May 15

Fishing the May Long Weekend

The May Long Weekend is Here

It is May long weekend here for us who live in Canada and it’s the first chance we get to go ahead and get out camping and fishing. I have never really been much for camping on this specific weekend as it usually is a weekend for bad weather. No I am not trying to jinks you here so stay calm. I do not think we will need to worry about the weather this weekend as it is predicted to be about 20-25 degrees above zero. This is a first in a long time the sun will be out all weekend long, suits me just fine. Now the decision is where to go and camp and fish. Well that is precisely why I am writing this article for you, to give you some great spots to check out.

The first decision I personally make is am I going to fish a river or a lake? If I decide to fish a lake here are some of the places I go camping and fishing.  McGregor Lake is one of my top spots to camp and fish. Swimming and boating access is at McGregor Lake Recreation Area (formerly Milo Campground), an Alberta Provincial Park site with camping facilities at the northwest corner of the lake. Amenities include a boat launch, playgrounds, and picnic shelters. Small boats can also be launched at Lomond Crossing, where Secondary Road 531 crosses the lake. Sport fishing yields Walleye, Yellow Perch, Lake Whitefish, Rainbow Trout, and Northern Pike (Jackfish). Local residents have reported catching up to 22 lb northern pike. A campground, picnic area, and boat launch are provided at the north end of the lake.

Crawling Valley Reservoir near Bassano is another one of my favorite destinations. Not much for trees or scenery but the fishing here can be dynamite. Rise early and fish late into the evening for Walleye or cruse the back bays for good sized Pike. Early spring fishing here can be awesome as those big Pike come in shallow and feed heavy on jigs, frozen minnows and those big crank baits like the Rapala X-Rap. Fishing from shore here can be great as well for those who do not have a boat. A relatively new campground which was established in the mid 80’s, Crawling Valley Campground is located on the Crawling Valley Reservoir, NE of Bassano. Services Include Pull through sites, Fire pits, Fire wood, Ice, Group camping, Coin operated showers which are Handicap accessible, Potable water, Dumping station, Boat launch and day use area, Public phone, Fish cleaning stand, Concession stand.

And for the whole family Sylvan Lake, Sylvan Lake is the perfect destination spot for the entire family at any time of year. They are among Canada’s ten best beaches and the fishing here can be very good in the spring time. Sylvan Lake has a wide variety of accommodations ranging from luxurious hotels to clean, rustic campgrounds. Sylvan Lake has clear water, little algal growth and few areas of dense aquatic macrophytes. Although summer kills occur occasionally, the lake supports a popular year-round sport fishery for pike, perch and, in recent years, walleye. Provincial sport fishing regulations apply to Sylvan Lake so check the regulations guide before fishing anywhere.

Please come back to the Blog and I will let you know where I go to fish the rivers and streams here in Alberta. Fish and camp this May long weekend and have fun. Take a youngster out for his/her first time fishing. Practice catch and release fishing and respect your surroundings. Clean up after yourself and if you see some garbage lying around, please pick it up and dispose of it. Let’s all do our part and make sure we carry this way of life far into the future for our kids to enjoy.

May 04

Floating The Lower Bow River

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/pIEAifJ75dc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]Floating The Bow River

On a windy and chilly day in May I decided that it was time to get that dingy back on the water and get the monofilament wet once again. I rang my friend Stacy and asked him to join me on a float from Policeman’s flats to McKinnon flats and he gladly accepted. The clouds broke at ten thirty and the spring sun showed is warm face. It’s about time we had some sun here in Alberta I thought to myself as I tied my Panther Martin to the Berkley XT. I was eager to get the boat in the water and get into some big wild hogs as the last month of fishing has been a little slow. We pushed out of the bank and off we went to seek and hook those scrappy Browns and Rainbows the Bow River is famous for.

Upon entering the cluttered water I could not help but smile as I cannot think of a better way to spend a Friday afternoon. We started off bottom bouncing Panthers and the first half an hour was slow and no bites. We were finding that this technique was not providing what we needed as the river was full of weeds and debris and getting on our hooks. I decided that a cast and retrieve method would work better as the hook stays off the bottom of the river. I spotted a nice drop in the water where trout usually sit and wait for food then casted my spinner bait into the ledge. After a couple of revolutions of my reel a small Brown Trout latched a hold and fought all the way to the boat, even those little ones fight hard sometimes.

We carried on down the river and the wind would not stop howling. I then rowed the dingy around a corner of the river and casted into the shoreline into a deep pocket of water and bam, a nice brown latched a hold of my rooster tail spinner and went airborne. She took three good leaps into the chilly spring air and then dived back into the water abruptly. She was doing her best to shake the hook but it was set and I was in control. I reeled her into the side of the boat and gently netted her into the boat, popped the hook from her toothy jaws and released her back into the murky water. Stacy was happy to see a good sized trout being landed and I think that gave him motivation to hook one himself. We decided to get out of the boat and stretch our sore legs. We stopped at the same place I had just hooked that female brown trout. I thought that there might be more where that came from and boy was I right. I ended up landing six fish from that corner of the river and they were all browns. Stacy hooked and landed the only rainbow trout from that honey hole.

The day turned windy and the fishing was still pretty good from that hole onwards. Stacy landed another eighteen inch rainbow and I hooked into a couple more fish myself, one was a rainbow and the other was a brown. We were doing more rowing than we were fishing today but it was still nice to get out and float the river once again. I noticed the weir has opened up yesterday May 3 2008, and we will start to see the run off happen here in the next couple of weeks. So if you are going to get out and fish the Bow River, than you’d better do it very soon. I am going to float a couple more times before the river turns unfishable and hopefully I can see those scrappy trout once more.

Apr 03

New Fishing licenses are Here

Greetings to all my fishing friends. It has been a little while since I wrote my last post and a lot has changed since then. The first thing is the new Alberta fishing licenses have been issued and are now available at all locations where you buy fishing tackle. These include Wholesale Sports, Russell Sports, all Canadian Tire locations, and all Wall-Mart locations as well. Click here for a complete listing. A fisherman who plans on fishing in Alberta needs to renew his/her fishing license before heading out to the water. The old fishing license expired Mar 31 and you will need a new license now. I obtained a copy of the fishing regulations guide when I received my license and have already read up on some of the new additions to the guide.

One new and improved service I saw while browsing through the book was the new website the Alberta government has created to make us a little lazier and not have to physically leave our houses to get a new license. The name of the new site is called Albertarelm seen here https://www.albertarelm.com/ and will enable you to print your license right off your printer at home. This will be great for those who are in a hurry and do not have time to drive and wait in those big line ups at the local tackle store.

I encourage you all to read the regulations and familiarize yourself with all the rules included in this guide. We all need to be aware of where and when we can fish under the government regulated rules. I also encourage you to read the stories in the back of the guide, there are some great tips from some excellent fisherman found here. Have fun learning and keep you license with you at all times while fishing or transporting fish, it is the law.