Andy and I met up and headed out for the July Long Weekend. We knew that pretty much every piece of flowing water in Alberta and BC was high, but decided to see if we could find a few little gems to explore.
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| Andy fishing in the high water |
Our first stop was a small creek in Alberta that normally was about half the size that it was flowing at, but we had the itch to fish a creek so we put on the waders, laced up the boots, and strung up the rods. Not too far up the creek, we got into a few small cutthroat trout. They were nothing to write home about, but with the visibility in the creek, we were catching them right at the toes of our wading boots! After struggling to get around in the very high and dirty water, and the other spots not yielding any fish, we took off to a slightly larger stream.
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| Loop Yellow 8'8" #4, with Loop Classic reel. Nice creek set-up. |
The larger stream did not produce any fish, and it was quite high and dirty as well. After some time, it started to rain, and in this case we figured it would mess up the water even more. We took off and did a little more exploring into BC. We managed to find a couple of streams that were tertiary tributaries to try. Normally these streams were about 1/3 the size, but at least the water clarity was a little better than everything else. We set up the rods, and within minutes were into some quality cutthroats for the size of stream we were fishing. We were excited to find some nice water, let alone get into some good sized cutts for the little creek. Some trout were even rising for a small mayfly hatch, and over the next hour, we landed a few on #16 parachute adams dry flies! It was pretty special to watch the fish take the naturals, then move up and slam the imitations.
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| Smaller cutthroat normally, but a real surprise for this miniature creek! And a ton of fun! |
Coming out of there satisfied, we decided to try some lake fishing the next day for rainbow trout and largemouth bass around Cranbrook. I'll let Andy write a report on the Bass fishing since he has the pictures, but for now I will leave you with a few small creek trout pics.
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| Chunky trout caught by matching the hatch. |
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| Awesome colours on these guys. |
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| Andy trying to catch a larger one rising underneath an overhanging tree. |
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| Success! |
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| Money shot of a beautiful cutthroat trout to cap off a fun day of fishing! |
