Sight Fishing Fortress Lake

You might have heard me / us talk about sight fishing Fortress Lake's brook trout. We finally put a short video of it together for you. Forming the basis of an upcoming sight fishing lakes dvd, this video shows how successful an angler can be at given times of the year sight fishing Fortress Lake. You need a boat to sight fish - which thankfully guests at our Fortress Lake Retreat get to use. :) See the video at the top right of the blog.
http://www.fortresslake.com/

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.

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.

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.

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.

Siding

A neat photo of the side of a small, 3 pound male brookie swirling in the deep blue water of Fortress Lake, as it's netted. Amelia landed this spectacularly coloured brookie last week. The brookies spawn later in October at Fortress, into November. The colors begin developing sometime early August and continue to develop and heighten through the spawn. Some wonderful colors are dsiplayed.



Mousing

Recent hot summer nights at Fortress Lake have probably brought some of the most enjoyable moments of fishing I've had yet. We've had the odd brook trout caught at Fortress on a mouse pattern over the years, but nothing quite like our  recent experience. Our guide Dustin, myself and our guest decided to cruise the lake that holds a large number of good brook trout along woody structure. The sun was setting and the lake was glass calm. Our night began with some great success on an elk hair caddis pattern as the fish were rising steadily in a particular spot. We could sight cast to them and watch as these dark figures appeared from the glacial blue waters to engulf our flies. Hardly enjoyable :)

The thing to keep in mind when reading this post is that dry fly action at Fortress Lake is random at best throughout the early season. The brookies will come up from time to time (water conditions dependent) for a variety of different food sources on top, but knowing exactly where to put one's fly without a consistent rise within in a castable area is very tough. Even with a ton of patience, you can wait for hours without anything happening - that is - until this time of the year.
Our guest, Mike had brought a couple mice patterns with him for his trip and was eager to try. He insisted we all take turns with the rod, so Dustin and I had no problems agreeing to his request. The caster would get a good cast, while the other 2 would watch intently as the mouse was twitched along the top of the dark, silvery shadows of the lake, leaving a rather large wake in behind it. The first good smack at the fly brought on the biggest uproar of excitement from us all as it manged to be only a few feet off the log, and well within our limited viewing. This fish got off, but we all proceeded to hook one and land it that night.The anticipation of the rise out of the approaching darkness and the explosive takes in the stillness of the warm night was amazing. It's hard to beat the feeling of a large brook trout taking your mouse pattern on the surface when you are situated in the midst of the remote Canadian Rockies. As it turns out, Mike ended up catching the biggest trout of his life on a dry fly at Fortress Lake, so I'm pretty sure Mike went back to Ontario a happy man.