-15T20:50:00.006-06:00

If you're interested in fly fishing for Pike, here's the set up I use.

Fishing in no more than 10ft of water, I use a nine weight rod with 9 weight floating line and matching reel. I start my leader with 2ft of 30lb mono from the fly line followed by 2ft of 20lb mono. Attached to that I use Rio's "Toothy Critter" nylon coated wire leader. Flies of choice are cone head popsicle leeches (all assorted colors but white has worked best for me), 1/2 & 1/2's and clouser minnows. Best presentation for me has been a strip, strip, pause. The Pike usually take it on the pause. Other important equipment is:

Large landing net or cradle
Long forceps or needle nose pliers
Jaw spreaders

Good luck!

Still looking for comments on the whole video blog thing. Keep it or kick it to the curb?

Mel Krieger Passed Away

2008-10-12T09:43:00.008-06:00

I just now learned that Mel Kreiger passed away last Tuesday. I never personally met the man but I've seen his casting seminars and many of his videos. He had a way of making learning fun as he was very passionate and enthusiastic about his teaching. And his patented "pop" or "click" sound that he made when casting always put a smile on my face.

Thanks Mel; for making learning fun.

Days are getting shorter... and colder

2008-10-08T22:50:00.004-06:00

When the weather changes here in north-central Alberta, there's no dickin' around. On September 30 we were hitting 27 degrees Celsius (that's 80.6F for my American friends). Tonight we're expecting to hit 0 degrees (32F) with a high of 8 for Thursday and by Saturday night it's supposed to hit -5 (23F). In the summer here, the sun stays in the sky long enough to fish 'til after 11pm at times. Now it's dark by 7pm. With days like that, it's hard to get motivated and get yourself out on the water. But we still do. I got out last Saturday, again to Muir Lake. Although I did get some trout on the boatman and backswimmers, the catch rates were quite low. I ended up switching over to a bloodworm and caught a couple on that as well. Fished mostly in 7-10ft of water as the trout are staying mostly in the shallows. I got one of those trout (about 20 inches) on video but I'm using that for a video I'm putting together on Muir Lake.

I'm thinking about heading out to Wab with Phil on the weekend and trying for some of those monster Pike. I'll make sure I take my video cam with me and see if I can get some of those up on the blog. Phil e-mailed a couple of pics from the TV show taping so I'll share those with you here.

My First Video Blog

2008-10-01T22:46:00.008-06:00

I was asked to be a guest on The New Fly Fisher TV show with host Phil Rowley. The idea for the show was to educate viewers on water boatman and backswimmers during the fall season. After much anticipation on my part, we shot the show at Muir Lake on Tuesday September 30 with many a trout netted using different tactics. I caught on video some of what was going on when I had the chance but most of the time I was busy doing something for the show so I didn't get a lot video. What I did get, I put on my very first video blog. Take a look at my V.B. and let me know your opinion, should this be a monthly feature to my blog or am I just better off sticking with written posts? Before you hit the video play button, make sure you pause the music track on my playlist.

I just wanted to say thanks to Phil, the camera man Robyn and The New Fly Fisher TV show. I had a blast. Now, who is it I send my resume to for your job Phil?

RUT!!!

2008-09-24T21:51:00.004-06:00

I didn't want to post again 'til I took some fishy pics to add here. Well; I'm posting anyway. That's right, no pics. Seams I'm in a rut right now. I fished Muir on Sunday September 14 & the 24. I also fished tonight for 3.5 hours. I landed some decent fish on the 14th but forgot my camera. On the 24th, I lost all fish I hooked into. Both last Sunday and tonight were information trips as I wanted to try all the methods that I know of regarding fishing boatman patterns. I fished floating and weighted boatman on a floating line and on both tradition and uniform sinking lines. I also tried both floating and weighted boatman in tandem first with the floating on the point and then later as the dropper. About the only method I didn't use was a boatman under an indicator (which works great at Dolberg Lake by the way). I used various retrieves; a slow hand twist, long slow strips, short quick strips, twitching with long pauses, fast long strips, etc, etc... Both the floating and weighted boatman on the floating line got more attention using a slow long retrieve with long pauses. The most hook-ups (although few and far between) on both types of sinking lines came from quick short 3-4 inch strips. The next three or so weeks up north here should be boatman/backswimmer heaven so get those flies tied. As far as my catch rates? None! Tonight I got broken off four times, had three Ralphies and lots of takes where trout were on for about one second. But none to the net. Anbody got a good prescription for RUT?

On another note I've puchased an HD video cam and have started recording some interesting things. I've been throwing around the idea of doing a feature "video blog" once amonth with fishing footage and whatnot but haven't made up my mind yet on that one. At the least you can look forward to some video projects on my blog in the future.

A TV Dinner

2008-09-12T19:59:00.004-06:00

They say everyone in the world gets his or her 15 minutes of fame. Well, the universe still owes me about 10 minutes but I'm happy with the five minutes I did get. I taped a show with citytv back on July 15 for a signature segment showcase called 'Nick's Nosh'. The idea was to teach the host (Nick) how to fly-fish and cook up a trout for a shore lunch. Nick did hook into a few but unfortunately couldn't get one to the net. I hooked into my fair share but only managed two to the net, one of which had parasites so we let that one go. The show aired this past Monday and I have to say it was a lot of fun. There may be an opportunity for me to film another show (this time a full half hour) coming up in the near future. I'll let you know more if and when the time comes. In the mean time, here is the video of the show we did back in July.

It's Boatman Time

2008-09-01T19:47:00.010-06:00

I got two phone calls from my buddies last night. Chuck Harvey and Phil Rowley called me up and asked if I'm in for some fishin' at Muir. Uh, no I'm done fishing for the season... CHA! I'll see you there at 10am Monday morning. So when I got there this morning and backed my vehicle down to the water to set up my 'toon I see this big burnt mess right at the launch. Phil comes down to the water and points out a rock where a molotov cocktail had been thrown against it. If you look close at the pic, you can see the broken bottle with the burnt rag. What is wrong with people? First there are no fires aloud there never mind right where folks launch their boats and second, why the hell are they throwing fire bombs? To top it off, whatever they were burning in the fire had a shit load of nails in it. I cleaned up most of the broken glass both from the fire and the molotov cocktail and cleaned up a lot of nails. I was going to finish picking up the rest when I came back in but someone beat me to it.

Just before I headed out onto the water, I noticed the dock and the lack of water under it. I've never seen the table this low at Muir before. If you look close enough, you can actually see that the end of the dock isn't even touching the water. I hope we get a lot of snow this winter to bring the levels back up.

I headed out onto the water at about 11am, Chuck had showed up earlier and was on the water already and Phil had got out just before me. We headed over to the south side of the island and parked ourselves in our usual spot which didn't really produce for us so after a while we all split up. Chuck -who had caught a 24 incher before we arrived- (see pic below) started trolling around the lake, Phil headed over to the south shoreline with his two sons and I went north-east to the flats. After I dropped my anchor, I set up with a small boatman on the point with a bloodworm (Redd October) dropper. I was fishing in about 9-10ft of water and I set my indicator so it would present my dropper one foot off the bottom. On the first cast I hooked into a nice one and... Dam! He got off. I reset the indicator and on my second cast the indicator goes under again. I set the hook and play the fish for about 3 minutes when it dives for the weeds and... Snap! Another nice one gone. I setup again this time with 6lb vanish as my tippet a chironomid on the point. I set my indicator, cast out, wait a couple minutes and I'm hooked up again. The trout is jumping like crazy and... spits the hook. Oh, I'm choked now. I cast out again for the fourth time now, strip, wait, strip, wait and... nothing? Hmmm. Cast out again. Strip, wait... the indicator goes under and a 24 inch rainbow is leaping out of the water over and over again. I'm sure I'm gonna loose this one too but after fighting him hard I finally get him in. I take a quick pic, pump the throat to find eight boatman and two stickleback minnows. I then let him swim away on his own steam and wouldn't you know it, my biggest Muir Lake bow to date and the pic didn't turn out. I caught three more in the flats after Chuck and Phil made their way over. And then one more on the north-west side of the island using boatman patterns. All trout were between 19 and 24 inches. Wasn't a banner day by any means but a whole lot of fun with good company.

My TV Debut

2008-08-29T18:23:00.004-06:00

Just an update for those that live in the Edmonton area and/or pick up Citytv (channel 7 on Shaw). Marina from Citytv has e-mailed me to let me know that the fly-fishing show I did for Nick's Nosh will now air on Monday, September 8. Not sure what time exactly but I believe it runs between 5:30pm & 6:30pm. So tune in for my TV debut and watch me make a fool out of myself (God I hope not).

Goldeye On The Fly Part 2

2008-08-28T17:11:00.009-06:00

Not a lot of folks fly fish for Goldeye. For that matter, not a lot of folks even know what a Goldeye is. I'm not going to go into much detail about the characteristics of the Goldeye but if this is of interest to you, I linked to a page with good information on the Goldeye at the beginning of this post or you can just do a google search. What I will tell you is that they will readily rise to a dry a fly, they have piranha like teeth and smaller mouths similar to a whitefish. Now as far as information on catching Goldeye on the fly, there is very little information available. Here are some bits of information that I have heard about fly-fishing for Goldeye and my responses to them.

They are most active at dusk. From what I have observed, this is true. We usually get to the river about two hours before dark and at first, you can see the Goldeye occasionally rising out in the middle of the stream and out of casting range. As it gets darker the rises become more frequent and the fish start to move in towards shore. By the time the sun has completely set, the rises are everywhere including behind you at the shore line.

Goldeye won't take your fly unless it is twitched or on the swing. It all depends on what is hatching. If there is a thick mayfly hatch on, this may not be true but for the most part from my experience, Goldeye like to see some bit of movement on the fly.

Tie on a stimulator or an elk hair caddis and your guaranteed a good time. Although both the stimulator and the EHC patterns work incredibly well, that is not an entirely true statement. From what both myself and Phil Rowley have experienced, Goldeye are opportunistic feeders but according to the hatch, they will become selective. Twice now, Phil and I have seen hatches of small mayflies, once with what we believe is a mahogany dunn hatch and then again with tiny white winged blacks (tricos). The mahogany mayflies were about a size 14-16 and the tricos were about a size 22 -24. When fishing while the mahogany hatch was on, other fly patterns (stimulator, EHC, mayfly patterns, etc) would work as long as the size was close. But when the trico hatch was on, the Goldeye seemed to be very selective in both size and shape of our presentation. The week before I saw that mahogany hatch, my buddy Joe and I had experienced another mayfly hatch but these were much bigger in sizes 10-12. We believed these to be brown drakes but they may have also been mahogany mayflies. When this hatch was on, we were using larger flies in different patterns and doing well but as the the hatch went on we also had to to go down in size and change patterns to a mayfly imitation.

Goldeye are definitely fun to catch on a dry fly. They fight pretty good due to their profile and now I know they are not as easy to catch as I had previously thought. If you're lucky, a stimmy or an EHC will get you good results but you may still have to work for them and yes... "match the hatch".

Goldeye On The Fly

2008-08-24T15:04:00.015-06:00

It's been a while since I posted. I got back from my family vacation on Friday and did very little fishing ('bout an hour total combined line wetting time). My wife, youngest daughter Hunter, her friend Dana and myself took a trip down to the Crowsnest Pass in Southern Alberta. Ya, I know; how could I visit the Crowsnest and only spend an hour fishing? Oh, it's much worse then that. I didn't even wet a line in the Crowsnest River! Well, this being a "family" vacation meant little to no fishing so the only time I got to wet a line is early morning when everyone was sleeping and late evening before we turned in for the night.

We camped at a beautiful little mountain lake called Chinook Lake. The water was crystal clear and the setting was very nice. Not much of a beach for the kids (about the size of a postage stamp) but it was a beach just the same. Only problem was it rained so much the kids got very little use out of it. We did do some hiking on some nice trails. We even managed a black diamond trail. At the end of the hike, everyone was quite impressed that they conquered the black diamond trail although while we were scaling it, they weren't overly impressed with me for suggesting it. The pass itself didn't see as much rain as our campsite so we did manage to see some wonderful sites. All were impressed with the Lundbrek Falls and the coal mine tour was a big hit. As a matter of fact, I would recommend this mining tour to all that have the opportunity to take it in. The Frank Slide Interpretive Center was closed for renovations but the trail was open with a lot of good information at the kiosks. Because of all the rain, we couldn't go horseback riding as the trails were to slippery for the horses. Lots of sad faces in the car when we had to head back down the mountain without getting a chance to sit in the saddle. Even with all the rain, all in all we had a very enjoyable time.

Before I left for our vacation, I did get some fishing in. I had a chance to fish Muir and it was on fire for about three hours before dusk. I only took one pic of my biggest for the day. This rainbow was 22 inches+.

The Friday before I left I met up with Joe (Jokey) who is a moderator on my Fly Fishing Forum and a couple of his buddies. We went after goldeye on the North Saskatchewan River and did ok. Not sure how many I ended up netting (around 10) and Joe with about 5 or 6. They really are a blast to fish for on dry flies and fight pretty good too. Then on Sunday Phil and I went to the same spot on the NSR as Phil had not yet had the opportunity to hook into a goldeye. He indeed got his first G.E. while fishing a mayfly pattern. It wasn't as productive as the Friday but we hooked into a few. If you want to give fly fishing a try for goldeye, show up about two to three hours before sundown and twitch a stimulator, mayfly or EHC wherever you see rise rings. You can improve your chances with a hopper-dropper setup.

Phil and I are off to fish the NSR again tonight. Hopefully the fishin' will be a little better than the last time we were out.

A Fly In The Forum Ointment

2008-07-29T17:38:00.007-06:00

If you're here looking for information about either The Fishin' Alberta Message Board or the Alberta Fly Fishing Forum, it is not your PC. Stebb's entire site is down including their own forum (which is how I get customer support). Therefore, I can't even tell you what the problem is never mind how long it will be until my two forums are online again. Just have patience and hopefully it won't be to long.

July 31/08 *NOTE: The forums are back up. Enjoy :)

While you're here though, you may as well read my latest fishing report.

I headed out to Muir Lake Monday night with Phil Rowley and his youngest son Shaun. We got on the lake at about 5:30pm and the water was really warm about 72F-74F. We figured the trout would be a lot more comfortable sitting deep so we made out way over to the deep hole south-east of the island. We parked our boats in 11ft of water casting out to 14ft and Phil had one on right away with a leech pattern. He did well with the leech for the rest of the night but I didn't fair as well on my bloodworms, scuds and chironomids. I did hook into a pig not long after Phil's 1st trout but it wrapped himself around Phil's anchor rope and broke me off. Not sure if it took the scud or the Redd October but that sort of set the course for the rest of my night. Phil kept hooking up consistently with most taking the leech pattern and I not so consistent. It seemed every time I did hook up, I'd loose 'em. Not entirely sure how many Phil got to the net but after I changed over to a baby beadhead bugger, I did manage one stocker, one decent female and one big male. I forgot my measure-net in the van so I couldn't tape them but I'd say the male was pushing 21-22 inches. Phil's got the pics so maybe after he reads this he'll e-mail 'em to me and I can put them up. There were frequent aggressive risers throughout the evening but we weren't sure what exactly they were rising for. We saw spent mayflies but not an abundance of them and some very small midges. I also saw what looked like stickleback minnows swirling for the small midges so it's possible the trout were rising for these. The trout I did manage to bring to the boat had severe parasites under their skin. I've seen this in the past on most of our local lakes when the water gets very warm but never this bad. These parasites are very similar to the parasites that cause swimmer-itch. We got off the water at about 10pm. All things considered, it was a great time with good company even with my case of the Ralphy's. (Ralphy- A word created by Don Anderson used to describe a fish getting off your hook after being hooked. Ralph refers to ex Alberta Premiere Ralph Klein who made it illegal to use barbed hooks even though there is no science to support that barbless hooks cause less mortality in fish.)

Things Are A Buzz In Edmonton

2008-07-26T10:58:00.014-06:00

Literally, if you walk outside you hear a buzz. No I haven't started bee keeping, It's the sound of the Indy cars. Not sure if the folks that live on the south side of Edmonton can hear them but on the north side, it sounds like thousands of bee hives in my backyard.

Right now we have the Rexall Edmonton Indy taking place in our fine city. The race takes place at our city center airport and along with Capital-EX (our yearly fair/exhibition), it brings a whole lot of tourists to the city. When I owned Santannas Night-Club, I used to hate the Capital-Ex (back then it was called Klondike Days) as it would just take the population of the city and direct them into the city core. That used to hurt business big time for those of us on not near the EX. I was quite jealous of our rival city to the south as the Calgary Stampede draws people from all over the world and we'd hear stories about how much busier the night-clubs got during their EX. Well times have changed, although I'm not in the club scene any more, it's nice to see how many tourists Edmonton is drawing in with all the summer activities we offer. The Indy race would have to be the biggest draw but we also have festival after festival running right through the summer. Edmonton is actually known as Festival City and the biggest festival of the summer would have to be our Fringe. The Edmonton Fringe is the largest and oldest Fringe Festival in North-America and features more than 140 un-juried and un-censored shows from around the world. A little secret for you; I've never gone. Maybe this year though.

So last night my wife and I took my youngest daughter (Hunter) to Capital-Ex. On our way to Kiddy Land, we stopped at the Chilkoot Gold Mine and helped Hunter pan for gold. She ended up with one small gold nugget and placed it in the bag they provided. She was all smiles and it brought back some of my own memories when I was a kid and panned for gold at that very same place with my mom and dad. We made our way to Kiddy Land and bought Hunter the all-ride wrist band and since last year I got to enjoy all the kiddy rides, this year it was my wife's turn. The line-ups were long but Hunter had a lot of fun and it was all worth it to see her smiles. While we were waiting in the line for the kiddy roller coaster, I ventured over near the ED Fest stage where a band was playing. I took a couple photos and then noticed a couple of black SUV's parked behind me with cop cars surrounding it. I thought to myself; "who would be here that's important enough to need that kind of security?" Then it dawned on me. GENE SIMMONS! Gene was asked to be the Marshall of the Rexall Edmonton Indy. Now this all kind of ties in you see, 'cause my first memory of going to and exhibition was the Red River EX in Winnipeg when I was nine. There were many games of chance with the prizes being posters of the "new" band Kiss. I wanted a poster so bad (even though I never knew who they were) and although I tried, I just couldn't win a poster. I never even heard one of their songs before but starting right then and there, I was a huge Kiss fan . Of course as I got older I not only filled my room with Kiss posters but had every album they ever made and even purchased the solo albums (Paul and Chris's albums sucked but I listened to them anyway). If you were ever a Kiss fan right now you'd be asking yourself, "Doc who was your favorite?" ('casue every guy had a favorite and probably dressed up like him at least once for Halloween, five Halloweens for me). And my favorite was Peter Chris. My three best friends were also huge kiss fans, Brad was Paul Stanley, Grant was Ace Frehley and Dave was Gene Simmons. So back to the EX. I peaked over the fence and there he was standing under a tent. I tried to get some pics of him but they turned out way to fuzzy. So I waited (more and more cops were showing up so I knew it wouldn't be long) for about 20 mins and he finally came out of the fenced off area. I tried my best to get some good pics but I only got one decent shot and he wasn't facing me. I soooo need a digital SLR! So I made my way over to the wife and daughter who were just getting off the ferriswheel and I told them all about it. We then continued on and enjoyed more rides, the nightly fireworks display and lots of exhibition food.

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with fly-fishing. But sometimes life gets in the way of fly-fishing, and sometimes that's good. Sometimes.

Product Review: The monoMaster

2008-07-18T22:48:00.015-06:00

Fly anglers take pride in being stewards of their environment. Pack out what you pack in and bring an extra garbage bag with you to help clean up what others may have left behind. But what about the mono tag ends you clip off from your fly?

I recently had the opportunity to try out an innovative new fishing tool. The monoMaster from Grasshopper Outdoors is small, lightweight, handy and excellent for dealing with mono filament waste. Every angler has days when things just aren’t going right and end up cutting off tangled line from their leader . If you’re anything like me, you probably just roll it up and stick it in one of your pockets then forget about it until later. By that time it’s half hanging out of your vest, unraveling in the back of your vehicle or even getting tangled up in your equipment. No need to worry about that anymore with this environmentally friendly tool. Simply ball up the mono, slide it in the slot and roll it in. I was a little weary about this tool when I first heard about it as my major concern was the small tag ends clipped off after tying on my fly but even these tiny pieces of mono stay secure. This easy to use tool is a must have for any environ-conscience angler.

Kermit the frog once sang about how it wasn’t easy being green. I guess Kermit never had a monoMaster.

You can order one online at www.grasshopperproducts.com or www.Orvis.com for $11.95.

Mike (Doc) Monteith

Owner/Guide
Edmonton Stillwater adventures

My 15 Minutes Of Fame

2008-07-15T21:43:00.013-06:00

A couple weeks back, I got a phone call from Citytv's Senior Producer asking me if I would guide the host of a signature segment showcase called 'Nick's Nosh'. Marina had explained to me that she had an idea for a show where the host learns the art of fly fishing, then (hopefully) catches a trout and cooks it up for a nice shore lunch. I had to think about it for a few seconds as the idea of keeping trout didn't sit all that well with me but after some consideration and the agreement that it would take place at a put & take stocked fishery that winterkills almost every year, I agreed to it.

We got to Chickakoo Lake this morning at around 10:00am and I proceeded to get all my equipment and tackle together for the shooting while they prepared their expensive audio and video equipment. They hooked me up with a wireless mic and then explained what they expected from me. I've had some radio experience in the past but this was my first time in front of a camera (my fifteen minutes of fame I guess). My instructions were to keep my conversations directed at the host and never look at the camera. Well, how hard could that be? Actually not hard at all. I just tried to forget it was even there. Ok, I looked at the camera three times in the four hours we were shooting but Nick (the host) told me I was a natural. Could be he was just blowing smoke up my ass but I really hope I did myself justice.

We started the shooting by setting up the float tube that Nick was to use and then the pontoon boat that would float me around for the afternoon. We soon moved on to casting instruction, pretty much the same way I teach my clients but this was sort of a crash course as we needed to get on the lake quickly to secure a trout for the frying pan. So after Nick got the basic idea of casting a fly rod, out on the water we went. It was a nice change for me as once on the water, I didn't have to guide him but rather just keep an eye on him and give him pointers as the producer needed a trout and their hopes were mostly with me (although they were really hoping Nick would bring one to hand). We both got into fish but we were having a real hard time keeping them on the hook. I finally brought one to the net but it had bumps all over it from parasites called cercaria (similar to Swimmers Itch). These parasites can not hurt humans as we are not it's proper host (its proper hosts are snails in its pupa stage and birds in its adult stage) but a trout with these under it's skin sure wouldn't look very tasty on camera. So that little guy went back and luckily I got another to the net and this one made tv history. After we got back into shore, I packed all my equipment while Nick started preparing his salad and garnishings. I then grabbed the trout and brought it over to the picnic table and proceeded to clean it as it seems nobody there had ever cleaned a trout before. The last time I cleaned a trout was probably around 15 years ago but it came pretty easy once they found me a sharper knife. Once cooked up, we again appeared on camera where Nick presented the trout with the salad and garnish and proceeded to eat it. He then asked me if I'd like a bite and I passed. Nick then asked why I don't eat what I catch and I explained that I do occasionally (if it's Walleye) but that I'd rather release it to catch another day.

They appeared to be very happy with what they shot and graciously thanked me. The show is to air during the news hour on Monday, August 18 so keep an eye out for it. Hopefully I didn't embarrass myself to much. They're also sending me a disk with the final footage so I'll try and show that off here on my blog. The funny thing is, my fifteen minutes of fame (and four hours of taping) is really only about four minutes long after editing. I guess that means the universe still owes me 11 minutes.

Finding Walter

2008-07-09T20:36:00.014-06:00

Definitely not the summer I dreamed of. In my last post I told you about taking my daughter Hunter out to Cardiff Lake and teaching her to cast. Although I wouldn't trade that day for anything in the world, that was the last time I got near a lake and I didn't even fish. Before I know it, the snow will be flying, the ice will be on the lakes and I'll be full of a bunch of shoulda, woulda, coulda's. I planned on heading out last night and then tonight but we still got this weather thing going on. These thunderstorms come, then pass, then another, then another. It's not even the rain that bothers me, it's the lightening. I can handle a few days of fishin' in the rain but ain't nothing more nerve racking than being out in the middle of a lake with lightening striking all around you. Been there, done that, bought the instructional DVD.

On a brighter note, a local TV station has asked me to shoot a few hours of me teaching the host how to fly fish, then take him out in a float tube and let him catch some trout so he can cook them up as a shore lunch. I agreed and will be shooting next week. I'll post all about it after the fact.

Since I got nothin' else, I thought I'd toss another of my articles at you. This one originally had the title "Can You Read A Lake ?". I revamped it about a year ago and Phil Rowley used it for his web site under his Guest Writers feature. I hope you enjoy it.

Finding Walter
by Mike (Doc) Monteith

In 1981, the movie ‘On Golden Pond’ found one of it’s main characters -Norman Thayer- bragging about an illusive lunker trout in the lake that his New England country home looked out upon. That big Rainbow always seemed to elude the old man but Norman’s grandson Billy Ray finally caught that big fish before the summer was up. The trout was affectionately named Walter, and Walter is exactly what most of us are after when we head out in search of stillwater trout.

Most cities and towns throughout Canada can find trout lakes and ponds fairly close to home. You may be fortunate enough to live close to some self-sustaining trout lakes but for most of us, the lakes we fish are stocked annually by our provincial governments.

Although newly stocked trout (stockers) are fairly easy to catch, many anglers report that the larger trout –the Walters- in these stillwater fisheries are hard to find and not as cooperative as they should be. Or maybe it’s that the average fly angler doesn’t know where to look.

To achieve positive results, reading the water at a lake is a secret best discovered sooner than later and knowing where big trout are holding or at least where they should be holding really is half the battle. Reading stillwater fisheries can be intimidating but like anything, practice makes perfect and lake fly anglers can learn where the high probability and prime holding areas are in the stillwater’s they fish.

So how do you read a lake where there are no obvious fast riffles, deep runs or fish-holding boulders? There may be no obvious structure like in a stream, but there is structure even if it is in a different form. A prime lie in a stream would be considered anywhere that the trout can find food, shelter from predators and suitable levels of oxygen (comfort zone). These are the three basic necessities of trout and the same needs must be met in a lake or pond. One primary difference between streams and lakes is that trout in streams tend to hold in one place waiting for food to come to them. However, in lakes, trout cruise around looking for food in specific, prime areas, and these are the places you’ll want to concentrate on. Stillwater trout search for most of their food at the drop-offs and shoal areas. But what are drop-offs, what are shoals and how does a lake fly angler find them?

A drop-off is the part of the lake bottom that, well, like the name implies, drops off. From the shoreline to the drop-off, you will find a shallow area known as the shoal. Usually somewhat weedy, the shoal is home to many insects like chironomids, dragonfly nymphs and damselfly nymphs as well as aquatic life including Scuds, minnows and leeches. Trout swim up from the drop-off, feed on the shoal and drop back down again. According to the amount of light, how warm the water is and how much weed cover a trout has on the shoal will usually dictate when and how much time a trout will spend in the shoal area. The shoal is usually quite shallow making it to easy for predators, like Osprey, to see trout. And trout being as cautious as they are will not stay on the shoal for long. During the day, trout usually make quick trips onto the shoal then drop back down the drop-off. The water in the shoal area can also be very warm and uncomfortable for the trout, which also make trips to the shoal brief. It’s in the evening, throughout the night and early mornings as well as cool overcast days where we'll see trout spending more time in these shoal areas feeding. Autumn also sees trout spending more time on the shoals fattening up for winter. And early spring after ice-out will see trout in these shallow areas, as the water in the shoal area will warm up faster increasing insect activity quicker than in the deeper, colder sections of the lake. Sometimes when there is a lot of insect activity like the late spring damselfly migration, the trout throw caution to the wind and hang on the shoal feeding for long periods of time even on bright, sunny, warm days.

The shoal and drop-off transition is an important structure for fish—and for anglers. Aquatic insects and small forage fish will frequently move near or beyond the drop-off area making easy meals for searching trout. This is what I like to refer to as the ‘Strike Zone’ and it’s where you’ll get most of your strikes and hook-ups on your flies. Anglers fishing these structures are best to get their presentation right down to wear the trout are feeding into this transition area.

Weed beds are another important structure for fish and anglers. Like the weed cover we see in the shoal areas, mid-lake weed beds also hold insects and aquatic life forms and give good cover to cruising trout. Anglers will often find large numbers of trout at anytime of day searching for food here even when the water is quite warm. You can find weed beds in many different areas of a stillwater fishery, many times right in the middle of the lake. Mid-lake weed beds usually grow on humps where the water is relatively shallow, quite often giving us smaller drop-offs to fish. Some weed beds can be seen from the surface and some are sub surface. You can have unbelievable catch rates fishing weed beds just by concentrating on this structure alone. Leech, damselfly nymph and many dry fly patterns work incredibly well when casting around the edges, directly into or over top of these weed beds. Several presentations will work here and experimenting with floating and sinking lines will be the key to success.

Another structure that is highly overlooked when stillwater fishing is along the shoreline. Many aquatic life forms are found very close to the shoreline in shallow water including water boatmen, scuds and leeches. Although you will find these life forms throughout the lake, concentrations will be much higher closer to the shorelines. In low light conditions trout will be less cautious and feed in these areas due to the vast number of bugs here. It’s not uncommon to arrive at a body of water at first light and see trout swirling only a few feet away from the shore. On windy days, it’s in the angler’s best interest to head over to the shoreline being pounded by the wind driven waves. These waves will not only give the trout a choppy cover from predators but will also stir up insects from the bottom and force then into these shorelines. A floating line or a slow sinking line will produce well along shorelines while keeping your fly from consistently picking up weeds and debris.

The deeper sections of a lake will also see big trout. On hot summer days you’ll find trout moving deeper where conditions are cooler and more oxygen rich, feeding on bloodworm, chironomid pupa, dragonfly nymphs and other aquatic life forms but oxygen levels usually dictate how deep fish will hold. A section of a lake may be 50 feet deep but trout may only hold as far as thirty feet if the water below that depth is anoxic. A full sink line, fast sink tip or a floating line with a long leader, strike indicator and a weighted fly will do you well in these deeper waters. Finding out what depth the trout are holding at will be the key to success here so experimenting with your presentation is very important.

The biggest problem angler’s seam to have while trying to find structure is seeing it. Of course you can’t see a lot of structure when it’s underwater, or how deep the section of water is that you may be fishing. The shoreline of a lake however, can give away some secrets about what’s under the surface. Try and study the contour of the shoreline. These land features often continue below the water. A steep bank at the shoreline usually means a quick drop-off and a very flat shoreline usually continues on that way well below the surface. Also look for clusters of stumps, downed logs, brush piles, river and creek mouths or other signs that may look like fishy hangouts. Try getting a hold of some depth charts or hydrographic maps of the lake you wish to fish as these maps can either confirm or contest what the shoreline is telling you and will also give you an idea where you can find deep holes, underwater humps, shallow flats and old river or creek channels. Also consider purchasing a fish finder or depth finder. A fish finder is a great way to find depth and structure in a lake and can easily be attached to your float tube or pontoon boat with a homemade or commercially available bracket kit. The small gel cell batteries needed to power these units will easily fit in the storage pockets on your tube and there is no need to get anything expensive, as even the cheapest units will have the two most important features, depth and bottom structure.

Prairie Potholes

It’s important to note here that in many prairie pothole lakes there may not be a drop-off making the lake more like one big shoal. These prairie potholes may gradually drop down as deep as twenty feet or even more but don’t actually offer a transition from shoal to drop-off. If you find yourself fishing a lake like this it’s important to concentrate your efforts on other structures. Prairie pothole lakes are usually very fertile meaning lots of plant life and insect activity, which can produce some very big trout but because most of these lakes tend to have both a lack of depth and surface area, winterkill and summerkill are quite common. As of late, aeration in Alberta prairie pothole lakes is becoming popular and some angler research as to what lakes are hosting these aerators and what lakes will be coming on line next will be beneficial. These new project lakes also tend to have special regulations giving anglers higher catch rates and a greater opportunity at catching Walter.

Alpine Lakes

High mountain lakes are known for gin clear water, this means a stealthy approach is important. Float Tubes and Pontoon boats are both advantageous but good results can come from a rowboat as well. Fish tend to be a little more skittish in these mountain lakes due to this clear water as well as the lack of bottom vegetation compared to the lower mainland and prairie pothole lakes but because of this crystal clear water, sight fishing is an exciting bonus. Rocks and sunken logs or other structures that may provide protection for the trout are places to concentrate here in early mornings and evenings. Drop-offs will do you well during the heat of the day.

Like stream fishing, reading the water and knowing where the fish are holding is half the battle. Being able to read a lake will at the very least have you fishing in the high probability areas and in no time, you to will be pulling in Walter at your favorite fishin’ hole.

About the author:
Mike (Doc) Monteith has been fishing Edmonton's local lakes for 28 years and is the owner/guide of Edmonton Stillwater Adventures, owner of the information web site Fly Fishing Edmonton, editor/publisher of the information web site Float Tube Fly Fishing and owner/moderator for the Alberta Fly Fishing Forum.

Hunter's A Natural

2008-07-02T21:18:00.017-06:00

Yesterday was Canada Day. For my American friends, that's the same as your 4th Of July. We celebrated Canada's 141st birthday, it's easy for me to remember 'cause I'm a centennial baby born in 1967, the same year Canada celebrated it's 100th. There's always lots of stuff going on all over the country and here in Edmonton it was no different. The Alberta Government had a free pancake breakfast at the Legislative Grounds, the city had a free BBQ at Rundle Park and many, many other activities throughout the city and the surrounding cities and towns had their own festivities. There were lots of firework displays all over the county with the biggest Edmonton display in the river valley. Every year our family packs up the camping chairs and head to one of the great spots near the valley to partake in the Canada Day events and of course to watch the fireworks (usually at the leg grounds) but this year was a bit different.

Some time around February, my youngest daughter Hunter (9 yrs old), had asked me to teach her to cast a fly rod so she could fly-fish with me. That was music to my ears. My wife Sharmaine doesn't fish and has no interest to learn. My oldest daughter Cassandra thinks fishing is stupid and absolutely hates (or is scared) of every bug on the planet (alive or dead). So hearing Hunter tell me she wanted to learn how to fly-fish gave me hope that I may one day have a fishing buddy like my father had with me. So Hunter and I made plans to hit Cardiff Pond on the morning of Canada Day. I stayed up a little later than I should have on the Monday night and was pretty tired come Tuesday morning but Hunter kept at me and soon we were off. When we got to the lake, I started her off with the tip top section, showing her the side arm 11:00 / 1:00 casting stroke, then moved to the but section with the reel attached and continued with the same casting stroke. She eventually got to practice with the whole rod in a vertical position. I then showed her how to string the line and how to tie on a fly using the improved clinch knot. Now she was ready to cast the fly. Holy S#&t, she's a natural. Although I had to keep giving her guidance with her tendency to bunch line before she cast and keeping her rod in the 11:00 / 1:00 position, she was casting great. And she was all about the casting, no real interest in fly presentation or even catching fish but loved to cast the fly out onto the water. Although she was tired, she didn't stop casting the whole time we were there except to take a bathroom break. I had to actually ask her if she was getting tired, and she was. So after a good two hours of fishing, we made our way home. Before we packed up though, she came over to me and gave me a big hug and said; "Dad, thanks for teaching me, this was the best day ever." Yeah, I think a tear started to form in my eye (but I kept my composure) and replied back with a very heart felt; "you're welcome honey." Being a father really does have it's paydays doesn't it?

So as I wrote earlier, we usually pack up the family and go watch the fireworks. I think we've only missed one year as a family since my oldest daughter was born (unless I was working at my old night club in which the family all went without me). But this year we decided to do something different. We went to see a movie. Although we love watching movies, we rarely go to the theater but rather rent and stay home. So this was a first for Canada day and when we entered the theater low and behold, there was no line-ups at either the ticket center or candy counter and there were lots of places to sit with a good view of the screen in the theater. To top it off we watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I'm an old Indiana fan and will be definitely be adding this one to my trilogy at home. We all enjoyed the movie very much and had a great Canada Day, I hope you had the same. And I hope all my American friends have a wonderful Independence Day too.

I should be fishing but....

2008-06-26T18:42:00.005-06:00

If you're a stillwater fly guy up here in north-central Alberta, you get good fishing weather for five months with two months (April & October) of hit and miss. The lakes are covered with ice for the remaining months and if ice fishing ain't your thing then you spend a lot of time tying flies, surfing the web and dreaming about summer. So now that summer's here, why am I not fishing?

I got out with my buddy Brent last Saturday evening and fished Star Lake from about 5:30-10:30 (we could have actually fished past 11 as there was enough light from the setting sun to tie a fly on but Brent doesn't like loading his boat on the trailer in the dark (wussy). Anyway, I took my camera with me but didn't take any pics as we couldn't find any lunkers at all. Caught lots of stockers from both this year and last but ol' Walter didn't want to come out and play so I didn't bother snapping any shots. I had planned on fishing Monday and then maybe tonight but the weather we're getting is all messed up. These evening storms are really messing up my fishing and they just keep coming. Today we've had these cold fronts moving over one after another. Just when it clears up and the sun starts shining, another front moves in and the wind is gusting to somewhere around 50km/hr. The sun just disappeared behind some low hanging, black clouds as I write this and I would go take a few pics just to get the point across but ya, I'm to lazy. So I've put my time towards other useful things this past week.

My niece had been living with us for the last two years. She went back and finished high school, graduating this year and has now decided to move out and back in with her mother. Her leaving has left me with an empty bedroom which I decided to now make into a den. I've moved in a desk and my tying vise, a 20" TV/VCR combo and a DVD player for my tying/fishing videos (and of course my war movies... Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket, The Big Red One, We Were Soldiers, Saving Private Ryan, etc, etc, etc). I've finally got up some pictures that the wife wouldn't let me hang in any other locations of our house (signed Bobby Hull, Oilers run at the cup collage, Gretzky photo, fly-fishing and golf pics, etc). It's starting to look like a "Man Cave" but I need more. It's definitely missing something so if you have any ideas, please let me know. To the right is a photo of my niece Chantell in her graduation dress.

On Wednesday evening, my daughter Cassandra and I went to check out a volunteer seminar put on by St. John Ambulance. Since I decided not to head up to a camp working as an EMR (three weeks in, one week out) I decided to voluntarily use my training to help others as I'm still very interested in this field. I found out that to be a Medical First Responder, you must first have a Basic First Aid certificate which I already had because I needed it to take my EMR schooling. And you must also obtain a Medical First Responder certificate. Because I have my EMR certificate, I get an MFR certificate automatically but my daughter wants to join as well so I told her I'd take the MFR course with her. The course is 40 hrs long and is paid by St. John Ambulance but they don't pay for the basic first aid course which my daughter will also have to take. They don't supply uniforms but they do expect you to dress in black pants and shoes and a white shirt. Over this you wear a really bright yellow with green vest that says St. Johns Ambulance which they do provide. The cool thing about it is not only do you get to give back to your community but you get to go to all sorts of festivals, concerts, hockey games, etc. all for free. There are two catches though, you must attend at least one meeting a month and you must put in 60 hours of volunteer time per year. Hell, I could put in 60 hrs at hockey games easily. I'm really excited about this and the fact that my 18 year old wants to do it with me makes it even better. To the left is my daughter Cassandra in her graduation dress and she too is in the Class Of '08.

I always work late on Fridays and I have a client on Saturday so it looks like Sunday is my fishing day. Wow, over a week without wetting a line. Not the summer I dreamed about so far.

Float Tubes - The Good, Bad And Ugly

2008-06-15T21:40:00.013-06:00

I got out to Muir lake again today. Fishing was less than spectacular. I caught about 8 or 9 but they were all stockers with the exception of one 18 incher on a Redd October. I did a throat pump on it and found one small boatman, one chironomid, some lake lint and four damselfly nymphs. I'd give it two or three days and the damselfly nymphs will be in full swing. Here's a couple patterns you might want to try out.

Forbe's Damsel Nymph:

Hook: #12 to 14, Mustad 9671
Thread: Olive monocord
Tail:Olive Marabou
Abdomen: Dubbed green wool, floss, or larva lace
Thorax: Dubbed brown or back wool or seal
Gills: Olive Partridge hackle or dyed ostrich herl
Rib: None
Eyes: Plastic or bead chain

Fly Tying Instructions:

Wrap on the thread and X in the eyes just behind the eye of the hook.
Wrap the thread to the bend of the hook and tie down a moderate clump of olive marabou, extending about a hook shank length past the bend as a tail.
Tie in another clump of marabou and wrap the thread forward to the eyes.
Then wrap the marabou forward forming a slim body, and tie off at the eyes.
Tie in a smaller clump of marabou and X around the eyes to form a small bulbous head.
Tie off behind the eyes.
Tie in the partridge or ostrich and wrap two or three times around
Tie off and whip finish.

Convict Dams el Nymph:

Thread: Olive 6/0.
Hook: TMC 200R 10-18.
Tail: Grizzly Marabou Olive.
Body: Grizzly Marabou Olive.
Rib: Gold Tinsel.
Wing case: Peacock Herl.
Eyes: 3/32 Dazl-eyes Black (w/eye polish).

For tying instructions click here.

Here's another of my articles that I recently revised and thought I'd share it here with you.

Float Tubes - The Good, Bad, and Ugly

The first time I saw a belly boat, I was rather puzzled and even a little amused. Here was a full-grown man about 150ft out from the shore of a local trout lake in a floating donut smaller than a child’s blow up dinghy. I hoped he was coming in soon so that I may get a closer look at this miniature fishing contraption. At the time I was standing waist deep in the lake and casting a Caddis pattern to any rise forms that I could reach (which weren’t many) and keeping an eye for when this fellow fly fisherman might decide to make his way to shore.

It was about an hour and a half later when he decided to make his way in. I was ready to halt my fishing and make my way to the boat launch to meet him and get a closer look at his water craft but that wasn’t necessary as he decided the beach I was fishing at was better suited to exit the lake. When he got close enough to the shoreline he finally stood up and I wondered why he was walking backwards to shore. Again I was amused at the look of a full-grown man with a child’s flotation devise around his waist. The only thing missing was the inflatable rubber ducky head on the front and the inflatable tail on the back. That’s when I saw the flippers. I don’t remember if I actually laughed out loud or not but I was aching with laughter on the inside. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Does he have any idea of how ridiculous he looks?’ I never did approach him about the inflatable craft like I had planned. I guess once I saw the fins I had an understanding how it worked and a new thought ran through my mind. ‘Not in this lifetime’.

It was three years later that I purchased my first float tube and I’ve never looked back (at least not until now).

Float tubes are compact, lightweight and extremely maneuverable. They are invaluable when fishing lakes that don’t allow boats or when hiking into lakes without road access; but the float tube’s best attribute is its controllability. No other watercraft gives an angler the same ability to fish an area as hard as a float tube (although pontoon boats are a close second). Using just leg power you can literally fish every square foot of water without ever taking your hands of your fly rod. You never have to worry about picking up a paddle or oars and you can spin 360 degrees without even a second thought. In this article I want to go over the different types of float tubes available to anglers and which ones in my opinion are worth your hard earned money.

Float tubes are not as new as some of you would think. Prior to the 1940's, early stillwater anglers fastened some type of seat across a car tire tube providing a means to get to the fish. It was a crude method but it worked. Then sometime after 1940, a company surfaced called the Tucker Duck & Rubber Company. They were a small commercial tube manufacture out of Fort Smith, Arkansas. They started to produce the first inflatable float tube known as the ‘Fish-N-Float’.
These boats were very heavy when wet and the seams would fall apart fairly rapidly but even so, the Fish-N-Float was a success and soon offered attached waders to the canvas tube. In 1947 a new company appeared on the scene out of Oklahoma City. The Fishmaster MFG. Company offered a new quick connect seat release and gave the Fish-N-Float some stiff competition. The Fishmaster Mfg. Company became a major float tube supplier offering more and more models over the next few years. In the 1950’s tubes began to take closer shape of what we see today. Thanks to anglers mostly from Colorado and Idaho float tubes were being modified to include pockets, backrests, stripping aprons and tie down rings. But it wasn’t until the 1980’s that we saw float tubes making a big impact on the fishing communities. Articles and reviews started to pop up in magazines and the float tube finally came into it’s own.

Float tubes today vary in shape, size and durability. Some are the traditional round shape, some are V-shaped and others U-shaped - some are even smaller versions of a pontoon boat (with or without oars). So how do you pick the one that’s right for you? Well let’s be honest, it’s similar to buying a car, look for one that fits in your price range and gives you what you want out of it. In other words, research what tube will fit your wants and needs.

Round / Closed Tubes
The traditional round tubes have a few major attributes but many negative ones. The most positive attribute a round tube has is its cost. These tubes can be found very cheap today since the U & V shape tubes have become more popular. Most round tubes have a rubber truck tire tube as the air chamber. This is good, at least for durability. The rubber tubes can take a pretty good beating. There are no seams in a rubber tube to worry about and if it gets a hole it’s easily patched. It’s this rubber inner tube that has kept me going back to round tubes. The safety factor is very big with me as I’ve experienced to many problems with vinyl bladders. I’ve always recommended that anyone with a vinyl bladder switch to a rubber tube right away if possible. I have a hard time trusting the seams on vinyl bladders and the seams are very hard to repair if not impossible.

Round tubes are now quite a bit cheaper than the other style of tubes so if money is a concern to you this may be the style of tube you’re looking for. Another good thing about round tubes are the size. I can fit two fully inflated round tubes in the back of my van along with all my other fishing equipment. When I go with my buddy who owns a U-shape tube I have to deflate my tube to about a quarter of its size. The negatives of a round tube are noticeable when you reach the water. The closed front can make it difficult to enter and exit the tube. The shape of the tube will have you moving slower in the water in turn making you work harder to get to and back from different locations on the lake. And the rubber inner tubes are quite a bit heavier than the vinyl bladders other shaped tubes come with. You’ll notice the weight when hiking into a lake.

When purchasing a round tube the things to look for are:

*Weight capacity. Make sure it’s rated with enough capacity that you can add lots of bells and whistles without getting close to your own weight. I weigh 220lbs and my favorite tube has a capacity of 350lbs. This makes me feel safer and the boat feels sturdier when on the water.

* Warranty. Look for a good warranty with the boat you purchase. There are a few manufacturers that offer a lifetime warranty on the boat's shell.

* Durability. Triple stitched seems are the least you should go with. Even with triple stitched seems, I’ve has two float tubes start to come apart on me and had to send them back to the manufacturer (that’s where the warranty comes in).

U or V Shaped Tubes
The great thing about these tubes is the shape. Because it has an open front, entering and exiting the tube is way easier and doesn’t require any sort of balancing act. The shape also helps with speed. The shape of these tubes cut through the water easier making you work less to get to your destination. U & V shape tubes will also have you sit higher in the water with mostly only your legs being submerged. This will keep you dryer and in turn keeping you warmer. In a round tube half of your body is submerged in water and you’ll really notice this on a cold day. These are all key things when considering the purchase of a tube because they all have to do with comfort and if you’re uncomfortable in your tube, your experience will not be as pleasant as it should be. Also if you do get a leak in a bladder while fishing from a U or V shaped tube, you usually have a couple more bladders fully inflated to help you get back to shore. Of course these tubes do have their disadvantages too. Because of how high these boats sit on the water the wind can become a major factor blowing you around more so than in a round tube. The bladders are mostly vinyl and these vinyl air chambers are not as durable as rubber inner tubes. The set up time can be quite a bit longer then the round tubes, as there are usually several large bladders to fill in different sections of the tube as opposed to one inner tube and a backrest in the round tube.

When purchasing a U or V shape tube the things to look for are:

* Weight capacity. Like the round tube you want to make sure it doesn’t just hold your weight. You may want to add a fish finder, extra rods, a life jacket, fly vest, an anchor and other accessories.

* Warranty. Again a lifetime warranty is best and will keep your boat around forever, the least you’ll want to go with is a five year warranty. It's especially important here to get a real good warranty on the bladders.

* Durability. Triple stitched seems are a must, don’t settle for anything less. There are some U & V shaped tubes that now offer Urethane bladders and I would highly recommend purchasing a tube that offers these, as the durability is somewhat better. There are also some that offer PVC on the bottom of the tube, which is also more durable then the nylon as the PVC will resist snags. As far as the nylon shell, don’t buy anything with a denier lower than 400. A denier of 600 to 800 is best.

Pontubes
These boats are another option for anglers. Some come with oars some do not. I don’t really understand the concept of the ones that don’t come with oars, as I don’t see the advantage over a U or V shaped tube. The obvious advantage to the boats that come with oars is speed. You can get to where you are going much easier and faster while on the water. Other then that though the advantages are minimal. The negative thing about having the metal frame on the tube is it limits your leg movement and your legs continually banging into the frame can become annoying. I’ve found this same problem when fishing from my pontoon boat. It’s a fairly minor complaint but thought I would point it out.

Recommendations

Round Tubes
I’ve always been partial to Trout Traps. I do recommend them for anyone that is looking for a used tube but will not recommend them to new buyers, as the company no longer exists meaning there is no longer a warranty on any of their products. So my recommendation goes to the Caddis Proline II. The Proline II has a 350lb weight capacity and is triple stitched on important seams. You can order one online for $105.00 US.

U & V Shape
Caddis has put together an impressive Navigator series of U shaped tubes. I am overly impressed with the Navigator II specifically. The Nav II features 420 denier nylon pack cloth, triple stitched on critical seams, front rod holder, side rod holder, removable front padded stabilizer bar, two large cargo pockets, two medium size auxiliary pockets, 1000 denier cordura seat and a weight capacity of 350 lbs. You can purchase a Nav II online for $150.00 USD.

Outcast has also put together a great line of boats. The Fish Cat & Fat Cat V shaped series are very durable. They come with a five-year warranty, 1000 denier PVC bottom / Pack-cloth top, urethane bladder, foam seat & seat back. You can purchase the highly recommended Fat Cat online for $300 USD.

Pontubes
So many inflatable boat companies come and go that it’s sometimes hard to keep up with the latest boats on the market. It’s for this reason that the only pontube boat I recommend is the Outcast Discovery Trekker. You know this company will be around for a while with the top quality boats they manufacture. Unfortunately the backpacker does not come with oars but it does include some other great features like a one piece aluminum frame, 14 mil. Urethane bladders, a 300 lb weight capacity, five year warranty and the seat and backrest convert to a pack frame that carries the pontoons. You can purchase the Discovery Trekker online for $399.00 USD.

Float tubes are an important tool for many stillwater anglers. What type of tube you choose for your fishing adventures will have a great impact on how much you enjoy your time out on the water. Choose wisely and do your homework as to what tube best fits your needs and wants. Round tubes are great as an entry-level tube as they don’t cost much and if you find that tubing isn’t your thing, you won’t be stuck with something that put a big dent on the 'ol pocket book. U & V shaped tubes have come a long way and some are even more durable then the round tubes but include all the added bonuses of the open front. Whatever styles you may purchase in the future, wear a life jacket or some form of certified PFD and play safe. Oh and don’t worry about the laughter, they’re used to seeing them now.

About the author:
Mike (Doc) Monteith has been fishing Edmonton's local lakes for 28 years and is the owner/guide of Edmonton Stillwater Adventures, owner of the information web site Fly Fishing Edmonton, editor/publisher of the information web site Float Tube Fly Fishing and owner/moderator for the Alberta Fly Fishing Forum.

Overlooking Midge Larva?

2008-06-11T23:22:00.015-06:00

It's been a while since I last posted. I've only been fishing once since then and forgot the camera at home. That was last Wednesday at Muir Lake. Wasn't a banner day by any means but I did net five trout and lost three. One of those was the biggest I've caught at Muir to date taping in at 20 inches. My Muir Lake personal record fought very hard and came close to taking me into my backing and had me believe that I wasn't going to see it in my net when it went screaming through all those weeds but luckily, even with the burning forearms, it eventually came to papa.

I was planning on heading out to Muir on Saturday with a client and then finishing the cleaning of my #@$%ing garage on Sunday but when Friday morning rolled around, I felt sandpaper in my throat and started sneezing like crazy. That's the sign. I knew it was coming. I was bragging just the other day of how I actually couldn't remember the last time I got sick. I should have known right then and there that I jinxed myself and sickness was imminent. Anyway, I stayed home in bed all weekend and took Monday off from work. I have to admit, I truly am the biggest baby when I'm sick. I'm feeling better now though other then a bit of a cough so fishing is definitely in my immediate future.

So since I have nothing more to share with you, I thought I would post an article about bloodworms that I wrote a few years ago. I recently revised it a bit, so enjoy.

Overlooking Midge Larva?
When it comes to stillwaters, few bugs matter as much in a trout’s diet as the midge. A true staple for trout, the midge will hatch all year on open water and up north, from ice-out, ‘til ice-on on most of our stillwater fisheries. There are four stages in the midge’s life cycle, these stages include the egg, larva, pupa and adult, with the last three of these four stages being quite important to trout and to stillwater fly anglers. The second of these three stages -the larval stage- frequently gets overlooked.

Midges come in many colors and sizes. The adult midge looks very similar to a mosquito but lucky for us lacks the mosquito’s proboscis. The most obvious stage of a midge’s life cycle -the adult- can be seen on top of the water both when it sheds its pupa shuck and again when it returns to lay its eggs. Although trout prefer the larval and pupa stages of the midge, trout may key in on this stage while the adult is ridding itself of its extol pupa skeleton, or while it waits for its wings to dry before flying off. When the adult midge returns to lay its eggs, the midge will skim across the surface of the water depositing its eggs leaving a come eat me wake behind it, which seams to attract trout well enough.

The pupa stage of the midge –the chironomid- receives a lot of attention from both stillwater fly anglers and the stream guys. Although the chironomid (from the name chironomidae meaning non-biting midge) is actually a midge in any stag of it's life cycle, most fly anglers refer to the chironomid as the pupa stag of the midge's life cycle. Fly fishermen concentrate more on this stage of the midge because the chironomid can be found at any depth of a stillwater fishery as it rises from the lake bottom very slowly until it reaches the surface where it transforms into the adult. Because of this, chironomids give trout an easy meal throughout the entire column of water meaning anglers can fish a pupa pattern at nearly any depth of the fishery with a good chance at finding trout. It’s during the heat of summer when trout move to deeper, more comfortable water and the pupa activity slows down or when trout start keying in on active larger food items that the chironomid may not get the consistent results one is after.

The larval stage of the midge, known as -the bloodworm- is not a true worm due to it's exoskeleton and small clawed legs. The chironomid larva will spend its time living at the bottom of a lake in the mud or sediment feeding on decaying matter known as detritus. In stillwaters, you will find midge larva in a few different colors but red larva are typical. The blood of a midge, like humans, is iron based and because most stillwater bloodworms live in anoxic environments, need a protein called hemoglobin. This hemoglobin is carried by red blood cells and stores oxygen which maintain the viability of it's cells keeping it alive and giving the larva a blood red appearance when little oxygen is available.

Bloodworms often get overlooked by many anglers but quite the opposite when it comes to feeding trout. Trout will often key in on the abundance of larva available and due to its familiarity, will readily feed upon larva even when other aquatic life is plentiful. Because you can find Bloodworms on or near the bottom of the lake, anglers will do well to keep their bloodworm patterns one or two feet off any bottom structure they may be fishing. The size of fly you choose to represent a midge larva should be up to three sizes larger then the adult midges seen hatching on the surface as the midge’s body length decrease in size from larva, to pupa, then to adult.

Fishing The Bloodworm

Fishing a bloodworm is much the same as fishing a chironomid. You’ll need a strike indicator (Quick Release indicators work well), floating line and a long leader. The length of your leader will depend on the depth you are fishing but unlike the chironomid, the bloodworm will not stray far from the bottom so a foot or two off the bottom will be the required depth.
To find this depth, take a bell weight or hemostats and place it on your bloodworm pattern. Now lower your fly down until it reaches the bottom. Using your thumb and index finger, mark the spot where your leader is even with the surface of the water and secure the strike indicator one foot below this mark. Now retrieve your fly and remove the bell weight. Your indicator will now float your fly one foot off the bottom. In early mornings when the water is at a cooler temperature, trout will be found closer to the shoreline and fishing your bloodworm in shallow water should produce fish. In the heat of the day however, trout may go deeper in search of colder, more comfortable water. Work your way out to deeper water trying different depths from 12 to 22 feet of water or more but always keeping your fly in that one to two foot section off the bottom. Your retrieve should imitate the natural so little to no movement usually produces the best results. Slow short strips or a slow hand twist with long pauses are usually the key to success. There are times however that attention may be what’s required to get a hook-up so a couple of quick short strips with long pauses may produce the results you’re looking for. Depths of twenty feet or more make for a very long leader and if you’ve ever tried casting a leader this long, you know it’s not the easiest thing in the world to do. When fishing depths of 20 plus feet, a fast sink line may be more to your liking.

At these depths, you can fish directly below your boat without fear of spooking the trout. When fishing with a sinking line, find the depth you want to fish at using your bell weight. Drop your weighted fly down to the bottom with your rod tip just an inch off the surface of the water. When your fly hits the bottom, reel up one foot of line. Now remove the bell weight and drop your fly back down. Keep the rod tip one inch from the waters surface and when the tip drops, set the hook. Great attention must be taken with these methods, as takes can be very soft. At times, just a slight movement of the strike indicator or the rod tip is all an angler may see and with such little warning one must set the hook or possibly lose out on an opportunity.

Bloodworms are a true staple for trout at any time of year even when the lakes are frozen over. Paying no attention to the bloodworm is like overlooking scuds, leeches or chironomids themselves. On those slow warm days when nothing seems to be working, toss a midge larva pattern out into some deep water about a foot of the bottom and find out for yourself what you’ve been overlooking. It may just save a fish-less day.

Photos courtesy Phil Rowley and are © copy write protected.

Mike (Doc) Monteith has been fishing Edmonton's local lakes for 28 years and is the owner/guide of Edmonton Stillwater Adventures, owner of the information web site Fly Fishing Edmonton, editor/publisher of the information web site Float Tube Fly Fishing and owner/moderator of the Alberta Fly Fishing Forum.

Article Copyright © 2008 Mike Monteith - All Rights Reserved

#%&@ing Garage

2008-06-02T21:40:00.008-06:00

You may remember back in April when I was doing the spring cleaning around the house. That was no big deal, there wasn't any fly-fishing available anyway. What I was dreading was the cleaning of the garage.

A buddy of mine (Chris) just moved back to Edmonton from Manitoba. His family owns a lodge up in Northern Manitoba called Athapap Lodge. Chris used to work for me at my night club as the manager. I took him out fly-fishing a few times and hooked him good but he met a girl and they got married and moved back to Manitoba to raise their family. Would you believe while he was there for the last seven years he took up golf and did very little fishing? Ya, I don't get it either. Anyway, he's just moved back as a job opportunity opened up for him that he couldn't refuse. He asked me to join him on Saturday afternoon for a round of golf at Sturgeon Valley in St. Albert. So I went along instead of keeping with my plans to hit a local lake. I should have just went fishing, especially after my second snowman. I used to play quite a bit when I was in the club scene but now I may get out four or five times a year and to be perfectly blunt; I suck now.

So Sunday comes along and the plan is for me and the entire family to clean the garage and then I would take off and get some fishing in. I've been waiting since October to get out and fish my favorite lakes so letting a weekend go by without wetting a line seems to me like the Pope missing Sunday Mass. Now you're probably wondering how my fishing went. Ya, I didn't go. As a matter of fact, we didn't even finish the garage. I don't know where all that stuff came from but man, it was like removing a mountain. Three (not kidding), three truck loads of garbage bag filled clothes went to charity on Sunday. My garbage pile at the end of the driveway was up to the sky. I threw away things I didn't even knew I had (but i figured if I never used it before I sure won't use it now). I still got half a garage filled with stuff but it's stuff I need so I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do with it. So now, next Sunday is a write off too. #%&@ing Garage.

On a positive note. The days are getting longer so getting in some fishing time after work will make a guy feel a whole lot better. I did get out to Chickakoo lake last Tuesday after hearing some reports that the lake may have overwintered (not winterkilled). I caught only Brookies even though the lake has been stocked with both Rainbows and Brook Trout. And yes, it does appear that the lake did overwinter as I caught Brookies in the both the six inch mark and the 11 inch mark. For those that live in the Edmonton area, if you haven't heard... Chickakoo has been stocked with triploid brookies and Muir with triploid rainbows this year. Wooo Whoo!!! So what time can you fish 'til up here at this time of year? Right now, at least 'til 10:30pm. The latest I've ever fished and still been able to see is 11:20pm on Star Lake with a client. The date was June 22, 2006.

Saw this fun shark fishing/surfing video (crazy bastard). Check it out .

Happy Birthday To Phil

2008-05-19T21:36:00.014-06:00

Saturday, Phil Rowley spent the day with me on Muir Lake for my birthday. Today, I returned the favor and spent the day on Lake Wabamun hunting for big Pike with him and his oldest son in celebration of Phil's birthday. It was a gorgeous day with lots of sunshine for most of the day and not much wind. The Pike action was pretty hot and heavy but only one monster was caught today and lucky for the birthday boy, it came on the end on his line. Don't get me wrong, lots of nice size toothy critters were caught today but only one that was in the 40 inch mark. Popsicle leeches, clouser minnows, bunny leeches and top water poppers all caught fish. Brandon and Phil spent most of the day fishing Pike streamers but I stuck pretty much with top water poppers. I did fish streamers as well and had way better luck with them but to me, the rush with northern pike on a fly rod comes with top water flies and if I would have just hooked into one 40 incher on a popper, it would have made my week. To the left is Phil releasing his monster pike.

We fished near the warm water discharge that enters the lake from the power plant and because of the current, we pretty much fished it like a stream, letting the streamers drift and swing with a strip, pause, strip type of retrieve. We saw lots of monster Pike thrashing for food on the surface as well as some pretty big lake whitefish doing the same. We also saw a great midge hatch and even a nice mayfly hatch. Man, this lake would make one great trout fishery but hey, who's complaining with the size of Pike it's been know to produce. I brought along some striploin steaks , potato salad and corn on the cob and cooked them up on my portable BBQ which made for a nice shore lunch. All in all it was a great day on the water with good company. Happy birthday "Hat Floater", hope you had a fun day.

Here's a video of Phil bringing in a nice size pike.

Here's a pic of that pike.