All About the Bugs /End of May Fishing Report

Right now the river is going up ...still fishable for some...crossable ? ? Trout seemed too get a little tougher to catch last week ..some I watched spawning ,some are done spawning and some are late and hanging near a friend.. Wade with caution , most of the spawners we spot are in fast but shallow crossing areas in tail out and near banks ..eggs hatch in 50 days ? ( just an educated guess ) .. Catching fish was all about the bug last week ..big nymphs didn't work at all for me in the murky run off... trout would not bite what I wanted them to .. I fished some old run off favourites from old day's (charteruse chenile worm, big rubber legged nymph's ) and I hardly saw a rise even during a good hatch. Nymphing a size 18# or 16# was the ticket ... After an hour of fishless water, thoughts of all the trout spawning on that day would have pretty much turned too facts untill the right little bug twitched through the run and bang ! Hammered it ! a cast or two after releasing a nice trout , bang ! Hammered again . This happened for me every time out and always searching for a different bug every day .. So much for the notion of disinterested spawners .. Just Crowsnest trout being Crowsnest trout . On the last day out with Suzy and friend Bill , Monday was turning into another fishless day until mother nature gave me a hint . A pressure change brought out dozen of swallows anticipating a riverside dinner . I went and stood in a back eddy and pulled out a nymph box , after a minute a Western March Brown floated by . I had four bead head flash back hares ears of the appropriate size . I picked a hand tyed one with a flashy emerging shuck and attached it to the indicator set up . (if I use a indicator after the snow is gone I'm desperate ) , Some line was pulled out and thrown onto the water short of the inside seem . I watched the bobber immediately go down as I was pulling more line out, I struck the fish . This was not a lethargic spawner , straight out to the current , it jumped on it's tear down stream . Before I could move in the grass it was thrashing directly down stream like a stealhead and the hook popped out. Next cast, same spot a ten foot drift and a hook up on a hot fish that went straight out to the cliff on the other side .this trout was the fish of the month , 22-23 inch rainbow . I thought I had it on good , until I yelled for a camera assistant . The strong fish won , thats O.K. My visiting friend needed a fish today, I took off my good fly and tied it on for Bill. Suzy and I tied on the regular BH Hares flash Back Ears from my box.. Bill hooked a nice one in that spot within ten casts ..Suzy eventually took hers off and fished a dry as the skies darkened and the swallows soared way up there eating something .. I tried , the trout thought the regular pattern unworthy . Bills fish had the same battle plan as my first fish and did the steel head thing in the swift water . We crossed down steam and fished a back eddy in the next hole .. Swallows worked the water now . A few drops of rain were hitting the water by the time I had my dry Fly box out .Bills fly had lost it's magic as small blue wing olives now floated by.. reel in Bill . A dry was tied on quickly... this was Bill's last shot , he was too be two hours late getting home to wife in Banff. A rise was seen , and a target located , now two or three more rose in the same current seam . The trout he caught fought the battle in the back eddy and was landed , then immortalized digitaly and e-mailed to Banff . Bill did great for a rooky on the last two day's , even with the tough fishing he keeps trying and dosn't give up. He does what I suggest , and has learned good technique in the dozen day's of his fly fishing career.. The day before we fished a spot that two good anglers had dredged for over an hour with big flies and lead . I found my last little olive nymph that had solved the problem of the day earlier in the week. The little size #16 caught him a 20 inch rainbow and he stuck two more , basically out fishing me, but hey , I gave him the bug . " It's All Good " Off I go to this week to make a little money millwrighting as the rivers rise ... There has been no sign of the Crowsnest Salmon Fly yet .. Suzy will be running her Fly Shop in Coleman when they hatch, and I will be tying up some of the big bugs up in Fort Mc Murray, for when I return all Alberta's waters will be open to angling and the start of the 2009 season . We will have the bugs..

Daily Disasters

The Crowsnest has held it,s own this month .. It blew out one hot day a couple weeks ago at about 10 cm/s ,rolling mud . Then the weather cooled right down ,so we fished somewhat high water for the last two weeks with reasonable visability . Wading was often touch and go and I went for a swim , casting and crossing a fast tailout on Sunday . My feet went out and water was up to my neck in half a second ( CAMERA !)... Had to let go of my fly rod to pull the camera out of the flooding bibb of my waders ..I held it high, turned down stream , tip toed suddenly weightless , pushed by the current , scooped up that floating fly rod , moon walked in zero gravity to the bank , threw the rod to a soft spot, ejected the batteries , ejected the camera card , popped off the lense cover ,dropped shoulder straps, dumped water to my waste belt ( always tight )and was standing there looking casual by the time my friend Bill had finished the drift of his fly . I walked upstream hung the camera in the sunshine and fished the next run. Bill eventually followed the route I pointed out to him , he looked sceptical .. Bill didn't try to fish his way across, and came across without tripping up on those bowling balls ...We walked up a rocky bluff to spy on sipping trout . Bill looked closer " you look wet" ... yea.. don't tell Suzy ..Bill knows , we grew up together on the same street.. We don't tell the women folk nothing ! Our poor mothers..if they knew of our daily disasters, they would not have let us out of the house .. Our moms only new of events that required stiches, left bruises,needed assistance or intervention from doctors , teachers, police and firemen. Being dragged home to the door step by any adult was a dead give away of a disaster, as was the knock on my door from that newspaper reporter when I was eleven yeas old..busted ! Mom answered it .. When Suzy and I were dating she was picking me and some clients up at a bridge on the Waterton River.. it was a dark and stormy night (sounds familiar ?) and almost 1:30 am when we reached that take out point. It was black out ( I told those guy,s to speed it up all day ).For more than two hours I was rowing away from any river noise in the moonless dark..dodging boulders... I was worried about my girl worring about me ! She was parked on the bridge . Anticipating tears when I opened her truck door ... she had her feet up swilling a beer, reading murder mystery as usual... that was ten years ago...She's so different I married her (also a great fly fisher ) My wife Suzy worries mostly about the dog and the camera , after I fried the last camera in the Thompson River two years ago and the dog had balls of cactus stuck to all four paws . The water in my clothes eventually reached my feet and it was time to BBQ up some deer for my visiting city friend . Well the camera survived and Suzy never reads this blog ...

End of April Report

April might just be my new favorite time to fly fish the Crows Nest River ,or has it just been a long winter . The snow is been falling on and off for the last week and a half . In mid April , a few day's of stellar weather brought some higher dirty water from that lower elevation snow melt. With this colder weather water levels have remained up ,but the water has cleared nicely. Today I fished the Crow in sub zero conditions with lots of ice on the guides ...trout rose in some of the usual spots as March Browns and a very small black midge were on the water in good numbers. I had caught two nice rainbows before I busted the very tip off my fly rod while trying to break rather thick ice off of it . Thats a new one for me ! (my favorite Loomis) It has been a different kind of day on the Crow every time I fished it this month. Bug hatches ,flow , clarity , weather , etc. ... it's been interesting . Bugs To Look Out For...Size #16 black stone ,size #12 black stone ,size #16 March Brown ,size#18 Blue wing , size #14 tent wing caddis , #22 Tan micro caddis , Skwalla stones if the sun ever comes back out and any midge any time and hope they are bigger than a size #28.. Nymph accordingly ... If I was a bird watcher , I would get out there as the snow cover has sent birds to the river for food and migration is on full time. Watch Out for Trout Sitting on Reds.... a few early spawners are sitting in some fast shallow tail outs.. IN THAT .... PERFECT CROSSING WATER ..EGGS HATCH IN JULY INTO EARLY AUGUST ...WADERS PLEASE BE OBSERVANT

The New Season

A lot of excellent fly fishing has occured since Aprils Fools Day.. Suzie , Gord( Kootenay Fly Shop ) , dogs and myself had a couple of stellar Crows Nest spring days.. Fresh tracks in the river side snow , sunshine, rising trout.. and multiple hatches .. On searching , one could find those pods of competeing rainbows.. Spring excitability was evident .. Working the rising fish with some delicacy , one pod could not be put down ... Even after an hour and a few lipping,s a change of pattern tossed out could hook a fish from this eager line up . I have mostly fished dry midge patterns and road tested a few little black stone fly nymphs and dries on that day and up too this present date.... Gord fished a variety and size of nymphs that day and did well with nymph and indicator .. After the dry fly run ,I fished my little tungsten nymphs O -naturel . I could see long fish feeding suspended in deep pools ,moving on the bugs ..Watching the fish , I set my hook on seeing the white from the inside of the big mouth , in an instant the mouth was closed and my line was tight.. I would bring a young British couple here two days later .. First a lesson on the water, all the while that same hungry dozen , rose feverishly thirty feet away..The keen one was the guy , he was a good gear angler back home ,you could tell he had a good fishing sence.. Now to get a crash course in fly casting ,then go through the fundamentals and mechanics of fishing a flowing stream ,then to stalk , hook and land a respectable Crows Nest rainbow in a afternoon ,is quite an accomplishment . After an hour at least on the risers , the lunch was relaxing and then a breeze hit the cliff wall ,no mercy for the rookey Brits .. Another hour he (we) tried on the risers untill they had seen every small midge pattern I owned.. We had to find some other risers.. The next rising pod were in one of those technical re-circulations , they didn't take our abuse.. Time to nymph . I could see those big fish , 5 feet deep in the off coloured flow.. big black midge shucks formed a foam in the back eddy...nymphing time.. I was already set up..The wife was the first to hook up solid . I guided her through the fight . Her first trout was to be a thick, 20 inch pissed off rainbow that hit the black nymph as it swung through the swift tail out.. The husband took over the coaching while I got in the water, camera and forcepts ready.. She was a natural and did not know it , she was really there for her husband and the scenery , but instantly she was completly into it.. the fishless husband was stoked , he knew he had just got a fishing partener for life ! I pointed him at the risers in the re-circ temporarily . I got the wife into a good position again and in 2 casts ,swinging through the tailout , another flash, and solid hook up in the fast water . A 18 inch repeat of the last performance.... It was a beautiful Alberta day ,the sun was getting lower in west , the thrilled but fishless husband whispered " we can go now , I am very happy my wife caught those " I Knew he was going to catch a fish here and now with no problem ..Looking over his shoulder I could see five or six of those long suspended shadows , mouths flashing white as they slid over and chomped on their bugs. That's fine with me sir , but could you just stand here and fish at these guy's ,while I gather the gear ... Here take this nymph rig , I tied a few of those nymph's last night and one's on this rod also.. I tipped him onto those fish suspended near the rock wall .. His good fishing instinct set the hook on the long trout that moved sideways abruptly ...there was a flash and a good fight, but a brief one.. One more hook up and release and the third came too hand , a nice 17 or 18 female rainbow. I have no where to go ... Nows the time..let me check out that rigging.. After he landed his second ever trout on a fly rod , his wife nudged him out of the hot spot.. The trout were onto our fly and snubbed it after serious looks. While she fished, I tied a midge pattern as a trailer on his. Now the two fished side by side. He immediately hooked into that first long fish on the trailer , then another . She gently took the rod from his hand ,his hand uncontrollably released from the cork...it,s O.K. take this rod I just rigged it up .. The couple fished side by side, new fishing partners and first time fly fishers .... I slowly packed up ... A great ending to a beautiful spring CrowsNest day.... We could have fished all the way back, but talk of some excellent Alberta Big Rock Ale at the Rum Runner Pub turned us west over the hill side and closer to the truck . ... AL B .

April Fools

Don,t forget to buy you're new Alberta Fishing Licence...April 1st. is an appropriate date for renewal and officially kicks off another fishing season for us fools... This year there is a special Fly Fishing Licence in Alberta ..It cost $ 8.50 extra ..it's a government surcharge, called a casterbation fee.. Comments or Inquiries at albertarelm.com or Phone 1-888-944-5494 An Adult licence for an Alberta Resident Adult is $25.66 + $8.50 for a total of $34.16 There is no youth flyfishing licence as they are not allowed to casterbate.. Little Black Stone Flies were on the water today and those extra large spring midges that waited over the winter to hatch. We have some perfect dry flies at the shop.. I didn't see them but Suzie and Gary reported seeing some Blue Wing Olives and Suzie caught a nice rainbow on a size #18 ( Suzies little green Man) of course.. Gary caught a respectable fish on his first cast as he did the day before... the trout would immediately smarten up ,so that was it for that pool.. Some trout that live under a bank in a little side trickle ,came out to the seam to rise.. I touched 3 of them with no good hook ups ..then they stopped and did'nt come back out even two hour's later on the way back... no sign. The bigger pools had no risers just a pair of geese per pool ..swimming around . I found some bigger fish that had moved into a bigger trickle attached to a big pool.. they rose aggressively, they were going to get caught feeding like that... I crawled in over the smooth snowy island and worked the back fish first. I had on the smallest black sparkle dunn (# 20 ) Suzie had in the shop , I worked it gently through the rising fish on 6x , these bigger fish didn't take it ...I bit off the shuck as close as I could to the flies butt ... I rested the fish a couple minutes and they feed aggressively, occasionally one would pop straight up out of the water past it's pectorals, probably grabbing the occational black stone ..They took the little black clipped sparkle dunn , which for a change was actually smaller than the big#16 midge natural, floating buy...After landing two and missig two it was all over except for the yelling. The yelling was at Gary's big brown lab called Gus .. the stick crazy lab had, with stick in mouth ran into Gary's fly line and drove the sharp little #18 deep into his finger. There was blood and much yelling , as usual Gus was not fazed by the blood or yelling and bounced around tail a wagging.. Gary had his back to me for a while and was messing around on the edge of the ice, probably taking the hunk of meat off his hook .His brother being a fish cop ,Gary new all the laws about bait fishing on the Crows Nest river.. After some line untangling he turn to face the river and meet the bouncing lab ,stick In mouth again. Gary yelled commands at Gus which caused much excitment and higher bouncing...The yell turned into more of a scream as the bouncing Gus broke the ice at Gary's feet.. It was painful to watch as the broken slab tilted and the pair slid off into the river I have never seen Gary dance but he must have been good in the old Disco Days...Thanx to fancy feet, boot studs and flailing arms Gary didn't go swimming and there was much cursing #!!&**+#$#GUS!!^#!#!@GUS .. something like that... When I left my little island , I meet them down stream sitting in the snow bank watching for risers.. Pals again..

Tails a waggin or stuff for sale

Spring is officially here in the Crows Nest Pass... I got in a three hour fish yesterday . Between my shift at the Crows Nest Cafe and Fly Shop and the Ducks Unlimited Banquet ,Winston the dog and I jogged into a spot on the Crows Nest River. My goal was to try out a couple of size #22-#20 midge larva/pupa patterns I had tied up. I hate using flies that small . Being a big guy I want to throw out big flies for big fish . Even though I know those winter rainbows spend most of their winter, expending as little energy as possible ,they just sit down there slowly waggin their tales opening and closing jaws on the tiny and abundant midge larva and pupa , still I want to throw out a hamburger size fly with a maraboo tail with a rubber legged articulating bead head stonefly as a trailer. The guys (Doug and Doug ) in Banff who taught me fly tying in the1980's loved to fish #22 midges. I thought they were nuts and resisted fishing tiny midges till the bitter end of the day...or not at all . That fishing strategy changed about two years after landing a job guiding with the company Banff Fishing Unlimited . Now I was fishing two hundred consecutive days a year . Now decades of those weekend fishing outings made sence (or more sense).. Sun , moon ,cloud, wind ,rain, spring, fall, hatches, no hatches....Fishing all day, everyday now , so many ideas can fall into place for the fly fisherman, but still there are those days when you can't even buy a bite ! or even spot a trout . The guides job is to catch fish , and to catch those evil #!*+?#@!* every day..I would still resist fishing those size #20 and #22 sub-surface flies in that big Upper Bow River , and from a guides perspective take a size #20 hook, add 5x tippet, add 3 split shot , add 7 ft. moving water, add one 3 1/2 lb.brown trout lip , add one first time tourist + total = 0 . Often a guides act of desparation on a tough fly rod river like the cold Upper Bow and hopefully not to late in the day,was the dredging of the#20 olive nothing on a hook. It would always get a fish (never say the word skunked) . It was there on the Upper Bow where I came up with the theory for those fishless days , the day you can't spot a fish and if you did spot one, it was on the bottom hardly waggin a tail . If You Can't Buy a Bite... FISH A #20 MIDGE Now all of the winter outings this year , in my boxes all the left over midges, were size #18 or even a giant #16 , it was hard work fooling a fusy Crows Nest rainbows but you always fool at least one per hole. So now I have #22-#20 olive larva and black pupa tied onto 6x tippet, split shot and stike indicator (bobber) ick!. Dead drifting the olive larva brought in the first bewildered looking 18 inch rainbow... it was a good fight..the little barbless hook came easily out of the tip of her tongue.The little olive offering on the two fly rig was catching them all , so I took it off ? I am not here just to catch fish . The little black pupa took a couple of trout when they were not given the choice.. All nice fish today 17-19 inch. All this time a few fish were rising in a fashion a little aggressive for midge sipping . I suspect the little black stone was hatching here and there in the sunny spells. In honour of that agressive tail wagging, I re-rigged with no strike indicator, just a single split shot, long 6x and #20 black pupa and fished not Czek nymph style , not the Leisinring lift, (how do you figure any one or country claims invention to that ) just good old Canadian fishing by instinct, mix it up , sink it , drift it , lift it , twitch it, set the hook when the hair stands up on your neck , strip hard, swing it , or don't...four more were caught and it was time to jog out to the truck to get to the Ducks Un- Limited Banquet ..I am always impressed how a size #20 hook lands a good size trout stuck into that tough skin on the lip...I think the reason I still resist fishing those little nothing flies is they look so insignificant out there in that big river and there is so much olive coloured algae and crap floating down the cleanest of rivers how do the trout pick the little olive offering out ?? My BIG tip of the DAY is this.. you are at a DU Banquet.. if nobody at you're table is drinking those two bottles of wine on the table ..don't be watching the Auction when you should be watching you're wife behind you drinking the wine and bidding on all this stuff...FOR SALE... two signed duck prints- One Custom Putter -(we don't golf)-one DU Martini Mixing Set 403-563-3258 .

Drilling holes and dropping lines

A colder than usual winter calls for drastic measures, still waters...ice augers...worms..minnows... power bait, jigs and thirty inches of ice.... I had only fly fished Crows Nest Lake twice over the years as I have become exclusively a river fisherman over the years... My first row out onto the lake in my old dory, was on a rainy evening a few years ago. I netted myself a 10 -11 lb. lake trout on the fly...caught on a steep drop off, that fish peeled line from the reel from 10 ft. to 90 ft. in seconds ..... a memorable moment not to be recreated on the ice that day... in fact, where we hiked in was not exactly where we wanted to fish , but it was out of the wind so we drilled half a dozen holes each and could not find water over 20 ft. We were hoping for around a hundred ft. It was pretty slow fishing the bites were light except for what ever hit Gary's one rod ..the rod and holder almost went down the hole...that was the big excitement for the afternoon. A quick road trip to the West Coast happened with my old fishing buddy from Banff, Rolfe Furhmann , A good trip was had , but we sure have mellowed with age... The spey rod went along, but all the fishing was out on the Pacific at Pedder Bay a couple of Spring Salmon were caught at 169 ft. on the down riggers ..I saw killler whales for the first time.. very cool !! There was lots of snow on Vancouver Island .. every day the temp. went up, the snow up high melted and the rivers went up again.. The Vedder River was cleaning up on the trip home,it had colour still, but it,s greenish and resonable flow...steelhead are in ! Other than that, a few fly fishing afternoons have been had on the Crow... nothing special to report ,midges and not many of them..the March full moon phase will soon be over and hopefully this will be the last of the nasty cold spells for the southern part of the rockies and the fish will start to wag their tales a little harder. A few people have come into the shop and bought some of our size 20# midge patterns and heading out...in a few weeks the small winter stones will officially start off a new season of fly fishing.. so don't hurt yourself skiing!