July 27 report & outlook!

For the first time all year, the central Alberta region is almost firing on all cylinders. There will be some lingering murkiness from the patchy deluges (S Ram, Little Red Deer) but many waters are coming in just above normal and clarity 3 to 6 feet. With sun and warmth in the forecast, the long weekend could be very good to fly fishers!
A few flavs (green drakes) on the N Ram, golden stones, a few brown drakes on the Red Deer, hexes on a couple streams, caddis, pmds everywhere, and olives on miserable days.
Hope for the continued upswing in good fishing.
Cheers!

July 26 Report

Don't look now but the Red Deer R has 18" of vis for the first time since April
The streams out west are a real mixed bag and a bit of a west. Brown trout streams are generally ok west of #22 but better south of Sundre as yet. Prairie remains murky. The mid & lower reaches of Little Red Deer R have less than a foot vis. The upper RDR is mud. The Clearwater is up and off color.
Cutthroat rivers were in great shape until last night's front rolled through. The radar showed a few good cells about the Ram Rivers and a good storm 2 days ago on the Blackstone might well have knocked it out again.

Hatches - golden stones, pmds, caddis, hexes, midges, some green drakes & flavs starting to show up top.

Weather report is cool but getting nicer once again for the long weekend.

A Day with the wee cutts

Recently, AJ & I decided to head to the high country to fish a spot we hadn't been in years. The stream flows through a high country willowy meadow and is home to wee cutthroat trout. The cutts are rich in color and a hope for the day was to photograph a few and take some underwater video in the right light. The other hope was to simply relax together, enjoy some photos of the surroundings, and stretch our legs in the high country again. After some long hours in front of the computer lately, it was good to get out together before the hectic schedule of Aug & Sept comes. Here's a sampling of our day together.

Fishing Report July 20

Just when things were looking to improve for brown trout fishing... yesterday's storms were amazing, running at an angle 45 degrees to the southwest of Red Deer angled right at the city. The resulting hail, downpours, and high winds smacked some of our brown trout streams around. Raven, Prairie, Little Red (lower) are all off today once again. Further up might be ok on the Little RDR, FT, Dp, so too Raven. Stauffer is ok apparently. The RDR? HA! Good one. Book the fishing on the RDR sometime in August this year. But the reach fromt he dam to the Little RDR may come around sooner than you might think...
Cutthroat trout waters continue to be the region's best bets.
Happy cutthroat fishing.
:)

Many Faces

Have you ever seen locations differently in varying light? One day while walking home from the depths of the Ram Canyon at dusk, I stopped for a breather and looked around. I can close my eyes and recite every single riffle and run of the Ram from the Forestry Trunk Road to the confluence with the N Ram, and on this evening I knew exactly where I was of course. However, I saw something I'd never seen before. Typically, I walk past this cliff wall at about 10 am and the sun usually beats down on its shale face. It's a craggy face but I'd never thought it any kind of special. It's the last cliff wall of the open canyon on the Ram before the canyon narrows at a key hole corner where Small Falls kick off the Triple Falls - 3 sets of pretty impressive waterfalls in about 2km of river.

As I looked at the cliff face that marks the entrance to this chasm of rock and whitewater, I noticed about 20 faces sternly looking down at the river embedded in the cliff face. In the photo, to me anyway, it looks like foreheads, eye sockets, noses, and chins. 20+ faces giving a stern warning. It was pretty neat to see, and appropriate. So, I now call that cliff face "Many Faces". If you see it, you're about to really get into the rougher canyon section on the Ram.

Turning the corner - July 19 Report

The upper slope cutthroat rivers remain in good shape. If we can get through the next 4 or 5 days of unsettled weather, it could be a great end to July and bump to August.
Brown trout streams are slowly showing signs of coming around. The Red Deer R is dropping. The reach below the dam may actually be in the best shape sooner than any other reach. LRDR & FTC are both in ok shape in the upper 1/2. Prairie Cr was brown on the 17th @ 752 crossing.
FYI - the water flow gauge on the main Ram is pretty sketchy. Use it as a general trend but not for flow.
Stream hatches: some brown drakes, golden stones, pmds, caddis, hexes, caddis.

July 19 Fishing Report

Easily summated:
If you are a cutthroat trout, you are swimming in clear water.
If you are a brown trout, you likely are swimming in brown water and aren't eating a lot right now.

Such is life in central Alberta. It's actually an amazing line drawn out in where the heavy rains have fallen east of the FTR.

Happy cutthroat fishing.

Stauffer Update

Stauffer has 2 feet vis and is up. AJ came upon 6 rises all day (from 3 very sporadic fish). Just sharin'. You may wish to go south of Sundre or west of Edson.
Cheers

Amazing Amounts of Water

You don't need to be a genius to see the impact of the massive storm that rolled through the Caroline - Rocky Mtn House area last night. The streams out that way are once again chugging. We drove around and were quite impressed at the sheer volume of water. There's water flowing over hwy 11, and the Stauffer hwy has water flowing over it at the #11 junction. The ditches are full of water and the streams... well... forget it.

Most of the waters out west remain high for this time of year, though a few are showing signs of clarity, such as the upper reaches of the N Ram. It's a little silly, but perhaps this weekend's sunny forecast might finally get us opportunity to dry out a little.

Early Float

It was good to get back to the Bow. While the golden stone hatch is a little later getting rolling this year, the fish are definitely keyed up on the nymphs. At every stop I looked on the rocks and few had many shucks, so we focused on hanging a pair of nymphs under an indicator for the day. With a fellow quite new to fly fishing, we opted to fish a 5 foot depth (from indicator to bottom fly) and work the shallow seams tight to shore. The day started slower, as expected due to the low pressure front and cooler air sweeping through 8 hrs earlier, but picked up by late morning. And when it did pick up, it was silly. The rainbows are quite thin this year and in need of a serious dose of stoneflies. Every single fish opted to take the larger, dark nymph. I saw 2 stone adults all day, one on the water and another in a robin's mouth. The wind was forecast 40 gusting 60 for the morning and 50, gusting 70 for the afternoon. The weather folks were bang on. We got to the Highwood the same time the wind did. With the HW quite murky and the wind howling, we tagged a few more at the next bluffs and called it a day close to 3pm. A lot of fish!
We began our day at 4:45 am. With the downstream launches closed, we weren't going to start later and get behind the chaos that no doubt will hit the river daily until Legacy & Carseland open. There again, a guy should give the N Bow Lodge a call and see if their launch is available.
This is a shot of the river @ Policeman's taken at 4:30am. The clouds were moving and the wind shook the shrubs in the foreground. The exposure is at +4; ISO 3200; shutter open for 25 seconds; fish eye lens. Turned out ok. :)

Beginning of Tornado cloud

You might have heard that a tornado touched down near Bergen today. AJ & I were out in the mosquito mine fields trying to entice a couple of nice browns spotted in gin clear spring ponds. As we waited for the trout, we watched the weather turn as this head turned into a a huge, billowing, far reaching one in a matter of an hour. It literally developed before our eyes and killed the sight fishing. The skies built up and turned black and the mossies were insane. We headed for home and on the way heard about the tornado near Bergen, with golf ball sized hail. This was the cell that spawned the twister. Good thing we left when we did! :)

Here's the same cell on radar a couple hours later. You can see the long leading comma tail like cloud show up on the radar shot. Kind of cool. Have to run as the storm is just setting up over Red Deer now and I don't want to miss the boomers. :)

Central Brown Trout Streams

Lo.
Behold.
Away Comet & Vixen.
There are fish... brown trout...
There are a few miles of fishable water.
There are clear spring creeks.
There are risers.
There are brown drakes. There are pmds, caddis. And even a few golden stones...
It's not perfect out west, the Red Deer in town has 15" vis. Other streams have 1 to 3 feet vis. Spring creeks are back to normal...
And last night was a TON of fun for 3 hours...
It's getting to be worth poking around here & there again... Happy hunting!

Waters of the FTR

A little birdie driving 130kmh down the FTR this morning tells me that the Blackstone is a little high but is coming into shape. Further N things are still off, with the Pembina dark stained. Further north yet things remain high. South, things are also high but visibility is coming into its own. The main Ram is out but the N Ram is comnig, so too a few tribs.

Fly Fishers Inc

The New Zealand online magazine's latest issue is now up:http://www.flyfishersinc.com/

Catch Magazine

The latest issue is now online. Always worth a look:http://www.catchmagazine.net/