Mar 21

Testimonials

Hi Mike

I just wanted to follow up our fishing trip of last week with a sincere ‘thank you’ for an exciting and fulfilling day on the Bow River.  I’ve heard it said it is the best trout fishing anywhere and our time spent sure proved that. By the way……was the brown trout I caught the biggest of the day…..or what!!!!!! Just joking, of course.

You know, although I have fished with tackle for years, I learned more from you in our first 30 minutes together than all my previous experience together. You truly know your stuff, Mike and I have already recommended your guiding services to friends.
Thanks again for the pleasure of a wonderful day outdoors, AND….. some of the best fishing I could imagine.

JACK DEWAR

Mar 12

Ask Mike- Tips & Advice

Stained Water Conditions

It sure does seem as though spring is coming here in Alberta sooner than some would have anticipated, even including me. This I must say is always welcomed here in a province where winter makes up half of our year. We have been blessed with some very nice weather here in Calgary which I always take advantage of as a fisherman. We decided to visit a deep dark trout hole today and were rewarded with some nice Rainbow trout as a result.

The water here on the Bow is quite stained as a result of the dirty water from the banks and the city streets washing into the river. Sometimes if the water is not completely dark brown and unfishable, this tea stained water can and does work to your advantage. Here is why, the trout can see your bait and hear your bait if it rattles or buzzes, but cannot completely make it out, therefore it will hit your bait without hesitation. If the water is clear and the trout suspects something does not look right it will leave your bait alone. You will however have to make adjustments on your color selections when fishing stained water.

I use flasher baits and bait’s that have more rattling characteristics to them. This Rainbow troutwas caught with a Berkley Frenzy Rattler lure, which makes a very loud rattling noise. I like to use colors such as pure white, shiny gold’s, bright red’s and even colors that have more natural colors to them. Presentation will also play a factor with stained water so I present the lure 1-2 feet off the bottom of the river where the trout like to sit in these stained water conditions. Look for trout to be closer to the bank than if the water is clear, usually there is more oxygen in the water closer to the bank than further out in the middle. This is also where the fish look for flies and other pupa at this time of the year so adjust your casting accordingly. I tend to cast upstream, closer to the bank and retrieve the lure or spinner downstream; keeping the lure close to the bank to make the most natural presentation as possible.

The moral of this article is, do not let the dirty water deter you from going out to your local river and making some casts. This is when you may catch that lunker you’ve been looking for all your life. Try different baits, different color’s of baits until you key in on what the fish want and how they want it presented. Tight lines to all! See the bottom of this page for video footage of today’s fishing!

Mar 05

Gone Fishing- Bow River

A Taste of Summer In March

The weekend is finally arrived and I am a very happy camper as a result. The weather here is finally growing nice and I have my tackle box ready to go. I just came back from the Bow River and I am happy to report that the river is ready to fish again. As I arrived at the river I was greeted by two large hawks that were flying low over head. They then gracefully flew across the river and landed in a large birch tree.
 
I turned to look at the sky above and a massive bald eagle was cruising by my location. He climbed in altitude until he left my line of vision. It looks as though this is a sign of great things to come tomorrow. We will be on the river at 10:00 sharp as we do not want to be late for the inevitable, Large Bow River Trout. The water has a glimmering blue hue to it, which is backdrop by the gorgeous Rocky Mountains that look like you can reach out and touch them from where you stand by rivers edge.

It looks like summer is slowly around the corner here in Alberta which brings copious amounts of joy to my life. The anticipation of launching my inflatable watercraft is almost unbearable. This is the ultimate way to fish a larger river as you can reach spots not normally reachable to the average lazy fisherman who parks his car/truck beside the river’s edge.

We pulled in at around 11:00 A.M and launched the first lure into the cold clear blue water. I twitched the lure slowly and failed to pull a fish on my first cast but I moved up the water column and saw a promising hole. I launched my lure upstream and slowly reeled it close to the bottom, the next thing you know WHAM-O, a monster Brown is battling on the end of my line.I took my time with him and gradually worked him to the shoreline. I gently removed the barbless hook from the bruiser’s mouth and quickly snap a photo then released the big monster back to his home in the river.

This was only the start of the day and we had only been fishing 20 minutes. This was a sign to come as we pulled twelve a piece on Saturday. We fished all day until we were so tired our arms felt as though they were going to fall off. We decided to call our fishing trip a day, but we were determined to go back on Sunday for another date with some of the finest Trout fishing the world has to offer. Please view our video footage at the bottom of this page.

Feb 26

General Info.

Inflatable vs. McKenzie Drift Boat.

This is a question a person would ask when looking to purchase a high quality fishing boat. This style of watercraft is designed to drift/float a river with no need for a motor. In my opinion there is really only one choice for the fisherman who has a limited budget but still desires high quality in a boat. I was at the boat and sportsman’s show two weekends ago in search of a high quality boat that was not going to cost me 10,000$ plus.

I have always known Zodiac to be a very reputable company with high quality at an affordable price. I went into their booth and took a look around. I was probably there for ten minutes and found nothing I was looking for. I never once saw a sales rep that could answer my questions and left their display area without any of their product information.

I was not really there to see the Zodiac display anyhow; I was there to see the people at Zebec. Now here is a company that puts the customer first. Here is an example, I walked into their display area and was immediately greeted by their sales rep and exchanged handshakes with him. I informed him why I was going to be using the boat and he provided me with some excellent information as to what boat would be geared towards my application.

He showed me three different boats and then described in detail what each boat was designed to do. He really went out of his way to be helpful to me, and to properly inform me of all their products that best suited me and my applications. He then provided me with a brochure with all their accessories and a card with his name and telephone number, website address and store location. To say the very least I was very impressed, so impressed in fact that I went to their office here in Calgary and picked out which boat I was going to purchase.

I chose to buy an inflatable for many different reasons I will now list off for you. Accessibility is the number one reason for choosing an inflatable; you do not need a boat launch for an inflatable whereas you do for a McKenzie Drift Boat. Inflatables can also access many parts of a river a drift boat cannot access. Then there is the cost factor between the two different styles of boats. I priced out the Zebec and the total cost including the boat which is 13 Feet constructed of high quality PVC, three bucket seats which mount on a aluminum rack system, two sleeved rowing oars, two aluminum mounted floor boards that also mount to the racking system so your client or buddy can stand up while he fishes, a patch kit that comes with patches, glue and a wrench in case of a minor accident; for a total price of 6000.00 $$ CDN which can all fold up and fit in the trunk of my car.

Than you look at the McKenzie Drift Boat, the boat alone is 10- 15,000 $$. You cannot pull a McKenzie Drift Boat with a car and expect a car to last very long; you need a truck to pull it properly. So the truck will run say 20,000- 60,000 if you buy used, or 60 if you buy brand new. Grand total for everything to go the McKenzie Drift Boat way is 35,000- 75,000 dollars. So for this fisherman there is really only one choice and that choice is the inflatable Zebec Bug for affordability and the versatility that I look for in a high quality fishing boat. View Zebec’s website here for all their high quality fishing and rafting boats.