McLeod

[Grizzly_Fisher]

So I was thinking of heading to the McLeod river maybe for the long weekend or the weekend after that. I was planning to camp at the campground that's located on the road between Hinton and Robb. I have never fished the McLeod or surrounding area. I will be fly fishing, any tips on good spots or what flies to use would be greatly appreciated. Anybody fish the area yet this spring? If so, how did it go?

[0liver]

This past saturday we went up to the elk river and were drift casting with our spincaster rods. We slammed 3 nice rainbows and a little booger of a mountain whitefish, no larger then your pointer finger with his little sail down ! haha I think you will have a great time fishing the fork where the mcleod and I believe the embarrass meet, I think the embarrass is still closed till the first of june but you should be fine fishing the mouth there and then moving either upstream or downstream the mcleod there are many mini-holes just look for deep calmer water and Im sure you will nail a couple of trout or maybe even a pike or 2 :)

[TheFishHunter]

The water is super cold this time of the year for the McLeod but if you catch it before run off you can catch some really nice bullies. The grayling aren't usually up yet so you will see mostly whites and bulls. That campground is nice... you will catch lots of whites there. Where the Gregg comes in is a good spot, and if you have some larger flies / jigs / spoons toss them in to see if you will find the eager bull.

Good luck!

[RapStaff]

I've fished all over the countryside around there and around that campsite gets hit pretty hard. Get a copy of the oilfield atlas and do a little hiking.
Keep in Mind the mountains are still running off so water conditions can be unpredictable.

[Grizzly_Fisher]

Thanks for the great advice. I was thinking of bringing a canoe and getting off the beaten path that way. I will have to look more closely at a map to check for heavy rapids or dams. Has anyone floated or paddle the section between the camp site and the HWY 47 crossing?

[0liver]

Thanks for the great advice. I was thinking of bringing a canoe and getting off the beaten path that way. I will have to look more closely at a map to check for heavy rapids or dams. Has anyone floated or paddle the section between the camp site and the HWY 47 crossing?

The mcleod in general is pretty shallow and verrrry rocky I doubt you would have much fun trying to canoe down it, but thats just my opinion a bit later in the summer its a great river to just walk upstream with a fly rod and kick ass all up and down it standing right in the middle, no more then 2 foot of water :P

[Gerry]

You can't make it more than maybe 1/2km downstream or less in a canoe from the campsite. Everything passed the Weyerhauser camp site ( the old bridge site ) passed the next corner downstream is about 4in. deep for about 2km or more.
Having said that, the corner by the Weyerhauser camp site with the high cliff
has a deep hole about 50 to 70 yrds. long that always holds fish.

Good luck with the fishing.

[Grizzly_Fisher]

I'm surpiresed its that shallow. I bought the backroads map book and they show the whole river as a canoe route. That's where i got the idea but i'm glad i asked first. I would not have been happy trying to paddle the river and end up stuck somewhere downstream lol. I've been out to stauffer creek twice and the bow near canmore once this year already but I still haven't caught anything on my fly rod hopefully the Mcleod will offer something. I am still just a beginner fly fisher so that might be the problem.