A week out from my thesis defence, Lee and I decided to hit up the Crowsnest River. It seems this is among the few Alberta waters amenable to a fly rod in March. This is right before the river closes to let the fish spawn (in peace) and there are some absolute beasts waiting to be caught.
You all know the way - hwy 22
We tried many nymphs but the lightning bug was what they were hitting. Apparently this is among the best flies for winter conditions - I can now vouch for it.
We arrived around 10:30 and were on the water shortly there after. I caught this fish within fifteen minutes of my first cast. The best part of this video is that I thought it was just a camera - we filmed the fight but it's too big for the blog and this is the only photo I have of the fish
Things slowed down for the remainder of the morning: by mid-afternoon, when the sun got on the water, the fishing started to pick up and there were periods when every drift had a hit. The strikes were very light and we missed more than we set - but it was a lot of fun.
In the end, we landed a double digits worth of trout and one whitefish. Ten hours of driving for five hours of fishing - definitely worth it on this day.
Killer day - it looks like it will be a tough one to beat, luckily there's a whole season ahead of you for trying.
ReplyDeleteI've still never caught (or even seen) a mountain whitefish. Fisheries demerit point for me...
good luck on your defense!!! sounds like you will have the power of fish protein in your corner...good for the brain :)
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