Trip Report

I went fishing with a friend today. We headed out to the Castle
Wilderness, in southwestern Alberta. The area is beautiful, and is about
an hour and a half drive from my home. The scenery was awesome; the area
is forested, many wildflowers are in bloom, and there was no one around.
We had the stream to ourselves.

The area is dominated by cutthroats, with the occasional bull trout
around (we didn't see any). I used a hopper-dropper combination, a small
stimulator with a bead-head nymph tied on. The stimulator was constant,
the nymphs changed.

The fishing was quite good. We caught a lot of cutts, ranging from small
to about 14". I actually caught one on my second cast of the day. We
fished the pools, runs, and riffles; they seemed to be everywhere. I
think one of the highlights was when I hooked two cutts at the same
time, one on the dry, one on the nymph. I played them for a while, but
only landed one. I noticed a few things about the fish...they were all
in good shape, and very good color. I am not sure if that is because of
the limited access, or the mandatory use of barbless hooks. I wish I had
the writing skills to describe their colour....the sides were a
golden-brown with black spots, and the bellies were a salmon color. Real
pretty.

We walked along the stream for about 6 1/2 hours, followed by a 10
minute hike to a road, and a half hour walk back to the car. I was
pretty beat. All in all a good day.

Tim Lysyk