It's Time!

It's about time for a paradigm shift in ammo selection. #dryflyfishing is coming around.

Southern Alberta Ammunition

Some go-to bugs for hoppers...lots of the real thing kicking around Southern Alberta. And we've been getting eats on the fake ones on the Bow the last number of days.

Oops...not a fake.

 

Field Review - FlyAgra

Have to admit, for the last year or so, my attitude when people raved about FlyAgra was kind of "oh good, another floatant product". Kind of thought we had things covered with the array of products already out there, mostly from Loon Outdoors. I finally broke down and tried it this past week and I must say, it's fabulous. It's first test was a completely fish chewed, ratty,waterlogged Chubby Chernobyl that sunk like a stone. Dropped the fly into the Fly Agra for a second and started fishing again. The fly was like new! Floated like a dream and stayed that way for a long time. This stuff is really good. Couple of things you should know when using it though, don't pre-treat your rubber legged flies with it. It will make the rubber legs very brittle. Just apply and fish immediately. The only other thing, don't spill it in your pack or vest, it's like rocket fuel. It does, however, evaporate in a short time. Try it, you'll like it.

Just Around the Corner!

MIGHT GET A WEEK OR TWO OF THESE CRITTERS BEFORE RUNOFF!

Bugs!

Welcome news for those of us who like to fish dry flies! The above pictured critter has been

kicking around on the river for a little while now with very good numbers this past weekend.

I realize we'll likely get in trouble with the experts, but this is not a Golden Stone, they are

Skwala Stoneflies. There's enough of them around to make it worth while throwing a dry! 

Certain Bow River fish have been rumoured to show a total lack of inhibition with patterns like

the Grillo's Hippie Stomper.....Ah, Foam!

Midges on the river like crazy as well. And with the forecast cloud cover later this week the BWO's

should be rather insane!

Don't mean to completely pick anyone out but we do have a while before we see the ever wonderful

PMD hatch on the Bow.

Should only be 3 or 4 weeks until we see the Caddis! Keep your fingers crossed

for good water conditions. Based on the way the fish have been looking up, if we get caddis

with anything approaching decent visibility and levels....yikes!

Saturday Morning Seminars-Dry Fly Patterns

Scenic Rick and Dry Fly Hackle
Saturday, January 7, 2012  10 AM

Hoppers.....mmmmm.....Hoppers!!!!!

A couple of nice fish, one exceptional at 25", caught on hoppers late last week.
Thanks again to all the guys up from AFF! George, Brent, Jason, and Joe enjoyed
their days with you.

Rising Fish Video

Short one from late last week.

'How's the Bow Fishing"?

In the shop today after being on the river the last 7 days, and had a few customers ask how the Bow was fishing.

To put it simply, the world is not ending, and the Bow is fishing as good in the past 3 days as it had been in the 'core' of the season. The clarity had been improving to the clearest we've seen all summer (before the big storm on Friday night), and fish are to be found in their normal spots for this time of year.

Yes, they're eating on top.

The streamer fishing has been quite good, and there are a ton of rising fish if you spend some time looking! This is certainly the first year that I can claim that I've caught fish on PMD's in August...

Time to get out on the river!


Brent

Photos From This Week's fishing

Some of the playing, and working, from this past week......

I love July! Lots of Yellow!

Bow River: The Rising Part II

Part II to Bow:The Rising is up! Plenty more to come. We're all itching to get out! Hope this gets you feeling the same.

New Vid, Bow River: The Rising

Some footage from 2010, enjoy!
Make sure HD is on, for a bigger view go to: The Rising

Dry Fly Eat Of The Year

In keeping with our philosophy of "We Like It On Top", this image turns our crank.

For more cool stuff, go to http://www.occhioinc.com/

Trico Fish Sequence

Greetings from the Haida Gwai....Thinking of you!

Rising Fish on Tricos August 9, 2010 from Mike Gifford on Vimeo.

Rising Fish Video

Rising fish footage from this past August.

More reruns cause I'm fishing!

Rising Fish, Bow River August 29, 2010 from Mike Gifford on Vimeo.

Bugs, Browns, and Big Eats

Replay of video done last summer by Caitlin.....

End of season reruns cause I'm fishing!

Bugs, Browns and Big Eats from Mike Gifford on Vimeo.

Rising Fish, August 29, 2010

Cold, wet day on the river with Kevin Peterson and Doug Risebrough.
Short video of rising fish on Baetis.
This is the first video with the new Mac and Final Cut Pro. Damn program is hard.
I'll do more, and better, videos as I get it figured out.

Rising Fish, Bow River August 29, 2010 from Mike Gifford on Vimeo.

Mend Smarter, not Harder!

We've been having some very, very good foam fishing lately, but only if you're getting your fly in the zone, and more importantly, KEEPING it there! Big fish are lazy, and the longer your fly hangs in the zone, the better you're going to be.

Especially out of a drift boat, your mend is just as important (if not more-so) then your cast. You want to be mending the line all the way up to the bug, without pulling the fly out of the zone. This takes a lot of practice, but is pretty much a requirement to land the truly big fish on foam flies.

A couple tips (in essence, this is from a Drift-Boat point of view):

1. The line & leader closest to the fly is the stuff that matters! They'll be the quickest to pull out of the zone, and if you have these lined up immediately after your cast, you fly will sit a lot properly a lot longer. Mend the instant your fly lands. If you wait, you'll be too late.

2. You are allowed to mend more than once per cast. Typically you should throw your bug, do a big mend to line the leader and fly line closest to the fly upstream. Your next mend should work on the line closest to the rod tip, and align that with the fly.

3. More line, more problems. Don't add more line into your system when mending. The more line on the water, the more that can drag in the long run.

4. Master the reach mend, it will throw a mend in the cast before the line lands on the water setting you up for a great float. A reach mend can be achieved by casting as normal but when you have stopped your rod and your line is beginning to head to it's target, sweep your rod in the direction you would have mended to reposition the fly line without effecting where the fly lands. Trust me, this one takes some practice but is extremely valuable.

But how do I mend more efficiently you ask?? The most common mistakes we see are anglers that like to mend with the rod tip. A flick of the rod tip in a semi circle motion will rarely get the job done. Mending is a full body motion, well, almost. Use your arm to extend and lift the rod in an arcing motion, lifting as much line up and off of the water and repositioning where you want it. The key here is that too much and you can hank your fly off the bank or out of the "sweet spot" ie. mend smarter not harder.

Lazy trout like their bugs to hang around before committting.

I Love It When They Do This....

Fish Rise from Mike Gifford on Vimeo.

A Day On The River

Caity and Brent got a day off yesterday so guess where they spent it.