East-coaster Alberta bound-fly fishing questions
 

Good day all,
I am new to this forum and soon to be new to Alberta. In three weeks I will be taking possession of my new house near Cold Lake. I have been living in Nova Scotia for the past ten years fishing here, Newfoundland and NB.
I have a few questions about the fly fishing in northeastern Alberta. I know what to expect and use out on the lakes but not really sure what to expect when fly fishing the rivers and creeks of the area.
I am curious to know things like species, size, watersheds and common weight rods used.
Thanks

Welcome to Alberta, can't help for Cold Lake but i'm sure that someone from there will chime in.

Most people will reccomend Barry Mitchell's Alberta Trout Highway book.

sounds great, thanks!

And also pick up a copy of Barry Mitchell's Alberta Fishing Guide. Has directions to most of the fishable lakes in the province.

You can pick it up at any convience store or fishing shop.

The AB fishing guide was my bible for years. Very good info in it for all of AB. You will also be close to some terrific walleye fishing NE in Sask.

Cold Lake is about 4 hours from the closest trout stream as far as I know. The good trout streams are all west of highway 2 (Calgary to Edmonton).

There may be a couple exceptions, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Welcome to AB.

Sell your house and buy one in Hinton or The Crows Nest........lol

You can expect jacks,walleye and suckers...

You'll want to make you way to the Swan Hills area for Arctic Grayling. For trout, a longer drive closer to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in is in order. Pike & Walleye are in your neck of the woods.

Thanks for the information guys!
Kind of figured there wouldn't be much trout out here. I guess I should have asked "what can I fly fish for on the rivers of NE AB"? and "what is a good weight rod/line for them"?.... wish I could re-name the thread.

can anyone answer those questions for me?

thanks again

Don't know the area but if there is the potential to get into some big pike at least an 8 wt is in order for walleye a 6 wt is probably fine but you will inevitabley catch pike so go with the 8 wt. Depending on the time of year you will need floating line, a sink tip or intermediate sink and a full sinking line with steel/titanium leaders.

There is a lake just West of cold lake that has rainbows in it. Not a stream by any chance but if you are looking to fly fish for trout its only a 10 min drive from Cold Lake. Ice fished it this year and there were some good sized ones in there.
It's called Little Bear Lake

Troll around a bugger that should do it.

PERFECT! thanks, just what I was looking for! Wasn't sure about pike and walleye. Good to know about the rod/line weight too, I was just about to buy another 6WT but now will increase it to 7/8. As for the rig, that set up is new to me but sounds interesting. Pike on a fly rod...sounds like a ride.
Thanks Uberfly!

That is also great to hear! Thanks!
I will be Google mapping that lake in 5,4,3....

Thanks to everyone who chimed in... Doc, Mountain Guy, RapStaff, puddlepointer... to many to mention.
keep it coming