Bonefish flats in southwestern alberta?

I've been waiting for the wind to die down for a couple of weeks in order to fish a local tailwater river. It has been unseasonably hot in southwestern Alberta; in the 30C temperature range...Caribbean like. I've driven the 30 minutes to the river a couple of times to check out the conditions and to see if there are any hatches. The water clarity has been bad probably due to the relentless winds which churn up the reservoir. The water is cloudy (milky looking) with visibility of only about 3 or 4 feet. It is usually low and clear in September. At this time of year we often experience some low fronts (clouds) and accompanying Blue Wing Olive (baetis) activity that can produce some of the best top water action of the year. I'm still waiting for all the "stars to align". Yesterday afternoon the wind eased up a bit and it felt like it might even calm down in the evening. I decided to gamble and make the drive to fish the milky river. I went hoping for a late day hatch as it had been sunny all day. I got lucky. A hatch did occur; mostly olives, size 20. Very tiny stuff. I also saw what looked like fly ants; again tiny. When the hatch got going, fish came up. Some were on emergers (sub-surface feeding) but some very good fish were eating duns in the slower areas. I managed to hook four great fish and landed two. All were rainbows. Two took me into my backing. The largest landed was right around 20 inches. All were hooked in a foot or two of water and took off for deeper territory like bonefish. It is why I'm persistent with this river; challenging angling and long runs. Bonefish in southwestern Alberta! Before you go out, check the tides, start tying some Crazy Charlies and of course as a back-up small Olives. I'll post some photos soon.

Lower Oldman River Rainbow Trout

Wildlife Along River

silver creek, part 3

Things I learned while visiting the Sun valley region and fishing the creek:

*Silver Creek is one of the most beautiful, pristine trout streams I have ever fished;
*The whole Sun Valley region (Ketchum, Hailey, Bellevue) is a great place to visit for anyone. The towns are quaint and well taken care of including beautiful home gardens;
*The Nature Conservancy section of the creek is a wonderful example of  how to preserve a river: a place;
*I disrupted the flat water less and was more stealthy while wading with the flow(downstream)at the river's rate or slower rather than pushing water when fishing upstream;
*Proper presentation with a fly that is somewhere" in the ball park" of what is hatching (size, attitude on water,etc) will often work even on a spring creek with very high angling pressure. Down and across seemed to work best especially in the bright sunshine;
*Other access locations on the creek, outside of the preserve section, offer great angling. I fished the Point of Rocks section several evenings as I could take my dog with me;
*With weed beds and many competing currents try to get as close to the fish as possible;
*Wade the channels between the weed beds(firm) if you have to stay in the water to get into position for a fish. It disrupts the water less; less debris; firmer footing.

I read an excellent book on Silver Creek before I went and found it helpful, accurate and informative. It also had several interesting chapters on the history and geology of the region. The book: Silver Creek, Idaho's Fly Fishing Paradise by D Clark and D Glasscock.

Finally, it felt good to fish a creek that is considered one of the toughest stretches of trout water in North America. It felt good to fish where some of the best anglers have fished and be successful. It was confirmation, I think, that I have become quite good at this ancient craft.

Silver Creek Brown Trout & Clear Water

silver creek, part 2

After walking through a tunnel of trees on a foot trail I reached the creek. Many sections of the path had planks put in place to step on. The creek was smooth, glassy surfaced and very clear. It looked like photographs I have seen of  famous English Chalk streams, but I wasn't in Hampshire or Berkshire, I was in Blaine county, Idaho. The next thing I noticed was the prolific, dense weed growth. Much of the aquatic vegetation reached the surface. Between this growth were a myriad of channels; sort of mini streams with their own individual flow rates. It seemed like several rivers within one river. Some of the weed growth was so dense it created mat like islands. There were also natural islands with side channels and the creek meandered significantly as most spring creeks do. Basically there was holding water (habitat) for trout everywhere; and there were trout everywhere.
Most of the trout that I saw rising were smallish. That was the case most of the week. I was between hatches. The September Olives had not started. There was a brief Trico hatch in the morning, one hour or so, which was a leftover hatch from the summer as early September, when I was there, was hot and sunny. Day time temperatures were in the low 80's F. There were some PMD's mixed in with the Tricos in the morning and then a very light evening presence. Overall the best hatch was the Tricos. I fished Trico patterns, hook size 22. The PMD's were also tiny, about the same size. I started spotting some larger fish later in the week when I grew a bit more accustomed to the creek. They were bank fish but due to the relatively brief and sparse hatches often only surfaced occasionally. This made it tough but I managed to hook a couple. My best fish and chances occurred when the morning Trico hatch was at its best and I was able to find trout that were feeding/rising with a rhythm. I experienced two mornings like this when the hatch was better and hooked, but didn't land, a sizable fish that was displacing a lot of water when surfacing. I caught fish every day and was pleased with this. In comparison to other creeks I've fished I found Silver Creek trout very subtle in their rises. Sometimes I thought they were subsurface feeding but when I took the time to really watch I realized  they were often picking off duns from the surface: very subtle sips with no head appearing. Maybe a lot of these fish were brown trout as I caught several through the week. A good portion, probably close to 50 percent, of the fish that I landed were browns.
I saw many large Browns when wading. They were usually along deep banks, undercut areas, and always right on the bottom. I saw some spawning browns in shallow gravel areas, again large fish. Silver creek is a great place to study trout behavior due to the wonderful water clarity.
I caught a few nice fish on a beetle pattern. Had little success with hoppers possibly due to it not being windy; it was very still when I was there. I was pleased to just catch fish and would like to return when there is a more significant hatch and some occasional cloud cover to hopefully see some of the creeks larger denizens surface feed with regularity. As always on angling trips I learned some things and will describe this in my next post.

Silver Creek Brown Trout

silver creek, idaho, part 1

If you love dry fly angling and have read a lot about the sport then you probably have come across a world famous spring creek called, Silver Creek in Idaho. Many consider it one of the most beautiful creeks anywhere. I've wanted to fish it for a long time and recently got the chance. In the past decade I have fished spring creeks much closer to home: Nelson, Armstrong, Depuy, Odell, and Milesnick. This year I had enough time off to make the trip to southern Idaho. It was a long drive: 14 hours with stops. The last couple hours of the drive I crossed a desolate, arid region called Craters of the Moon....no Lunar Vehicle in sight just my speeding Hyundai. Even the Sun Valley region, where I stayed, just north of the creek looked like it was ready to ignite. There were forest fires somewhere as the sky was always smoky. The area is considered a high desert region; lots of Sage brush. You don't expect trout water to exist in such a parched place, but it does. It seeps from the ground; cool, clear and very rich in aquatic and insect life. Through the foresight of Jack Hemingway, son of Ernest, and Guy Bonnivier, and many others, a preserve was created on a good portion of the creek. It is aptly called: Silver Creek Preserve. Many land grants and easements have been negotiated along other sections to ensure the care of the riparian habitat bordering the creek and access. It appears their efforts have in fact "preserved" the creek and it flows silkily as it did a long time ago. The preserve is part of the Nature Conservancy.

Silver Creek Visitor Center

Ernest Hemingway bird hunted along the creek, and finished his novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, while living in Sun Valley (Ketchum).

To fish the preserve section you simply sign in at the Conservancy office and then walk down one of the marked trails to the spring creek; an oasis in a desert plateau. When I signed the daily fishing log book under the heading, Visitors, my heart was racing. Only two other names: one from Bend, Oregon and another from Sweden. Then I was off down one of the trails...