SteveM

Great pics, as always! Here's hoping these waters bounce back well; fingers crossed! It just boggles the mind to imagine the sheer volume of water that ripped through these areas. Would be nice to see some bugs; I've been down that way a couple times lately, and have seen eff-all in the way of hatches...

Good lookin' mutt, Mike!

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

Yeah, they are purty fish. Sadly, they seem to have an awful lot of rainbow genes...

Chatting with one of the guys fishing there, found out there were 3 of 'em up from Tennessee; this is their 3rd time up fishing in Southern Alberta... Parting shot... Until next time...

Took a week off from work (and from fishing) and spent time visiting my wife's aunt & uncle near Vernon, B.C. Spent a beautiful week relaxing at their gorgeous house in Coldstream, overlooking Lake Kalamalka... We spent most of our time in or beside their pool or at the beach; I even got in a couple rounds of golf with my wife's uncle. The only time I really thought about fishing was when we drove by Vaseux Lake one day; I could just imagine the bass lurking under the lily pads, waiting to crush a popper! Someday... I came back to a week of midnight shift at work; 11pm-7am. I planned to hit some flowing water with the fly rod Friday morning. Managed to get away at 6am on Friday; after working all night, I headed for a few hours at the Oldman gap. Normally, I would prefer to have a driving partner after working all night; since I had no idea what time I was going to get sprung, I went solo. Sometimes, it's nice to fish alone. I had the stretch of river to myself for a while. Only saw one fish rise to anything but my fly; I drifted my hopper/dropper over him & he ate a little Copper John... Picked up a few cuttbows on a foam hopper. It never gets old seeing a fish come up to smash a big ol' foam abomination! This one came from a beautiful seam; he missed on his first attempt, then crushed it a half-second later! On my way downriver, I had a fish take a look at my fly in a nice little pocket. On my way back up, he was not tentative at all... He was my last of the day. By then, there were 6 other fishermen on that stretch of water. Everyone seemed to be having some luck.

We left the river when we saw a storm approaching from the west. If the "road" we drove in on got wet, we for sure would have been stuck there overnight. This is what we saw as we drove out towards the highway; there was definitely some rotation in these clouds... The rain & wind hit just as we got to the highway; figured we should wait it out, since there was very low visibility. While we waited, Wayne texted that there was a stream flowing where my car had been parked 15 minutes earlier, and his camper had blown off the blocks! The storm only lasted about 10 minutes. On the highway, my car shook like a massage chair; had to stop at a carwash in Taber to get the mud out of the rims. By then, the weather was looking much better... Oh, and those karma points Wayne had been collecting? He cashed them in the very next day... This river monster would weigh around 80-85 pounds; couldn't happen to a nicer guy! The next fish I "caught" arrived via Canada Post... It's an original work I had commissioned from one of my photos; it's a birthday present from my darling wife. The artist is Josh DeSmit, from Minnesota. I sent him a bunch of pics to choose from; I had no clue what I was actually getting until I opened the package. It looks better in person, and I love it! This is the pic that inspired the painting... The graffiti style painting seems fitting, since I landed this brown here... Of course, I got a couple more nice trout on that day in November; this 20" rainbow that I'd also caught 7 days earlier... ...and this cutthroat... I'm thinking two more paintings would make a nice matched set??? Gotta get 'em soon before young Mr. DeSmit gets all famous & I can't afford him anymore... (just a few more pics to go...)

My buddy, Derrick, and his son wanted to try for their first sturgeon, so we headed down to the lower Oldman to spend a day fishing with Wayne. Spiderwire??? We caught mooneye... ...goldeye... ...a black-eyed walleye... The walleye had hitch-hikers... Derrick got his first sturgeon... Derrick's boy, "Justin", got to pull in a good sized sturgeon. Once again, my pal, Wayne, handed his rod off to a kid he'd just met... Wayne gets ready to insert a PIT tag before releasing this sturgeon... "Justin" sends her back... A while later, Wayne struck again. Another big fish, another hand-off to a kid. "Justin's" second sturgeon fought like stink! (More to come...)

Yeah, yeah; I know this is a fly fishing forum. So, here's some fly fishing pics... I bought a new-to-me 8ft 2wt from a fellow forum member. I wanted to try it out, but there were houses and cows and stuff floating down all the creeks at the time. Little walleye would have to do, for now. Yep, it bends nicely... First of many... Micro-jigs under an indicator caught a bunch of 'eyes... Had the dock all to myself for a couple hours; I guess the folks camped there all slept in that morning... Doing my part to control the mosquito population... From there, I headed west to check out the flows on a couple creeks that I was pretty sure would still be high & dirty. I was right, but I walked a bit to see how things had changed. Didn't bother fishing, but took a few flower pics for Rickr; I know how much he loves pretty flowers! Yessir, there was a bit of water going through here... (more to follow...)

My fishing has been somewhat limited as of late; figured I'd share a few recent pics, anyhoo... My daughter wanted to catch her first sturgeon, so I took her for a day on the lower Oldman River. We timed it right, as we fished the weekend before the epic flooding; also just happened to be Fathers' Day. Her first was a little guy... He had some funky looking barbells... She got to feel the power of a bigger fish a little later; unfortunately, it came unbuttoned... Then my buddy, Wayne, hooked a good one & handed Becca the rod; she handled it like a pro! Wayne & Becca with 54 inches of sturgeon... Beauty & the beast... After releasing that one, she hooked up again with another strong fish... Workin' hard!!! Almost there... Proud Dad (me) & happy daughter with a 48" lake sturgeon to end our day... What a perfect way to spend Fathers Day! I still can't believe my 16 year old daughter got up at 3:30am to fish with me. I can't say enough about what a great fishing buddy Wayne is. He handed his rod off to my kid, knowing there was a big fish on the other end. He lives to catch big sturgeon, but didn't hesitate to pass that one off to a kid he had just met. What a guy!!! (More to come...)

Wow! That was a great read! Thanks for posting this...

Thanks. It's a photo of an original painting I had commissioned. It's by a young fella named Josh DeSmit from Minnesota; looks way better in person!

How is it that I'm just seeing this today??? Gorgeous pics, Lornce; looks like a pretty cool place to spend a few days...

You know what I don't like about this? Abso-frickin'-lutely nuthin'!!! Love that head-on 'eye shot; very cool! That last pike looks purty thick...

This is terrible advice!!! You should always fish whilst fully clothed!!!

I liked that a lot. Keep on classing this place up, Peetso. Try not to get eaten by them damn skeeters...

Can you post or Pm me some pics? I'm thinking about doing some renovations & some fresh ideas would be nice...

Love that first shot; there's a lot of shades of green happening right there!

Hope you've had a spectacular day, young dude! Happy Burfday!

My buddy was in town from Edmonchuk on the weekend. We got out for a few hours on Sunday. Fishing was kinda slow, but we got some walleye & a few small pike. Randy with his first-ever fly rod walleye... It was a bit o' fun...

Uncle Ken made me laugh. He should know not to wear his good khakis when there are leg-humping poodles around! (Pssst! Did I hear right? Is the ice disappearing from Maligne?)

Thanks! Sturgeon are real good fighters! Seems like once they get around the 3 foot mark, you'd best be using some decent gear...

54"er Whistling trout... Lots of fun down there; you never know what's gonna be on the end of your line. I caught a couple varieties of suckers, burbot, mooneye, sauger, goldeye, walleye & sturgeon- including 41", 54" & 55" dinosaurs. Good times with some great friends!

Thanks, y'all! I left the fly rods at home last week & headed southeast... This is what I was chasing... Well, maybe a little bigger??? How about a new personal best sturgeon? 55" x 22" girth