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!

Montana Bound

After a 4:00am Big Valley Jamboree Kick-Off bedtime, the 6:00am alarm didn't sound so good to me on the last Friday of July. It was hi ho hi ho off to work I go, but there was one problem. I was in Camrose at someone's house I didn't even know, wearing one contact lense, a beer drenched shirt and I started work in Edmonton around 8:00....Sounds like the beginning of a disaster, but in fact it was the beginning of the best weekend of my life. That night 3 of us rode from Edmonton to Calgary to stay at my cousin Steve's place where we would depart on a journey to Montana the next morning!

Ever try loading 5 people, camping gear, fishing gear, etc into a small SUV? It sucks. Steve had to share the news with me that my inflatable bed would have to stay behind and so did a bunch of other gear. It was 5 people, 4 mattresses to sleep on and one heck of a cramped vehicle! We left at 5:30 am, hit up Tim Horton's for our last fix of Timbits before crossing into the US of A. Excitement filled the vehicle as we joviously shared stories, jokes and sang songs on our way to Whitefish Montana. There was one problem though: we still needed groceries and had no room in the vehicle for them. Solution: lay Stephanie across myself and my friend Joachim while the groceries rode on the window seat. A little uncomfortable in 90 degree weather, but very practical in order to give the 60 Coors somewhere comfy to sit.

On State land in Montana, you can camp almost anywhere you like as long as you are responsible and respect the land. We found an absolutely georgious spot right beside a lake, built a rock firepit, set up the tent, cracked a few Coors and cooked some hotdogs for supper. That night was incredible. We were happy to not only find a place to camp, but to find an absolute gem of a place as well after all the designated campgrounds had announced they were full. Laying back, you could see every star in the Montana sky. The littlest things make the biggest impressions and the first night out was incredible...until about 3am when the temperature dropped to about 9 degrees celsius and it started to rain. One reminder when you go camping: Bring spare toilet paper. Wiping yer butt with a sock at 4am squatting in wet bushes isn't exactly a moment that dreams are made of....or if it is, bring spare socks on your trip.

The next day we headed back to the campground on the North Fork of the Flathead River right near the confluence with Big Creek. Since it was a Sunday and August long weekend isn't a long weekend in the states, most campers were leaving. We were dissappointed to find out that Big Creek, or "Big Crick" as the campground operator calls it, was closed to anglers for bull trout protection. Not knowing where to go, he sent us up a gravel road to a pretty little lake he said had cutthroat trout in it. Since we could barely pack enough gear to sleep on, it was obvious we didn't have enough room to pack waders or float tubes for lake fishing. We stopped at the Super Market to try and find anything to use as a boat. We found the answer very quickly. They weren't quite Caddis U-Boats, but they did the trick for the day and fortunately only a couple other anglers saw us floating around in our pink $6 boats! Fortunately they came with 2 drink holders on each boat in case the fishing were to be slow. I rigged everyone up with a good stand-by set-up for most lakes: a floating line, black, green or brown leech and a strike indicator. There was no room on the boats for anything but yourself, two drinks and a rod. Talk about simple fishin! We kicked out into the cold high elevation water and had great conversation, bonding and even good fishin! Scrappy little cutthroat trout were plentiful in this lake and the deep blue sky and big yellow sun lit up our worlds. To say it was fun was an understatement. To say it was a poorly planned gong show, well that too is an understatement!

That night we fried up a little cutthroat over the fire, threw around a baseball a little bit and talked about trying out the Flathead River the next morning before our journey to Great Falls to see Eric Church at the Montana State Fair. We had never fished the Flathead before but the North Fork was a decent sized river, similar in size to the Bow, but with very cold water. I knew nymphing would be in order that morning. Cousin Steve, his girlfriend Jackie, Joachim, Stephanie and Myself all hit the river early that morning. I love teaching new people how to fly fish and Steph caught on pretty quick. Although right when she claimed to be a professional, she casted her line in a loop around the rod and made it look like a decorated Christmas tree!

Fishing was pretty good on stonefly nymphs fished near the tailout of the run. Steve landed a decent little whitefish and I landed one a touch bigger as well.

Overall it was good times, good company and something totally new! I recommend to anyone who has never got the chance to go on a road trip like this to do it. Not only is there the thrill of seeing a different country and a totally new area, but there is cheap beer and Skoal for $3 a tin. Talk about a win-win. Thanks to Steve, Jackie, Joachim and Stephanie for making this fun weekend possible. And photo credit goes to Stephanie as well who takes some great photos.

Give 'er on the River (July 22 entry)

 I've often been called crazy, wild or over-energetic. Maybe it's the approach I take towards life. When my late uncle Bob told me to live every day like it's your last the last time I saw him, it stuck with me. When it comes to fishing, there should be no exceptions. Technically we have 3 months of summer on a calendar, but realistically in northern Alberta you can cut that figure in half. My belief that every warm day or evening we are given should be spent outside; whether it's fishing, camping, hiking, or just having a barbecue. This holds especially true on a wet year like the one we are having, where a handful of nice weekends may be all we get for "summer weather" on the calendar year.

Last weekend was a memorable one for me and I lived up to my reputation as a person who tries doing too much in too little time. I got out to the Calgary Stampede saturday afternoon, partied at a great patio party, won some prizes (including 2 cute monkeys) at the Stampede grounds and won money at the casino. The next morning I woke up, discovered my head wasn't pounding at all from all the whiskey I snuck around in my cowboy boots the day before and one thing came to mind:  ANDY IT IS 30 DEGREES CELSIUS OUTSIDE, HEAD TO THE MOUNTAINS AND GO FISHING!!!

Fortunately my cousin Steve woke up feeling good too and the first thing that crossed his mind was doin some fly fishing. We packed up our gear in my car, grabbed a Canadian Famous Donair, and headed for the hills. I can't believe how many people refuse to make day trips like these. I believe spending $10 on gas for a road trip where so many memories can be made is smarter than buying material goods such as blue ray players and plasma TV's... We arrived to the Sheep River around 1:00. We grabbed our 5 weight rods, floating lines, and a box of dry flies, nymphs and streamers and headed up the river for a day of enjoyable wet-wading. Steve was using a dry fly with a nymph under it, referred to as a dry-dropper rig and I was throwing a streamer hoping for bull trout to come out and play. We had to dodge about 30 inner tubes floating down river but managed to find decent action along log jams and in calmer water along the faster riffles. Steve landed a few small rainbows up to around 11" and I had a few hits when I switched over to dry flies. Unfortunately no bulls came out to play on this day.

While on the river I received a phone call from my friend Beth. I knew we had to go see Kenny Chesney at 7:30 and I had the tickets. "Where are you?" She asked. "I'm on the Sheep River near the mountains," I replied. "Oh my god you're crazy, you better be here on time," was the response I got. If I got a dollar every time I heard this line, I'd have a Hyde drift boat in the back yard and a brand new pick-up to tow it! I rushed to the concert (runnin across downtown Calgary in 30 degree heat wearing cowboy boots and jeans 'aint fun). Right after the show I packed all my stuff, zipped to my buddy Kyle's place and we tied up some flies to get ready for a morning on the Bow River. I thought about getting a few hours sleep, but decided against it. I knew there'd be time to nap when I'd get back to Fort Saskatchewan the next day. This was Calgary time, this was FISHING TIME!

We stopped by at the gas station, picked up one of those god-awful sandwiches and a box of Red Bull. That stuff don't give you wings but it does keep you awake! The sun was just starting to come up and we had a riot on the river. The usual Bow River flies for this time of year came through. We lost numerous browns and rainbows in that 24" range and I managed to slam into this nice brown! I picked it off against a bank, after throwing an upstream cast maybe 6" from shore. The head and tail rise of this fish made me believe it was possibly a big one. When it tore downriver into my backing, it was confirmed! After a very long battle, the big brown trout was visible and getting closer to the net! Hooting and hollering like we were at a cattle auction, the brown slid into the net. I was in absolute awe of this fish. It was a long male, very fat and healthy, and it had amazing colours. I was surprised how dark it was, considering it is only July. Usually brown trout don't get this dark until closer to their fall spawn. We took a couple pictures and let this beauty back into his home.

It was truly a memorable fish for me and the perfect way to cap-off an action packed Stampede weekend in Calgary. I fell asleep right when I got home around 3:00 pm and woke up at 6:30 am the next morning, just in time for work! When I told my co-worker the story and how good the fishing was I got the same old response, "Andy, you try doing too much on your weekends, you're crazy!!" Do yourselves a favor this summer, when it's nice out don't hesitate to get on the water whenever possible. The memories made in 5 minutes can often last a lifetime-

Andy Tchir

New Blog for Better Communication

Hi all, we have just started up this Journal as we are hoping to use it as a place to post fishing reports, pictures, and any other useful information that we normally wouldn't cover on our main website.  We have replaced the "Pictures" section on the website with this since it will be much easier and quicker to get our pictures on here and show them to you folks, instead of the gallery formats we used before!  Hopefully you all enjoy this blog as much as our website and forum.  And from all of us here at WesternSportfishing.ca, thanks for your continued support!