Sight Fishing Alberta ... Redneck Style!

[dryfly]

Nothing is better than sight fishing. Bonefish on the flats. Big rainbows (for a few years) on the marl flats at Whitetail. Sipping rainbows in shallows. Lakers in Nunavut at midnight! Spot a fish...it goes for your fly as you watch. Great stuff. (And on occasion you manage to NOT pull the fly away before the hookup! )

 

My grandson, Adam, had his appendix yanked out last weekend so could not go to school this week, but naturally, was up for fishing today. We drove up to CPR Reservoir north of Coaldale to catch a few pike at the outlet canal. Hummm .... Dozens of suckers cruised the gravelly shoreline of the 50-m outlet canal. (Not seen them there before so obviously man-made global warming is causing this!! But Rachel will solve this by the end of the month according to her new E&P minister, Phillips who left her CBC job to take on the daunting task! Go Rachy! Go Shannon! God help us all!)

 

Since pike (if there were any) were not interested in his spoons or my flies, we figured, "What the heck?!" I had three fly rods in the truck and so rigged an egg-sucking leech 60 cm below a strike indicator. The casting was bit technical, having to flick the line about one meter past the tip top with the bobber indicator landing about 2 meters off shore. This was not for beginners. It is call the ¼-haul flick sort-of-a cast.

 

The fly could be seen drifting in the slow current. A fish would often suck in the fly so subtly (before spitting the fly) that the bobber never twitched. I struck a few of these soft takes and did eventually hook one that way. Most were never felt. However, some fish were a bit more aggressive and hauled the bobber down. Fish on! Be still my heart! Anyway we fooled around doing this for about one hour and landed quite a few suckers and I might add before you scoff...a couple actually hauled a few feet of line and one jumped. I kid you not! These are bottom feeders ... just like trout! All good.

 

In case you are interested in emulating our efforts. Today's sucker gear included a Winston Boron IIX with unknown line brand and Vanish leader and tippet material. Hat by RedHead at Bass Pro. Sunglasses by Foster Grant. Boots by Muck. Flats shirt by The Empire Corporate Attire.

 

Laff all you want. Adam and I had a blast!

 

 

 

 

 

[Carlodabroads]

Love the story and the sarcasm! But your smiles say it all, a great day of memories for you and your grandson.

 

I remember a day when after getting skunked out in the salt chuck my buddy and I anchored a serious boat in the mouth of the Nikomekl river at Crescent beach, BC, and using ultra light spin gear we had ourselves a Bullhead Derby, the largest being well under 5 inches. It was so ridiculous, but we laughed hard that day, and still laugh about it 20 years later.

[trailhead]

Thanks for the post and pics. No matter what you are fishing for, it still requires strategy and skill. I bet your grandson remembers your outing for a long time.

[SteveM]

That didn't suck.

[SilverDoctor]

Excellent post

[dryfly]

Thanks guys. It really was a ton o' fun. High marks for being different. Fish are fish. Pretty neat watching them take the fly from about ten feet away,

 

It was along the lines of what the famous Rancid Crabtree said, "Smoked carp tastes as good as smoked salmon when ya ain't go no smoked salmon."

[monger]

Awesome day with the boy. Fooling fish is fun!

[Muffin]

Great post.

[Hawgstoppah]

that's funny right there I don't care who ya are!

[bowbonehead]

After all the "tug is the drug" suckers , whitefish ,pike, trout they all pull..... sight fishing for carp is on my bucket list .....