Thanks for all the Fish, Alberta

Six years ago, almost to the month, my wife and I loaded up our little Toyota and moved from Richmond Hill, Ontario to Calgary, Alberta to begin our careers in public education.

We originally only planned to stay out there a couple of years to gain some experience while the teaching job market cooled down back in Ontario.

Well you know how things go. Two years turned to three and three years quickly turned to six. It was during our time in Alberta that my passion for fishing was truly reinvigorated. I had enjoyed fishing since I was a little kid but Alberta helped turn my interest in fishing into a full blown obsession.

Jessica and I during our first summer out west

There's many possible reasons I rediscovered my love for fishing while living in Wild Rose Country. Maybe it was my first big Bow River brown or it could've been smashing my personal bests for pike and walleye in Northern Alberta. Being able to have local Albertans tour me around their favourite mountain streams definitely had something to do with it. Regardless of the reason, Alberta had a lot to do with my current love for fishing.

My first fish on fly gear

Can't get these in Ontario! A Highwood River bull trout.

Despite our love for life out West, six years was a long time to be away from our family and friends. So last week, we jammed what was left of our belongings into a U-Haul trailer and began the long journey back to Southern Ontario. Getting ready for the big move didn't leave much time for fishing this past June.

Still, I clearly had to get out for a last hurrah so my friend Adam and I rented a canoe and fished Two Jack Lake in Banff for one last day of fishing in the Canadian Rockies.

The sun was shining and we weren't disappointed with our decision to forego guaranteed fish for a final chance to fish in some of Canada's most beautiful country. If we had gotten skunked it almost would've been okay just to get out there.

I'm definitely going to miss fishing places like this

Adam started off with a chironomid below his strike indicator and I tied on a balanced leech below mine. It took us some time to figure out at what depth we could expect strikes but once we did, it became clear olive leeches were the way to go.

As we rowed around the clear mountain lake, we both got a few whitefish (Adam seems to only catch whitefish). We were having trouble staying at the right depth as the wind was blowing quite strongly across the lake so we decided to try a quieter bay we spotted on the far shore. Once we got there we both landed a couple more whitefish and much to our surprise I caught my first lake trout. Not a big one but I could finally scratch lakers off my fishing bucket list.

Adam and a nice Rocky Mountain whitefish

My first lake trout

As Jessica and I drove east last week I felt a little melancholy to be leaving the beautiful trout streams and my fishing companions behind. But, as we got into Canadian Shield country and passed countless lakes, rivers and fishing lodges, any sadness I felt quickly turned into feeling excited to finally be home.

Shaking off the Winter Angler Blues

Winter weather has certainly been in the news lately. From crazy ice storms in Ontario to record ice coverage on the Great Lakes and even winter driving chaos in the American Deep South, this winter has been something else.

Even though winter seems to have been more harsh all over North America than here in Southern Alberta, it's easy to start feeling the cabin fever creeping in, especially if you're an angler. Even if the weather is cooperating, most of our favourite spots are closed or too dangerous to fish.

That's not to say we haven't been catching fish. We've had fun days down at Chain Lakes Provincial Park and despite my recent skunking at Lower Kananaskis Lake in the edge of the Alberta Rockies, my friend Peter caught the biggest bull trout I've ever seen in person.

A couple more Chain Lakes trout on the ice

I can think of worse places to get skunked than on Lower Kananaskis Lake

Peter and his Lower K bull trout. This pig barely fit through the hole.

Just last weekend, my friend Ivan invited us back to ice fish the little private lake where we spent the last nice day of fall drifting in the sun catching big rainbow trout (read about that day here). Again, the lake was productive and I managed to pull a couple of big trout through the ice as well as a mess of little perch that we weren't allowed to put back as they had been illegally introduced some years ago. I usually don't keep many fish but my wife and I had a blast filleting and frying the little fish for dinner.

A nice rainbow through the ice

Another ice rainbow

A mess of tasty little perch

So, I may not be able to troll around beautiful Canadian Shield lakes or wade through pristine free stone mountain streams for at least a few more months but if this is the worst it gets, we're pretty damn fortunate to be anglers in Canada. It beats having to sleep in your car after getting caught in an Alabama "blizzard" any day of the week.