A Two Year Mission - Part 1

First Northern Pike On A Surface Fly

  Every adventure we start in life begins with a conversation.  My conversation / adventure began in the winter of 2012. I guess you could say that I started the conversation about catching Walleye and Northern Pike on the fly.  I started grilling my fly fisherman father in law about the subject to which I was surprised he had limited knowledge on. Since he has over thirty years plus experience with the sport I surely thought he would have tapped into these fish at some point. So I put forth a challenge for the two of us, to make it our mission, starting spring of 2013 to land one of these beasts on the fly.

 I was surprised to find out that this method of fishing, for these fish species, is pretty much and untapped market in Canada. So, throughout the winter I looked into what weight of fly rod I should start with, what flies people have used and a general technique & approach to fly fishing for these fish species.

 The easy part was sourcing out the equipment and the tackle with the help of the internet. However finding out the "How To" was a bit more like trial and error.

Redington 8wt Crosswater Rod & Redington's Delta Reel

 For a basic starter kit I selected Redington's Crosswater 8wt series.  It came with a rod, basic reel, fly line and rod case.  I also purchased a second reel, Redington's "Delta" series 8wt and a Pike tapered line to match. This way I could fish surface and subsurface fly patterns with ease. For my floating line I also bought a fifteen foot sink tip leader for trolling a fly behind the boat.

 With my hardware covered it was time to source out what types of fly patterns we should use come spring. Since there was a lack of knowledge from the local retail stores my father in law and I decided to start with the flies he tied up years ago. My father in law even dug up an old video on surface fishing for big pike for us to reference.

  With all the gear in hand it was time to "Chuck Some Bugs" and see what we drag up from the bottom of the lake. So as soon as the ice was off the lake, Buck Lake Alberta, the two of us loaded up the boat and went our adventure.

  One thing the both of us took from the Pike video, was that during early conditions Pike will still be holding in the shallows post spawn. Along with a basic cast / retrieve method for the fly we would be using. With that in mind we headed to a big flat bay with a river inlet at one end of it. We fished the shallow weed line with a surface fly called the Dahlberg Diver. Similar to what is shown below. To our surprise we managed to catch four Pike. So Stoked! Our first time out and we accomplish fifty percent of our goal, can't get any better than that, so we thought.

Pike On A Subsurface Trolling Fly

 Flash forward to summer 2013. Still only have the four Pike from our first time out under our belts. I have now switched from top water flies to trolling a sub surface fly on a sink tip leader in the hopes of getting the Walleye I've been so desperately wanting to land. I tried several different tactics throughout the summer and fall and only managed to land more Pike.  Not that I am complaining as Pike are super fun to catch on a fly but I wanted what had escaped me to this point. A nice fat Walleye to complete the goal set forth. Time to do a little more digging and see what comes of the 2014 season.

To be continued...