Alberta Outdoorsmen Forum - Summer time fun (warning dead fish and pic heavy)

This was the summer of travel, so much so that I was only in Calgary for about a week at intermittent times. It was full of new places and of course a lot of fishing. Thought I would share a few of the pics and stories.

First up on the itinerary was Ottawa, Montreal and Alma, QC.

I had the opportunity to borrow a bike from our friends and set off to explore the rideau river and canal. I first stopped at the canal as it was on my way to Hogsback falls (which were awesome) I had the new 4wt and tossed in a green wooly bugger.

I was rewarded with a ton of these.. (crappy pic warning, only had the cell phone)

http://imageshack.us/a/img823/2781/oqma.jpg

And these

http://imageshack.us/a/img41/8024/lm43.jpg

Also managed a few perch. All 3 were firsts on a fly rod for me, so it was neat. Nothing huge in the canal, but then I biked my way past Hogsback to a spot across from Carlton University below a small set of rapids. I managed to catch 3 bigger smallmouth, but by this time the rain started so I didn't take out the cellphone) I stayed there until a family decided to throw rocks a few feet away, but that was okay because it was pouring cats and dogs.

Didn't get a chance to fish in Montreal or Northern Quebec as family kept me busy.

I did check out the Saint Margeurite river in the Saugenay region. They had viewing pools for the Atlantic salmon. The one I was at was manned by a gauradian who showed me around the place and how they count the salmon. The pool had about 40 salmon in it but was closed to fishing due to the warm water. I definitely have a spot for next I am out that way.

The next trip was to Terrace for 2 weeks with my aunts, their 2 dogs and the jet boat. My first time ever chasing salmon.

We spent most of our time camping on the river in spots like this.

http://imageshack.us/a/img708/4356/h671.jpg

It was one of the most beautiful spots to fish...days like these were a lot of fun.

http://imageshack.us/a/img10/1589/78o0.jpg

It was really hot when we were there, 30+ most days and the pinks were running while we there. Chinooks were tailing off and the occasional coho and steelhead were being caught.

My first salmon on the spey rod was this guy.

http://imageshack.us/a/img11/8531/4e1f.jpg

A little beauty of a pink. I know they are not what you are after when you are there but they were a lot of fun to catch. They put up a good fight and really bend the ole 9wt spey rod. They also tasted pretty good on the fire. Most of them were really fresh with sea lice still on them. On the last day a bit higher up the river we found a massive staging area, and the action was just stupid. We caught a fish every second cast, with all the pinks in full spawn colors with the massive hump. I don't know why we didn't take a picture????

We spent a lot of time exploring the river for the magic run that would give us something other than a pink when this happened.

http://imageshack.us/a/img51/9828/ndev.jpg

I thought I was caught up on a rock, gave it a big tug, and the fish took off all of my sinking tip, shooting head, running line and pretty much all of my backing. I looked at my rod, it was doubled over, I had 4 wraps of backing left. I thought for sure something terrible was going to happen to my gear so I started running downstream. I gained some line, got back into my running line and again it was gone. I ran some more. About 500 yards of bank maybe, it was a lot. I finally had it tired and finally landed my first chinook on the fly.

http://imageshack.us/a/img14/6593/gaa1.jpg

It was awesome!!!

All in all the Skeena was awesome. I didnt catch a steelhead this time, but I will be back to try again. Near the end of the trip we did manage a few coho, which tasted awesome on the fire as well. I did lose a lot of bigger fish when they would run into the deep and fast current, so definitely a learning curve. But the experience, the learning, the camping, it was well worth the trip.

http://imageshack.us/a/img542/4673/v4i1.jpg

tasty

http://imageshack.us/a/img202/1/a9c1.jpg

The second last trip was to fernie with my buddy for two days. We floated the elk the first day and we caught a ton of fish. All really small with a few decent ones mixed in. So on the second day we decided to go for a hike on a small trib of the elk.

It was a pretty beautiful spot and a new one for me.

http://imageshack.us/a/img41/4839/oxcy.jpg

I was lucky enough to catch a couple of these guys. Definitely worth the hike. One was even on a dry fly.

http://imageshack.us/a/img20/9224/z3ur.jpg

Last trip was to Duck Mountain in Manitoba. Really cool park with just about every fish you could think of to catch. Unfortunately the lakes are really big and the fish were hunkered down deep so I had to resort to gear chucking. This was my first time ever tossing a big spoon. It was fun but ill stick with the fly. Caught a lot of pike and walleye this way.

One new experience was spear fishing. Right of the family's dock in about 20 FOW I found a small pod of walleye. So the next day I took the spear gun with me on my daily snorkel. I found this piggy sitting on the bottom in the sun, waiting for perch to come by. I made a good shot and we had supper for the night.

http://imageshack.us/a/img191/2485/xylj.jpg

All in all it was an awesome summer, and I am very fortunate I have a career where I can go off for 2 months. Now the fall season is here and I need to get back to the bow river and rediscover her after this past June.

Ill leave you with this last pic, which is only one of the many that I enjoyed this summer.

http://imageshack.us/a/img809/7315/2gjv.jpg