Dog Days of August

    If my memory serves me correctly, the "dog days" of August during my childhood in Eastern Canada brought quite a slow pace to fishing and life in general. Early mornings on the river was the norm, and mid day was reserved for watching my uncles sip beer, tell fishing stories, while I plunged into the local swimming hole....

      Luckily that's not the case here in Southern Alberta! Clear skies and summer heat is waking our hoppers up from cool weather slumber, and the fish are partaking in the celebration! While some folks turn their nose up at the thought of casting foam flies to trout, I personally spend a good portion of my winter sleeping hours dreaming of this time of year! Hit those banks hard! Twitch.... Twitch... Slam!! and SET!!!

   After so much instability in temps, precipitation and insects we are welcoming the conditions we have experienced in the past week and a half with open arms down here! With more great weather on the horizon I'm very much looking forward to the next five days of guiding! On the topic of guiding I have to give a shout out to the fish gods, whom have been very kind to Al and I this year! We have had some terrific folks to share the water with, whom really have had some great days out there. One of the highlights of my season was watching a client hook and land a 21 inch brown that weighed out at a whopping 4 and 1/2 pounds! Further more what really impressed me was his reluctance to take this fish out of the water for a picture! He held the wise old brown just below the surface and angled the fish's belly so his pal could snap a picture that captured the brilliant; yellows, oranges, and reds that brought images of changing maple leaves in Autumn to my mind.

   As I prep for the next week of guiding I am readying my little pointing puppy and myself for the opening of partridge hunting season at the the end of this next stint! With hunting season just about on the doorstep, it also means our fishing season is almost halfway over! Yikes!!! So if you are considering making your way down to this beautiful part of the province, do it before it's too late and the leaves begin to fall, and wisps of Autumn snow warn that winter is just around the corner!

  Anyways, enough about fall and snow on the horizon! I'm off to go fish hoppers in the sun, and wet wade while it's still 25 degrees down here :)

Tight lines!

John