Red Deer River

~ Hatches ~

The delicate clematis (left) blooms late May, signaling the start of brown trout surface feeding. For those of us skulking riverside forests, it indicates imminent  explosive hatches. Our river is blessed with excellent hatches.

For the next few weeks we're set on drifting and casting to risers. It's all about snout hunting, in search of the rubber lips of 22+" rising brown trout. It's an enjoyable game of patience. Find rising trout and there's an excellent chance the trout will take your dry fly. 

Throughout the season, we get steady hatches. A quick view of the hatch chart shows a very impressive line-up of insect hatches: Stoneflies (skwala, salmonfly, golden stone, early brown, yellow sally, lime sally, etc); Mayflies (blue winged olive, brown drakes, hexagenia, pmd, sulfurs, mahogany dun, march brown, tricos, etc); Caddis spp; terrestrials including flying ants, hoppers, and more. Some are definitely carpet hatches that will impress the most experienced fly fishers. The combination of the shallow nature of the river and heavy hatches can see large trout rising. Even during light hatches snouts will rise. It's a fascinating river that way.

Timing is key on the Red Deer River. Most months offer very good fishing while August can be hit or miss. The season opens the third Friday of May and continues through February. The prime times to fish the Red Deer River are late May - early June when caddis, march browns, and skwala stones are on the water; late June through early August when golden stones, brown drakes, pmds, and caddis are on the water. August is temperamental - during hopper years the fly fishing can be excellent, but hot days during low hopper years are very tough. Late August sees backswimmers and flying ants, before blue winged olives, caddis, and backswimmers round out the season in September and October.