fly noob looking for spots N/NE of calgary

kwirky · #1 06-08-2009, 11:25 AM

I work in the northeast and live off the 564 (country hills) east of the city 10 km. I've been looking for spots to practice my fly fishing after work and on the weekends. Any advice? I'm real new to fly fishing and don't have waders yet either so for the moment it'd have to be bank fishing.

I plan on keeping the rod & fly gear in the car for when the weather seems good and I have some spare time.

nicemustang · #2 06-08-2009, 11:43 AM

You likely live within 5 minutes of me, I'm in prairie royale estates off rr 284

A while back someone posted about Bruce lake. I've been there and it's pretty nice to fish in the summer appearantly... http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...ighlight=bruce

Otherwise Chestermere is good too. Dewitts pond near Airdrie.

kwirky · #3 06-08-2009, 12:29 PM

dewitts sounds perfectly close. I'll go try it out a few times this week hopefully. I found data that they stocked it in 2002 with over a thousand fish. I wonder if that's a yearly thing?

Thanks for the help!

jts1 · #4 06-08-2009, 12:58 PM

Yes it is here is a link to the stocking report for this year

http://www.mywildalberta.com/documents/2009Stocking.pdf

kwirky · #5 06-08-2009, 01:50 PM

thanks for that link to the stocking report. Based on that info I might go the extra distance to mt. lorette ponds too because they're stocked with fish that are worth taking home. I wonder if they're still frozen right now with the weather we've been having.

nicemustang · #6 06-08-2009, 02:05 PM

It is long since thawed, but probably fished out already. It's busy and easy to get to and gets fished out in few weeks. Bruce lake....catching pike on the fly....sounds super fun and really close to your house.

kwirky · #7 06-08-2009, 02:42 PM

5 hour drive's a little far but pike on a fly rod sounds like fun (it's a #6 6'6", so it'd be a challenge)

I'll check out dewitt first. maybe even tonight, we'll see.

nicemustang · #8 06-08-2009, 02:46 PM

Bruce lake is 4 miles from hiway 9 east on 566 (kathryn).

Bruce lake
Found this place about 5 years ago.It is a group of 3 lakes I have only fished the north lake and the middle lake.The north lake contains mostly smaller pike with the odd legal size and is prone to winter kill. The middle lake is sweet lots of pike and again about 50% over legal size. Locals told me a 28 pounder came out of there once (could be BS) I have not caught anything over 5lbs but the fishing is still good.I kept a few pike a few years ago for a fishfry and found them to be of poor eating quality possibly due to the heavy algae blooms in the summer time. I'm hoping to fish the south lake soon as it is the biggest.

How to get there--
Take highway 566 east from Balzac and keep going approx 27 Kilometers or about 7 kilometers east of highway 9 on the 566, you will see a big house on the lake shore on south side of road

kwirky · #9 06-08-2009, 03:45 PM

oh ok. I googled bruce lake and I got a hit for some lake 5 hours from here close to the saskatchewan border, east from red deer.

This is where you're talking about right? Just east of keoma before the 9 starts twisting?
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=5...,0.181961&z=13

Do you need a boat to get good fishing from it?

baitfisher83 · #10 06-08-2009, 05:38 PM

man that sounds close.....i'd like to find another pike spot too, besides Cheterslough....heard Glenmore can be good for it but hard to get at in the right spots i think<<not a good fence jumper..lol>>

kwirky · #11 06-08-2009, 07:33 PM

just got back from checking it out. The lake's about 4 miles east of keoma. access to the middle lake is via the range road right on the west side of the lake. ~200 yard walk east from the road along a foot path to a floating bargelike dock. the foot path was in front of a grey house on the west side of the RR

i brought my fly rod but strangely the wind was blowing west. i bait casted smelts from shore on my spincast rod.

i got a couple nibbles but i think the fish are too small close to shore. An hour later I packed up when the wind blew in rain.

i'm borrowing my mom's little inflatable and gonna try again on saturday to see if there's anything in there. If there's no luck I'll take the inflatable to Dewitt's pond Sunday and try fly fishing there for trout.

jts1 · #12 06-08-2009, 08:03 PM

Grotto Pond and Gap Lake just the other side of Exshaw can provide some action on the fly. Wedge Pond in K Country has Greyling as does Quarry Lake in Canmore. All are easy to get to and can produce fish. Chief Hector @ Nakota Lodge cost's 25 a day to fish but has little pressure and holds some big Rainbows.

nicemustang · #13 06-10-2009, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwirky

just got back from checking it out. The lake's about 4 miles east of keoma. access to the middle lake is via the range road right on the west side of the lake. ~200 yard walk east from the road along a foot path to a floating bargelike dock. the foot path was in front of a grey house on the west side of the RR

i brought my fly rod but strangely the wind was blowing west. i bait casted smelts from shore on my spincast rod.

i got a couple nibbles but i think the fish are too small close to shore. An hour later I packed up when the wind blew in rain.

i'm borrowing my mom's little inflatable and gonna try again on saturday to see if there's anything in there. If there's no luck I'll take the inflatable to Dewitt's pond Sunday and try fly fishing there for trout.

Slow down there skippy. That is private land you tresspassed on to get to that spot. The only place public can fish is the north lake from the road. You can take your boat and go over the weir and cross from the north lake to the middle lake, because the lake itself is public. But don't be tresspassing on land especially since it's fenced, gated, and no tresspassing signs are there. Respect the land owners. I've heard the guy that owns the land shoot first and asks questions later.

I will be there on the road area thursday night from about 7:30-9:00 if anyone wants to BS about fishing. Trying to convince a buddy to come and we might paddle his dingy to the middle lake, wind depending.

kwirky · #14 06-10-2009, 11:40 AM

so it's ok to trudge through the land on the north side of the lake? I had a look there and it looked like private land as well. I'm borrowing my mom's dingy tonight for the weekend but I won't be able to make it out there for thursday, meeting at the University. But I might check it out on Friday after work since the weather's supposed to be good.

I liked how the lake was super close to my house, like 15 minutes away. I heard there's perch in there too, I've always enjoyed fishing for perch.

nicemustang · #15 06-10-2009, 12:17 PM

No, if you keep going around the bend, there is no land between the road and the lake. Just the ditch. Public access and it will be easy to see the spot to fish on. You can take your dingy though and go south to the middle lake with some paddling. I might be going tonight now...anyway text me if you want to meet up some night. Sent a PM.

Kenny Blankenship · #16 06-10-2009, 01:42 PM

Sounds interesting. I've never heard of it, but I may go for a drive tonight or later on in the week and check this lake out.