Don’t Leave Your Flies on the Table

April 28, 2015 / galen / Fishing, Fly Fishing

My house is quite often a hurricane of activity. My kids, ages 7, 5, and 2 have boundless energy and are involved in any sporting activity that includes a ball, a club, a stick, or a puck. That means I’m often rushing from one floor of the house to another to be the intervening referee, sometimes the goalie, sometimes the pitcher, many time the retriever or objects thrown, batted, shot or kicked too high. The point is, I rarely have more then 5 minutes of time in a row to spend on any activity until after the kids go to bed. Nonetheless, one day this spring, I was getting organized for a week long get away.

My various rods, normally stored in my gun cabinet to keep the kids from tangling all the lines together, were in the living room. My tackle box was sitting on my desk. My fly boxes, 3 of them, were in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. I was testing the sinking rate of some of the flies in a tub full of water in the bathroom when I was summoned to solve a “who hit who back first” argument in the toy room. At the same time, my wife was busy cleaning the living room for some company coming that night, and swearing at me for leaving my rods all over the floor.

After getting the hockey game back on track, I decided to sort through some of my dry flies in the kitchen. I pushed the rest of the stuff on the table aside to make room for the flies and began to remove them from the fly box one by one. I organized them by size and colour, knowing full well after the first full day of fishing my box would be in complete disarray again. With about 10 flies out of the box, a crash was heard from the downstairs toy room. I arrived moments later to discover a broken light fixture but no broken kids. No opportunity to try out alternative uses of head cement today! Shop Vac to the rescue and the game was back on.

I started back upstairs, but remembered the sink rate experiment going on in the bathroom and resumed that activity for another 5 minutes before I had to rush to referee the next dispute. I finally returned to my fly sorting about a 1/2 hour after I had left it, to discover all my dry boatsmen were gone from the neat row I had placed them in. I also noticed the supper dishes had been removed from the table and the dishwasher was running. I quickly surmised that my wife had whirl winded her way through the kitchen on a cleaning spree, and swept the table free of debris. “Wife!”, I called out. “Did you clean up in the kitchen, ’cause I was just about to?” Her reply was “Yes. I don’t have time for you to get to it.” “Where did you sweep the stuff from the table?”, I inquired. “Into the empty corn flakes box by the back door. Why?”, came her puzzled reply. “Because you just swept $20 worth of my flies into the trash.”, I answered. “I thought they were crumbs from the kid’s plates.”, was her guilty reply.

I dumped the flies out, back onto the table, along with a few crumbs the kids had left, and continued my sorting and replacing back into the fly box from which they came.

Other places not to leave your flies (and you can imagine why):

your bed
the living room floor
seat of your truck
floor of your truck
your pocket

The Man Challenges

April 7, 2015 / galen / Fishing, Hunting

Here’s a few suggestions to add some friendly competition to your outdoor outings. Purely in the interest of research for this artivle I can say I have participated in all of these events, numerous times. Take these suggestions with you, or come up with your own Man Challenge and send me a description and I’ll add it to this article.

Man Challenge #1 Rods n’ Irons

Golfing and fishing are parts one and two of the summer triple crown. Add sex with your wife for the trifecta and your day is complete. Just remember, it’s okay to fish alone and golf alone. Eighteen holes of golf set the stage for the soon to follow fishing tournament. Take the leader board from the round of golf to the boat and each fish makes up a stroke. Pick a time to shut it down and add the scores to determine the champion. For example, after golf, Eldon has a 5 stroke lead over Galen (impossible, but it happened), Galen will need to catch 6 more fish to pull ahead in the scoring.

Man Challenge #2 Build a Lure

Using only the tools available in a common tackle box, and the items you have with you (hint: beer caps), design and construct a lure that catches a fish. It can be any of the stuff you have with you. Bottle caps, pull tabs, foil wrappers, your watch, pieces of string, shoelaces, belt buckles, wedding rings, false teeth, prosthetic limbs, sun glasses, car keys, coins, lug nuts, speaker wire, and your imagination. I’ve seen fish caught on the most unlikely contraptions, but then have you seen some of the lures out there? Most likely fish to be caught is a pike, Walleye are harder to fool, and Perch sometimes will go after anything shiny (like tin foil). Send us a picture of you winning lure and your fish and we’ll post your proff, and bragging rights, on our site.

Man Challenge #3 Blast n’ Cast

This one’s my favorite. Spend the morning on a flock reduction exercise and bag your limit of ducks and geese. Spend the afternoon and evening tempting the behemoths from the depths and build up your fish fry inventory. You can make this into a contest if you wish, but it’s often disputed who fired the killing shot as geese invade your spread and all guns are blazing. In many hunting jurisdictions, goose hunting is not permitted past noon so make sure you know the local regulations.

Man Challenge #4 Jigs & Shots

Before you go out, designate someone to be the designated boat driver in this event. Jigs and shots is quite straight forward, use your jig and whatever bait to catch a fish and do a shot of what ever your favored poison happens to be. Hit the honey hole and your fishing memories may soon fade into a blur. Take a few extra cool ones with you in the event the finned foe is in deep hiding. Add some interest by designating a type of shot per species of fish.

Keep a Journal

March 31, 2015 / galen / Fishing

If you are serious, or even half serious about fishing, start and keep a journal. A journal is a great way to make notes about what technique and what settings have produced success so that you can replicate them or adapt to your present or future conditions. A journal is simply a factual record of your outdoor experiences and easy to maintain. You need little more than a spiral notebook, small enough to fit in a pocket, and a pen. What information you will want to keep track of will vary with your type of activity, but here’s a good answer for fishing. (Bird hunting and big game hunting will be covered in later articles.) For fishing, record the obvious first, such as date, time, location (be as specific as possible) and tackle used. If you have a GPS receiver, take advantage, especially if you are trolling. Other electronic devices such as a depth finder can add key information. Also record your technique. If you are spin casting or bait casting, how are you retrieving? How deep? Fast or slow? Steady or jerk and drop? If you are trolling, how fast? Straight-line or S-pattern? Are you trolling near or over structure? If you are fly fishing, what retrieve speed are you using? Are you deep or shallow? Where are you casting from/to? For a dry fly or a stream, what drift technique are you using?

When you are busy fishing, when the bite is on, mentally keep track of what is working and if you change tackle or technique, how it affected your results. When the fishing is good, your memory will stick with you. Later when the action slows down, or in the evening, take a few minutes to jot some notes. You are there to fish. Take care of that first! Also be sure to write down what didn’t work.

Many factors besides location, date, time, tackle and technique affect your fishing results. So take notice of these additional factors: temperature, wind strength and direction, sunny, overcast, rain, water temperature, water level and anything else of note. Changes in conditions often lead to changes in behavior by fish. Fish are not among the mentally elite of this planets species, but they are highly instinctive and highly reactive. If you can identify similar circumstances when you had success before, your odds are better if you can reproduce your own actions. A change in air pressure or wind direction may cause the bite to begin or stop. With some species of fish, especially trout, a sudden increase in wind speed or change in direction may result in insects from shoreline trees and bushes being blown into the water and the trout will react. If this happens, make a mental note of the conditions, check the water for the type of insect, tie on a similar fly and get ready.

New Survey: Pike vs Walleye

March 31, 2015 / galen / Fishing

What’s your favorite western Canadian game fish? Tell us and tell others in our latest survey.

Pike Vs Walleye.

Trial and Error

March 17, 2015 / galen / Fishing, Fly Fishing

It’s become very clear to me, that dumb people shouldn’t fly fish. I know this because today I was one of the dumb people.

Fly fishing is like a scientific experiment. It takes technique. It takes skill. It takes trial and error. Today it was mostly error.

The basic premise behind fly fishing is to use a man made artificial imitation of the fish’s food source and try to present it in a way that will cause the fish to bite it. That’s a fairly difficult task, but one that can be learned, practiced and improved. Today, I took a giant leap backward in the demonstration of my skill. My only solace is in the fact that I was the only one to know how dumb I was this morning (until now).

At 5:00 am I was awake. The weather on this July morning was quite pleasant so I went fishing before work at the trout pond just north of where I live. I parked, grabbed my rod and vest and proceeded to the bank to get started. My line had on a mosquito pattern from a few nights ago. After three casts, one hook up! A short struggle and a release and I was convinced the day would be a great one. Then I though about the coffee I left on the hood of my truck. So I laid my rod down and walked the 50 feet to get my cup, leaving the fly floating in about 2 inches of water less than 12 inches from shore. When I returned less than 60 seconds later, my rod was about to tip over the bank into the water and down the steep slope as an adventurous and determined trout was about to make off with my fly, my line, and my rod. Dumb mistake #1: never leave a fly unattended. It almost cost me my rod (and the rest of the morning).

I moved down the bank to the far side of the pond, to my favorite spot, furthest from my truck, as the sun broke through the clouds, off the water, straight into my eyes. Dumb mistake #2: always have your sunglasses with you. I struggled against the sun, then finally moved of it’s path to a less desirable spot, with poor footing. Dumb mistake #3: wet rocks soon equal wet shoes and pants. It didn’t take more than 3 casts to hook a fish and for me to miss a step and plunge knee deep into the water.

I figured if the mosquito pattern was working so well, why not try a caddis fly? Dumb mistake #4: if your catching fish, don’t change your fly. Well, the caddis got no attention. I spent the next 30 minutes trying to convince myself the cast would be the one to attract a trout to the caddis. 30 minutes of being dumb. Thinking like a scientist, I tried another fly, not at all like a mosquito. Dumb mistake #5: keep switching away from what works. Another 30 minutes of casting practice.

By now, it was almost time to had back to the truck and head to work. I decided to give the mosquito pattern the duty as I planned to walk and cast my way back to my truck. Between me and the truck were about 4 large bushes and a wire fence running in line with my path. I made a quick mental note and started casting to the rises of the trout. I quickly hooked a small fish and released after a brief struggle (proving my past hours experimentation with other flies an error). After releasing, I moved past the first bush and watched for rises. I spotted one proceeded to put my back cast into the first bush I passed. Dumb mistake #6.1: look behind you before you cast. I untangled and looked to the water again for rises then put my next back cast into the same bush. Dumb mistake #6.2: look behind you before you cast. I untangled and looked to the water again for rises then put my next back cast into the wire fence. Dumb mistake #6.3: look behind you before you cast. After untangling, I glanced at my watch, my morning had run out of time.

Did you Honk at Me?

March 11, 2015 / galen / Fishing, Goose Hunting, Hunting

I walked outside this afternoon and I thought I heard the sound of a Canada goose honking. Maybe there were two. Maybe just wishful thinking, but the sound of geese honking is a sure sign spring is nearly here.

These were not the only sure signs of spring today. In my mailbox today was both the Outdoor Canada Annual Fishing issue and the Cabelas Spring and Summer catalog. How much more can I stand? I still have 2 feet of snow in my yard and the ice on the lake was still 3-1/2 feet thick this weekend. The only open water will be a couple mile stretch on the river, so if there are geese here, they are roosting on the river.

Our last two springs have been late, very late. Spring snow goose hunting last year barely got started until May 1st. Then the birds were in a hurry to pass through, although the 2nd week of May was full of limit shoots. With the late melt, many lakes still had too much ice on them to launch a boat for opening fishing weekend.

Spring comes in waves here in central Saskatchewan. Sometime we get this warm spell in early March and then winter returns for another month (see 2013, 2014). The experts say that this year is a return to normal so let’s hope they are right and we can get the spring snow goose hunt finished and then launch the fishing boats for some pre-spawn pike and walleye.

Opening Day

March 10, 2015 / galen / Fishing, Fly Fishing

Like a bad April fools joke, Saskatchewan closes its lakes, ponds and rivers to fishermen and fisherwomen for a month or so. Now I know it’s only a month but it seems like forever. The funny part is that all winter, (and the winters here are longer than the summers), I don’t fish. I could never get into the ice fishing thing. Something is just missing. Fly-fishing and a lake covered in three feet of ice don’t mix, I like to see the water and not walk on it and I am not a polar bear, I need warmth. But during the winter I could fish if I wanted and that’s what makes the month of April and first part of May so bad. I’m not allowed to fish and that’s usually when the itch starts. I go through my gear, checking and rechecking everything, I buy fishing supplies, troll my way through every fishing store I can find, and generally do dumb things in preparation for opening day. (This year I sat in front of the TV watching fishing shows in my new float tube for two hours). It’s like Christmas in May, counting down the days, five more sleeps, four more sleeps etc.

So the trip was planned. Six of us were going on opening day for a one-week trip to Chitek Lake, Saskatchewan, two guys for a bear hunt and four of us fishing. Chitek lake is five hours north of Regina and is surrounded by other lakes containing trout, pike, and walleye. I could hardly wait.

We were going to be fly-fishing for pike. Now I have caught a pike with my fly rod before but totally by accident (I was practicing my casting off of a dock) and it was exciting. Saskatchewan pike on a 6-weight fly rod can be quite a fight. I proceeded to read everything that I could find on the Internet about fly-fishing for pike. I bought some special leaders to guard against those sharp teeth that are not present in a trout, bought way too many pike flies and generally spent two weeks thinking of nothing else.

Finally opening day arrived. My friend and I drove to Saskatoon to meet with the other members of our party. We ate a lot, talked a lot and about 8 p.m. that night realized that we could have been fishing. Saskatoon has a small trout pond and we jumped in the truck heading out on opening day. We caught one fish, or more specifically I caught one fish. A whopping 10 inch rainbow trout. As darkness fell and we walked back to the truck, I realized one thing. I have caught a fish every day this season.

The Fishing Photo Contest Going Strong

March 5, 2015 / galen / Fishing

You are invited to join the Fishing Photo Contest on PrairieOutdoors.com. Each month visitors to the site upload their favorite fishing pictures and others are allowed to vote a picture to the top, or bottom, of the rankings. At the end of the month, the top ranked image is chosen and added to the slideshow on the home page.

Does your fishing picture have what it takes? The winner from February was a 10 pound bull trout pulled through the ice in Alberta. What have you got?

New Survey – Catch and Release or Catch and Keep

February 26, 2015 / galen / Fishing

We have just loaded up a new survey, Do you Practice Catch and Release fishing or do you Catch and Keep?

Go to the Survey Page and tell us!

Short Casts

February 24, 2015 / galen / Fishing

You can use almost any rock you find on shore to sharpen the point of a hook. Pull the hook point against a flat section of the rock and rotate to get all angles. Repeat several time.
When casting for walleye on a rocky bottom, add some action to your jig by letting it bounce on the bottom.
Twist your rubber worms to add more spinning action. The turbulence attracts predatory fish like walleye, muskie and pike.
Use two flies when nymph fishing for trout. Tie a second length of tippet about 1-1/2 feet long to the hook of the first nymph then tie the second nymph on the end. You can cover two depths if you retrieve slowly.
To clean out the eye of a hook or a fly, don’t buy a useless accessory tool, just use the point of another hook.
Lots of nibbles but can’t hook anything? Try sharpening your hooks and double your catch. Dull hooks don’t penetrate on a light bite. This works especially well on trout and perch.
When launching a boat by yourself, tie a section of rope from the bow of the boat to the rear rail of the trailer. Back in far enough to float the boat off the trailer then slowly pull the trailer out of the water. Your boat will be floating beside the dock, tied safely to your trailer.
Pike and muskie will eat food up to 1/3 their body size. If you want big pike or muskie, pull out the big tackle.
In warm summer waters, skip the waders. Wading boots plus pants or shorts will be more comfortable.
To keep you dry flies dry, spray them with Scotchguard.
When shore fishing with a pickerel rig, use a 1-1/2 foot length of 2″ PVC pipe, hammer it into the ground, then set your rod end in it after casting. Place a small bell on the rod tip. When it starts ringing, you have a fish.
Use maps or overhead pictures of a lake or stream and mark your catches on the map. Keep the map with your tackle box. It will work better than your memory.
If you can’t get your knots to stay tight and you are losing lures, and fish, use a small drop of super glue after you tie the knot. Wait 30 seconds for it to dry.
Use a fish stringer to hang your pots and cooking utensils. String it up between tree branches, tent poles, or your camper awning.
Bait fish often are found at the mouths of stream leading to rivers and lakes. Game fish will seek them out, especially in the evening.
Pick the fly line colour that most interests you.
When choosing lures for pike, pick the ones with contrasting colours, some brightness, and some wobbling action to create noise in the water.
Keep a fishing journal. Make a record of the water and weather conditions, dates and locations. Track what lures and techniques produced fish. Over time, you will find common practices and conditions, increasing your likelihood of catching fish. See the article in the PrairieOutdoors Journal.
Try small surface dry flies and small nymphs kept on the surface during summer sunsets. Some of the best trout fishing starts about a 1/2 hour before sunset and continues as long as the sky is light. See the article in PrairieOutdoors Journal.
In still water, look for reeds as excellent pike holding areas. Cast to the edge and retrieve.
The night before you go walleye fishing, soak your lawn in the late evening. After dark, take a flashlight and you will find the night crawlers.
Before handling a fish you plan to release, slip on a glove. You will be less likely to damage the fish.
If you’ve been using the same lure, bait and presentation, in the same location, and you don’t catch anything, move, change your bait, or your technique, but not all at once. Make one change at a time until the fish bite. Otherwise you won’t know what change worked.
Look for structure when fishing a lake. Large submerged objects, points, or shelves offer a contrast between deep and shallow.
Pay attention to where the pelicans and loons feed. The feed on small bait fish which attract the pike and walleye.
In the spring, fish (including lake trout) will gather in shallow water which will be warmer.
Use your depth finder to find a walleye hole. A drop off of anywhere from 10 feet to 30 feet will often hold walleye during the day.
On lakes and ponds, weedy areas are the most likely hiding places for fish.
When fly fishing a stream or river, cast up stream and let the current bring the fly to the fish.
Size of your fly is very important when fishing for trout. Tie your favorite patterns in several sizes.
Use a pliers or your fly tying vise to pinch down the barbs on your hooks. Fish will be much easier to release, getting them back into the water faster.
Salmon eggs are a very effective bait for trout. They can often be purchased from tackle shops and may come in roe sacks.
Just after the ice leaves a lake, the best fishing happens in early afternoon when the sun has had a chance to warm the surface water and slow moving fish become more active.
Wet the area of your fishing line with saliva just before pulling your knot tight. It reduces the friction and lessens the chance of your knot breaking.

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