Posts Tagged ‘whitecourt’

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!

Well, I finally made it to the Freeman River with my fly rod. But I can’t say I was successful in catching my first grayling.  However, we still had an enjoyable evening.

Colleen and I left Whitecourt at about 4:30 PM and headed towards Swan Hills so I could try a section of the Freeman River that looked gorgeous to me when I had a chance to do a wee bit of scouting back in June.  By about 5:45PM, I had my waders and vest on, the 5 wt rod and reel set up, and my beloved flask (filled with Black Bush, of course) in my pocket.

The river looked a bit different from what I remembered in June.  The water level definitely looked lower and more shallow than I what I had seen previously.  In some discussions with others, I had heard that a 52 cm grayling had been caught this past weekend, and that a fly with a bead had been used.  All third hand information.  I had no idea where the best access to the river where there was the best chance for hooking into any decent size fish was, but thought I’d try to the most accessible part of the river that I could find.

Downstream looked better than upstream.  For fun, I tried a small bead head pheasant tail nymph that I had used yellow lab underfur as a dubbing.  The colour is actually quite nice and the fly is very buggy looking.   I did have a a gentle tap to the fly after several casts, but that was it.

I walked down into some deeper water and decided to try a size 10 Silver Doctor.  On a previous visit to the area, I had been told that  this pattern is used quite often for grayling in the area.   And like the pheasant tail, I did have a tug one one cast to the fly.  But whatever was there was quite small.

Eventually, after no luck with nymphs or streamers, I did see quite a number of small fish rising to something on the surface.  Something very small.  And the fish that were rising were also very small and I don’t know for sure what they were.  I looked into my box and found a size 18 caddis and decided to give it a try.

Well, that was fun – if you count on small 3 and 4 inch fish rising to your fly as fun.  Actually, it was fun.  I am pretty sure that where I was fishing, there isn’t much other than the very small fish.  And seeing something rise to your fly is better than seeing nothing.

So the next job is to get right to the source and find out exactly  where the 52 cm greyling was caught recently, and what they were taking.  But it might be a few days before we get back up there.

So, I’m still looking for my first grayling.

Sometimes my brain seems to act backwards when it comes to putting words together.  I took David to his final soccer game of the season this evening (his team went undefeated), and when we got home, I asked him, “Hey David, want to fly up some ties?”

He looked at me bewildered.  “What are ties, and how do we fly them Dad?”

Last week, I took him to a fast food joint that makes the best burgers, “Super Burger” in Shelburne.  While there, I asked for fries on my gravy.  The cashier looked at me and said, “Are you sure that’s what you want?”

“Yes,” I responded, puzzled by her question.  “You want fries on your gravy?”

Oops. Did it again.  I’ll see if I can find a neurologist to check me out.  I probably fly my ties backwards too.   But I do know I know how to tie a tie no problem.

Anyhow, David thought it would be a good idea to watch a video on tie flying.. err fly tying.  I thought it would be as well… probably good for him to see how others do things. So we put on one with Righty Kreh.  I was quite surprised to see that David seemed to be quite entertained by it and was focusing on what Lefty and the other fellow were saying and doing. We watched about 30 minutes or so, and I thought that might be enough for him for one evening, and we can maybe tie up the Woolly Bugger pattern tomorrow.

Earlier in the evening, on the way to the soccer game,  David asked, “Dad, what were some of your favorite things to do when you were a kid?”  The things kids ask!  I didn’t have to think too long about it though.  “Fishing with my dad was probably my most favorite thing ever.”

“Yeah, fishing is one of my favorite things too. Even when we don’t catch anything.”

Fishing with my dad was one of my most favorite things to do. I hope when David grows up, he’ll have fond memories of fishing with his dad and we’ll continue to wet lines together.

I have been tying up more of these “Viva Zonkers.”  I sent a bunch out west to see if they might work in the lake at Carson Pegasus.  The friend I sent them to only has spin gear, but the flies are weighted, and perhaps with a bit of weight about 12″ above, they will be castable to where the rainbow trout are.

I need to get some sleep – off to club the Franklin tomorrow.

I mean, fish The Franklin Club.