Fishing Reports:

St.Mary Angler: 2009 Season in Review.

Precipitation:

We can’t really effectively review the fishing season without first assessing the amount of the water available to drive the rivers we fly-fish. The amount of snowfall we received last winter was just a whisker above the long-term average for the Kootenay Region. So we were in pretty good shape from the start of the 2009 campaign. In terms of the spring runoff, most of our rivers experienced their highest freshet flows in the first week of June, but experienced no significant flooding. Rainfall throughout the season was below average in May, above in June, July and August and just slightly below in September. We got a little wetter than we wanted in August, but on the whole things we were really good in terms of floatability and providing lots of cool oxygenated water for the fish.

Temperature:

Daily temperatures are also an important factor in understanding the fishing season on the whole. The daily temperatures this season were all slightly above the long term normals except for September.  September was quite frankly ‘whacky’ as the monthly average daily high temperatures were a whopping 3.7° Celsius (8.7° F.) above the norm. So we experienced some fantastic September fishing weather.  The season lasted until the end of the first week of October when we shut things down due to a cold snap. What this all meant for us is that once again we were blessed with enough precipitation and good warm temperatures to undertake another passionate season of fly fishing.
Rainfall (millimetres):

Temperature (Celsius):

The Alpine Lakes:

We started getting into shape for the season by visiting our favourite spring alpine lakes to stretch out the casting arms. By May 17th on our trip to Premier Lake it had turned over and the weather was just spectacular; sunny for the most part with only a few clouds and some light wind on the Lake. The temperature hovered around 18 degrees Celsius on that day (65° F.). These conditions were perfect for spring fly-fishing. Between the two anglers, 35 fish were caught and released.  The average size was between 14 and 16 inches with the biggest stretching the tape to 19! This Penask Rainbow was a real beauty.  All the fish landed appeared very healthy, with about 60% of them in spawning colors, typical for this time of year.

The Rivers:

We continued to fish the lakes and followed the steady hatches of chironomids, damsels, callibaetis mayflies and flying ants into mid June. By then our casting arms were in good shape and we were anxious to reacquaint ourselves with the art of dry fly fishing. By June 22nd we were onto the St.Mary for our first float, about one week behind 2008’s inaugural trip. As we did not experience a large ‘bank topping’ freshet this spring, we didn’t see any significant creation of new channels or braids along the River corridor.

Both the Elk and St.Mary rivers rounded into form ahead of schedule this year as we had good fishing on both before we even got out of June. By early July the rivers seemed about two weeks ahead of schedule in terms of the end of the freshet, and more importantly, their fishability. During our July 3rd trip to the Elk we had clear blue skies with temperatures topping out in the high 20’s Celsius (84+ °F.). The overall water conditions were prime for this early in the season.  The pools and runs were formed up nicely as the water level had dropped and the clarity of the River approached ‘crystal’. During this float, the fishing was excellent as the two anglers caught and released about 45 fish between them.  The St.Mary River was also fishing well early on and by the third week of July we were fishing the Skookumchuck River. By the end of July the grasshoppers were dominant throughout the fields and we were seeing hatches of tan caddis and gray duns coming off the St.Mary and fishing was great!

By August the rivers were in their summer groove, but we did experience a stretch of rainy weather east of us over on the Elk River in the first couple of weeks.  Lucky for us we have the St.Mary River, which did not get the thunderstorms and continued to fish very well. During this period the St.Mary provided good catch rates with the odd cutthroat in the 17 inch class showing up for the anglers. By the third week of August things had settled down over on the Elk and the fishing was up to the usual standards again. During our August 23rd float, the fishing was very good as the two anglers caught and released over 20 cutthroats each.  The average size was 14-15 inches with a couple fish over 16 inches.  The big fish were chunky with bright markings and that trademark brilliant orange cut along the jaw line. By later in the month we were able to get into the Bull River for the first time. An early season slide had hampered watercolour up till then, but once it cleared up it did not disappoint as we caught a lot of nice fish, and the scenery, as always, was just fantastic.

September brought us an incredible stretch of beautiful, unseasonably warm weather. By now the water levels on the St.Mary and Elk were at their summer lows, but the fishing was very good. We were seeing good hatches of green drakes and by the end of the first week of August we were experiencing hatches of blue winged olives as well. We fished the St.Mary and Elk through September and got back to the Bull River as well.

We continued to fish after October 1st with good success and landed some pretty big fish. On the last day of the season we caught a real beauty cutthroat of about 18 inches. This fish was all fattened up in wait for the impending winter. While the fishing still looked good, the weather did not cooperate and we had to shut things down.

The Columbia River:

After we shut the down our East Kootenay rivers, we took a few clients over to the West side to fish for those big rainbows on the Columbia River. As most of you know, we started our guiding business on the tailwater section of the Columbia River downstream of Castlegar in the early 90’s. This stretch of the Columbia is about 3 hours from Kimberley or about 2 from Spokane Washington. Over the past 5 years the Columbia has seen a dramatic increase in the number of fish per mile and returned to the type of fishery it was decades ago. This is a result of the reconstruction of the spillway on the upstream dam at Castlegar which reduced nitrogen supersaturation which was causing the fish to get the “bends”. This problem is now gone and the fishing has responded incredibly well.

“Wow” is about the only thing I can say about the Columbia these days. The rainbows we were catching ranged from 16- 25 inches! And these Rainbows look and fight like their Steelhead cousins. In mid to late October we fished for nine days on the Columbia and had some great success. On this piece of big water you need to be able to cast well; you must be able to cast to a specific spot when the rainbows are rising to a point to feed. These fish fight very hard and break-off is real problem, but a good one to have. Because of the success of these October trips, we are going to start offering full time guided trips on the Columbia in the months of April, May, June and October in 2010.

The best time for very large Rainbows is April, May and October. Late June we will be offering a split trip. Two days on the St.Mary and 2 days on the Columbia. What a trip that will be!

So there you have it, another year in review. 2009 was a great year for dry fly fishing on the St.Mary, Elk, Skookumchuck and Bull rivers. We also rediscovered our grove on the Columbia River in October. We had good weather during the season, and our flexibility of river venues really was a bonus when we endured a stretch of wet weather on the Elk. The season started early, rounded into form ahead of schedule and really produced very well throughout. We had a wonderful year of fishing and greatly enjoyed and appreciated your patronage. We hope to see you next year and are booking 2010 trips now.

We will be attending tradeshows in the New Year and hope to see you there. Click for dates, locations and contact us for will call tickets if you will be attending.

Have a safe winter and don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-667-2311 to chat about next year’s available days.

Take care,

Kelly and Karen Laatsch
St.Mary Angler

This page was last updated on December 20, 2009

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