Stag Fly Fishing and Camping Trip

Just over a week ago, the four of us from Western Sportfishing (Nick, Trev, Andy, and myself) embarked on a few days of cutthroat trout fishing and camping (which of course was accompanied by a few drinks).  You see, Nick will be the third one of us to fall to married life since 2009, and it makes for a damn fun weekend every 2 years!  I think we all agree that it should be a once per year thing at Kamp Kaleb!

Andy and I met in Calgary and headed on down to Southwestern Alberta.  Nick and Trev had travelled  down earlier in the day.  After stopping for some groceries and some booze, we were on our way down.  We didn't know if Nick and Trev were going to be on the creek when we arrived, or tired from the day and slamming back a few beers.  As we pulled up, it was the latter of the two scenarios, as a nice little pile of beer was ploughed back by the boys!  We hopped out of the truck and congratulated them on their progress and choice for the evening lol.  It would be the start of a great weekend!

The next morning, we woke up early to beat the weekend rush.  The water was cool and the air was too, but we trudged up the creek and hit into a few beautiful cutthroats on dry flies.  Andy followed us up with streamers to work the system.

Nick casts a dry fly to a rising cutthroat

We fished until about 2:30 in the afternoon and had a blast as the day warmed up and the fish became more aggressive.

Andy nets T-rev's fish. Trev was just resting his eyes in this pic lol

"Dead Man Walking" (Nick) and Andy fish a nice run

After retiring to camp for a mid-afternoon lunch, some beers, and some BS'ing we decided to hit a lower part of the creek for some evening fishing.  Nick had a special license to keep rainbow trout on this particular water body so we were all hoping he would land one for a fish fry.  While it didn't happen, we had a good time anyways.  Fishing wasn't super hot, but we managed a few decent cutts!

Nick casting for a (hopeful) rainbow trout

T-rev doing the honours while Andy holds his nice cutt caught on the streamer

As the sun began to set, we headed back to camp for a fire and some more drinking and BS'ing.  With everybody busy, we all don't get the chance to get together too often as a group so there were a lot of stories to be told.

The beer of the 80's lol...Old V...

The campground Buck makes an appearance

The second day of fishing began with all of us fishing a smaller creek.  On this day, Trev and myself would run dry flies through each run, then either Nick would swing a double nymph rig through, or Andy would swing a streamer through for bull trout or aggressive cutts.  The system worked well and we were pretty successful.  The scenery was also great on this gem of a stream.

Nick working the nymphs

Nice pool for the streamers and nymphs...and a picture

Andy with a monster on my dry fly

Nick with an aggressive cutt that took a couple of runs at Andy's streamer before slamming Nick's Hoover nymph...or was it the Dyson Nymph??

Typical Westslope Cutt

Soaking in the scenery

T-rev spotting some bull trout. Then a rock fell off the cliff randomly about 10 seconds later, and landed in the water just in front of him.  Needless to say he wasn't standing there after that lol.

Nick with a 24"er...no wait he's just doing the fly nation pose haha

"I SEEN one that COME up just over THURR"

We fished til later in the afternoon/evening, then retired back to camp for some supper and festivities.  All in all, it was a great weekend with the boys and hopefully we can all get together to do it again soon!

Until next time "Kamp Kaleb" haha...still laughing at that name

Vancouver Island Adventure: Part 2

After arriving at Miracle Beach Provincial Park, we went on a drive to check out the Courtenay/Comox area.  We took a walk on the beach at Goose Spit Provincial Park near Comox and checked out both towns. After getting back to camp and having some supper, my cousin Chris met up with us and we headed out to fish the Oyster River.

Tara with a sand dollar at Miracle Beach

Tara was set up with a dry fly, Chris had a wooly bugger, and I used my lucky streamer that I had on from fishing the Quinsam River.  Chris and Tara were getting into some cutthroats, but I wasn't having any luck at the start.  Chris mentioned that he had seen a larger fish rising in a nice run, but was unable to get it to take the fly.  I slid up in there and after numerous casts, still hadn't seen anything.  All of a sudden a fish came out of the wood and striked at my fly but didn't latch on.  Two casts later, I had a really good slam, and was into a good sized fish!  I thought it might be a pink salmon or something, but as I got it closer to me, realized it was a very nice sea run cutt!

Beauty sea run Cutt!

Underwater release shot

We were all super excited to see a beauty trout like that, and we started to fish a little harder to see if one of us could get another nice trout like that!  We moved up river and I had another slam and fish on after a few casts!  This time it popped off, but we could see pink salmon jumping around so knew what was in the run this time.  Tara had a nice 12" cutt on the dry fly, so I went downstream to help her with it, and while that was going on, Chris hooked into a beauty fish!

Chris battling a hefty pink salmon

After a short battle, the fish won and took off.  Chris got his line back in the water though, and within a couple of casts, he hooked into another fish and the battle was on.  After a few minutes, we got a glimpse and initially thought it was another pig cutthroat, but after getting it in closer we realized it was a nice chunky pink salmon!  We took a couple of pics and the fish was released back to the river.

Success!  Chris with a chunky pink

It was starting to get dark and we headed back downstream.  More trout were rising to the dry fly and we caught a couple on the way down.  We arrived back at camp happy to have a great evening on the river!

The next day we fished the Oyster in a couple of different stretches with Chris and his girlfriend Karen.  It was a sunny, hot day and we fished some fine water and saw some cool scenery.  Fishing was slow but we managed to get a few cutts and had a great time on the water. We all went for supper and finished off the day by fishing the Puntledge River.

The Oyster-shell-like bottom of Oyster River

The Puntledge was a beautiful river and it was great to get in the water as it was still pretty hot out in the evening.  Many people were rafting/tubing down the river on this day and I don't blame them.  It looked like a lot of fun, but fly fishing is pretty damn fun too!  We fished a few runs and the fishing was a little slow here too, but Chris got a few nice cutts, and near the end Tara got a cutt or two.

Tara with a crayfish from the Puntledge 

Chris with a nice silver cutty on Puntledge

We changed spots just before dark because Chris really wanted to show me a beautiful spot he knew of.  Just me and him headed up with rods, and we started swinging streamers.  I cast a few times, then stepped downstream and worked that water.  Within 15-20 minutes of swinging, I hooked into something nice!  I battled the fish as it ran downstream, then came up and jumped a couple of times.  We thought it might be a nice cutthroat, but as it came to the net our excitement went up even more.  It was a smaller summer run steelhead, but hey it was a steelhead and we were both excited!  I stopped fishing after releasing it back to the water.  It was a satisfying day...one I'll remember for awhile!  Even with it being a slow day, the few fish we did catch were great, and we had great company too.  Chris kept fishing down but was unsuccessful in the next run.  It was getting dark so we all piled in the truck and headed back to camp.

Summer steel!

Tara and I headed to Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park the next day and set up camp.  The area has plenty to see and do, so we checked out Coombs with the whole "Goats on the roof" thing. We ate a huge seafood dinner at the Clam Bucket in Port Alberni, and checked out the Cathedral Grove old cedar forest on the way back.  The next day, we went to Cameron Lake in the heat (so no fishing), checked out the Falls on the river, and later in the evening, Chris came by the campground and we fished the Little Qualicum.

An Arbutus tree. They shed their own bark and leave a smooth tree trunk..pretty cool!

Little Qualicum Falls

Beautiful, gin-clear Cameron Lake

We used dry flies at the beginning and Chris got a couple, but I wasn't catching so I switched to a nymph.  After a few casts I was into 3 nice rainbows on 3 casts, but after that....nothing for a while.  Chris was starting to get a couple in every run on the dry fly so I switched back to a dry as well.  As we walked further away from camp, we were getting some awesome hits on the dry fly and having a blast! After a brief walk through the "jungle" in the dark, we made it back to camp, pretty satisfied with this little creek and the trip as a whole.  

Chris waiting for a rise

Fish on! Nice rainbow trout on the dry!

Tara and I left back to the mainland of BC the next morning, but we both know we will be back next summer.  The fishing was a blast, the company was great, and the scenery was stunning!

To BC and Back!

This is my first Journal entry, so hopefully it goes well lol.  I will start by saying that my July was a whirlwind month, but well worth it!  I started off the month by catching some nice walleye on an outing to Calling Lake and Baptiste.  Now the one pictured below is not as big as Andy's 13+ pounder that he landed on the North Saskatchewan River a few years ago, but it put one hell of a bend on a light rod.  If its body had filled out for the size of its head, I can't imagine what it would have weighed!  Either way, it was a great way to start the month.

Nice Calling Lake Walleye

The next weekend, the guys and I headed out to Central Alberta for a Stag in my honour.  We did some fishing for Browns and Brookies on a creek, and drank a whole lotta liquor back at camp.  We had some great neighbours at camp that would keep bringing beer if Andy, Steve, and Nick kept playing tunes on the guitar too, which is always a bonus...the only problem was it was Boxer beer.  By the way, is that what everyone in Central AB drinks?  It sure seemed like it!  All in all we had a great time out in the woods, and it was a great way to send me off to marriage...which was the next thing to happen in July!

After getting married on July 23, my wife Tara and I went off camping to Southern BC.  Our first stop was the West Kootenays where we fished a small tributary creek.  Tara always seems to have great luck out fishing, and that day was no exception!  She caught all species of trout in the creek (Brook, Cutthroat, and Rainbow).  I landed Brookies and Cutts.  We were allowed to keep 2 trout each on that creek.  Being primarily a catch and release fisherman, I normally don't keep trout often; but when there are 10-12" Brookies in the creek, we were definitely keeping those for a fry!

After a couple of relaxing days on the stream, we headed to Champion Lakes near Trail, BC.  The drive was scenic as we took the winding road past Creston, the ferry across Kootenay Lake, and the hills past Castlegar.  Arriving at Champion Lakes, the weather was fantastic.  We did some floating around the lake on blow-up matress-type things.  Tara had a great idea to do some fly fishing off of them, so I said: "Sure, if you catch some, then I will do the same!".  Within minutes she had a few rainbows on, and I was out there joining her for some fun action on the 5 wt and intermediate sinking line.

The rest of the trip went well, with daily temperatures exceeding 30C, and no rain to ruin a great vacation.  It would take me awhile to write on the rest of the trip, so instead, I will post a few more pictures here for your enjoyment.  We still have a few more awesome trips planned for the year, and hopefully more great pictures come from them!