Alberta's Rocky Mountain Anglers specializes in providing a highly-personalized fly fishing safari in Southern Alberta and southeastern British Columbia. http://www.armanglers.com/blog/blog.php http://www.armanglers.com/blog/blog.php?entry=8 The color had clear somewhat and have a couple of feet of visibility. Usually a worm or a copper john are hot items this time of year. Not so! It was a very slow day but some nice fish were caught.
Friday was even higher with the water up another 20 cubic meters per second. The plan was simple
Float to the most productive area from last day and anchor. We stayed in the same place for 5 hrs. We caught enough fish to keep us going but it wasn’t quick action.
We then took out and headed for a pike lake. A major storm blew in and pushed us around the lake for a while but the pike didn’t seem to mind. They were on the feed and the action was fast and very fun. A great day was had by all.
Tight Lines and Big Smiles]]> http://www.armanglers.com/blog/blog.php?entry=7 http://www.armanglers.com/blog/blog.php?entry=6 The water is still a bit high but average for this time of year.
The nice thing is that it was reasonably clear.
We started the day using nymphs. The prince nymph and the gold ribbed hairs ear were extremely productive. The white fish seemed to be more active than the cutties. We spent a lot of time switching up the flies to see if we could interest a few more trout.
Despite a lack of apparent rises we switched to dries after lunch with some success, definitely slower than the nymphs. The best dry flies were the green drake in a parachute and the royal coachman with a few takes on some stone fly imitations. Our best fish of the day was an 18” cuttie with beautiful color.]]> http://www.armanglers.com/blog/blog.php?entry=5 The muddy color is now compounded by the fact that the water flow has increased by 8X what it was a couple of days ago and is now flowing at approx. 40 cubic meters per second. That makes it very difficult to fish wading across is next to impossible.
If the color continues to improve it should be fishable next week some time. It will be floatable in a drift boat. I would like to see the flow down around the 20 mark to really get things hopping.]]> http://www.armanglers.com/blog/blog.php?entry=4 I was hopeful that the St. Mary's river was beginning to clear. This was due to the fact that the Oldman River @ Lethbridge had a hint of green in the muddy brown color. I checked The St. Mary's today and it seems to be as muddy as ever, maybe even more so than the last time I was out.

The visibility was only a foot if you have bright sunlight and good eyes.

Hopefully by next week we will see at least some green, what I call, bugger water.
The local news reported two drownings in the swollen rivers over the weekend. Be safe around the rivers, especially during spring runoff.

Tight lines, coming soon!

Smiles
Barry Byam]]> http://www.armanglers.com/blog/blog.php?entry=3 The Oldman river that flows through Lethbridge is still quite high and muddy.
I made it out to the St. Mary's Thursday afternoon and found it high and muddy but not as muddy as on Monday. I gave it a try and through some line for about an hour. I was able to hook-up on 3 fish. I only landed one. It was a nice 20" male with beautiful spawning colors. You already know the rest of the story, “the biggest one got away.”
The mountain rivers clear up a good week before the prairie one so I would bet that they will still be a bit high and still have some color but will be fishable.
I will check mid week and see how the color is coming along.
Tight Lines and Big Smiles
Barry Byam]]> http://www.armanglers.com/blog/blog.php?entry=2 http://www.armanglers.com/blog/blog.php?entry=1