The challenges and rewards of chasing Alberta’s brown trout on the fly

FREESTONE STREAMS

The water flows of a freestone stream are based on a combination of snowmelt and rain. As summer progresses, they grow warmer and their flow rate diminishes because of reduced inflows. They’re also prone to high turbidity from runoff and rain, and can often get blown out for several days as far as fishing is concerned.

Alberta’s freestone brown trout streams vary greatly in size, from large rivers such as the Waterton, Bow, Red Deer and North Saskatchewan, to small tributary creeks you can spit across, with names nobody knows. There are also plenty of wonderful mid-sized streams in between. I appreciate that some of Alberta’s large rivers are more properly defined as tailwater fisheries because their water levels are influenced by dams, but most act very much like freestone streams.

On a freestone river, your fly selection doesn’t need to be as precise as it should be on a spring creek. Freestone browns are more opportunistic feeders and therefore considerably less judgmental about your choice. Any big, bushy, high-floating dry fly will generally suffice, allowing you to maintain better visual contact with your offering as it floats through the more turbulent sections common on freestone waters.

On a freestone river, your fly selection doesn’t need to be as precise as on a spring creek

I cut my brown trout teeth on Prairie Creek, a perfect mid-sized freestone stream. The late outdoor writer Bob Scammell showed me the ropes on the Prairie, including the popular “Miracle Mile” section, and I’ve fished it nearly every year for the past 30. It’s a finicky trout stream, though. If you hit the celebrated annual salmonfly hatch just right, it can seem as though there’s a hefty brown behind every rock and beneath every undercut bank, just waiting for your Stimulator. At other times, however, the fishing is so inexplicably poor you wonder if there are any fish there at all.

There are dozens and dozens of freestone brown trout streams snaking through Alberta’s western landscapes, but undoubtedly the most renowned is the incomparable Bow River, where the fish can be exceedingly colourful by late summer. I’ve floated the Bow annually with my buddy Perry McCormick for as long as I can remember, and despite concerns the rainbow fishing has diminished in recent years, the brown trout action has been as good as ever.

The fly-fishing formula here is pretty simple—just cast big foam flies (stonefly and hopper imitations) or weighted streamers as close to the bank as you can. Strikes, when they come, can be thunderous, and when your fish immediately heads down to fight, you can be pretty sure it’s a brown trout, not a rainbow. Certainly, the province’s other large rivers will relinquish big, mature browns, but none with the regularity of the Bow, where broad-shouldered trout stretching the tape to 25 inches or longer are landed every year.