Basic launch

Rainbows weren't fussy

A follow-up from Steve Mills, field staff volunteer in Grand Prairie: On May 17, we drove back up to a stocked lake two hours from Grande Prairie. Arrived at around 10 a.m. and went to our standard brown, green or maroon mini-leeches two feet under strike indicators. Fished for two hours and caught about around 30 1-4 lb. rainbows. They weren’t fussy about colour and were plugged with balls of small black leeches and large, light-green Darner dragonfly nymphs. I would assume that would indicate that this week casting a sinking line out over drop-off with a light-green dragonfly and retrieving toward shore as they migrate in will be very successful.

Chasing the ice away

Steve Mills, Angler's Atlas field staff volunteer in Grand Prairie, Alta., wasn't waiting for the ice to melt at Figure Eight Lake on May 11: Drove to a favorite stocked lake a couple hours north of Grande Prairie. Arrived at 2:30 pm. Ice was still on my favorite bay, but the main body of the lake was open. We fished ice edges successfully and the bay opened at around 3:30 p.m. After a slow start due to my wife lying about the colour of mini-leech she was using to out-fish me, we went on to land 20-plus rainbows ranging from 1-4 lbs., as well as missing an equal number. We were casting from shore, dead-drifting brown beadhead mini-leeches 2 feet under the strike indicator. This works at all the stocked lakes in this area for most of May. At around 4 p.m. the wind in our faces pushed a chironomid hatch into our bay with an accompanying large school of trout. Stayed with the mini leeches rather than switching to ice cream cones, and the trout continued to bite. Most of the fish are very silvery, making me wonder if triploids are being stocked here.