[scel]

Originally Posted by warrdogg

Hi y'all. Thank you in advance.

I am looking for some advice. I have been fly fishing for 2.5 years and I have not been doing very well. In that time I have caught 6 trout in total. At first I enjoyed the whole process of going out even when I would come up empty. It was new and was putting in time to learn a new skill.

I have to admit that I am getting a bit (a lot) frustrated with most of my trips are a bust. Not even a bite. Yesterday spent 6 hours on the Little Red Deer and all I caught was a full bag of trash I picked up along the banks.

When I first started I took a course to learn the basics after a friend introduced me to flyfishing. I watch videos and read books. I really don't know what I can do. I practice casting and believe I am decent now.

I have tried Elk Creek, Little Red Deer, Three Isle, Red Deer, Dogpound, Highwood, Oldman. Only had success at Three Isle and Little Red Deer. Most of these places I have visited multiple times and the day usually ends with me coming up empty.

I am beginning to question the saying "A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work."

First of all, I really appreciate someone picking up trash. Seriously mate, thanks.

There are a few cardinal mistakes people make when they are learning. Trust me, it is not an insult to say that you are learning. I am constantly learning and adapting. I dropped conventional angling about 15 years ago. I would say that I am ‘OK’ at fly fishing now.

Realize that you are fishing some notoriously difficult waters. You are fishing brown trout living in spring-fed creeks (Elk Creek, Dogpound, and Little RDR are spring fed). Spring creeks are far more stable in temperature and food availability, which makes them difficult to fish because the fish can afford to be picky. Couple that with the fact brown trout are easily the pickiest and most skittish of all the Alberta trout. I am very familiar with Dogpound. While there are nice fish, you have to move like a ninja---one errant mistep or slip in the creek will scatter the fish for 30m. Here is a common summer PMD evening hatch on the Dogpound. I can guarantee the 7 different PMD patterns that I was carrying were not good enough for the actively rising fish. After I confirmed the rising fish were indeed eating PMDs, I finally caught a couple after I found the rhythm to which the fish were rising when I could drop a fly in its feeding lane, after extending my leader from 9’ to 12’ and downsizing both my fly and tippet.

The RDR has big beautiful brown trout, but your window to catch them is tight (crepuscular hours) and holding water is sparse. I have talked about it in other posts, but the RDR browns have to be wary to just stay alive.

The Highwood and sections of the Oldman are highly pressured waters. You have to be on your A-game if you want catch fish. If you want success catching fish in these systems, I find fishing during the week to be your best bet.

There are a few cardinal mistakes people tend to make.

Wading in water you should be fishing
This is painfully common. Fish have lateral lines that detect disturbance. Wading into a babbling creek will certainly be detected by the fish. The amount of times I see people wading where they should be fishing is crazy. Experienced people make this mistake too, mostly because they know where they have caught fish last time, so they move to access the same spot. In general, if you can make the cast without getting into the water, try that first. If you feel you need to get into the water for a better drift or angle, then do it. Put your skills to the test first, then use brute force.

Not moving
Fish in a river system are more or less stationary. They move around as the water levels change or when it is safe to do so (like the evenings), but are stationary compared to stillwater fish. As well, about 90% of the river will be devoid of fish. In order to find fish, it is usually important to move. In an afternoon (4 hours) of fishing on a productive river (like the Bow River), I will probably cover close to 2.5km of river. On an unproductive river, I would probably cover up to 5km. Sure, the fish move around the river somewhat, but not in many of the rivers you are fishing. The kind of water they will hold in is fairly seasonal.

Fishing dry flies
We all love the picturesque situation of a trout gently sipping a dry fly off the surface. It is likely that people will give some flack for this, but it is true. Over 90% of a trout's food is subsurface. In my experience, the only species of trout that will haphazardly take a dry fly is a cutthroat, even then, they can still be rather specific with their choices. But if you are fishing brown trout water, unless there are actively rising fish, it is like winning the lottery if a brown trout takes a dry. There are exceptions like stonefly or grasshopper season (each about 3 weeks in length at the beginning and end of summer). In particularly good years, trout will not easily pass on a big meal like a hopper or stonefly, but these moments are still relatively uncommon. In probably 1500 days of fishing brown and rainbow trout water, I have experienced 2 days when rainbow or brown trout were taking topwater flies without actively rising. It took me a couple years to figure out when a dry is OK. A rule of thumb is when you see a fish rise in the same spot more than 3 times.

Not Paying Attention
When you round a bend or see a new pool, the absolute best thing you can do is take a moment to break down the water. Take a moment to stop and look. On the spring creeks, taking 10 minutes to sit quietly has, more often than not, revealed the activity of the stream. The beautiful undercut banks provide protection and they also seem to amplify the sound of anything travelling the banks. Regardless, when you approach a fresh section of river, sitting down (or leaning against a tree, or whatever) gives you a chance to examine the water for any active fish. It takes about 10 minutes for a mildly spooked brown (like from mild bank vibrations) trout to resume normal activity. This gives you a chance to check your hooks and tippet, adjust your indicator/dropper depth, get a drink of water, etc. I understand, as a newbie, you often do not know what to look for, but just taking 30 seconds to a minute to break down how to approach the section of water will have benefits.

How do you fix these problems?
Like c.wright said above, learn a section of water. I also learned to fly fish on the Bow River, which is a notoriously fickle river with massive seasonal changes. While the river changes and so does seasonal fish behaviour, there are some constants. Pick a 1km section of river. Spend a couple hours on it every week. The rivers you have fished definitely have reasonable amounts of fish in them.

I would also entertain some ‘training’ fish. I did not know it at the time, but I cut my teeth bottom bouncing maggot tipped flies on the Red Deer river. When I picked up a nymph rig, I already knew what I was doing. Most of the river systems you mentioned have good whitefish populations. If you can start catching whities, the trout will be close by. Rocky mountain whitefish are under-appreciated as a sport fish. Their numbers make them a great training fish. In Red Deer and downstream, the goldeye can provide some good summer fun. They will take streamers and dries.

When I hit a central AB creek, the first thing that I do is some wet-fly prospecting. It is not a very popular method of fishing in western Canada, but it is arguably the simplest way to fly fish. It combines nymph fishing and streamer fishing. It is not as effective as say straight nymphing or euro nymphing for numbers or move big feeding fish like a streamer, but it is a good compromise between both. It allows you to give the fish what they are expecting (a small buggy food source). It is the best way to cover lots of water. Because of the simple reason of covering water, you begin to learn where fish are holding and/or to where they will move to take a fly.

Set up is easy. Take a weighted fly, like a wooly bugger, spring creek bugger, or leech. These patterns will be size 10 or 12, so not big. I prefer to tie a second fly to the eye of the first fly with about 40cm of 4x tippet. For the second fly, I would use a classic sz14-18 fly, like a hares ear, pheasant tail or copper john. Cast upstream at 45degrees, watch the tip of your fly line, mending as necessary. You want to keep a close contact with the flies, but you want them to sink, just like you would an indicator nymph rig. As the flies start moving downstream, allow the line to go tight, and swing the flies just like you would a streamer. For the upstream section of the cast, if the tip of your fly line twitches, pauses or sinks, set the hook. For the downstream/swing portion, with a tight line, you will feel the bite, which is almost never subtle.

Watch the first 5 or so minutes of this video. Notice how Tom is fishing 2 nymphs, casting upstream, tossing in a mend or 2 then, swinging out the fly.
https://youtu.be/kwmM9xaRLho

If you really want to improve your technique with this method. I am wary of this technique. I find using tags off tippet rings to be more trouble than they are worth, but a sinking leader is a great way to really get the best out of the swing portion of your cast.
https://youtu.be/NjD84YfmKLs?t=3m48s

Here is an article that dicusses ‘productive vs unproductive’ streams: https://midcurrent.com/techniques/ri...trout-streams/ . The waters you are fishing are at least moderately productive (except the RDR, which is productive, but still not a great trout river) to very productive. The ‘training’ waters that people have mentioned, like the Ram Rivers in the central west, or the Livingstone/Upper Oldman in the southwest are relatively unproductive for bug life, but makes for some pretty gullible fish.

Trout Streams of Alberta is 100% worth your time to read.

Good Luck, mate. Fly fishing is not hard, per se, but there are many different elements that must come together for it to work.