Trout on the Plains

I drove out of the mountains and onto the flats to fish a promising tailwater river south of where I live. The couple of times I have been on it this year there have been few bugs and the trout slow to rise. I managed several mid-sized rainbows in fast, shallow water and a couple of missed fish but nothing really large. Most seasons I feel I have a good chance at raising a biggie if I spend a full afternoon walking, spotting and covering good holding water. No such luck this year. I did locate several large fish from a high bluff. They were deep and showed no interest in my grasshopper pattern. I didn't fish sub-surface. The river had a decent flow. The water clarity and temperature...perfect. The Cottonwood colours...perfect. There was no wind. A good breeze might have been helpful when fishing a grasshopper pattern.

trout spotting high up

While hunting for trout some horses and donkeys tagged a long.

 bee hives in the coulee

On a Twitch

I've been in Montreal for over a week visiting family, recently returned to Alberta and got a chance this afternoon to visit a local tailwater river that I've been fishing consistently all summer. Water levels are much lower now. It was cloudy earlier in the day but when I arrived at the river the sky cleared-up and I fished in almost full sun. The PMD hatch is almost done but I managed several mid sized rainbows and a good brown on what is left of this small pale mayfly. By late afternoon the wind kicked in and the weak hatch completely died out. I walked some distance looking for fish but saw none. Things got difficult with no bugs on the water. I decided to fish a side channel with a grasshopper. Several weeks ago I spotted two browns there. I got one prospecting with the hopper pattern. It was an aggressive take just off the bank on a twitch. Here is a pic.

tailwater brown

side channel

The next small fly hatch will be Olives (baetis). This mayfly will show up as Fall progresses or when inclement weather strikes.

While in Montreal I drove one hour south to the foothills of the Adirondacks (upstate New York) to visit a river that I learned to fly fish on and where I caught my first trout on a dry fly. It was great to see it again. The region is very beautiful as is the river. Water levels there were extremely low due to a summer of intense heat and little rain. In a future post I'll write more about this special place and the trout fishing there.