On the Up & Up

If you look to the top right of the present layout of this blog, you'll notice a new video we just posted "On the Up & Up". It's a fun moment from our latest trip to New Zealand with a full flex rod. Yes, we're Orvis Endorsed. No, it's not a shameful plug. Yes, we really do love the Superfine rods. No we don't use them in every situation. Yes, we'd recommend the rods for Alberta trout waters. They can handle a lot and have an amazing feel. We hope you enjoy this latest vid!
The good news is the season is coming on strong. There'll be some early season headaches with weather and water condtions, but things will roll soon enough!

Easter weekend, eh?

Apparently it has been a long winter around Alberta. We've been back from New Zealand for a month and while we missed the 3 harshest months I'm not sure that we would want to enjoy much more cross country skiing in the cold, cloudy weather that's been lingering. It's fairly well within typical for early spring though.
Sweet forecast this week, mind you! And I'm sure that the opening day of April 1 coupled with an Easter holiday weekend will no doubt see hordes on Stauffer Cr. Maybe a few will poke around into some of the smaller spring creeks that somehow managed to remain ice free through the cold of this winter. But 95% of the water will be frozen. It looks to be nice weather for a drive for Friday and Saturday.
And with the present forecast and sunshine, there will even be a few bugs. Small black stones (think a black trude in #16 to 20) will be out and about. You might even see a rise or two. Maybe a brown or rocky will take a nymph or streamer. It all depends on just how the conditions line up for you - your fishing.
But, like every season, the weather will be fickle. A slow build up to the nicest day, followed by a collapse. These early, warm spells just can't sustain themselves around central Alberta. There's simply too much snow, too much mountain and arctic influence to keep things steady. So, while the forecast is for nice weather now, make sure you leave yourself enough lee-way to get out when the weather is actually good. The collapse always leaves things empty, cold, cloudy, and quite slow.
Of course, it seldom is the fishing success that leads many out this time of year. These early trips are the t-ball to the season. It's a time to set the ball on the T and take a few swings. There's nothing over the top that happens for most. It's an exercise in setting the season up. And many, may will this coming weekend, so keen up the happy social skills and make a new friend.
If it's fish you are after, maybe turn your attention to the lower Oldman, Crowsnest, or Bow. Less temperamental rainbows and more fish per km await. And it looks to be a very nice forecast down that way as well.
But for us in central Alberta, while the weather is coming nicely, it will be another 6 weeks yet before we see marsh marigolds bring in the first good waves of pmds. By then, hopefully, the skwalas, smattering of tiny to small stones, and a few olives will have come off, bringing a few nice browns to hand.

Point of View vs Perspective vs Opinion

Perspective: Perspective is the mental state that combines available facts and personal ideas to shape a meaningful whole to the individual.

Opinion: Opinion is a belief, often firmly expressed as a judgment, but which does not rise to the level of fact. Opinions can be changed as new facts and ideas are presented to the individual. Opinion is important because you are important

Point Of View – Point of view or POV can be used to describe one’s physical or mental relationship to an object or event. You, or your characters, always have a specific POV.

I've long had the notion - and this goes back to hosting the old Fly Fish Alberta Forum - that I had a perspective or point of view that I simply shared. I felt as though I seldom had opinions. I don't know that I ever took stock of how I expressed the perspectives and points of view, how they were perceived, much less how others interpreted them - did others project my emphatic sharing as opinions? Nobody ever asked clarification. Further, as I've been in the fly fishing world for some time, starting as a 25 year old, was I even old enough to have enough life experience in the eyes of some of the old guard to have perspective and points of view on anything - no doubt mine was dismissed due to a lacking data set by some old codgers.

Did it matter? Really? No. But it was real at the time. Real, likely due to a lack of life experience in that I cared what others thought. And I certainly put myself out there - too much from my perspective.

I truly have few opinions - as far as I see and understand them. I'm not terribly wrapped up in so much being right. I certainly have some perspective and I honestly share in order to attempt to engage others in allowing them to share their point of view and perspectives - in order to understand them, where they are, how they arrived at their perspectives. I really love to understand how others think & see things, which is why I've loved guiding and hosting at Fortress Lake - engaging in great conversation based on perspectives is amazing to me. The trouble is that in doing so, sometimes you run into people that have some serious opinions - or at least they come across that way to me! But maybe, to them, their strong, over the top opinions are simply their ways of communicating and sharing their perspectives and points of view - and aren't intending to be so opinionated.

Does anyone really take the time to discuss this?

But, as the world of internet so frequently does, this comes down to me. Not so much me pimping myself out, but your understanding of me. I don't have too many opinions. I share here, on our Facebook page, on some forums, in some magazine articles and dvds - simply to share. If I bring up a sensitive topic, I do so anticipating that those who read the perspective appreciate it as a single person's point of view. I love the feedback, the interaction. I also realize the first rule of the internet: to share is to invite someone else's response. But that is good stuff... when the other person shares their identity and you can engage. I don't raise sensitive topics simply to pick on a person. In the case last year where I shared of a now ex-friend and his antics while fishing, I shared not out of spite, to look better than, to brow beat, or to ______... I did so in hopes that someone or others might see opportunity to avoid, to better communicate in their own ways in their relationships to steer clear of such interaction. I hoped others might benefit. Of course, that wasn't how it was taken by the individual I was discussing. Such is life. But that brings me forward to another concept, being wise in selecting friends, and recognizing what areas of your life to open, to what degree, to various people. And that's just a point of view on my perspective. My opinion doesn't mean much to you, but in the case of relationship, it's important to be honest with myself with my perspective, point of view, and opinion in that area.

I suspect, outwardly, my hope for more folks, especially in the "I'm right" world of fly fishing, that we approach each other with a mindset of sharing perspectives and points of view, by remembering when we speak we may be coming across strongly to others and soften our communication. And, when listening to others, I would encourage us all to listen - not looking for opinionated people but hearing those who might be coming across strongly to us, but intending to simply be sharing their thoughts, perspectives, and points of view. And in either delivering or receiving communication, not labeling someone as something from our perspective (ie - opinionated!) simply because we don't know how to understand each other. In all, it would be nice if folks would simply take the time to truly hear what others are saying and understanding where each is coming from rather than what we project them to be. But many can't even do this with their families, so how can we expect this engagement with friends, a magazine, or forum audience?

"Addicted to Radar!"

One of my favorite all-time quotes came a few years back. Amelia & I were watching what was supposed to be a major league baseball game. The sky was shown to be blue on tv but the grounds crew came out and put the tarps on the infield. 15 minutes later, with everyone wondering "huh?" they took the tarps off. Next inning they did the same thing. This happened three times before the tv crew did a little investigation. It turns out that the umpires had heard there was a threat of a severe thunder-storm before the game and had designated someone to watch the radar. Apparently, the person watching radar got a little twitchy and tipped off the umpires several times, hence the delay. It never did rain. The quote came after the third delay "Jeepers, these guys are addicted to radar!"

Well, Amelia laughed her ass off at me and I had no choice but to eat it.
I am addicted to radar and she knows it. If there's one thing I do, be it at home in Alberta or when in New Zealand, I watch the weather forecasts, stream flow reports, and yes, the radar loops to see what's going on where. Be it New Zealand or home, I can tell you exactly what the streams look like without going out. After 20 years of relying on the internet, I guess I've gotten pretty good at this stuff. There again, when on the road in New Zealand without internet, I rely on the computer model long term forecast which is 95% accurate 4 or 5 days out. And when the internet goes down at home, it's as much about playing a hunch as it is relying on fact. So far this week, when I was without internet due to Shaw's fire, my hunches were pretty good.

Why mention this now? Well, all day I had planned on heading out west tonight. But, as has happened almost all year, another sytem has moved north out of Montana into central Alberta. Sure enough, the cells started to pop up as forecast all along the foothills. Where I was headed was on the cusp of the early formation and I hedged my bets and stayed home.
As it turned out, the radar image at left turned out to be a 15mm per hour rain for a few hours and nothing turns off a reliable hatch like rapidly changing water/weather/temp conditions.

If anyone out there has a t-shirt that reads "Addicted to RADAR" please send it to me and I'll proudly wear it! Ah well, just another day in the world of being me, I suppose. We all have our vices. At least mine's cheap and innocent enough.  :)

Snow Data

In flying home last week, it sure looked like we are barren of snow. Calgary had so little, there was almost nothing to ski on in Red Deer. But, looking at the snow data for the mountains - it was surprising to see that all the reporting stations, but one, are all showing at normal to slightly above normal ranges. For the lack of snow east of hwy #22, the waters with fingers into the upper foothills should be in good shape. Of course, this is the time of the year that we tend to get a few good snow storms too, so hopefully we get a little more out east. There again, we're a month out from the April 1 opening on some low elevation waters, so maybe a holding pattern - or a good melt - might be nice too.
See the latest snow levels:
http://environment.alberta.ca/apps/basins/Map.aspx?Basin=8&DataType=4

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.

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.

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.

Fall Moments

Today we headed out for a couple hours in hopes of sight fishing to a few browns. If you've spent much time reading our blogs, you will understand that above all other styles of fishing, our major preference is to sight fish. The wind turned out to be relentless and fly fishing with a howling gale is really not much of an enjoyable experience for either Dave or I, not to mention it can make sight fishing next to impossible at times. But even when crappy conditions prevail, there is always something that happens on our fly fishing excursions that is noteworthy and today was no exception.Towards the end of our walk, we were joined on the river by a young male moose and an elk, both within about 5 minutes of each other. The elk put on quite a snorting performance to make her presence known. It was really neat to watch and though we didn't get any photos of it all, we did get some good video, so we were pleased about that. It's not every fishing trip you run into a moose and an elk. The other neat moment was when the Air Forces Hercules flew over head, just atop the trees.The fall colors were stunning, but fading fast and much of the water we fished was littered with leaves. Autumn is on its way out.

Letter to a friend

This is a copy of an email (part of) that we sent to friends back in the spring, simply sharing and hoping to pick up their spirits. With a few edits of the more personal text, it's a fun read... and a little touchy-feely at the end. If you don't like that kind of stuff, just look at the photos I guess! Toward the end I mention only one photo, obviously we added more to this blog post, the photo attached to the email was the last.

"I wanted to send you a few fishing photos to lighten your mood and maybe get your mind off the world for 5 minutes. But as I scrolled through New Zealand images from this year's trip, I found myself remembering the freedom Amelia & I felt one day as we stumbled across an amazing little creek. We walked upstream through the tiniest, narrowest gorge, barely wide enough for us to get through and quite the deep pools. The walls were sheer rock. We only managed a few smaller fish but kept going because it was such a fascinating little piece of the world. The gorge got tighter. The stream lined with gorse and matagouri - both are covered in 1 to 2" spikes. At one point we came up to a long straight away of boulders and the creek was very steep. We weren't sure if there'd be any fish upstream. But we kept going. We almost turned around because there was a Berenstein Bears like tree hanging over the creek - it was full of thousands of bees. Being allergic, I was fearful of getting stung. I got as far away as I could and made it through alive. Above that, the rock walls really closed in. We waded upstream and I had to lift AJ 5 feet straight up a rock wall so we could continue.

Further still, we got boxed out - we didn't want to go back down and the route ahead was of overhanging rock walls 10 feet straight up, tying in to 200 foot cliffs. There was no way to go up the creek. So, we had no choice but to double back a little and find out way up a cliff of matagouri - again, of 2" spikes. We managed to work our way through, in pain and agony of perpetual needles. After an hour we stopped in a pillow sized opening of grass and had lunch. As far as we could see up and downstream, the valley was covered in thick spiked/thorned bush and the creek impassable. We had to continue through the bush, those  cursed needled weeds.

We persevered another hour and came to a ridge. We were either going to find a long ridge edge to walk along or find a sheer cliff. Thankfully, the ridge opened up for 40 yards straight up - but no further. We made our way up, expecting to have to turn around. As we arrived, we found a section of loose rock coming off the hillside. Higher we climbed yet - feeling weary. Wouldn't you know it. Right when we were sure we were going to be totally blocked, at the top of the loose rock, there was an old sign post from a farm track that just happened to end exactly at the top of the loose rock scree slope we had stumbled upon. We walked it for 5 minutes and the valley opened before us. A wide vista of a stunning range and the stream that we'd been walking - simply stunning. We were beat, but the views inspired us. We were going to hike out around the mountain we'd paralleled all day. But it was only mid afternoon and we both were far too intrigued to leave and had to inspect the creek - which had opened up to a meadow like spring creek.

So, we made our way down to find a stream perhaps 3 feet wide in spots, with grassy bank undercuts that went 2 to 4 feet in on either side. Fascinating. We walked for a spell. Then we started to spot trout again. We hooked a few and landed a couple nice rainbows. But it wasn't until another hour up that the creek went from 3 feet wide to 2 or less, completely obscured at times from the overhanging grass. And wouldn't you know it - the biggest rainbows - upwards of 29" - were lying in the grasses.

Amelia was generous with me. We sighted a 24" rainbow and I immediately hooked up. The fish peeled into my backing, zipping through the grass, disappearing 4 or 5 tight bends downstream. I jumped into the high banked trough of the creek and ran after it. After 5 minutes, I caught up to it and tried to net it. There was no room in the trough for my rod, I couldn't get near the fish with the net. It went under an undercut and there was no room for a rod to pull it out. I threw the rod high on the bank and rassled it by hand. Slowly, I encouraged the fish out of the undercut by hand, worrying about the 3 x as I went. Closer it came. AJ tossed me the net. The fish rolled and fought in the fast current. Closer. I raised my arm to slide the net under and the fish popped! Bugger! What do you do now? After the day we'd had, a fellow just had to have that fish. Talk about tough. Well, AJ was kind enough to not laugh too hard. And she was good enough to give up her turn so I could try again. And you know what? I did hook up again. This time it was a 22" rainbow and it did the exact same thing. And so did I. And so it too popped off. And again I said Bugger! And again, AJ let me work the next fish. And I hooked it up. And it did the exact same thing. And so did I. Except that third fish, that wonderful 23" male rainbow, I landed. And the photo that I saw when I went through our NZ 2009-10 photos, the one that inspired me to type this, is the only one that I attached. The rest of this you can envision in your own mind. You've caught enough of your own to know what a 23" rainbow in a small stream's all about. But the moment I enjoyed, the one that my wife photographed as we shared this incredible day together, was a moment I doubt I'll ever forget. We were so free to feel and experience life. We were so incredibly alive."

Cheers,

Dave & Amelia.

Correcting bad advice

A couple of perfect examples of where a well intended thought in an internet article goes awry:
"Change your bug if you don't get eaten on a legitimate chance. If it doesn't eat on a good cast, it probably won't eat it on the 100th good cast".

The above was written pertaining to night fishing, and is unfortunately misplaced. Part of hunting or sight fishing during the day requires a lot of sitting, standing, hiding, and keen observation. Fish have cycles - that is - they can move 2m left or right to feed, or cruise the inside seam on a flat for upwards of 100+ m if the hatch is light or if the fish is simply cruising and feeding on whatever it finds. Those fish cruising 100+m of river are difficult as you have to move faster than they without whooshing water and slamming rocks - it is difficult. However, the fish that are more likely easier to hook are those with a set feeding cycle (pattern). The rub is that fish are never stationary. If you follow the above advice, you could easily cast your fly perfectly to where the fish was on its last rise as that fish has since moved 4 feet to the left. Sure, you have a perfect drift, but if the fish is moving left and looking left due to greater insect density or loft in the water moving it over, your cast is not going to register. Change your fly? No. Wait to observe the pattern, the timing, the rhythm. So many times during a hatch on the Bow, Red Deer, central Ab brown trout streams, in MT, or over in New Zealand, Amelia & I have observed a fish' cycle prior to casting. "One shot wonders" are simply those that we know the cycle, the pattern, what it's feeding on, and simply wait to time the cast at the peak opportunity. Generally, these are going to get a take - one cast, fish on. Now, pertaining to the quote above, especially as it pertains to low light or night time fishing, while fish are opportunistic and feed freely in such conditions, it is more difficult to predict the cycle, and impossible to observe it, save for the rise patterns. As I discussed in "Can I touch you to see if you're real?" blog post last month, there is a systematic approach to working into a fish's cycle and feeding patch. Low, low and in, mid and out, mid and in, up, up and in. Repeat. The issue is that the fly line must protect the edge, that is, land outside the known pattern and cycle path. The second it gets too close or lands in the zone, you run the risk of lining a fish that might have dropped further down as you cast further up. This cross over is lethal to your chances - typically browns will cease feeding or leave the feeding lie, while rainbows often revert to more riffled water, often just upstream. If the fish has an observed cycle or pattern, we must be equally systematic in our approach and presentation. And, especially in low light or at night, one cast isn't going to cover that fish properly. Change your fly? No. Give it time and work the cycle first. If you give it 2 complete cycles of casting and the fish is still rising, then change your fly.

"Now, you'll meet a lot of fishermen that say this is ultimately the pinnacle of fly-fishing – just getting that rise from a selective, educated, finicky trout is why they do it. They have beaten the most difficult part of the game at that point; the rest is just a matter of going through the motions. BS! Do not let them fool you! It serves as a great excuse to being a very disappointing sportsman, but it is not at all a genuine sentiment."

There was a fish on last year's trip to NZ holding above a willow bush, in 10" of water. It was a tiny pocket of water, completely covered. I was casting right handed to a seam further upstream when I noticed the fish mid stroke. As I was afraid my movement would spook the fish (I was quite close already when I saw it) I switched hands mid cast, pulled back on my line with a bit of a parachute to shorten the cast while laying a left handed hook cast with a reach mend immediately above the willow and a 2 second drift into the pocket saw the trout rise to take the fly. I set the hook and fought the fish. It jumped and we went through the typical formalities. I turned it from an undercut on its last run and as it was coming to the net the fly simply popped. On video my body language reaction said it all "so what?" as I smiled, having had the fun I hoped for. Was I a very disappointing sportsman? A mid cast hand transfer, laying a left handed hook cast with a reach mend under an overhanging willow on the short side of the river, with the take and controlling the fish to the final netting glide is a disappointing display? I guess I must have missed the severity of necessity to catch every fish engaged. There again, to put such pressure on one's self is on the same keel as going to church and living the fundamentalist Christian lifestyle - don't color outside the lines. Why do that to yourself when fishing? Ironically, I say this as a person who fishes with the intensity I've not come across in others, that is, when it's the style of fishing I love. When engaged in sight fishing, or hunting, I'm extremely intense and expect to catch every fish I encounter. It won't ever happen, but my posture and poise is exactly that. It's not an intended over the top arrogance as much as an arrogance that reminds me to do the things I know need be done to ensure I have greater opportunity to get the trout to take than the fish will have to spook or refuse. It's subtle, the difference, but a mile apart in ramification.

Cheers
Dave Jensen

Water & Hatches Update

Almost every stream and river in Central Alberta is in good shape, with good water levels for this time of the year and generally good in stream temperatures. This weekend's cool weather will essentially kick us into early fall stream conditions, so we should make it through the season without too much hot water impacting our fishing.
Lakes will cool down somewhat this weekend as well, which may foster some movement to the edges. Stratification will continue through late Sept, but there will be more time each day for fish to cruise the shoulders of local lakes in the cool waters.
So, as long as we don't get deluged in a sudden change of forecast, all systems go. :)
Hatches?
Fall caddis, tricos, hoppers, flying ants, tan and grey caddis, blue winged olives, slate winged olives, remnants of pmds, still some golden stones, mahogany duns will begin to show this weekend in the cool weather, some sulphurs, black caddis (minor importance).
We're only a week or two away from the start of boatman season... joy!