Vancouver Island Adventure: Part 1

With my very first trip to Vancouver Island back in May still fresh in my mind, my wife and I decided to head out and do some more exploring/visiting further North from Victoria on our summer vacation. After a night's stay at Lac Le Jeune Provincial Park near Kamloops, we were on our way to Horseshoe Bay to catch a ferry to Nanaimo.

Waiting for the ferry

We knew the price of a ferry with a travel trailer and truck might be a little pricey, but lets face it, things aren't getting any cheaper these days...and I had some fish to catch that were on my list!  A relatively quick 1.5 hour ferry ride to Nanaimo, and we were off to Campbell River to stay at Elk Fall Provincial Park.  The park is one of the nicest I have seen, and is situated close to the Campbell and Quinsam Rivers, and other attractions in the area as well.  My cousin Chris dropped by the first night we got there and we talked fly fishing and where to try in the area.  We would meet up a few days later and fish closer to his hometown of Courtenay, but he let us know some great spots to fish and sight-see while we were in Campbell River.

My anticipation was killing me the next morning, and I woke up early to hit the Quinsam and see what it was all about.  I pulled my waders and boots on, and tied on a dry fly on my 4wt with some 6lb tippet and slipped into the river behind our camp spot.  I worked my way up a few runs and landed a couple of small Coastal Cutthroats (my first Coastal/Sea-run cutts!), but all of a sudden took a look into the water at some commotion and realized that there was a good amount of pink salmon running through.  I quickly switched over to a rabbit strip streamer, and thought that my tippet would be good enough.  After all, these salmon didn't look THAT tough! Boy was I wrong...

After swinging flies for an hour and hooking Cutthroats instead, I finally hooked into a good pink salmon. I lifted the rod tip and the fish turned downstream faster than I could blink. With a quick "SNAP", my tippet and fly were gone, and I was forced to beef up the leader I was using quite significantly!  By this time I realized that it was probably close to lunch time, so I headed back to camp for some lunch, and to see if Tara wanted to go upstream for some trout.  We spent the afternoon catching Coastal Cutthroats on dry and wet flies, so we had a great time!

Tara by a massive downed tree in the river!

Nice cutthroat on a dry fly!

The next morning I woke up early to fish for pinks again.  I still hadn't landed one, and still wasn't hooking up on this day.  I tried a few flies, mostly in pink as I had heard that people had good success on pink coloured flies.  I had a few on, then finally landed my first pink salmon on a pink rabbit strip streamer.  They fight great, and it took me up and downstream before being subdued.  In the afternoon we checked out the Campbell River, but after seeing everyone fishing shoulder to shoulder, I decided not to wet a line in there.

My first Pink Salmon landed!

The last full day in the area, I finally had enough of the pink coloured flies and thought that trying a new colour or style of fly might boost my success.  To that point I had hooked a few pinks, but had only landed one!  This theory changed my whole trip, and the fly was a success!  Within minutes of switching up, I hooked and landed 3 pinks.  A fourth was landed after a 200 yard trip downstream, and a jog down the middle of the slippery river by me!  I had to take a rest after this excitement, but couldn't wait too long as fish were still there to be caught!  The next cast swung down, and I was into my 5th pink of the morning!  Wooo, I finally figured these things out and found the right fly!  Uh oh...the fish ran down about 50 yards and snapped my 8 lb leader!  I was devastated and thought that it was the only fly I had like that, so back up to camp I went.

After searching through my box, I found one more fly exactly like it, but this one was black.  Hmmm...would this work as well as the purple streamer?  After tying on an even heavier leader, I was ready to hit the water again.  Two casts through the run, and I was into another pink!  Success!  They liked this fly just as much as the lost one.  I lost count of how many pinks I hooked and/or landed after that but that day now ranks up there as one of the most memorable on a fly rod I have had so far!

Underwater view of a nice pink salmon

We did some sight seeing at beautiful Elk Falls later that afternoon, and toured around the city of Campbell River.  Also, had a great lunch right on the docks at the Ocean.

The next morning, I hit the river once again and had great success, but had to get back up to camp and hitch up the trailer.  We were on our way closer to the Courtenay/Comox area, and were staying at Miracle Beach Provincial Park located on one of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever seen.  I will post a part 2 to this report, starting at Miracle Beach soon!  I hope you enjoyed this first part.  Tight lines!

Chasing down Ol' Hoss: A Bass Fishing Journal

Chasing down Ol' Hoss: A Bass Fishing Journal

Bass can often be found in areas teaming with warm weather and unique scenery

With high water and monsoon-like rains across Alberta and BC, trout fishing has been difficult this year. Wanting to still get-out and enjoy some sunny weather, we have managed to target a species that is still relatively unpursued in parts of BC: largemouth bass.

I know some folks associate bass fishing with an old Tennessee screen baseball cap, a jar of worms and a cooler of beer, but fly fishing for bass can be a totally unique excperience. Their behaviour is substantially different than trout in some ways, but eerily similar in others. During the heat of a 100 degree day, often times a bass won't drop down to deeper water like trout, but rather hunker down under a log in the shallows. They also don't generate nicknames like "Scarlett" or "Crimson Beauty", but rather generate nicknames like "big pig" or "old hoss". I love catching them nonetheless.

Tim with a fat bass just north of the border taken on a bottom-walked red blood leech to imitate the crayfish this pig was eating. Look at that gut!

During the heat of summer I have had my best luck catching bass in mornings and evenings. A green wooly bugger on an intermediate sink line fished near vegetation has been my most productive means of catching them. This is very much like trout fishing as the bass will eat leeches, damselfly nymphs, dragonfly nymphs and minnows in these locations. I have also had luck casting huge foam dry flies and stripping them on the surface, this can produce some extreme excitement and explosive takes!

Evenings are a great time to fish for bass during the heat of summer

I headed out on a July morning a couple of weeks back to get some fishing in before it reached the hot part of the day. I was quite intrigued to have a damselfy nymph swim onto my float-tube and undergo complete metamorphosis into a fully grown adult with wings. The process took a couple of hours and was incredible to watch.

Damselfly Nymph crawling out of its casing

Damselfly just about ready to fly away

 I could see bass shaking reeds and smashing damsels non-stop, much like out trout do during certain months of the year. I pitched a cast into the reeds, stripped back a green wooly bugger and BAM!!! "There we go!" I screamed. The fish hit like a freight train and bulldogged into cover HARD, bending my 6 weight like a wet noodle. Being alone, I brought in the solid 3 lb bass for this photo.

I normally wouldnt take holidays from work to pursue bass, but with hot beautiful weather and a nice lake to fish, who could ask for anything more?

Later on that day when the sun started to dip down, my uncle and I headed back down to the lake after a beer or 20 each. We saw non-stop rises from the pumpkinseeds (a type of sunfish). These can be great fun on small dry flies and nymphs. I cast my fly out into the water and the indicator dipped. What I had on wasnt fighting very hard, but it was a very familiar species with most anglers: a yellow perch, talk about a cool, totally different mixed-bag fishery. I started bringing the small perch in when all of a sudden the fish took a hard turn by a big upright stump and my rod was bent in half! HOLY SH*$ !!! This big largemouth bass had come out of nowhere and ATE the perch I was bringing in. Talk about bull trout-like behaviour!

I battled the fish hard and Uncle Paul screemed, "GRAB IT GRAB IT!!!" Having a couple drinks under my belt, I jumped into the lake, grabbed the big pig by the lip and jumped back onto the bank! Talk about a hog for this lake! It truly was Old Hoss and the biggest bass I have ver landed. I kept it and brought it back to camp, parading around the campfire with it like I had just won the BASSMASTER CLASSIC.

Andy (me) with "Ol' Hoss"

 Overall bass fishing can be a great change of scenery from trout on the fly, as well as a unique challenge. I highly recommend going out and giving it a try!

-Andy

July Long Quick Trip

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chunky trout caught by matching the hatch.

Awesome colours on these guys.

Andy trying to catch a larger one rising underneath an overhanging tree.

Success!

Money shot of a beautiful cutthroat trout to cap off a fun day of fishing!

Sturgeon Fishing Adventure

My wife and I recently traveled to Vancouver Island, and on the way back, we were lucky enough to spend a day with Sturgeon Slayers (www.SturgeonSlayers.com) to go after the prehistoric White Sturgeon!  We spent the day on a jet boat on the Fraser River with our guide for the day, Tony.  Tony's expertise on the river was evident, and it was a real treat to learn the history of the area as well as more info about the White Sturgeon.

I had always seen the fish on television fishing shows, but nothing could compare to the feeling of having one of those beasts on the end of your line!  Within minutes of moving to our first spot, we had some fish playing with our hooks, and the first Sturgeon of my life on the end of my line. The sheer power of even a "smaller" fish ("smaller" in Sturgeon terms seems less than 5 ft!).  My arms were a little sore, but it was well worth it to bring one of these river dinosaurs to hand for the first time!

We moved spots after the action slowed, and immediately got into a couple of more beautiful fish!  We were happy to just see one, but everything else after that was a bonus.

We stopped for a great lunch of bbq'ed steak and chicken...the Sturgeon Slayers boys really treat you to an unreal day on the water!  By lunch time, I believe our count was up to 6 Sturgeon landed. As we were eating apples, we got a hit, and a 6-7 ft Sturgeon exploded on the surface of the river.  This was the biggest one hooked of the day, and after taking us downstream a ways, it rolled on the line and popped the hook!  Oh well, you can't land every one!  We moved down to a couple more spots, and all of a sudden Tara was into a massive beast.  After a huge (approx. 50 minute) fight, big runs downstream, and some expert maneuvering from our guide Tony with the big jet boat, we had a 7'7" Sturgeon landed!

Needless to say after a fight like that, we were a tired but satisfied group.  After a short recovery, we decided to get the lines back in the water, and within minutes, we tagged into another huge Sturgeon!! The fight of this one was different as it didn't take the massive runs downstream, but it really dug for the bottom of the river.  And when it is you against one of the big boys, they call all the shots!  We managed to get this one to shore, and it was in the 6.5 ft range, I believe, and another beauty!

After two huge fish in a row, we were pretty beat, but still had a little bit of the day left. The lines were back in the water, and a few minutes before we were about to head in, the 9th and final Sturgeon of the day was caught and released. This one was about 5 feet, and a great way to cap off an amazing trip!

I would just like to thank Kevin and Tony from Sturgeon Slayers for one of the most memorable days of fishing my wife and I have ever had!  Their knowledge, professionalism, and excellent conservation work were on display for the entire trip.  If anyone is interested, there are several articles, websites,  and television programs showing the great work these people and groups are doing to manage and assess White Sturgeon populations in British Columbia!  Catch, Record, Release!

And if you are interested in a trip for these ancient fish, I can't recommend Sturgeon Slayers enough. http://www.SturgeonSlayers.com

A few days fishing...

So I've managed a few days with a few people over the last week.  I really like fishing for fishing's sake, but I enjoy it largely for the company I keep while on the water, and if I go alone I tend to fish for a few hours, but enjoy the drive and scenery as much as anything else.  I'm most likely to quite after a good fish or two, or fish an unknown creek, expecting nothing much in the way of results.

I went fishing with my friend Mykola on Thursday last week after my final exam, and we had a good time at a local lake.  I was there a few days earlier, and landed some big fish, so I took him out and was happy when he caught a couple nice trout.  He told me that the first trout of the day was actually his largest to date, and having started fly fishing only last year, I thought the 3.5 or 4 pound rainbow was a great start to the day!  He was quite happy, and I think a highlight, though understated at the time, was that he tied the flies he was using to get into the trout.

Mykola with a nice trout

I also got out this weekend with Trev. I'm off to Europe for two months this summer for (mostly) university, so this would likely be the only time we'll get out together before I leave.  We originally wanted to head to the Crow, but water conditions blew out the day before we left, so that got nixed...  To top it off, we left my place at 4:30 am, but then got a flat just south of Edmonton before 5 am.

Bad omens. 

So I changed the flat, but we had to turn around and switch cars (I guess it could have been worse, we could have been halfway to Red Deer, then need to wait around, hoping they could patch the tire).  Anyway, late start, crappy water at our preferred destination, so we ended up doing some exploring and driving for no fish.

Day 2, we went to a small lake we hadn't fished since we were in high school.  The plan was to check out some small lakes that should have been icing out, and the first one we checked was 50% free, so we hit it.  It didn't take long for Trev to get into a fat (FAT!) 16"er.  These fish live well on a steady diet of shrimp and minnows, so there is no denying that they grow fast.  These trout that are 16"es were stocked last year at 8"es.  That is some good growth.  We ended out the day with around 10 or so trout, all in that same size class (there was at least a partial winterkill last year, so we don't know if there will be any larger ones right now.  By fall they should be quite a bit larger!).

The fishing was good, and I had plans to fish with Andy on Monday.  The fishing was fun the day before with Trevor, so we decided to meet at the same lake the next morning around 10.  We had a bit slower of a day.  The wind was up and from the east (never a good sign around here), and the remaining ice was shoved into the corner we'd fished the day before.

So we went to the east end as it was ice free, and had a go.  Andy had a take first cast, but didn't connect, then we fished without any action for about an hour.  Then Andy got a fish, lost another, and missed an aggressive take, all within 20 minutes.  This was pretty close to what we knew the lake to be: there are a fair number of fish, but they cruise, and the lake is pretty featureless, so you either move all over the place, or wait for a school to come by.  Anyway, these trout were those same fat-ass 16"ers.

No complaints from us.

We moved down to the windy side of the lake later in the afternoon.  Our favourite part of the day was actually watching the ice melt away from 50% coverage to nothing over the course of a few hours.  This opened up some decent water, too!  I got lucky and landed a fat rainbow, and we took a throat sample; crammed full of shrimp and a lone minnow (neither of which was all that surprising).  But one of the shrimp was over an inch long.  Seriously large gammarus, so I tied a few in the right colour (had some biggies, but not in the right olive colour) when I got home (a couple for both myself and Andy) so we'll be prepared for next time.

Andy Tchir photo

The weather has hit the shitter for now.  Barely above freezing, and not looking good for the next day or two.  Hope everyone is staying warm and having some fun on the water.

Nick

Ah, spring, and a little bit of a fishing trip

Well, last week threw us for a loop. We had a mild week, followed by some more cold and snow on the weekend, followed by a couple warm days, then a cold 'un today. Well, today was so-so I guess.

It was -2˚C when I left the apartment this morning at 11 o'clock, and it stayed between that and 0˚C for my 40 minutes drive out of the city. I My plan was to say, "to hell with studying this afternoon," and drive to 3 or 4 lakes nearby that may or may not be iced-off enough to wet a line from shore. Of course, I do this drive with a bit of fishing gear in the back of the truck.

Luck was good to me, and the first lake I stopped at had open water to the bank, and no other fishermen at it! That last part is important because there was only about 10m of bank available to cast from, and while I'm not opposed to sharing the wealth in this limited opportunity time-period, I won't complain about some solitude, either.

Eventually another fellow did show up, with a float tube (I wouldn't be so brave with the barely-thawed lake), and we chatted a bit. I guess the fishing was a bit slow the day before. It was today too, but I did manage two large trout, which sure helped cure my freezing fingers! (My rod guides were freezing all day)



For this type of early, ice-off spring fishing, there are a few points to remember. Firstly, the water is cooooold! Like a degree or two above freezing. The trout are not overly active, so don't move your flies too quickly. Secondly, use year-round food items as your staple flies. My fish came on scuds and leeches today, with a few other patterns being ignored. Thirdly, be persistent. I fished for nearly an hour between each take (I had a third fish, but he sliced me off). The point? Don't expect miracles in the early season, simply be happy that getting out is an option, and remember that our best fishing is yet to come!



At this time of year, be nice. Open water is limited, and unless it is totally unreasonable to do so (like the time we already had 5 people fishing in 15m of open shore, and another guy showed up...), invite others to fish close by, and share a fly or tip.

Oh yeah, dress warm.

Nick

Ice-off Escapade

A typical early-season stillwater rainbow trout

                                          
  I was cleaning out my room and found this old, short article I was meaning to use 7 or so years ago on our website. It's short and fairly abstract so either I was reading too much Bob Scammell at the time or I was in hippyville BC. Please forgive the puns.

With finesse and grace I released the winter demons through a rythmic back and forth motion. Unravelling a cast on an early season spring creek? Nope. Ploppin' indicator rigs on a local trout pond? You bet! Early season trips to places like the Bow and Stauffer are great, but nothing is more special to me than trying out the first few feet of open water on our trout ponds. There is no need to search for motivation, all it takes is an obsession and about 10 months of Alberta winter for you to know what I am talking about.

Winter may be a beautiful to some, but to a fly fishing nut winter gets old fairly quickly and causes many to dip into the liquor cabinet, medicine cabinet, or even the ice fishing section at the store

A condition prescribed by most doctors as the shack nasties is naturally being cured by some Muiracle....oops I mean miracle. After months of near insanity there comes a common symptom, which has some fool filling a box with #26 dry flies that will never grace the end of a line. But luckily there is light on the horizon to save this fishing fool from craziness. Too bad the light on the horizon is a 6 am sunrise shining straight into my eyes while I chug a mug/bucket of coffee trying to wake myself up for fishing and/or showing up to an iced up pond: good thing Kingsalmon is driving today. Once I have finally woken up, it will hit me: I am about to cast my fly rod on still, open water for the first time this year.

Goofing around with a little perch a few years ago at first ice-off

Tight lines,

-Andy aka Dr Shoal

Oh, the midwinter thaw-before-freeze-up blues

Andy and I have been talking a lot about this next fishing season. I suppose technically we’ve each caught our first trout of the season, that trip we did about a month ago on the Bow, but we both know that the season doesn’t start in earnest until maybe April at the soonest. The foothill streams open then –legally, but maybe not practically– and we can go out fishing from home, on streams, in about a couple hours drive.

It doesn’t matter much, really. Fishing is just fishing, and we just go when we can.

Sometimes we get lucky and local lakes ice-off around mid-late April, giving us the chance to head out 3 or 4 times a week, chasing hungry trout that go anywhere from 10 inches to 10 pounds, depending on which lakes are open, and our general luck.

For the last several seasons a bulk of our stillwater fishing has been on a series of private ponds. These had several undeniable benefits. First, they were only a couple minutes from town, so the driving time was negligible. Second, they were totally fishable from shore, so a quick trip was easy, and even a full-day outing was just enjoyable, with no boat really needed. Third, the fish were large. 22” average large. Last, the membership was cheap like borshch. Around a hundred bucks for a full season.

But then the lake with the 22” average size winterkilled, but the other ponds had smaller, but still good fish. Maybe 17” as an average. Then I also moved to downtown Edmonton because of a convenience to get to university and back, so now the short drive is more like an hour. And I can get to public lakes in maybe 35-minutes. There have been some other changes, too, aesthetic ones, and the experience may have just moved on for me.

Andy and I have been talking about fishing the public lakes as often as possible this year. I know that some of our lakes/ponds are simply mediocre fisheries designed to yield 5-fish limits of cookie cutter 7” trout, but a few select lakes, like the one I fished last fall, have large trout. We’ve neglected the lakes that have always treated us well, but want to go back this year.

Also planned is a backpacking trip for goldens. I don’t know about Andy, but I’ve been tying shrimp and chironomids like mad just dreaming of this trip. In case the flies are a bust, we’re also planning a couple day-hikes to cutty lakes, were I know the flies will work, because the fish are just so willing.

I’ve also neglected a few of these over the years. The reality is, I live far away from them. Maybe a 5 hour drive to the trail head, and I just haven’t had the chance to go in a long time. I sort of miss them. These are often lakes I fished in my teenage years, and they are quite special to me. I need to see how they’ve held up. At least I don’t see fishing reports online about them.

Toss in the inevitable summer brown trout fishing, some sight fishing in early spring with an old friend of mine, a return trip for Dane (hopefully) in fall to tackle some spring creek browns, and this is shaping up to be one hell of a season.

I hope everyone else is having a good winter’s tying and planning.

Nick

A few days after New Years

Andy and I had plans for several days. It wasn't last minute, as it so often is in winter. No, I was busy, he was busy, hell, who isn't around Christmas and new years?

Anyway, we went to the Bow River, right in Calgary. The forecast: +7 but windy. Reality? Maybe +4 but calm. I'll take the trade off.

We always like going on these winter trips. We really don't expect much, so it really just means that winter fly fishing in Alberta is a 3-hour BS session, followed by a few hours of fishing and hopefully a few fish, and then the BS is resumed on the drive home. It really is a lot of fun, especially when we get into some trout.

This trip fit the bill. We left Edmonton early; at about 6 AM it was windy as hell here, but we had the faith. We got to Calgary, and the weather was cold, but calm and sunny, and it was promising. Anyway, we dawdled a bit getting our stuff in order, but we hot the water around 9:30 AM, with all the hopes and dreams of a complete geenie.


I think I broke the ice first, with a nice 16 or 17" brown; certainly not the largest we cold hope for on this river, but a good catch for January 4! A few minutes later, Andy got a nice rainbow of similar size, and on a nymph as well (I got mine on a #16 PTN, and Andy on a small Copper John). So far so good.

A while later, I got a nice white-dog of the same size, and we started laughing. Three fish, three species, and all the ones you could expect on the Bow. Sure, other fish are there, but you don't bank on them.

Sure as ever, next cast I got a 6 or 7lb pike of all things, still on the small nymphs! Yikes! I was lucky. I got it on the side of the mouth, so it didn't shred the tippet and leave me fly-less.

We had a nice lunch, laughing all the way to the bank about the fun we were having, even though we couldn't feel our feet, and the hands were cold as hell. After lunch, we put some T-8 sink tips I have on, and fished little spring creek buggers. Boom, I got a sweet brown on the third or fourth cast, then I cast out, but my hands were stinging. I let the line just sit there, and put my gloves back on. I picked up the rod, and lo and behold, I had a fish. Nothing less than a 4 or 5lb sucker. So that was four species for me, and five overall!

Let's get on with it. I got one more sucker of the same size (on a more aggressively fished fly this time) and finally my own nice rainbow! Andy got another 'bow or two, I don't really remember, and it really doesn't matter much anyway.

"Thank god I didn't get skunked!" Andy yelled. "I was worried you'd stop fishing with me!" (The last couple times we were out, he'd had a tough go, but he made up for it).

We made the usual plans for the coming year: lake bows in spring, brown trout, and some summer fishing for cutts and rainbows in mountain streams. It should be a good one.

Nick

A Couple of Cold Trips

After a few weeks of working hard, there was an opportunity for Andy, Nick, and myself to get out fly fishing. At first we debated whether to fish the Bow River in Calgary or the Red Deer River closer to where we all live. With the possibility of catching walleye, pike, rocky mountain whitefish, AND brown trout...the decision was easy. Also, with the price of fuel so high, it was also more economical lol. The Red Deer River was the choice.

We started the day fly fishing for rockies, and Nick and I were doing well for some exceptionally large whites! Andy (the self proclaimed "whitefish king"), however, was having a tough time hooking up. After a few hours of landing some large whites, we decided to switch to streamers and try our luck with walleye and pike, with the possibility of a brown trout striking.

Andy was having some shoulder issues, so he chose to use spin gear while Nick and I stuck with the fly on this day. A few minutes in, and I hooked up on a decent little pike, which Andy graciously released for me in the ice cold water!

Nick managed to find a school of walleye and was into quite a few after that as well. The weather started to cool off more, and the wind started to howl, so we took off to Dickson Trout Pond to end the day. Dickson wasn't so kind, and must have been turning over as the water was dirtier than a rotting salmon on Labour Day. We got skunked on Dickson, but it was a great day to get out and wet a line.

About 1-2 weeks later, the forecast was calling for one nice day before the weather turned sour on us. Andy and I had the day off, so decided to try and rekindle the good fishing on the Red Deer that we had with Nick. I used my 10'7" 6 wt Loop Opti Switch rod all day for whites and walleye, and Andy used his 11" Amundson Wind Warrior 6 wt switch rod. It was comfortable to swing the switches all day, and it meant less false casting in the cold weather. We didn't have as much time to fish this day, but in the few hours we managed some more whites. After we were done with the whites, it was back to the walleye fishing to cap off the day.

Andy started by losing a massive pike on a black crystal bugger. Our luck got better though, and we managed to catch a few nice walleye to end the day. There were no brown trout caught on either trip, but it is always nice to have the chance to hook into a large brownie while fishing for other types of fish!