Dry-fly fishing Alberta's Red Deer River

DAVE JENSEN

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The Red Deer River is a quiet, gently flowing trout stream that offers fly fishers the chance to hunt large wild brown trout with dry flies. It is fly fishing's equivalent to bow hunting for trophy deer or calling in a giant elk. Opportunities on the Red Deer should not be squandered. The tailwater fishery on the Red Deer River is not a place for anglers seeking easy fish or a high fish tally. It has relatively few trout but they are extremely large.

Ninety percent of the trout we catch are over 18 inches, and every day we catch browns in the 21- to 24-inch range on dry flies. The largest brown trout regularly caught on drys run to 28 inches, but I have seen trout as large as 34 inches caught by lure fishermen.

Alberta weather is predictably moderate in September and October (above) when the trees change colors and the brown trout prepare to spawn.

Under normal conditions, visiting anglers with a guide can expect 10 to 25 chances a day with two to a dozen trout landed. While there are few fish in the river, these trout are relatively easy to catch once you learn the river and where to find the fish. You rarely need any fancy casts, special flies, or 6X tippet. The difficult part is finding the trout in such a large river. Once you find rising fish, a fly fisher who can accurately lay out a straight line with a delicate presentation will be successful.

The Red Deer begins below Dickson Dam and settles into a parkland valley of white spruce and aspen. Moose, deer, coyotes, ospreys, bald eagles, and a host of waterfowl call the valley home. The river valley feels remote as farmland and pastures provide very few glimpses of civilization.

Due to its northern latitude, this tailwater fishery does not warm quickly, providing coldwater trout habitat for 30 miles downstream of the dam. The most reliable fishing and highest population of trout is from the Dickson Dam downstream to the mouth of the Medicine River.