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So...how Was Everyones Season?


Guest bigbadbrent

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Guest bigbadbrent

I know most peoples seasons are coming to a close, but there are a few maniacs (me included) that will be on the river in 10 below weather, just for the sake of casting.

 

Any stats that anyone wants to throw down, any super flies this year, take a creel, what went down? I'll post my entire creel in the near future, just have to edit out some of the locations haha

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Not sure what format you're looking for, but here are some of my stats...

 

Rivers/creeks fished this year:

 

Bow

Highwood - went here because the Liv and other streams were closed for most of the year

Livingston

Cataract

unnamed trib - I finally fished it, and my curiosity has been satisfied

 

Rivers I wished I fished this year:

 

Crowsnest, Oldman and all of the other SW Alberta streams

Ram

Wapiti

 

Types of fish caught this year (in descending order):

 

Cutts

Bows

Whitefish

Browns

 

Range of sizes of fish landed this year:

 

3 - 20"

 

Range of sizes of fish lost this year:

 

12 - 36" (okay, actually up to 22")

 

Favourite stretch of river fished this year:

 

The <bleep> river from <bleep> to <bleep>, just after the first <bleep> ;)

 

Location of most productive pool fished this year:

 

The 4th pool upstream of the <bleep> <bleep> just around the first <bleep>, river left ;)

 

Super flies:

 

Black foam ant (my creation) - deadly on the Liv

Turk Tarantula - awesome everywhere

Brown foam hopper (my creation) - biggest fish of the year was caught on this

Copper john - consistent throughout the year

Beadhead pheasant tail (my version) - my go-to nymph all year

Bow River bugger - FINALLY caught something on a streamer! :)

Griffiths gnat - when all else failed, this caught the picky ones

 

Number of flies lost in trees, bushes, weeds, rocks, fish: no comment

 

Fish caught: hundreds

 

Fish kept: 7, all eaten at Elbow Lake... yum!

 

It's been another great season. I'm hoping for a few more days before I pack it in and start thinking about skiing. I'm glad to have met a lot of people from FFC, and hope to spend some more days with fellow members next season.

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It's been a pretty good season. Wished I hadn't played so much danged softball this year to open up more fishing time.

 

Explored some new water this year (Bow, Sheep, Castle (+ lots of tribs), upper/lower Oldman (+lots of tribs), Upper Bow, Elk, St Mary).

Improved on my high-stick nymphing.

Fished with my girlfriend lots in the mountains.

Caught my largest Bull Trout (26.5")

Caught a few browns that were my largest (24")

Ice-fished once on chain lakes and had luck on nymphs.

Hardly caught any rainbows from the bow which was really odd.

 

Had a lot of fun exploring new places this year. Wished I had another few years in Alberta to explore the southern foothills but unfortunately it's time to move on to bass and musky.

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Rivers: Oldman, Bow, Highwood, Racehorse, Cascade, South Saskatchewan, Oldman, and some that I'm sure I've forgotten.

Lakes: Cowan, K lakes, Two Jack, Spray, and some forgotten.

Ponds: Goat, and many small nameless ones as well :mellow:

Fish: Browns, rainbows, cutties, brookies, goldeye, walleye, suckers, pike, lake and rocky whitefish.

Largest: 15.2 lbs walleye, 23+ inch Cutty, 18-20 inch brookies, 10lbs plus pike, 24+ inch bully.

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Fish report

 

Rivers:

Upper bow (north of weir) numerous little rainbows -12"

5 white fish

2 pike 30"

2 rainbow 18"

1 rainbow 20"

 

lower Bow

1 brown trout 15"

1 brown trout 17"

 

Clearwater river twice for a skunking (the river she mocks me)

 

Little Red Deer

2 White fish

3 brown around 14"

 

Fallen timber creek

5 browns under 14"

1 brown 17"

 

Dogpound creek for a skunking

James River for a skunking

 

1st season with a fly rod and got enough to bring me back next year

 

Teck

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Fish report

 

 

1st season with a fly rod and got enough to bring me back next year

 

Teck

 

 

Hell of a lot better than I did my first year...i was sure good at not catching fish...zero was my total for the year. but that was enough to get me back...

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Guest bigbadbrent

Was my bow river season so far, fished the bow more then any other stream (which is completely different for me, considering i've fished the bow maybe 20 times in my entire life before this season)

 

Trips to fish: 78 different trips, the majority on the bow. Doubt i'll hit the 100 mark this year, but im gonna try!

Places: Bow River, Oldman River, Oldman below the dam, crowsnest, Livingstone River, highwood, cataract, carnavorn lake, wedge pond, bear pond, upper and lower kan and 2 private lakes

Fish of the year: 27" bull trout on a size 4 chernobyle ant, 24" brown on a EHC

Fish count: hundreds, 100% C&R.

Most Memorable trip: Trip to carnavorn lake, was absolutely amazing, will be a yearly thing now i hope..

Species: Brown, Bull, Rainbow, Cutthroat, Brook, Grayling, Whitefish

 

Flies of the year: Brent bug, evil weevil, blinged EHC

 

Was disapointed with the lack of fishing on the oldman this year, only got out there twice, compared to my usual dozen or 2 dozen trips down there..fire's sure didnt help. The highwood fished ok, but paled in comparison to last year (for me anyway). Was a year of brown trout for me, where i had a good 8 trips on the bow that's all i would catch. Bow treated me well this year, guess it's my mistress in the city now :P

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I had my best season ever. After counting on others to drive I finally bought a truck. I rarely used it until June and then I was gone every Sun-Tues camping and fishing. My first fish of the year was a 22" cut/bow on the Oldman. What a great way to start. I nymphed this year more than ever and besides the tangles, I had some success. I fished the Oldman, Racehorse, Daisy area mostly and camped at Racehorse Creek. After the closure I fished Waiporous and then headed to the Upper Elk, BC. The fishing there was amazing and a local showed me some amazing spots. They were difficult to get to but the only footprints there were ours, week after week. My last day fishing was on the Elk, Sept 11. It was also the only day of rain I encountered the whole summer!!

My best flies were stonefly and HEar for nymphs and parachute caddis, Adams, Chernobyls, grey wulffs and Power Ants. With a few hoppers thrown in as well.

The highlight was fishing with my friends dog all those days, and watching her get more and more comfortable crossing rivers. There were a few tense moments crossing the Elk but she was amazing.

 

With a dog you don't feel so silly talking to yourself!!

 

We even met BBB on the Oldman but I didn't realize it 'til a few days later.

 

Best summer ever...........................!!!!! I will never forget it.

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the start of the season was very promising but got way too busy towards the end and didnt get out much

 

fished chestermere for pike on 4 or 5 occations, caught 1/2 dozen on the fly mid spring

 

fished the bow a few times and caught my first brown on my first drift

 

met a few new fishing friends and got re-aquainted with a few old ones

 

fished castle east of 504/774 before beaver mines, out fished my friend who i swear pays the fish to be caught by him - nice,

 

did the lynx, carbondale, gardner before the forestry closure

 

new rivers/streams/ponds/lakes highwood, livingstone, vicary, some unknown stream at the end of some dirt road in the middle of no-where off of FTR north of vicary but south of livingstone, bear pond 2 x. didnt get anything, some man made pond in lethbridge, and the old man but the resevoir

 

out fished another friend of mine for pike in the weaslehead - never thought that day would come. and on a fly i created and tied. SWEET!!

 

caught the biggest fish of the day on the highwood

 

fished for pinks on the Quansam river near campbell river after spending the morning tying flies on the waterfront in the park

 

taught my friend how to fly fish

 

biggest was 20" smallest looked like it should have been in a sardine can with room for all his friends.

 

 

all told - a dozen pike on the fly, over 20 cutty's, 1 brown and 2 rainbows, a few cutbows

 

had a great season, will get out a few more times and then i'm waiting for ice fishing...

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Rivers/creeks fished this year:

 

Bow

Livingston

Cataract

Crow

Castle

many Mountain streams

Mulitiple beautiful tribs

Grand Lake Stream

East River

Kitimat River

Skeena

Bulkley

Babine

Little Juniata

Fishing Creek

Spring Creek

Marimachi

 

Rivers I wished I fished this year:

 

Humber

Pinware

WigWam

Elk

Czech Republic

 

Types of fish caught this year (in descending order):

 

Cutts

Bows

Whitefish

Browns

 

Range of sizes of fish landed this year:

 

3 - 40+"

 

 

Super flies:

 

Diawl Bach

Black KlinkHammer

Green Caddis Czech Nymph

Beatis nymphs

Pink Streamer

 

Easily best season of my life, many good trips all over the place, toooo many fish caught to count. AMAZING times on the river with good buddies, worlds was a blast, I couldn't ask for anything more this year I fished everywhere i planned, and am looking forward to many cold days on the bow and crow this winter

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I was out the last week of august, the sockeye on the babine was a blast, they are very powerfull salmon, but the highlight was definatly the Coho on the Kitimat, they were amazing fighters, with the sealice still hagin off of them. I was dissapointed at the steelhead though, it seams that we were there just a week or two too early, because there really weren't a whole lot of them i nthe river system yet, and we just missed them. It was a great trip though.

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Very good year for me as well. More lakes this year than rivers likely because I was taking kids a bit more often. I caught my first fish over Easter in the upper NS at the beginning of April and then caught many many fish this past Saturday on the Little Smokey. That's likely it for me this year unless I visit Calgary and try the bow in the winter time. Will need some help with that initiative.

 

Running waters: Upper NS, Lower NS, Bighorn, Maligne, Prairie Creek, Cameron Creek, Little Smokey,

 

Lakes: Resolute, Helen, Geraldine, Pyramid, Aster, 3-Isle, Crypt, Goat, Crandell, Cameron, and of course Harvey. Plus Muir and Cardiff near Edmonton. You can tell I hike to more lakes than I drive to.

 

I explored several hike into lakes in the Jasper area that appeared to be fishless but pretty tough to tell and found a few neat tributaries to explore that must go nameless.

 

Still waiting to catch a Splake and a Lake trout in Alberta. Must try harder in the Spring I think. Still some hard to get to lakes out there. Almost convinced my wife to let me go into Lineham lakes in Waterton but there was a ban on all off trail backcountry stuff in Waterton when we visited. Have also had some potential hiking partner inquiries which is nice as you never know when a trip will come together or if someone will drop out on you and you need someone to go with.

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It was a fantastic year for me

 

Got out fishing a total of 6 times (significantly down from my 200+ days a few years ago)

 

Caught a beautiful wife this summer, with two great young gentlemen for stepsons, who love to fish............... and are eager to learn

 

And just as important as the addition of the new family, I have finally gone a year Cancer free.............

 

Didn't bother to count the amount of fish I caught as it is not about the fish, but getting out.

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It was a fantastic year for me

 

Got out fishing a total of 6 times (significantly down from my 200+ days a few years ago)

 

Caught a beautiful wife this summer, with two great young gentlemen for stepsons, who love to fish............... and are eager to learn

 

And just as important as the addition of the new family, I have finally gone a year Cancer free.............

 

Didn't bother to count the amount of fish I caught as it is not about the fish, but getting out.

 

And that, my friends, is as good as it gets. Kritofr, congrats on many levels, sounds like a year to relish, to say the least.

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It was a fantastic year for me

 

Got out fishing a total of 6 times (significantly down from my 200+ days a few years ago)

 

Caught a beautiful wife this summer, with two great young gentlemen for stepsons, who love to fish............... and are eager to learn

 

And just as important as the addition of the new family, I have finally gone a year Cancer free.............

 

Didn't bother to count the amount of fish I caught as it is not about the fish, but getting out.

 

Touching post......

 

Congratulations and all the best for the future - happiness like you have found can put even a great pastime like fishing into insignificance.

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It was a fantastic year for me

 

Got out fishing a total of 6 times (significantly down from my 200+ days a few years ago)

 

Caught a beautiful wife this summer, with two great young gentlemen for stepsons, who love to fish............... and are eager to learn

 

And just as important as the addition of the new family, I have finally gone a year Cancer free.............

 

Didn't bother to count the amount of fish I caught as it is not about the fish, but getting out.

 

Congrats man. that really puts it in perspective.

Ed

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