Edmonton Photographic Trade Show

It's on this wkd in Edmonton. Worth a boo:
http://mcbaincamera.com/ept/

Seminar list:
http://mcbaincamera.com/ept/seminars.php

Spawning Time

We just embedded a short video "Spawning Time". The video was taken this last week out west on a small stream - a tiny spring creek actually. It simply shows some pre spawn behavior of fish nipping at each other, then some nest building. Both browns and brookies in this video. It's been fun just walking and stalking and looking at the fish. Anyway, check the upper right hand column of the blog to see the 2 - 1/2 min vid.
Cheers.

Police Lake "trophy trout" regs need some help

Via email:
Dear fishing friend,

Police Lake (near Cardston) has had "trophy lake" regulations in place for about three years now, and the fish are getting noticeably larger.
There is, however, pressure from some anglers to cause the government to revert back to the old regulations previously applicable to Police (higher daily bag, less restrictive size regulations) - which would, of course, result in Police once again yielding smaller fish.
If you agree that "trophy lake" regulations should continue to be applicable to Police Lake, then please email Terry Clayton (the area fisheries biologist) accordingly - Terry.clayton@gov.ab.ca - and please also forward this to you fishing friends.
All best,
Frank

Last Day of Our Acquaintance

Every year, each stream has it. Some years you don't know that it will be, but it is. Some years it's plainly obvious. This year, given the forecast, was such an obvious year. Wednesday we knew we would fish Thursday. Thursday's forecast was for +18C and mainly sunny. Friday was forecast to be +5C. The rest of the forecast was cold, snowy, cloudy, rainy. When it's Oct 21 in the rockies, with that forecast, you pretty much know that this would be the last day of our acquaintance for the 2010 season in the high country. So, without further delay, a few shots of our last day up on high...

Saturday walk & photos

The weather turned yesterday, finally. We finally broke freezing overnight again. Finally? Yes, we've been waiting for a couple of cold nights - in the -10C range. Last night was the first of those and we took advantage of it. Typically, to see browns spawn during the day you need a cold night and a cool, lower light day - or areas of a stream in shade. Of course, as we walked, we came across a few brookies spawning up in the higher reaches of the stream as well. It wasn't a warm day but the video was great, and a few photos were ok on the new camera. I can hardly wait to shoot some New Zealand tanks this winter. The brown I photo'd in the following shots - feeding - was only about 16". The shots turned out ok for being in the shade, moving, and not being a huge fish. The shots of the spawning browns below were a pair - she's about 17" and he's 22-ish. It's interesting to walk this stream. By the end of each season we tend to walk it without rods more often than not, and focus more on the fish spotting and photo/video. It's neat.

A good day with some good, neat moments.

Death to Lefty... my Prophet

Probably not a good title on a fly fishing blog, but true.
"Look at me... c'mon... look at me."  Nope.
I was going at a good clip as I approached the intersection on my Cannondale Prophet with Lefty front shock. It was my ultimate fly fishing mountain bike. Matte black bike - the Cannondale "Prophet", with a cool, custom front shock system called the "Lefty". What else could a guy want in a mountain bike to fly fish from? It had a few excellent rides into Fortress Lake.
So as I came to the intersection, hands covering the brakes, waiting for the fella driving the dual trailer gravel truck, the Border Paving truck... as I waited to see his eyes, I knew my fate. I was coming in green, he was turning right on the red. I was in a Bike Route Zone. He was a big ass truck. And as I came in, hands covering the brakes, not seeing him turn to see his eyes, I pulled as hard as I could. No use, but I avoided the front of his truck to get run over. His truck lurched into the intersection. I skidded right into his front fender and tire. As I hit, I was able to bounce off the bike. The unmistakable sound of crunching metal under his tire. It could have been me. Lefty, my Prophet, is dead.
Amelia was right on my tail. I don't know how she avoided slamming into me and the truck. But to think she got to watch me get run over by the trucker running the red. Had things not turned out so well, she'd have had front row seats for the event. This was our first ride on that route, we usually bike the river valley trails. I think I know where we're riding once Border Paving replaces my bike.
The thing is the driver made a mistake. Witnesses confirm we had the full green. I'm stiff tonight, muscles a little ripped from pulling up to avoid the mess and the impact of me on the truck. But do you report this incident? He made an error. To report it is to cause him an incident. It's his career, his livelihood. I'm relatively ok. At worst, a few muscles hurt. Bikes can be replaced. I don't want to see this go on his record. It's something that could happen to anyone, especially the way the city forces cyclists to use a sidewalk on one side of the road along that route, thus putting us in a place where drivers needs multiple double checks for cyclists and pedestrians. No excuses for him not doing that, but it could happen to me or anyone else driving.
But, alas, it won't help my Prophet nor the Lefty shock. Can I find a new one? We'll see. Again, it could have been waaaay worse for the rider than the bike. If I hadn't been able to bounce off the bike as it went under the truck, yeesh. I think I went from my pedals to the step on his passenger door.

New Camera

Since the digital era kicked in, we abandoned the SLR world, favoring p/s pocket cams and our HD video with miniDV tape. We kept humming and hawing... should we? The latest advances have full HD with frame rate selectivity on DSLR cams these days, with all sorts of power behind the stills. Add the fact that I can now mic up my SLR with full HD with selected frame rate, you get a powerful camera/vid cam. In fact, the mic jack, large sensor, and manual controls would be pricey on a stand alone vid cam. To get this on an SLR now is just silly. So, we hopped into that market today and immediately reminded ourselves of the wow factor of SLR with polarizer. Hard to believe we did the last 5 years with p/s cameras, but we were waiting for everything to come together. The learning curve goes way up now. 4 weeks to NZ. Start learning! Anyway, here's the first few shots from the first outing. Got the cam at 11:30 and first shots of fish at about 1. Not bad.  :)  Happy days are here again...

Otters in the RMH - Clearwater Area

Another PSA from the SRD folks in RMH. We got a few emails last spring about the otters. It seems SRD must have as well:
http://srd.alberta.ca/FishingHuntingTrapping/FishManagementZones/ZoneOne/documents/RiverOttersInClearwater-A-Jun2010.pdf

Cow L pike disease

Just a quick PSA from the SRD folks in RMH:
http://srd.alberta.ca/FishingHuntingTrapping/FishManagementZones/ZoneOne/documents/DiseaseInPikeAtCowLake-Jul2010.pdf

ADD Day

We decided to return to a lake we hadn't been to in 11 years. That's getting to be a long time. We'd fished Fiesta, Ironside, etc lately, as well as the Ram, and the browns are starting to spawn here, so we opted to do something out of the ordinary. Saturday was +24C and the wind was down, and surely there'd be boatmen falling. Last time we were at this lake, we caught several fish and AJ managed one in the 3 - 4 pound range (have to check the old albums) during the flying ant hatch. But it was only 1 that size, the rest less than 14". We arrived and unloaded the boat and gear. I knew it would be a slog to the lake, walking down the cut line, through the old burn (I recall fighting that fire back in the FS days in '95), and through the muskeg. It was a good effort to get to the lake with the needed gear. We timed it perfectly. Within 30 minutes of arriving, the air warmed beautifully and fish began rising. Raindrops of boatmen pitter-pattered the lake and fish were aggressively taking them. It began 4 hours of see a rise, cast, catch a fish, repeat, repeat, repeat... If a cast went without a trout, you'd hear a rise beside or behind you, lift, and flip to it as you turned, usually getting a take. ADD kids would have a hey-day. Hell, we both felt like we were ADD kids for those hours. It was a ton of fun. We landed well in excess of well, lots. Easily 25/hr. None were really big, the largest maybe 17". Most were 10 to 14". Not much has changed. But they were "on", and we had a ton of fun.

Saw it coming

If you read the blog this week, the post about the big browns in the pond, the follow up post should have been easy to predict. It was for me. There I was, alone, AJ up in Edmonton. Not a cloud in the sky, not a breath of wind, crystal clear water and cruising, feeding browns below my feet. I even said AJ & I would be going back to try to get it all on HD on Friday. As soon as I'd stated that, I could tell you what would happen. And it did. We went back to that pond yesterday. It was cloudy and windy. Sighting was tough. Video with that glare was pointless. I managed to sight the large male. He wasn't feeding. In the 3 days between visits he'd gone from taking nymphs and cruising the shoreline for 100m to patrolling 5m of shoreline, holding atop his nest. He now sports white scuff marks on his fins. The redd is quite impressive. Didn't so much as cast to him.
So, we decided that it would be a good time to go to another set of ponds a mile away on another tiny spring creek. We tromped through the bush and as we approached saw a school of 9 trout. Pretty cool stuff in a pond that we'd last been to in early spring 2 - 1/2 years ago. The water was murky with ice at that time. Today, gin clear. As we sat on the bank waiting for the fish to cycle the pond, we saw something I'd not seen before. There were 3 browns, 2 in the 13 or 14" range, and one FAT male in the 24" range. The interesting part was the other 6 fish were brookies, and they were all cruising together. It was obvious the big brown was on his game. He was pestering the smaller females, sidling up to them, patrolling the pool. He was likely looking for a place to happen and a fish to do it with, and wasn't interested in any food. I managed takes from 3 of the brookies but the browns were totally turned off. It was fascinating to watch. And now I have yet another pond with another big male brown to visit next year. :)

On other notes, the mountain rivers remain murky thanks to runoff from the snow. Other local waters are in good shape but the browns are obviously getting into the spawn mode now. Area lakes are in great shape, with boatmen hatches and caddis the hilights. The weather is going to change Sunday afternoon - evening with more seasonable temperatures coming. There might be a bounce back day mid week, otherwise it's looking like low to maybe mid teens now. Fall is on its way. Turn over won't be too far away on local lakes.

Everything you wanted to know about the Alberta Fisheries Round Table.

Just click on the link and follow as much information as you need to:
http://srd.alberta.ca/ManagingPrograms/FishWildlifeManagement/FisheriesManagement/Default.aspx

Heading Home

The tickets are booked, the dates stamped off, and from mid Nov to late January, we're headed to our winter home. Lots to do in the meantime, but here's hoping this year's trip goes as well as years previous. :) It's always an adventure. If anyone is going to be in New Zealand mid Nov to late January, and you want to fish with us, drop us a line. All we ask is you to cover our expenses for the days spent together as we fish together, showing you the ropes of sight fishing.
:)

All for one and . . . well... none for me

I was supposed to be at the computer all day. The forecast was for clouds and a cool +14. The clouds were nowhere to be seen. It was +18 at noon and almost no wind. Perfect sight fishing weather. Where could I go that wouldn't keep me out for hours on end, that I could hit & run? Google Earth teased me with a few tiny spring creeks a couple springs ago, leading AJ & I to come face to face with a monster brown cruising a beaver pond. It's an hour drive and 35 min walk in, but I knew it was one pond. Bingo.

I walked up the tiny little spring and in the tailout of a pool the size of a bath mat spooked an 11" brown. Not what I'd come for but a great sight.

It certainly is a tiny spring creek.

I arrived at the pond, the sun was at a perfect angle for viewing, the wind still, and I stood atop the bench. I hadn't been here in 2 1/2 years, and last time the fish were somewhat sluggish as it was just ice out. Besides that there might be 3 fish sharing the wintering pool as carrying capacity dictates supply and demand opportunity. I saw nothing as I strolled. Strolled might be a big word. Took a small step forward every 10 seconds. Nothing. I decided to take a cast out, just in case something held below a submerged log. Insert dumb mistake here . The irony wasn't lost on me as I reached out for my fly. I just got it out of the tree and was thinking to myself "this is usually when it would swim by". Uh huh. As I pulled my fly out and swung my rod behind me to avoid the reflective shine of the rod on the water, my big brown from 2 1/2 yrs ago came down the shoreline pipe, 2 feet from shore, leisurely swimming and finning. I struggled to race to get my fly out of the shrubs behind me. I looked for the fish. It was within 10 feet, closing, coming right at me. I froze on the spot, hoping to go unnoticed. If ever there was a gimmie fish, that was the moment. 26" and FAAAAT. 6 pounds easily, going 7 likely. And on down the shoreline it went. I was able to untangle my fly and line and give "chase". This was an ant's version of the OJ speed chase. I could see the fish but couldn't rush to it for fear my footsteps would reverberate into the water and spook it. I had to walk around into the bush and try to get ahead of the fish. I last saw it under a pine tree heading for the tail end of the pool. I got behind another pine tree and looked down the bank in the direction the fish was headed. It wasn't there. I looked back up the bank. Coming toward me with a huge head and big, rubbery lips was my Maestro. I bow & arrowed a cast along the outreaching pine. The fish, now less than a rod length from me, turned and came right at the hopper. It looked just like those photos on the New Zealand Fly Fishing Forum, the big head and lips coming straight up from the bottom, mouth agape. Awesome. Incredible. I had ample time to insert adjectives as the fish came in the still water. It turned and refused! Bugger! I lifted and shot the arrow again. It came within 2" of the fly from the bottom and again refused. I lifted and shot the arrow one last time. Another refusal. The toughest gimmie fish of the summer. It went on the opposite side of the pine tree from me and rested for a minute. I waited for it to move, not wanting to commit to taking a walk around the bush again to reposition in case it too moved, causing me to lose sight of it. So I sat. Waited. Took a couple of photos of the fish sitting there. All the while, my last cast lay on the water, waiting for the fish to move back out.

As I put the camera away, I realized I had been too focused on the big boy. At my feet was a smaller, 21" female. Here's the conundrum. My fly was sitting on the water and while it would have been nice to catch the female, I knew that doing so would kill any shot of the male - it would spook the second I hooked up. In a split decision, as the female rose at my hopper, I lifted it off the water. The female actually came out of the water to take the hopper but missed. She stopped, stunned, before sidling up to the male. The two of them swam away together, back up the shoreline. As the big male went, I watched as he took a nymph, his white mouth opening and gill plate flaring. No doubt any nymph would have taken him.
I decided to wait once more, and opened my fly box to tie on a dropper. The corner of my eye revealed the male doubling back. I was still with hopper. Only the hopper. And we played the same damned game once more. This time, rather than station on the opposite side of the pine, he went to the far side. I considered giving chase with a long cast, but as I raised the rod the female swam under my rod. Again, not wanting to spook her and then the male by default, I lifted the fly off the water as she again was coming straight for it. I tried to wait her out. Sadly, she stationed at my feet. About 30 seconds later the male cruised past and the female followed along for the ride. As he left his mouth again opened to take something subsurface. I didn't see them again.
It was one of those trips where I knew I was all for one pool, all for one large male brown. I knew I had to risk none. Alas, it turned out to be all for one, and none for me.
I take some comfort in the fact that AJ couldn't be with me and there would have been no video of the moment. So, by not catching it today, coupled with the forecast later this week when she gets home to fish with me again, maybe... just maybe we can recreate that scene and get it on the HD.
It won't take me 2 - 1/2 yrs to get back there.

Country Pleasures FISHING REPORTS

Great fishing report from Country Pleasures:
Country Pleasures Fly Fishing: FISHING REPORTS: "Bow River Report –October 5, 2010 The weather continues to be pretty nice (which we immensely deserve this year). With the exception of a ..."

The Inside Passage

One of the curious things this time of the year is being on the water, pick one - any one, and having the place  to my / ourselves. All fall, wherever Amelia & I fish, we haven't seen a person, nor a sign of anyone having been around recently. The fishing has been ok to pretty good on the streams. One of the reasons for absenteeism on these streams might just be because the lakes have been so good this fall since the weather smartened up. I was at one lake on Sunday. I pulled up to the parking lot to find it completely empty and was on the lake an hour before another fellow pulled in. "Big difference from yesterday," he said. It was cooler, cloudy, and a chinook ridge was building out west, all of which conspired to keep the boatmen hatch away. We need a nice, warm, mid day sun for that to happen. But that's not what he was talking about. Apparently the day prior, on which those exact conditions favourable to boatmen coming off in droves, had been a zoo. The parking lot was full and everyone was catching fish at will. "Just had to cast to a rise and you had a 50 - 50 chance yesterday." Before he arrived I'd landed a doz or so in an hour and had experienced something like that. But as his boat touched the water, the lake, that had seen a few fish rising, when quiet. For 1/2 hr the lake was devoid of rises. The question he and I both faced was whether we each wanted to catch fish badly enough to change tactics. Within an hour, he left. I moved locations and found some more rising fish at the mouth to a back bay. But, true to form of any small lake with a finite number of trout, you could tell that they had been worked over the day before. Watching for rises and cruisers waking the shallows, each fish sighted was cast to. The fish key in on dropping boatmen with their lateral lines, sensing the vibration and turning to go investigate. But most of the fish simply refused at the last second no matter the pattern, size, presentation, nor depth. Then, all went quiet again. Fair enough.
The chinook arch grew thicker and darker out west. The rising fish slowly went away again and I again faced a choice. Go home or change tactics. I wasn't going subsurface as I simply didn't want to watch a leech (or anything, for that matter) hanging from a bobber that day. Sometimes you just want optics.

I keyed on the inside passage, moving my boat into the weeds and pads to focus on the thin strip of very shallow, open water 1 to 10 feet from shore. And I waited. Every 5 minutes a fish would shark into the shallows, its wake a dead give away of its presence. I tied on a caddis and cast to these fish in 10" of water. Even though very few of these fish were surface feeding, they were much easier prey at this game, and the optics were amazing. I stayed right up until dark, moving around from strip to strip of inside passage, moving into position and casting at sighted fish waking through the shallows. I caught quite a few more. The questions I always face is that while more fish can be caught with other tactics, which one do you want to do, how many fish do you need to catch, and what makes me happy - what do I enjoy from a day's fishing? There simply are many days where other tactics would clearly prove better, but maybe catching fewer, sighted fish on dry flies in shallow water would fulfill my day. And it did.  :)

4 hours

My waders are being repaired. The ones that fit me enough to allow me to hike the Ram that is. The other pair I have at home right now ride high on the inner thigh, and the boys let you know quickly that walking 15km isn't going to be met with open arms. It was a frosty morning in the high country and while the hike in was easy in my wading boots and quick dry pants, I had a hunch my boys weren't going to be overly excited about their treatment down in the shady, frosty canyon waters. But, it was 11 am and they'd be happy enough by 2.
The fall weather continues to provide wonderful fishing. While the Ram in the canyon is slightly off color, levels are way up for this time of the year, and the water is really cold but for 4 hours of the day (which is about when the fish are active), if your expectations are in line with all those factors, things can turn out wonderfully. It was pretty hard not to enjoy +22C with nary a breath of wind or spot of cloud.

The fishing through the entire west country is great right now where conditions merit. The Clearwater, RDR, and lower Ram are all out, but most every other water is in good shape. The lakes are fishing very well.