Red Deer River
~ Checking your expectations ~

The Red Deer River offers many fly fishing opportunities. Fly fishing for trophy brown trout on the dry fly can be challenging and not always consistent. Rising trout, like insect hatches, come and go throughout the day. We will hone in on the rising trout and assist you in fly & gear selection, approach to the water, and presentation when the trout provide the opportunity. Your patience and desire to indulge in the perfect take is an asset. At other times we will cast streamers and seldom nymph fish. Streamer fishing is intensive also. We will float the river diligently and work the water aggressively. Large trout are predators and our techniques treat them as such. Be prepared to do some streamer fishing with some unconventional tactics.

The Red Deer is a good place to come expecting to have a good shot at several rising trout in a day and these will range from 17 to 29". Most will be trout in the 19 to 23" range. You will likely land 2 to 10 trout in a day, though there are many days of the season that produce many more, and a few less.

Before coming to fish the Red Deer, we encourage guests to plan to fish the river for 2 days and come with an open mind as the river is temperamental at times. One day is a window into what the river can offer however, if the fishing is slow one day, it may offer better fishing on the second or third day. Please check your expectations and come with a mind of pursuing one before thinking of multiples. These are large, top level predatory trout and no matter where you go you won't catch 50 brown trout over 20" in a day. Once or twice a year we'll come across that many risers, mind you.

Best times to fish the Red Deer River: Unless there is good hopper fishing (which will only be known in season), we strongly recommend to fish the river from opening day (3rd Friday or May) through June 7; June 25 to early August; Sept 7 to early October. The Red Deer is essentially a 12 week a year river, reliably. If we get hoppers or flying ants, which are temperamental at best, then the entire summer can be good. Guests are strongly encouraged to book to our recommendations as these can offer some excellent windows of 5 to 20 trout in the 20 - 28" range. Guests booking dates for the non recommended times will do so knowing that if we expect the river to be slow (as in low chance of catching a trout) we will host your trip on another water (no deposit returns). We try our best to put you on the river at the right time and are honest about the river.