Late Fall Madness

There comes a time every year in the Fall when we can sense that the next trip out could be one of the last open water trips of the year.  With this mindset, we tend to fish in some crazier situations than we otherwise wouldn't throughout the year.  We might also fish harder and some might even look at us as being a little bit nuts for being out there.  A last ditch effort to take the boat out one more time with Nick would certainly fit this criteria for being a little crazy.

Nick called and asked if I had some time to go fishing.  I told him, yes, we could head out on Thursday.  We both agreed and the forecast looked ok.  That changed in a hurry, and the night before we left saw a few centimetres of snow fall.  I awoke the next morning to a text from Nick questioning if we should go, and upon looking outside and opening the door, I was starting to think along the same lines.

The forecast was calling for a HIGH of -3C, and -10C with the windchill.  Not wanting to waste the day sitting around, we decided to head out anyways to check out the lake situation and the possibility of at least fishing off shore for a few minutes.  As we drove out, ice fell off the top of the boat, and icicles clung to the sides...it was cold!  We arrived at the lake, and checked out the lake side.  This particular lake is sheltered on a couple of sides, and it actually helped with a bit of the wind.

"Do you think we should do this?!?" Nick said.

I responded with, "Yup, this will be interesting!"

We layered up and put the waders on, and started to prepare the boat for unloading.  First problem...the ratchet straps were frozen!  After some quick thinking by Nick, we warmed(!) the straps up with water from the lake and they came free.  Success!  Next, we hooked up the controller for the boat winch (my loader is an automatic loader so my boat sits on my truck).  We pushed the button and the winch had power, but the boat was not moving.  Upon further inspection, the boat was frozen to the rollers on the rack.  After an adjustment there, we broke free, and the boat came down and broke the thin layer of ice on the water.  We were in the clear!

After loading up the boat and rigging up rods, we were off.  Of course, there were no other anglers out on the shoreline or in boats, which is always nice!  We were laughing as we had those couple of issues, and because every time we head out fishing together, there is always poor weather conditions.  Analysis of this shows that to usually be the case, but at the same time, it usually leads to good fishing!

Before we headed off, we spotted some fish coming near the surface closer to the shoreline of the lake, so we anchored in a spot that was parallel with the shore.  With our first casts out, and our hands and rod guides already starting to freeze up, we saw both indicators dip down!  Always a good sign to get some action that quickly!   We started to get into a few fish, and lost quite a few others.

We moved spots a few times, and the action continued to be quite steady.  What a day!  You couldn't ask for more after persevering through the few issues at the start and the poor weather.  If the fishing hadn't been so good, I can't guarantee we would have been out for more than an hour, but we made it on the water for a little over 4 hours.  We were still getting hits like crazy but decided to head off as it would be dark in an hour, and we couldn't really feel our fingers anymore.

We got off the water, loaded everything up, and were headed back to the city.  Satisfied with the day, I put the boat into storage for the winter a few days later...even with the better weather you can't really top a day like that to end the boating season.  Some of the best fishing I have ever had with Nick always come under some adverse conditions, but that's part of the adventure and why fly fishing is so amazing.  It's what keeps us coming back for more!

Nick waiting for the bite on a chilly day on the water.

Waiting, and freezing.

A typical size of trout for the day. Fun, especially in sub zero temperatures!

PS: Sorry for the lack of pics from the day as both of our hands were so cold we could barely move them.  I have a little bit of video that I will edit, and hopefully make a short vid soon!  Thanks for reading!

North Sask River Goldeye

We always seem to go far away from our hometown for fishing and other adventures, but sometimes the best fishing is right in our own backyard. A few weeks ago, Nick, Andy, and I headed down to the North Saskatchewan River in our hometown for some Goldeye fishing on the fly. Some of you might think I am making up the name of a fish, as a lot of people I have talked to around Edmonton don't even know what a Goldeye is. A Goldeye is a member of the shad family with huge (you guessed it) golden coloured eyes. that can grow in excess of 20"+ in size. They feed aggressively on anything from nymphs, dry flies, and even minnow fly patterns. On this evening, we used all of the aforementioned flies, and did quite well on all of them. Another fish called the Mooneye was caught, which is similar to the Goldeye, but is smaller in size, and has blueish silver eyes.

We made it down to one of our usual spots at first, but the Goldeye weren't really showing themselves. After a few frustrating casts with grass behind us, we headed upstream through some mud. Passing some old bicycles and shopping carts that had washed up on shore, we found the first of a few pods of rising Goldeye. Nick used a classic glass fly rod, and got some sweet bends on it with some hookups on the dry fly. Andy used mostly nymphs, and I used nymphs, dries, and streamers.

A local outdoor writer used to call Goldeye by the name of "Chrome Hubcaps", and that is what has stuck with us. We added that if you catch one over 20" it is a Chrome Rim. The scales are very bright and large, and the fish get quite fat. We didn't get any Rims on the night, but some were close in size!

After we caught a few on dry flies and nymphs, it began to get dark. I switched to a Clouser Minnow pattern to see if I could get an aggressive strike. Within a few casts of stripping the fly in aggressively, a Chrome Hubcap of about 17" slammed the streamer right by my feet and ripped line out into the current. What a rush! We fished until dark, and had to climb a very steep sand hill to get up out of the spot we were fishing, but it was all worth it for a great night with good friends and some fun fishing right in our own backyards. That hill wasn't as easy to get up as it used to be though!