Archive for the ‘Rainbow Trout’ Category

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!

Arron Varga and I had arranged to meet to fly fish together this afternoon. It was freezing! This summer has been one of the oddest that I’ve ever experienced.  With a brisk wind blowing, and the temperature only about 10C,  I wasn’t properly dressed.  I didn’t realize how chilly it was before I left the house.  The wind was blowing right through my jacket and shirt.  But overall it was still an enjoyable several hours.

After I arrived, I tied on this fly and almost immediately, lost two fish using it.  Then about 20 minutes later, brought to the net a nice 14 to 15 incher.  Arron finally managed to hook a trout which turned out to be a very nice sized one on a leech pattern.  At one point, we thought we might have to give Ian James a call, who successfully cut his leader to unwind it from around an anchor rope with a fish on the other end. Arron’s fish seemed to want to flee to underneath the platform we were on and it appeared it might have wrapped the leader around a post.

But Arron managed to steer the fish away and successfully netted it. A quick photo was taken and the fish was released back into the water.

There were a few fish that were grazing the surface of the water, and we thought they were after small minnows that we could see. Schools of them were swimming around, almost right under us, and every so often a trout would splash in the area.

After Arron’s fish, the action seemed to completely die down.  Sometimes I wonder if fish can communicate with other fish when that happens: “Hey! I just got caught. Careful what you try to eat.”

Eventually, Arron had to leave and I continued to fish even with the cold wind blowing and managed one more rainbow then called it a day with my fingers simply too cold to work properly and my bones shivering.  As I wrote above, this summer has been one of the oddest with very cool temperatures. If the trend continues, we’ll be having snow in September!

Arron is off to Fernie, British Columbia in a couple of weeks with “Team Osprey” to compete in this year’s “Canadian National Fly Fishing Championships.”  If I don’t see him before he heads off, I’d like to take the opportunity now to wish him and the rest of the team all the best.  I believe they will do well.

Here’s the rainbow Arron had today:

Today was one of those days where I was spending several hours doing some aggravating type of work – kind of mind numbing stuff.  The sun was shining through the window, and the thermometer told me it was very nice outside.  The weather forecast told me that the next few days were not going to be so nice, and I heard a rainbow trout calling my name.

I thought to myself, “the work will always be there, but this weather will not be” – as we approach the end of August, the number of warm days we’ll have over the next month or so will decline and if it’s anything like last year, snow could be flying the first week of October.  So, a few hours away from mundane work during the best hours of the day, and return to it in the evening was a good idea.

I gathered my gear together and drove out to Humber Springs. Enjoyed the sunshine beating down on my face, but thought it might be too bright for any decent fishing action. But it beat being inside my office.  I thought I might as well start with what I was successful with yesterday, and tied on the Copper Oval Brassie as a point fly and Ian’s Brass Ass as a dropper.  The breeze seemed to change direction several times – and always in the wrong way to where I wanted to cast.  But that was ok, and it was nice to see some chop on the surface of the water.

After awhile, I decided to switch to a leech pattern and see if the trout perhaps wanted something beefier for their dinner.   Eventually, Jim Kennedy wandered over to where I was and discussed the fishing, the flies, our Greys’ reels that we both happened to be using,  and that he was heading to Northern Ireland for a visit in December.  We talked about the weather, talked about and bragged about each other’s girlfriend, and then the fact that the fishing was slow today.

After a bit, Jim decided to wander off to another location leaving me to where I was. I decided to go back to my Brassie and Brass Ass combination.  About ten minutes later, “hoe-leee!” My rod bent right over and this fish took off like a freight train heading for the open water.  It didn’t jump but it was near the surface and left a wake in its path.  Then suddenly, the rod tip went soft, and the fish was off.  I began to bring in the line to check my flies, when I realized – I had no flies! This fish had broke my 8 lb. Seaguar flouro leader.  About 10 or 15 seconds later, a large fish (I couldn’t see the whole length of it) broke the water surface a couple of times as it swam towards the area I had hooked one.  It wasn’t jumping to take anything from the surface,  and I’m thinking it was the one I had hooked – still trying to shake the hook.

I was quite impressed however with the run that fish made while I had it on the line, and how fast it blew by me leaving that wake in the water.

I tied on another leader to my line and new flies with a dream I might hook it again, and this time successfully fight it and get back the flies it had stolen from me.  But no such luck.  I did manage to hook another smaller fish and a “long release” took place, and that was about it for today.  I had to leave around 8PM and regretted having to pack up my gear.

But I’ll certainly remember that freight train rainbow trout for a long time!