Crossing the Big Void for Risers

 

 

 

I grew up in southern Quebec where the countryside is full of trees: maple forests, birch...thick stands are everywhere. It rains a lot there and it's humid so things root and quickly grow skyward. Rural roads are fringed with trees. Homes have trees around them. Even the parks in downtown Montreal are full of trees. Small streams and creeks are often canopied by broad branches. Trees are always around you. They are company and make the world seem smaller, more intimate. Trees create boundary lines and delineated spaces within a larger space.

When I drive south of Lethbridge into Montana I always feel uneasy. No matter where I look it is just stark open space. Treeless. Like a big void. There are few boundary lines, especially in the Winter time when it all seems so colourless and lifeless and the grey land blends with the muted sky, and a horizon doesn't even seem to exist. When I'm out there I feel that I might just disappear; that the space will somehow inhale me. I look for pronghorn antelope or coyote just to see if things can survive without being swallowed up by all the nothingness.

I feel relieved when I approach the town of Great Falls, Montana because I see structure: homes, large buildings, and of course trees. I pass through and drive further south along the meandering Missouri river edged by comforting cottonwoods and mountains in the distance, and feel even more confident. I have made the crossing intact.

This past weekend I drove south of Lethbridge to get an early start on the angling season. I braved the crossing and the cold as I knew trout would probably be rising on the other side. And they were. When the wind took a break and the water calmed, trout surfaced for midges. And I caught a few. I caught trout in mid March when Winter refused to give way to Spring. I caught them on minute size 20 dry flies on a river over two football fields wide. I caught them after braving the big void.

midge fly

walking the plank to an island

 

midge hatch

if they don't rise for small dries, I shoot them

 

flat water side channel

Whitefish On Ice

rocky mountain whitefish

I walked a section of the Crowsnest river today. I haven't been on it since the Fall. I casted nymphs. Picked up a couple of Whitefish on Zebra midges. The river is lower than I have ever seen it.  All the local rivers are. There were a lot of anglers out. Water temperature mid day in the sun, 38F. I looked for risers when the wind died down but no luck. The stream side snow banks had some little black stoneflies crawling on them. The trout will probably be up looking at midges in about three weeks time: April.

River Life: Beginnings and Endings

 

I went to a local tailwater river yesterday to see if there were any midges hatching. It was fairly mild for early March but the wind was howling, 60 Km plus and I therefore didn't expect much. I planned to wait until supper time to see if it would calm down and whether the tiny bugs would collect in the shallows. The wind did abate at 5 pm but there were few midges around.

I spent the afternoon walking the river and taking it all in as I haven't fished in awhile. I mainly threw a streamer with dumbbell eyes and let it sink and swing, and then slowly stripped it in. I picked up two Rainbows this way. I also nymphed a bit but had no luck with this strategy. A more skilled bottom dredger probably would have done better. A small trout did rise to the "plop" of my pink strike indicator. It always amazes me when this happens, especially in the winter time. I should have tossed a beetle at him.

The water temperature at river's edge in the sun was 40F and then later in the day when cloudy 38F...not bad for this time of year. Spring might come early...might! I saw many deer, an eagle, waterfowl and feathers. I spotted what looked like a dead Pelican. Several years ago on the same river I found a dead Coyote after run-off.

A river is a place of beginnings and endings.

Endings:

pelican

 

coyote

In the Spring Geese nest along the river.

Beginnings:

goose eggs ringed in down

goose eggs along with some fakes