Not Lucky On Emerald Lake
It looked somewhat promising. Partly cloudy and about 20C outside the kitchen window in Whitecourt, Alberta. Thus far during our little vacation with Colleen, my son and I have not had much opportunity to experience any fishing in Alberta. The days we thought we’d head out turned out to be rainy, chilly and windy - not conditions adverse to myself but not the best for a seven year old.
A few days ago, we were in Al’s Sport Quest in Whitecourt and talked with owner Al about local fishing holes. As well, Ian Bews of Whitecourt’s “Castaways Fly Tying Club” offered his advice during a phone call with him. Both mentioned Emerald Lake, north of Whitecourt which holds rainbow and brook trout. In the vicinity of Carson Pegasus Provincial Park, it sounded like an interesting place to try.
The day after we arrived in Whitecourt, we drove through Carson Pegasus but it seemed that fly fishing was best done from a boat or canoe. Most of the anglers were spin or bait fishing from a boardwalk where a back cast was impossible.
So today, with the what seemed like decent weather, my son David and I headed out to try to find Emerald Lake. We knew it was north of Carson Pegasus but I was confused about how exactly to get in to it. We drove up Highway 32 and turned east toward Carson Pegasus looking for a road that would take us north, only knowing that Emerald Lake was about 3 km away from the park. The only roads we found were marked as “Private” and being unsure about whether we could legally use them, didn’t. We hoped if nothing else that we might see a bear or two wandering along the side of the road like we had, four days ago.
I finally decided to head back to Highway 32 and go north and try to find a public road heading east off the highway that might perhaps lead us to Emerald Lake. Five kilometres later, we found a road that was not marked “Private” and turned along it, only to discover signs later marking it as private. But we decided to continue on, coming to a T Junction, where we turned south and drove a couple of kilometres when we saw a lake on our right hand side. From the descriptions provided, I am sure it was Emerald Lake - there was the Muskrat Lodge we were told that we could fish from and have a good chance to get ourselves into some fish.
Except… by the time we arrived, the skies had turned to gray and black clouds and cold rain showers fell. The wind was so strong that trees were bent right over. I set up David’s spin rod and baited the hook with “Berkley’s Power Bait” - I don’t know anything about the stuff, but it’s what was recommended when not fly fishing. I set David up on the Muskrat Lodge, gave as good a cast I could in the wind driving right down upon us, then set up my fly rod. Not only the wind, but now the rain was driving down and as I expected, “Dad, I’m cold!”
My fault - I really should have prepared for the possibility of changing weather conditions but didn’t expect the temperature to drop from 20C to 9C in an hour with rain and strong winds. So David agreed to try to warm up in the Jimmy while I thought I might as well try to wet some flies if I could fight the wind.
I had my TCO 9′ 5wt. and tried my best over the next hour or so to cast a few different flies with the challenge of the high wind. I did have one good tug on a Wooly Bugger, but that was it. Because the lake seems to be surrounded by a marshy area, it was not practical to try the other side of the lake. After awhile, I realized that it was going to be futile to continue fly fishing in these conditions, and David was getting bored.
Three days ago, Colleen, David and I drove to Fort Assiniboine to check out the museum there, and on our way back, decided to return to Whitecourt via Swan Hills. South of Swan Hills, I spotted Freeman River which looked like a gorgeous bit of water from the highway. So, David and I decided that we might as well head up that way to take a closer look at it. About 15 to 20 minutes north on highway 32, we pulled the Jimmy off the road and walked downstream along the south bank.
Ah… now this is a river I must try! The water was quite shallow along the bank we were walking, and the water is very wadeable. It seems to be deeper along the other bank, and as we watched the river, we saw some small fish rising to take flies off the surface. It seems there are rainbows and grayling in the Freeman - I’m not sure exactly where the best parts might be to fish, but for now, if we get a chance before we have to leave Whitecourt, this might be as good a place to start as any.
Tomorrow, we’re off to Jasper and I’ll take the rods along too, just in case. Maybe on Sunday, we’ll have a few hours to explore the Freeman River - and wouldn’t that be awesome if I caught my first greyling!







