Celebrating 20 Years of Western Sportfishing! (2000-2020)

We started out as wide eyed fly fishing obsessed teenagers, and are still just as obsessed, but much older and wiser! The first website the four of us built was actually back in 1999 named "Fly Fishing the West" on Geocities.com, and it would crash after a few people visited it. A magazine came out for a short time that took that name, so we switched up to Western Sportfishing in 2000, and started to build a whole new website on Tripod.com. Shortly after some quirks with those free websites, we bucked up some cash and bought our own domain name and web hosting for WesternSportfishing.ca!

We have all been fishing since birth, and fly fishing, tying, and filming for well over 20 years.  There doesn't appear to be an end to our passion for all of it!

Join us this year through our website and our social media pages as we celebrate our 20th anniversary in style. We will be adding fly tying videos from Nick to the website and YouTube pages. Also, we will be releasing a Classic episode every month in the winter/early spring. Then, we hope you enjoyed Season 1 of our WebTV Series, as we will be filming and releasing more content for Season 2. If that is not enough for you, be sure to follow our Facebook page and #WesternSportfishing on Instagram for details about some contest giveaways throughout the year. 

And if you don't win the contests, we will have a way to purchase some Western Sportfishing gear if you loyal followers wish to. It has been great meeting many of you over the years, and we hope you continue growing with us. These last 20 years have gone quickly, and we are only getting started! Happy fishing and tight lines! 

-Trevor, Andy, Tim, Nick- 

Fly Fishing Phoenix Arizona

Not many people think of Phoenix, Arizona as a fly fishing destination. People flock there in the winter to soak in the sun, but there are many different opportunities available to the angler. In our latest short video, Tim takes us on a tour of a few of the Phoenix area Community Fishing lakes and ponds. This is a separate fishing license from the Arizona State Fishing license. Licenses are the same price whether you are a resident or non-resident, and booklets come with your license purchase that have maps and locations of the 40+ lakes and ponds. Hopefully this video inspires some of you to take in some fishing next time you are in the area!

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

Spring Updates and Looking Forward to Summer

It has been a crazy spring to say the least. With a late ice-off for stillwaters to southern Alberta flooding and now a heat wave. The weather has been all over the map. With that being said we have still had some enjoyable trips out on the water. For myself, it has been one of the slowest seasons for catching, but the days out with friends and family have made up for the poor success rates.  Hopefully the success picks up but here are a few shots from the spring season.

Mid-Winter Fly Fishing Trip

Nick and I managed to make the drive down to Calgary from Edmonton on Monday to fly fish the world famous Bow River.  We usually try and get down there at least a couple of times in the winter, and now that Andy lives down in Calgary, we will probably go even more.  We fished some old haunts, and managed to do quite well.  The day started off slow with Nick landing a few whitefish before I switched to a nymph rig from a streamer.  The air started to warm, and midges were coming off more frequently.  After landing a couple fat whitefish myself, we started to get into some trout.  Nick landed a couple of bows, and a couple browns.  I managed two almost identical browns as well.  We changed spots to end the day, but were less successful there.  All in all, it was a great day to get out and fly fish in February!  For a more detailed report check here: "The Importance of the Small Stuff"

Here are a few pics from the day:

Nick netting a Bow River Brown Trout

Nice end to a good day

Sweet colours as usual on a Brown Trout

Myself releasing a nice Brown Trout (photo by Nick Sliwkanich)

Fall Backswimmer Fishing

As the month of August winds down, we start to get into one of the most spectacular seasons of fishing for the entire year.  Lakes usually become a quiet spot to get out and enjoy the Fall season here in Alberta.  Backswimmers become a major "hatch" as they go into their fall mating migration.  With this key food source, the lack of other anglers, and some very willing trout...its very easy to see why this is a fantastic time of year to fly fish for trout!  I thought I would share a few pictures from this month of fishing.  There are still plenty of days left to get out and enjoy some fine fishing as well!

A nice chunky rainbow trout with cool colours

A busy beaver

A large rainbow trout that fell victim to a #16 foam backswimmer

Fishing near sunset, and the trout were still coming up for backswimmers as you can see in the top left corner!

Real and imitation

This trout was blind in one eye but still managed to hammer the fly!

A trout going back for more

A hefty 21" rainbow on a floating line and backswimmer

Chunky football shaped trout that hit the fly with plenty of power!

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!

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!