Top 15 Canadian Moments 2012 - #1 - Floating through Heaven

When you have a vision, a dream, it is vivid.

Dreaming in Technicolor... hadn't heard that one for a while.

What about living in Technicolor?

If you are lucky, your vision, your dreams, and your life... they once in a while meld together a moment.

Or a day.

And blow you away.

Our last day of the Fortress Lake Retreat season this year... magical. We closed up and waited for the plane. Not a cloud. Not a breath of wind. Not a worry. Everything went smoothly. After our 7th season, with the hiccups, hurdles, the big recession, the reconstruction, the learning lessons, the completion of the 2011 season had us in a place of knowing our business fully - who to allow involvement, what it takes exactly, what we are, what the facility is about... all those key identifiers in a business. It took some time to mature to this place, and that last day truly reflected everything and offered perspective. A wonderful thing. The interactions have rounded some sharp edges off us as well. By no coincidence, through it all, we've grown.

After catching a few more brook trout to end the season, it was time for the flight home. Simply... 50 minutes of floating like a cotton-ball cloud in a land of giants. Every one of the tallest peaks in the Canadian Rockies stood tall against the blue skies. It was awesome.

 

Top Canadian Moments 2012 - #4 - Ice Age

Every fishing season brings something new. If you fish a water regularly or are a keen observer in fishing it only once or twice a year, you'll notice little things change. Sometimes they are big things. I recall logs moving, new log jams forming, the massive amounts of gravel moved after the 2005 flood on the Red Deer, new channels open, islands form, or subtle things like an undercut that forms after high water. Lots of little or major things can change in a river.

You don't think much changes in a lake that doesn't have a big inflowing water. Sure, some trees can fall in, or dead heads can move around, but, really, it's status-quo.

Every year at Fortress Lake, we arrive and the same sequence of hatches occur. We're very thankful for the opportunity to own & operate the Fortress Lake Retreat, especially in years like 2012 where Alberta rivers were in high, generally unfishable condition for much of the prime summer months. Fortress Lake has some excellent chironomid hatches about the time high water kicks in back home.

Add the above, and it's consistent. Reliable. Gorgeous. Somewhat static but in a valley that compares to any other valley for beauty, even after 7 years of owning the Retreat, you can't help but see something different at every turn, be it time of day, angle on the lake or to the lake from a hiking vantage. There's always something different to see in a manner you hadn't.

This year, upon arrival, the differences were pretty obvious. It had clearly been a heavy avalanche year before we arrived. Along the two rock faces that come to the lake (well away from our location - we're more than safe where we are), massive avalanches had come right to the lake. In fact, one such avy covered the outlet in about 30 feet of ice and snow. The Wood R cut its way through the avalanche, but it was a winter wonderland as we drove through the ice slice, then got out to walk about the top of the avy pile. It was one of the coolest things we've experienced.

 

To go along with that pile, new avalanche chutes had come into the lake, dropping piles of trees (3 foot diameter) into the lake. New, great structure (not that the lake isn't full of wood!). It was awesome to see the sizes of trees simply snapped like twigs and either pushed aside or dumped into the lake.

To go along with all the above, it was one of the most impressive years for avalanches coming off the two shaded peaks to the south of the Retreat. Off Chisel and Sadlier peaks, avalanches rumbled and roared down the cliffs and into the spruce forests. June was perpetually alive with avalanche viewing.

And if that weren't enough, the spin-off of the cool weather, this little ice-age effect, the hummingbirds were amazing! It took time for the vegetation to get going. So, for the month of June, the hummingbird feeders were electric.

While not any one specific moment, the entire series of scenes and moments of Fortress Lake this June were spectacular. Add in the amazing chironommid hatches and a stunning rainbow event, and it was stunning. Here's a couple of videos from this June.

Top 15 Canadian Moments of 2012 - #8 - "Worse than Poaching!"

Fortress Lake, mid to late June, has a chironomid hatch as good as it gets. When noted Stillwater author Phil Rowley pumped several hundred chironomids out of one stomach sample, he shook his head,"that's the most packed I've ever seen. Anywhere."  It is thick and the big, fat brook trout are big, fat brook trout because of it.
It's a big reason why Fisheries have found brookies at Fortress put on 1 1/2 to 2 1/4 pounds in their third year.
We see quite a few folks that have never fished the mighty chironomid hatches before and it does take some coaxing to get skeptics to have a go at the preferred method of indicator, long leader, and a small stick looking fly that looks more like someone jokingly wrapped some thread on it as took the time to actually call it a tied fly... an art form. But it works.
One particular trip this season, two fellows were catching fish but the results differed from others. I suggested to come with me in their boat, me in mine, and set up nearby. I went through the entire approach and dropped anchor off a usually good shoal. Literally, they dropped anchor 20 yards away. I set up my line and flipped it out. 30 seconds. Fish. Fought, landed, released, cast. 30 seconds. Fish. Repeat. Repeat. After each fish I suggested maybe trying where I'm fishing - take my spot for all I care. Nothing. More fish.
"Here, take my rod". They rowed over and tied off on my boat. The fellow in the front took my rod and flipped it out. I began to set up the other fellow's line with the chironomid set up. BAM! Fish. Released, I returned to rigging the other line. BAM! Fish. Released, I continued. BAM! Fish. Three fish in the time it took to rig up an indicator, swivel, and tie on a fly.

We disengaged and I simply rowed 15 yards away and again dropped anchor.
Well, for the next 2 1/2 hrs it was perpetual. Every 30 seconds they had fish. And I'm talking double header, double, double, single, double. I sat there shaking my head, them theirs. For something they'd never tried before they were getting pretty good at it. A few times we had triple headers when I cast. It was a foregone conclusion so I didn't fish too much more.
But the clincher was, upon yet another double, the fellow in the bow of the boat looked at the other and said,"This is worse than poaching!"

In watching, it was a game of "no, you net my fish first," followed by "hey, hurry up and let that one go so you can take my picture!"

A great moment. Wonderful to see. Awesome.

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.  :)

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.



Gee, I wonder what's about to happen?

At given times of the year, fishing for big brook trout at Fortress Lake is remarkable. In fact, the sight fishing opportunities can be mind boggling, as fish move about. The following photo illustrates the point. The slow moving pod of giants (the fish are 3 to 5 or 6 pounds) was a little wary as the wind had died down, but the fish to the left of the indicator, to the edge of the pod of trout, was coming in to the zone. About 10 seconds after the photo was taken the bobber plunked down and a few minutes later a 5 pound brookie was landed. There were about 18 trout in the photo, with two other straggling sub pods 10 yards away. 



To the net!

An incredible day of fishing at Fortress Lake culminated in a wonderful moment for our guests. A brilliant, sunny day with no wind and not even a wisp of a cirrus and the sight fishing was epic. The fish were glowing in the crisp, clear water. Of the two following shots, I'm not sure which I like better, each for different reasons. The last shot shows just how crisp a day we had and how marvelous the weather, and a happy fellow gets in touch with his beauty!

Stewie Little checks in again

It's a lot of fun to watch. But it doesn't happen until the sun goes down.

A rod is readied...

Little furry critters soon to meet their doom...

A great moment as a different kind of splat & twitch presentation happens.

If we could only keep the mice out of the cornflakes...

this one seemed to love the muffins.

Doctor Stewie Little checks in.

Oral inspection time.

Rear molar #2 needs a filling.

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.

Flight Time

It seems every flight we take through the mountains reveals a different scene. Last night's flight out was magic. Fortress Lake, fresh from ice out, went completely still as the sun set, mountains glowing. I did something a little different, getting AJ to sit up front so I could video tape the take off from a different vantage. It didn't work out as well as I hoped but the film shows well of different aspects. As we flew home the light continued to amaze, coupled with a snowsquall near Roche Miette that provided both a halo rainbow below us and wonderous reveals of the peak itself. As we neared the landing on the outside world, the sun wrapped along the spruce and aspen laded foothills, low enough angle to cause dark understory, yet wrapped in the canopy enough to glow the early spring leaves. As always, the flight provided moments not experienced previously. After 13 years of flying through the mountains as a fly fishing guide and 5 years prior that with the Alberta and BC Forest Services, there is always something else to see, observe, and enjoy.