We are alive again!!!

My Rooster from Vallarta, Dec 2010.
Let's keep this blog rolling. Everyone welcome to post often, except you Mini-Wholesale. We don't need a post everytime you catch a dink fish.
Maverick

Police Lake Saturday Oct 17

Things didn't look good when we pulled up as the boat launch was frozen over. After 1hour of backing the boat trailer into the ice and breaking the ice with a 12lb anchor we were floating. Then things got easier. Peter would drive the boat up ontop of the ice and I would jump up and down in the bow of the boat untill we broke through and were floating again 10 minutes of this and we were in open water.

Fishing was really good from 11:30 till 1:30 then slowed a bit but all in all, fishing was really good. Most fish were 14"-18" nice and fat with just a few in the 12"-13" range. I caught all mine on a olive scud and Peter caught almost all of his on a little red Chironomid.

St. Mary's Kimberly B.C. - September 12th - 13th 2009

Headed out to Kimberly for a dog agility trial to support my wife. Yeah...right just another excuse to go fishing without guilt. Pete and Myself or too the ladies know only as the A.S.S's (Agility Spousal Support) members met up with my dad and fished the St. Mary's about 5km south of Marysville. For the St. Mary's the river was low and visibility was good. Fished a little over 1 hour before anything landed. Mosquito and white stimulator were the ticket. Over the 5 hours about 20 cutty landed in total some small around 10" but mostly between 12" and 15". Pete even managed to false hook a Kokannee and Dad landed a white fish. The next day just Pete and myself this time heading up towards St. Mary's lake. Fish were a plenty landing 20 or so but all small. Biggest was a 14" in a large pool. I was impressed with the river, fish and scenery but the $20 a day to fish B.C. classified II water hurt a bit!

The Crow - September 10th 2009

Hit the Crow just down the road from the in-laws. Started around 11:30am and landed 3 rainbows 12", 12.5" and a 13" in a little over 2 hours. A run down river a 100 yards or so caught my attention. Fished the run for about 45 minutes landing a 13" a couple 14" a 15" finishing the day with a nice 17". All caught on a beige and black foam beetle.

Sunday sept 13 Carbondale & Crow

Headed out to meet Blair for a day of fishing, 45 minutes later, still no Blair. So I decided to fish solo. Against my better judgement, I started at Carbondale. Fished there for a couple hours and managed to land 3 fish, all between 14"-15". Much to my dismay, there was no sign of any bulls lurking in the deep holes.
Next stop the Crow. Fished the new TU lease section and caught several small ones and then one nice 16" rainbow that jumped 3 times. Gotta love rainbows!

St. Mary's - September 3, 2009

Once again no work for me on a weekday. Spent a few hours on the St. Mary's and apparently on the same day someone decided to opened the dam. Water was high...I mean high! Not much for risers but did see a couple play "peak a boo" along the bank. Fished from shore mostly and managed a small 10" on foam and a half hour later a 19" piggy on a green drake. All in all a good day considering. Oh did I mention it was HOT!

August 27th 2009 - The Gap

On the road by 7:30am with my pal Powder Pete. Skeeter Peter had never fished the Livingston before so decided to give it a go. Around every corner was a bunch of Donkeys! Found a spot and on the river by 10am. Fished for about 45 minutes before any action. Pete landed a 10" cutty on a copper john. Pete likes the nymphs! About 10 minutes after I landed a 12" on a adams parachute. Fished about 100 yards down river and came across a bubbling pool. One cutty after another were rising and the heart began to beat a little quicker. Between Pete and myself through 100+ cast and 10 - 12 dries including caddis, humpty, adams, tom thumb, poachman and even a variety of foam were used but nothing seemed to peek interest. Caught a few of the hatch and matched as close to a green drake. First cast...fish. Caught 3 in about 15 minutes between 15" - 17". After pounding that pool went downstream not much further casting into the bank. Landed 3 in a hour or so the biggest being a fat 15". Only covered a couple hundred yards of water before running into another group.

Before heading home fished the upper Oldman. In a little over 2 hours 3 to hand between the two off us. Nothing big. All between 10"- 12" and on the skinny side. All in all a good day with 12 in total.

Zip Your Lip Creek - August 29th

After a couple of glowing reviews of "Zip your Lip"creek, I headed out there with the Big RUSSIAN. After a questionable drive in, the questions continued with the Big RUSSIAN, (a BC resident) second guessing the size of the fish I told him can be found in this little gem.

Despite is skepticism and a slow start, I was confident we would find fish and even to my surprise the quality of the fish was amazing. Between the two of us around 40 fish to hand, with 12 over 11 inches with the largest being a fat 15 1/2 cuttie to finish the day! The Big RUSSIAN grabbed a sweet 14 incher from under a bush in about a foot and half of water.

Majority of the fish caught were cutties but there was about 10 brookies, with the biggest about 12 inches.

Flies of the day were caddis and joes hopper. Had a couple fish on orange foam and a couple strikes on a parachute adams.

We only came across one other fisherman and he decided to head down stream to water we had already crushed. But there was a crap load of atver's and they were gracious enough to drive through the creek and muddy it up.

While the drive down to the bottom was a bit sketchy, it was well worth the 4X4ing out.

St. Mary's August 19, 2009

Excited to try out my new purchase (TFO ticr 4/pc 6wt) headed out to St. Mary's river. Hit the water at 11:30am. Water was extremely high for this time of year. Put on my water wings just in case. Fished for about 20 minutes before any action. Hooked into a monster along the East bank that I fought for a good minute before snapping me off. Continued just 10 yards upstream and snagged another. Snapped me off again! Was rigged using 6lb leader with 6x tippet and red and black foam hopper. Changed to 3x tippet. That uldo donkey! Fished until 2:30pm landing seven in total with a 18" being the biggest. Lots of risers, some looked to be around the 22" mark. Covered about 1km in water total. Gotta love weekday fishin!

Carbondale, July 27th; Maverick and Tricky

The summer of wet continues....
Apparently they had flash flood type TStorms on Sunday in the basin. I didn't know till this mornings paper, but the river was about 3ft higher than normal so we thought something was up. Still fairly clear, about the same as Livingstone was.
Sunny to start, but we could see we were driving into a shit storm. Rain held off, but got real cold without sun around 6pm.

Fishin was surprisingly ok. 8 to hand for me, 8 to hand for Tricky. But no size at all. I lost a good one and snapped off on a beast I could see rising in the last pool of the night. Tricky had what we believe a Bull on for about 30 seconds, but he yanked it free.....damn fish mechanics and their technics....Whatever it was it was a log, Tricky called it a 'lunker'....I laughed......Saw a couple bigger ones but missed them....Mostly on Turks yellow, foam did nothing, Lime Stimmy was okay too, nothing for the caddis, humpy or adams....

Biggest fish was a 12 inch Whitefish by Tricky......three prong hook in the sucker.

All in all, not bad for 5 hours fishin, but didn't seem that good due to size, and weather was always looming and cold.

Saw a big ass bear on way home near Beaver Mines turn off.

July 14th - 17th 2009 Aaron, Wayne, Travis, Jason and Eoin

Wayne, Eoin and myself headed out early Tuesday morning to set camp at Dutch campground and get a early start. After torrential rain fall the previous two days the Oldman and Racehorse were very high and reminded me of chocolate milk. I will not lie...I was sceptical. After camp was set ventured from the camp site and upstream from Dutch campground. Water was relatively high, bit mercy and limited visibility but thought to be fishable. Fished a little over 2.5 hours casting streamers, nymphs and foam. Some strikes on Olive and Black Woolly Buggers but nothing landed. Before we were rained out landed a 11" cutty on a foam salmon belly bullshead. Travis and Jason arrived later that night and we all spent some time trying our luck. Nothin doin. On Wednesday the weather was prime and hit the Livingston. Nothing for the first hour or so. Just after noon some risers...finally. About 10 in all landed, the biggest a 18" on a Adams. Seemed to be the ticket. Adams, Wulff, Humpies and Caddis faired well. In the evening Worked over the Dutch and all seemed to be smiles. A bunch of Cutties all around the 12" - 15" range. Foam orange and black including Adams, Caddis and Humpies did the trick. Woke nice and early Thursday morning to give the Oldman a go. A waste as the water didn't clear or slow a whole lot. Back to Livingstone. Same routine as the previous day. Productive in the early afternoon on the Livingstone and the same on the Dutch in the evening. On Friday enjoyed a big breakfast and finished the trip on the Dutch. Very successful! Go figure that the best day was cut short by reality. In the end I claimed the Annual fishing trip trophy totalling 64" followed by Wayne at 59" and close behind Travis at 54".

Goat River July 3rd 2009

On vacation in Creston B.C. (the old stompin grounds) and had the urge to hit the water with the old man. Spent $69 on a out of province license! I'm still feeling the stretch. Decided on the Goat about 5 km west of Kitchener South of 3A. Spent the better part of the morning pretty much trying everything. Dry, Streamer's, Nymph's and at last foam. The old man had a few hits on a Elk hair Caddis but didn't manage to bring anything to shore. At last I was into a feisty Rainbow and embellished the fight as the old man was lurking. Netted the 13" and posed as if it was a monster....better luck next time daddy O!

Lower Castle River June 30th 2009

Stayed the night in the big city of Cowley with the in laws....dreaming about fishing as my wife give me the go ahead. Headed out around 11am and decided to hit the lower Castle just above the bridge on highway 65A (the old highway 3A from pincher) as my father in law gloated that the locals have been "crushing" it as of late. Water was quite high but extremely clear considering. Started off with a black Parachute Caddis and landed a 10" cutty along the west bank after only a few casts. Not much action after that so switched to foam. A hour of nothin! Walked upstream and decided to try a Olive Woolly Bugger streamer. Right off the get go "crushed" a 10", 12" and 13" in a half hour. Back down stream for me as I was under time constraints and through a flipper under the bridge. First cast landed a 15" to end the day.

Lower Waterton - June 28

Sorry for the delay -----Wholesale and I took a half day and headed out to the lower Waterton. Water was extremely low for late June.

Wholesale, in tribute to the Blind squirrel, who is was too busy still searching for his winter stockpile, started with a caddis. Sure enough first cast he caught a little dink.

While it wasn't a stellar day, wholesale did mange a few bows and whitefish on a variety of flys, while I hit three different species with a nice 11 inch brown (my goal for the day, it felt like ages since I had landed a brown). 10 inch bow and a small whitefish, all on foam. Did have what felt like a decent size fish hit the foam while I was retrieving it but wasn't able to set the hook. The strike was more of a shock as I was looking for the next cast when it hit.

Not to sure where all the big fish have gone on the Waterton but the size was quite disappointing again.

Opening Day 2009

After a long winter, the day we had all been waiting eight long months for finally arrived and Leth Maverick, Blind Squirrel, Mini wholesale and myself headed out to the gap for opening day.

While the water flows were still high, the rivers and creeks were amazingly clear for this time of year. Probably the clearest I have seen in the five years I have been going up opening day.

Our adventure started on Hidden Creek, a tributary of the Oldman. While a great looking creek, the flows and dense bush made it difficult to fish and Leth Maverick was the only one to see any action, getting a couple strikes on a stone nymph. Every type and style of fly was tried with no other results.

Next up is my personal favorite creek in southern Alberta, Dutch Creek. Again a slow start, with constant changing of flies and staying up stream of the stupid cattle that kept messing up the water. To our amusement, Blind Squirrel and I watched one almost fall into the creek from about three feet above.

As pure frustration was setting in, I tied on a foam beetle with a stone dropper. On the first cast in a deep pool this Hog came up from the depths and crushed the beetle. Thanks for the netting Mini wholesale, good thing you bought a new net.

Leth Maverick managed a couple of smaller ones to shore but not to hand, while all of us missed a few.

After a quick bite, we ventured over to Daisy and Racehorse creeks. Daisy was extremely low for this time of year, while Racehorse was screaming along at a good clip. Leth-Mav managed a 10" to hand where Daisy dumps into the Racehorse, while the Blind Squirrel lost a couple on Daisy.

Despite the slow action, it was a good day out in the gap and as always great to be out in the mountains fishing. While he struggled to produce, Mini Wholesale sure looked good in his new $2000 set up..... Money well spent!

September 30 - St. Mary's

After Wholesale's glowing review of St. Mary's had to check it out for myself and also broke in a new fishing partner, but this one was of the four legged variety. Arrived down at the river at 9:45 and to my dismay a someone had beat me to the area and headed down stream. Fished probably the area the that receives the most traffic and started slow.

Once the water warmed up the fish became more active and in just over 3 hours managed four to hand, 18, 17.5, 16 and about a 9 incher. Missed two others, one would have rivaled the 18 incher for biggest of the day. All were on brown and black foam beetle. For a Tuesday the traffic was unbelievable, 8 other fisherman seen.

While I was disappointed with the lack of space, all in all a good day on the river with man's best friend.

Sept 18 St. Mary's

Aaron, Peter and myself fished St. Mary's Sept 18 from 9:30 am till about 6:00pm very hot no wind. Action was hot and cold approx 25 fish to hand many more missed or lost. 5 were right around the 20" mark. A couple 8"-9" the rest were 15"-19" Most were caught on big foam, tan or black body seemed to be the ticket. Peter also caught some on a dropper and a couple on caddis. The water was very high for this time of year

St. Mary's Sept 18

23" bull trout

Aug 28 Carbondale river

Wholesale, LethMaverick and myself cut out of work early and headed out to Carbondale. We were on the river by 2:30 and unfortunately the wind didn't want to cooperated and bug activity was minimal. LethMaverick was able to pick up a couple nice cutties on royal wulffs but few and far between. A nice fat 14 1/2 was the cutty highlight.


With limited surface action early and the knowledge of big bully's lurking in the water, Wholesale and myself changed our focus to double bunny streamers and were rewarded with some nice action. First hole, to my surprise a big bully came flying out from under a shelf to hit the white bunny. Next cast he hit it again but snapped me off after a couple of head shakes.

Wholesale was up next and did not disappoint. The next pool, we both had strikes but finally hooked into a good one. With LethMaverick on the camera (Wholesale's new toy) and me on the net. Wholesale was able to get this 23" pig to hand.




We managed a couple more strikes but nothing to hand. Despite low numbers, turned out to be a fun day hunting for Bulls.


On a side note: Wholesale's new camera takes great photos and the underwater pics are great

Aug 10- Waterton River

Humbling...Wholesale and I hit the Waterton. Two vehicles at the 810 bridge led us to believe that fishin must be good and it was going to be a rockin night. Oh how wrong. Water was extremely high- a good three or four feet. Increase in rain must have the resevoir full and open. A little murky too, but not bad and about normal for waterton at this point downstream.
We got skunked, didn't see shit...I got a dink on a olive stimmy and played with a couple little bastards, but literally nothing in four hours. We threw the book at em too. Wholesale even threw a mouse...nothing. The holes were a mess though cause of the high water- usual pools weren't even there and runs were in places there was none before. Horrible night, aside from the company. And the post game beer was good too- Nice night though...

Racehorse- Aug 2nd

Got the greenlight from the Fam-Damily to hit racehorse Sat night. A couple waterwhackers had already kicked the crap out of the creek from the bridge up, so I skipped down to the edge of the campground and ventured downstream from there. Started with a foam Fat Albert and nailed a 12+ cutty in the first pool, a couple more risers- but no salami, before moving on and switching to a green Stimmy with legs- immediately saw action to the tune of 4 more trouties in the 8-11 inch range, before hitting the first hole on the way back to the camp. A riser urged me to switch to a white PMD. nabbed him on the second cast and mailed in the evening.

Notes- Family loved the Racehorse campground. Spent Sat with a picnic at waterfalls and let the kids (and wife) nail some little guys on the upper Oldman. Hit only that first hole and the kids pulled out six in a little over a half hour on the Deigo and Barbie fishing clubs. Good times. Rained all Sat night and headed for home Sun Morning.

PS- Saw a guy grab a trophy 20+ (Bull?) out of the gap area at about 3pm on a 24C day. I'm thinking I need to try that stretch after all.
LethMaverick

July25 - 26, Gold Springs

After wolfing down a semi burnt Mitchells smokie, smothered in mustard, my boy insisted we have to go fishing to try and catch one of the five fish rising in the pond. After carefull examination of the pond, I came to the conclusion that there were indeed only four fish rising. Our rod of choice this weekend happens to be a 2 lb, 3 foot, 1 piece, medium action, bright red lighting mcqueen limited edition casting rod. We slowly walked the shoreline scouting the perfect spot to cast for the big one. We decided to go with the red and white bobber with a prince nymph dropper, with just a dab of pink power bait. The first 15-20 minites were very slow, a 1/2hr in the 4 fish started to rise near us , and shortly after that we had our first nibble. In the next 15 minites we had numerous strikes at the dropper but were unable to land any. Saturday was much of the same, did not see any fish rise until supper time, and the 2 fish that were rising, because 2 fisheridiots kept 2 fish, that were the size of a smelt, wanted nothing to do with us.

On a side note I'm thinking green marshmallows were the way to go as the lake was littered with them. A stick of dynamite may of worked as well.

P.S. A great place to take the family camping. I was told there was a lot of winter kill this spring and they are making a effort to restock.

July 26 Upper Crow

Fished the Crow with Crowsnest native (not aboriginal, just from there) Jamie Petrone. Due to high number of water whackers everywhere east of Hillcrest, Jaime suggested we head upstream to edge of Coleman and fish up from there. He'd fished this stretch many times and has had moderate success.

First impression, nice water- some great stretches with nice pool water- small stretches between pools at times where lower non fishable type water.

Started with stimulator, but quick to switch to Chernobol ant- saw action on 3 of first four casts before a beast snapped me off. Can't say for sure the size, but certainly not small. I tried a foam hopper that was more beige and brown, but to no avail. Went back to stimmy and saw moderate action- landed a couple in the 9-11 inch range. Jaime stayed with stimmy throughout and was seeing more action, but was slow on the draw, missing quite a few. He hooked a good size (14-16 range) in a deep plunge pool, but after coming out of the water a couple times it spit the hook at him in the shallows.

Side note- these fish were crazy, fought like banshees- far better fights than up the gap. Even the small ones took your line for a spin and always came out of the water at least once.....crazy

After comparing flies with Jaime, I realized my Sofa pillow lacked the green his Stimmy had. I switched it up and nialed a couple more soon after. I would say the green was key. In all solid morning- 4 fish in hand and Jaime nabbed about the same- a couple elevens were the biggest, but I'm confident larger ones were there. Didn't see another fisherman and fished a large swath- untapped by Crow standards.

One final foot note- lost two flies (later recovered one) to low powerline monsters. Didn't want to mess with them though....

July 17-19 Wayne, Eoin, Travis, Jason, Aaron, Brent

Fished Livingston, Dutch, Oldman all still a little high but running clear.

Livingston foam and stimmies working good largest 17" . Bow river buggers with Olive tail also produced strikes and a 17" on Livingston. Nymph wise - small beadhead prince and hares ear were productive.

Dutch Creek turn just past the 7 km mark up stream fished very well good water downstream not quite as good big foam again Largest 17"

Oldman River fished below the falls 4 km not bad not great went above the falls 24 km from the oldman turnoff fishing amazing lots of double headers but no size non stop action for 3hrs + smaller stimmies or green drake or anything you threw at them largest 11".

Considering Racehorse was pounded all weekend, fished fairly well on foams sunday. Large trout lost and few over 11" found Grindles hand. One set of quality sunglasses donated to the river gods :(