Angling in the Shadows of the Sky Train

When one thinks of world class angling destinations that are located in major urban centres Calgary would probably top most lists. The Bow River is full of big browns and big rainbows and lots of them. It is a trophy trout fishery that has been set up for success by a combination of factors including weers, stocking and effluent. These factors have created a highly productive fishery that is known throughout the world for it's amazing ability to produce huge fish. In the evening on a week day in June the banks begin to line up with anglers who have left the office and want to sneak a few hours in before heading home. Nice way to wrap up a day and I've always been warmed by the thought of this.


When I compare it to my early years in Toronto fishing for ??? in the Don River I am somewhat envious, although I wouldn't trade my years growing up there for anything....it was a great city to grow up in. But there's another city that I should mention as an urban angling centre and I have witnessed it's passionate anglers use many different tools to bring in the catch, some crude and some really crude, but hey angling in a major urban centre should serve up some variety.


The city is Bangkok and the body of water Mae Nam Chao Phraya (the Chao Phraya River). This snakes through this city of about 10 million, effectively cutting it in half between the old city, Thonburi and the new urban centre Bangkok. The old city Thonburi is still a city with modern high rises etc. but much of it still exists on a network of canal or khlongs that act as waterways for transport etc.. The new city used to be a series of these canals that branch off the Chao Phraya but are now covered by concrete in order to accommodate the ever increasing traffic volume.


As you travel through Bangkok it is best to use a combination of travel forms if you want to effectively disect the city and avoid epic traffic jams. One way, and my favourite is the river taxi. As you travel by river you see how many people are out angling and the word(s) for fishing is tok phlaa. Fishing is a universal language and I have communicated with very few Thai and English words with many Bangkok fisherman over the years and their zest for the sport is very much there. The river holds various catfish and in front of the riverside temples there are 'sacred' fish that are fed pellets and bread by the river commuters wishing to honour the Buddhist temples. The fish are considered members of the temple and there are hords of them at one river taxi station, with some in the 8 pound class.

That's what the guy in the top photo is likely casting for with his high end spinning rod. Consdierably unethical due to the fish's status, he innocently sits far away from the pier of the temple fish but that rod can cast about 200 feet just enough to get his hook into the fishy water. Unethical maybe but I can't blame the guy, there's probably about 5000 of these fish gorging on bread and pellets and getting fat doing so.

For 14 baht or about 40 cents the river taxi will get you across the city with stops throughout it's course. The air is fresher, the scenery interesting and the traffic non-existent although the river is full of activity. The river taxi links up with the Sky Train station which is the best way to access much of the inner city. It's a fully modern transport service complete with lcd ad screens and air con. It was at this commuter junction where I stopped to wathc this angler (below) working s 'scum line' in the flooded floors of the sky train entrance.


Armed with a net (like a butterfly net), this guy was clearly not your catch and release type....he was going for dinner or lunch or whatever he could muster up out of the murky flood water. I thought his choice of spots was a little odd but with nothing more than a net the swollen waters of the rivers main stem would have proved too much, so this backwater was probably his best option. I didn't see him land anything but he was keen (likely due to hunger) and if I had stayed long enough I'm sure something would have happened....Like I would have broke down and gave him some baht so he could go buy something to eat because his method looked bad I was pretty damn sure that the net was going to keep coming back up filled with debris and no fish. This is when even a bad day of fishing isn't better than a good day of work.

Love That Clear Water

I find it amazing that so many people pack their rods away by late September and begin their winter angling hibernation period. Fish still rise to dries on the Elk River in October and the water is as clear as it can get at this time of year.



With October comes cooler weather, lower, slower water and the disappearance of other anglers. Combine these factors with a hungry and eager trout population and you have all the ingredients necessary to create a legendary day of angling. The fish still eat large flies, perhaps because of the October caddis that are still flying or perhaps it's because the cold nights signal winters approach and a sense of urgency takes over.


Spencer, my brother Kevin and I hit the Elk River last week experienced that legendary feeling. The trout started on small ants and as the day progressed and water warmed the Fat Albert started to strut it's stuff. Huge bottom dwellers began lifting there massive bodies from the basement of the river and gently sucked down the size 10 and 8 fat alberts.



It was a beautiful thing to watch as most fish never broke the surface, instead they just gently flared their gill plates out and drew the fly in. The fish for the most part were free of hook scars and were not the usual suspects of the summer. We hooked a lot of fish in different lies many of whom have probably spent most of their lives hook free which is not typical of a free rising Elk River Westslope Cutt.

The weather was a big help, the sun drenched skies were paramount in creating the surface feeding activity. So if any of you plan on coming up here for some Octoberfesting on the Elk, keep an eye on the Fernie forecasts and look for the sun globes.


Currently I am in Bangkok and am enjoying aromatic and spicy curries....a long way from the soft sipping Rocky Mountain cutts. If they were here I would likely be enjoying them in my curry--catch and release is a bizarre and foreign concept to the people of South East Asia

Month in Review

September did a bit of everything...made me look like a hero one day and a shivering idiot the next. I got to ask a client for the first time if he was on fire....and he was. The weather was varied with some pretty serious and wet cold fronts but overall it was a great month of angling.

The Elk showed me some sunshine and lit up for some truly remarkable days. The fish were eating BWO's particularily the spent duns and spinners and the fly of the month on that river was no doubt the Crystal Meth Spinner (Jeff Mironuck will attest to this). The only problem with the fly was how deep it was getting eaten and after a few sad and bloody moments I opted for another fly that they wouldn't suck down so far.

The West Kootenay's had it's moments....both good and ugly. The Columbia popped up 1 1/2 feet one morning and blew the feeding lanes apart and put the previos epic fishing on hold. The other stream(s) in the area were on fire though, the smaller water produced larger numbers of rainbows raging in size from 10 to 20 inches. All on dries which makes everyone (most) a lot happier.

I am getting a new camera tommorrow which is great, my old Pentax went for a swim in the back of my boat at the take out ramp and I've been without photos for a while. We're stepping it up quite a bit in pixallation and settings so I'm looking forward to posting some better and more interesting shots as well as some hi-def video. I have some fly photos to update here

In two and a half weeks I am off to Thailand to work with my tiers and will be updating that journey on the site....thought it might be interesting for you to see how it all goes down over there in the land of smiles. I will be gone for a few months and will be returning with an arsenal of new foam patterns along with all the other usual suspects. I feel really blessed to have this has an extension of the guide service....such a beautiful place to visit/work.

The season is winding down, I struggled through a slow start on the Columbia today with some shitty weather and some moody fish, but when the sky settled and the rains stopped some fish began feeding on caddis and we were able to close out with some decent dry fly fishing. Two more days to go and then it's angling 4 me time.

DREAM MAKING ON THE ELK RIVER

Third day of guiding a beautiful couple from Florida (Diane and Dan Halleman) and it's been dreamy!!! After some epic scenery floats it was time to get down to some 'serious' business and get busy with some Cutthroats. So I decided we'd go butcher the Sparwood run and let me tell ya...the meat was on sale!!!

The day started with some blue winged olive duns pushing through some faster seams so we changed to a tilt wing bwo and dropped down to the softer ends of the seams and begin pounding some really nice fish out of the foam lines. Foam, soft water and buckets all held nice fish but the real gems of the day came out of the lumber tight to the bank in some really sllllllloooooooow water, nothing like watching an 18" fish saunter out of his lair to slow sip a size 18 bug, truly magical.

I woke up with a smile today reliving the dream that was yesterday....

MEND THIS!!!!

Back to the Columbia for round four....again I had my ass handed to me but at least it was black and blue from getting beaten by these trout. Lots of BIG rainbows eating on top; they were definitely in their feeding lanes and easy to find. Any colour (depth) change on a shallow run held a big feeding rainbow, the riffles also held a few really keen fish, it was a refreshing day of angling.

One thing I have noticed on the Columbia and it certainly proved true yesterday was that the fish were feeding when the fly was twitched, swung, sunk and in general moved around. Many of the eats were at the very end of a long drift when the fly would plunge as the fly line tightened, so much for mending the fly. Hard to set hooks without snapping off in these situations so here's my tip of the day when you find fish are feeding in this manner as they often are especially during mayfly spinner falls.



When fish are reacting well to a sunken fly at the end of a drift when your line is straightened take a little pressure off the set by holding a loop between your rod hand and reel. When the fish eats set as you normally would and allow the loop to slide gently through your rod hand to relieve some tension from the set. (photo of slip strike loop on side panel)

This was one of those "one fly" days and I'd show you a picture of it but.....it was tooooo good!!! Spencer and Joel in town today for some angling PUMPED!!!

The River "Y"

AHHHHH!!!!! Ants, rainbows, big dries all day must have pinned at least a hundred today....bless their little gills!! It was cool to watch fish position themselves so prominantly in the feeding lanes as they sucked back flying ants all day. Still fished a big bug through the hatch (Doug Swishers's Orange PMX) to limit our impact on the fish. Trout suck ants down deep and ant days can lead to heavy hook mortality from their
overly aggressive feeding.

It was nice to take a break from the Columbia River and get some consistent action on the dry fly. Thanks to all trout who participated in the last two days events, may your wounds heal quickly.

Beautiful day today.....more tommorrow and "Y" the hell not!

....We SUCK!!!

There's those days when fish are coming up out of nowhere for your fly for no apparent reason and you feel much like a magician yarding bunnies out of a hat. At the end of those days you feel like nothing can knock you down; like you've conquered the puzzles of nature like an ardent scientist, almost Godlike if your ego is really out of check. At the end of these days you say to yourself "fuck ya!! I've got it dialed now, never havin' a slow day again."

Then there's the days like the last 4 I've fished on the Columbia with one of my guides. It sucked, we sucked, the weather sucked it all just sucked!!!! In these moments you begin to wonder if all that lording you did while you were KING OF THE ELK is catching up to you as you stand there dumbfounded in the front knee brace holding onto what remains of your ass that was just handed to you.

The Columbia River tailwater can be tough, like any good rainbow fishery it has it's moments. All of us who fish it know this and many people who come here to fish it encounter those dead days and leave never to return. Probably why I see such an amazingly low number of anglers on such a vast and productive piece of water.

When faced with such angling adversity there is much pre and post fishing time tying up new bugs, thinking of different water or trying different techniques and for what it's worth it's our time as anglers to be creative with what we do and step beyond our limitations and find a way to put trout lips onto FLY!!! So for the last few nights and mornings I have sat at the vice wrapping up the ingredients to what will be called "The Answer" if it so proves itself during this cold snap.

So far all that remains is the question and keeps me reloading the vice. River "Y" re opens today which will be a welcome change phhhhhhhewww!!!