My trip to Alberta this year was not what we expected. After last year’s incredible hopper fishing, we were all looking forward to similar fishing for 2013. It was not to be. Five days before we arrived a huge T storm hit the area and doubled the flows on River X. We had never seen water come over the spillway before in August.
hat did not stop us from fish. We had to alter our tactics a bit and fished nymphs and streamers most of the week. Our group (Meng Syn, Jon Leonard, Roland Kumagai, Victor Inouye and Kenny Oda) all did OK considering the conditions.
I actually left River X one day to float another river (Waterton)! That is unheard of for me. It paid off because we fished hoppers to big browns all day and it was a beautiful river.
River X never improved while we were there. Big fish of the week there was caught by Roland (as usual) but I did get some nice quality fish.
One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a snail mine near the river. Yes I said snail, but not an ordinary snail. These 80 million year old petrified nautilus’ were fascinating to see. These guys mine the snails from the mud and put them together piece by piece. A completed specimen can go for as high as $50K. The completed snail in these photos has a price tag of $29,000! No wonder he has a death grip on that thing!
