Archive for the ‘Rainbow Trout’ Category

It started out typical of previous Opening Days – with Dave up and “at ‘em” earlier than me.  He started his day be fishing some creeks and rivers and then onto Lake Eugenia, where he caught a few small brook (speckled) trout.

I later met Dave in the afternoon in Orangeville, and we decided to head over to Humber Springs and try our luck for some rainbow trout.  When we arrived, we were told that the fishing had been pretty darn good earlier in the day, but the fish seemed to have stopped taking.  Sure enough, after we set up our fly rods, we found that there was no action whatsoever for quite some time.

But it was still nice to be out on the water, and good to keep up a tradition with Dave where we have hardly missed an Opening Day together since about 1978.  There have been a few in there where emergencies or a major family commitment interfered with our plans, but not many.

I tried a variety of fly patterns with no luck at all, including wets, leech patterns, and after noticing some midge husks on the water, a variety of chironomid buzzer patterns.  But nothing.

Finally, after thinking it was going to be a useless afternoon and evening as far as catching fish, Dave, who had walked over to another part of the pond, called out to me.  When Dave does that, it usually means fish in the neighbourhood.  I scrambled over to where Dave was fishing, to hear him tell me that he had just had a fish on that had broke his fly off.

As well, there were fish rising nearby – appearing to be taking small minows that were swimming near the surface.

A few minutes later after a cast from the bank, Dave hooked and landed a nice rainbow trout of about a pound and a half:

David Moore and his Opening Day Rainbow Trout.

Me? Well, I tied on a fly that was given to me – no idea the name of it. I did get to feel the strike of a fish for the first time in months – in fact three times, I had a fish on but lost it.

As it got dark, the temperature cooled down and the fish seemed to take another break from their feeding.

It wasn’t the most successful Opening Day we’ve had, but after a long winter, just being out fishing is good no matter the number of fish caught or seen.

I’d never heard much about “Booby Flies” until a few years ago, when I started doing more stillwater fly fishing. My friend Arron Varga introduced them to me, and when he did, I thought they were pretty weird looking. I still don’t quite understand what the attraction to the fish are that take them, although I’m told it’s not how they look; rather it is the noise or vibration they make.  Personally, I’ve never caught a trout on a Booby Fly – but that just may because I seldom have tried them.

When I first heard about them, I did a wee bit of reading up on these flies and heard a few more things – like how they were all the rage on some U.K. reservoirs for rainbow trout.  And I also heard that some places had banned the use of Booby Flies because of how effective they are at catching fish, apparently.

In the March 2010 issue of Total FlyFisher, there is an article entitled “Booby Trap,” featuring anglers Mike Marriott and John Pass “as they employ a new Booby technique, trying to catch from a water that hasn’t seen a trout caught for more than two weeks!”

In the article, Mike Marriott points out that indeed, many fisheries have banned the Booby. But for a different reason than what I’ve heard:

“The problem is, if you’re fishing catch and release with Boobies, the trout you catch are generally deeply hooked and then have to be dispatched, and for this reason Boobies are banned on many fisheries.”

Mikes go on to suggest that his method of fishing Boobies, which employs the use of split shot, most fish are lip hooked and the fly is therefore easier to remove.

Booby flies are also sometimes called “Dolly Parton’s.” If you don’t know why, you’ll understand the very first time you see one. Basically, they have two round bits of foam on either side of the hook shank near the eye.  They can be dressed in many different ways – some fly tyers will attach eyes to each “booby.”  Some swear by using different colours of boobies, and different sizes for different levels of flotation (the foam helps the fly float off the bottom, when using sinking lines).

I know that Arron has caught a good number of rainbow trout on Booby patterns. I’ll have to get ask him to provide some of his favorite patterns with photos!

Two years ago to the day,  I met Colleen Rose Campbell when I was in Grande Prairie for the Canadian Fly Fishing Championships.  I’ve never been the same since!

Since that time, we’ve talked about getting Colleen into her first fish.  We haven’t had a ton of opportunity to go fly fishing together, but today, we thought we’d head up to Carson Pegasus Provincial Park, just north of Whitecourt, Alberta and see if we could get ourselves into some rainbow trout.  We had orginally planned to go up in the afternoon and rent a canoe.  However, when we arrived, we were advised that canoe rentals needed to be returned at this time of the year before 5PM.

So that wasn’t worth it, and we decided we’d try fly fishing from off the docks and shoreline.   We learned that McLeod Lake had been stocked today – depending on the reports, with 45,000 or over 100,000 rainbow trout fingerlings.  And those small fish were quite active just off the boat docks, jumping and likely enjoying all this, to them, brand new open water.

I tied on Viva Zonkers to both my line and Colleen’s.  I was disappointed we weren’t able to get out further on the lake with a canoe, but thought we might as well make the best of it and see what we could do.

Well, those brand new stocked fish sure liked the Viva Zonker, but couldn’t quite get their mouth around it. I had a ton of hits to the fly – almost every cast, and could see at times, several small rainbow trout following the fly and trying to grab it as I retrieved.

I figured that we had a very good chance to get Colleen into her very first fish – but we’d have to use something smaller and skinnier than the Zonker.  So I tied on this Chironomid pattern and showed Colleen how to fish it.   I then continued having fun with the small newly stocked rainbows that wanted to eat a leech.

A few minutes later, I looked over at Colleen’s rod and noticed that there seemed to be some bending of the tip section – not a huge amount.. but something.  “Hey Darlin’… do you have a fish on there?” I asked.

“Do I?!?” Colleen responded.  She retrieved her line a little more.

“I do!! I do!!” she exclaimed with glee and excitement.  “I do have a fish on, Ian!”

It was likely the very first time that little 5″ rainbow had ever been hooked, and it fought valiantly but couldn’t resist Colleen’s determination to catch her first fish!  And I was pretty excited as well, despite the small size, we both were very excited – that Colleen had finally caught a fish! On a fly rod as well.

The photo above was taken quickly and the fish released back into the lake.  Then a wee celebratory toast from the famous flask (Colleen didn’t even grimace this time, sipping Black Bush).

The action slowed down after that, so we decided to try some nymphs, but nothing.  Then, I put the Malteser to work.  This ugly and very poorly tied fly seems to catch fish everywhere for me. And sure enough, Colleen caught her second fish! About the same size as the first one.

The joy in Colleen’s eyes and smile – it was like a kid catching their first and second fish on the same day.  I’m pretty sure my smile was pretty big too!

Shortly after, I thought we mght have some fun with a dry fly. The small rainbows seemed to be taking midges off the surface – would they jump for anything?  I tied on a size 20 Caddis just to see, and we had a blast watching the fish jumping and trying to take the fly.  Some of them even managed to get hooked, and I brought probably four or five to hand while quite a few more entertained us with their acrobatics and frenzy for trying to eat dry flies.

I had pretty much resigned myself to thinking that all we were going to get today at Carson Pegasus were these small newly stocked fish.  However, I thought we should try some of the water off another dock just to see.  I’m glad we did!

I tied a Viva Zonker back on to the leader, and at first, felt the little tugs of small fish trying to consume it.  It was still fun and entertaining.

And then…. “Whoa!  Colleen!! This is NOT one of those small fish!” as I felt a vicious strike to the fly.  My rod bent over and I was a little more than surprised to see a good size rainbow trying to dive down to the depths of the lake before coming back up and jumping trying to shake the hook.

After several minutes, and some panicky moments when the rainbow headed for the underside of the dock, I finally landed the approximately 3 pound ‘bow with some very beautiful colourings in it.

The one thing I’ve noticed about rainbow trout from Northern Alberta lakes is their “football” shape.  They seem to have huge girths for their length.  This fish was 17 inches long and had a girth of 10 1/4 inches.

All in all, even though there was the initial disappointment about the canoe rental, Colleen and I had an awesome “2 year anniversary” celebration.

Happy Anniversary, Colleen – and thank you for a great day!! I am so glad you caught your first… and second .. fish with me!