James River, Not A Nibble??

[billie]

I don't post much on forums but hope someone can offer some insight. I do not have much experience fishing Alberta but learning.

 

I spent the weekend at the James, about 20 miles west of hwy 22, on private land behind a locked gate. Point is that it would appear that the river section should not be fished out by traffic. The river is low, mid shin deep and 30' wide. Pools are up to about 4' deep, clear and cool. I fished about a one mile stretch and gave a very diligent effort.

 

Hoppers were everywhere and I expected they would be a good choice. Nothing. I even caught a live one and watched it float away untouched.

 

I tried a streamer, BH prince nymphs, boatmen and a few others. I didn't get my shadow on the water and tried to be as sneaky as possible. I appraoched each hole and riffle with a very short cast and worked into the pool in small stages so my fly line wouldn't spook anything.

 

At dusk, I didn't see a single rise on a large flat stretch. The only fish I saw was a single 1/2 minnow and I spent some time looking closely. People I was camping with said that fishing last May was really good and another fisherman was catching on most casts. Was this a time of year thing?

 

So, are there reasons why this was so unproductive or should I just take up golf ? Do the fish migrate in the fall to wintering holes? Is it possible there are no fish in this river section? I would expect browns to travel up for spawning at this time of year but didn't see any redds at the tails of pools.

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[jjthom2]

I don't post much on forums but hope someone can offer some insight. I do not have much experience fishing Alberta but learning.

 

I spent the weekend at the James, about 20 miles west of hwy 22, on private land behind a locked gate. Point is that it would appear that the river section should not be fished out by traffic. The river is low, mid shin deep and 30' wide. Pools are up to about 4' deep, clear and cool. I fished about a one mile stretch and gave a very diligent effort.

 

Hoppers were everywhere and I expected they would be a good choice. Nothing. I even caught a live one and watched it float away untouched.

 

I tried a streamer, BH prince nymphs, boatmen and a few others. I didn't get my shadow on the water and tried to be as sneaky as possible. I appraoched each hole and riffle with a very short cast and worked into the pool in small stages so my fly line wouldn't spook anything.

 

At dusk, I didn't see a single rise on a large flat stretch. The only fish I saw was a single 1/2 minnow and I spent some time looking closely. People I was camping with said that fishing last May was really good and another fisherman was catching on most casts. Was this a time of year thing?

 

So, are there reasons why this was so unproductive or should I just take up golf ? Do the fish migrate in the fall to wintering holes? Is it possible there are no fish in this river section? I would expect browns to travel up for spawning at this time of year but didn't see any redds at the tails of pools.

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Typical of the James - Browns are few and far between and some days they won't budge for anything - other days they are everywhere you'd expect them to be. There are usually quite a few small brookies but I suspect they are farther upstream this time of year. Deep pools should be loaded with whitefish staging for the spawn (they were 2 weeks ago).

Just a heads-up, I have seen a pair of young grizzlies in that area a couple times this year.

[DaveJensen]

Time of the year - sometime about Sept 20 (+/-) many mature browns move to spawning grounds on the region's streams. Where many larger (for given waters) fish may have been 1 - 2 weeks earlier, the fish clue in to cooler water and longer shadows and move up to spawn in a lot of instances. There are browns in the James, certainly, but sometimes the 1 to 3 fish in a run might move out this time of the year. If you can find a tiny spring trib to the James or some spring bubbling in a side channel, you'll find 40 - 50 brookies spawning. It's a neat time of the year.

Cheers

[billie]

Time of the year - sometime about Sept 20 (+/-) many mature browns move to spawning grounds on the region's streams. Where many larger (for given waters) fish may have been 1 - 2 weeks earlier, the fish clue in to cooler water and longer shadows and move up to spawn in a lot of instances. There are browns in the James, certainly, but sometimes the 1 to 3 fish in a run might move out this time of the year. If you can find a tiny spring trib to the James or some spring bubbling in a side channel, you'll find 40 - 50 brookies spawning. It's a neat time of the year.

Cheers

 

That makes me feel a bit better , thanks for the feedback folks.

 

I actually prefer to not bother spawners but that would be neat to see. I found 2 spring creeks but they were quite small and tumbled down a vertical face of 4-6 feet. Trout are acrobatic but that seemed like a stretch so I didn't investigate.

 

The water was perfectly clear and you would think I should have seen some fish, I've spotted them before in other waters. Is it possible there were so few that none could or were seen? No trout, whites or any others. The James looks perfect for a small river otherwise. Would brown trout not spawn in it as well? Wouldn't there be some smaller fish still around?