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Selecting Your First Vise

  Fly tying can be both a rewarding and thought-provoking pastime. Sure, catching a fish (or two) is a gratifying result of a day spent on the water, but nothing adds to that experienc ...
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  2020-01-16 at 21:49 pm

Fishing Report - January 11, 2020

            Happy new year! As we enter the new year and set intentions to fish more than ever in 2020, winter continues to punish us viciously, forcing us to stick to the vise most days, not the mighty Bow. Although the frigid temperatures can sometimes make fishing h ...
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By Matt
  2020-01-11 at 19:28 pm

Galloup's Streamer School 2019

The Madison River Valley has to be one of the most beautiful places in Montana and people visit from all over the world to fish there each season. It’s been called the 50 mile riffle and the scenery doesn't disappoint the eyes. As you drive along the river east of ...
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By JM
  2019-12-07 at 22:19 pm

Fishing for Bulls with the Gillie in Golden BC

We recently spent a weekend in BC fishing for huge lake-run Bull Trout with Dave Burns, also known as the Golden Gillie. Located in Golden, he provides fly fishing guide services for the varied rivers and lakes in the area, however, we were there to fish the mighty Columbia ...
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By JM
  2019-11-23 at 18:39 pm

Fishing Report - October 3rd, 2019

  BOW RIVER FISHING REPORT - OCTOBER 3rd, 2019   Last week’s cold weather hammered our gardens, as well as our hopper populations. Fear not though, for the fish will still look up to hopper patterns for weeks to come. We have also seen very large October Caddis flying about, and plent ...
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By Chris Niccolls
  2019-10-04 at 15:58 pm

Fishing Report - September 21, 2019

Although we are now well into the month of September, most of us are still refusing to concede the fact that our summer is coming to a close. There are still a couple solid months of regular fishing left before the number of fishable days decreases and we have no choice but to don our waders and warmest pair of long johns for a chance at a fish. For trout ...
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  2019-09-21 at 21:04 pm

Fishing Report for September 2019

  FISHING REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 5th 2019   Bow River: We've had some wet weeks but it looks to be clearing now. Overcast days do lead to good fishing however. Trico hatches are insane righ ...
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  2019-09-05 at 17:30 pm

Fishing Report - August 14th, 2019

Bow River Fishing Report - August 14th   The river is basically right where it should be (in terms of flows) for this time of year, bouncing around the 110ms2 mark. Fishing has been quite productive! Fish are eating streamers. Think brighter flashy flies on sun ...
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  2019-08-14 at 20:32 pm

Fortress Lake Retreat Hosted Trip 2019

We have fished the lake multiple times and have a great working relationship with the owners and staff of the lodge. For these reasons, we know that our hosted trips are a great value ad for anyone looking to fish Fortress Lake. Our 201 ...
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By Aaron Feltham
  2019-02-01 at 18:22 pm

Stay Warm This Winter

It's that time of year again. Fair-weather fishermen have already set their gear aside. Some anglers are now shifting their gaze longingly upon the mountains that gather blankets of fresh snow, feeling the call to lay down some carefully planned, yet aggressive slashes on a blank white canvas. However, if you are readin ...
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By BRT Shop
  2018-09-15 at 18:18 pm

Review: Winston Microspey Line-up

When Winston introduced their new series of two-handed rods, aptly named the BIII TH MS (Micro Spey), I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one (or three!).  Being a steelhead fanatic who happens to live east of the Rocky Mountains, I’m limited to a few weeks of steelhead fishing per year.  Fortunately, I live a stone’s throw from the world-famo ...
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By Elliott Barnes
  2018-04-10 at 20:08 pm

Southern Alberta Hatch Charts

Below are hatch charts for the Red Deer, Bow, and Old Man river. These charts are a rough guideline for what insect hatches to expect in these three river systems, but as we know, nothing is certain when it comes to a day on the river. Hopefully this general guideline will be able to provide you with the information to properly prepare your fly arsenal for your trip. We ...
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By BRT
  2018-04-02 at 19:39 pm

Fish Handling Best Practices

Proper fish handling is essential to protecting our province's currently bountiful resource. Using proper catch-and-release techniques will help to ensure that the future of fishing in Alberta is a bright one. Before I get all purist on you, I would like to mention that it is not at all unethical to keep fish that are in accordance with a particular water& ...
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By Matt Hodgson
  2018-04-02 at 17:50 pm

How to Clean and Maintain your GORE-TEX Outerwear

How to Care for your GORE-TEX Gear:   To make sure the performance of your GORE-TEX gear (waders included) is performing properly for the upcoming fishing season, it’s best to wash and take care of this technical outerwear correctly. Don’t just toss your waders and ...
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By Matt Hodgson
  2018-03-24 at 18:09 pm

Photography Tips for Fly Fishing

Although the size of this bull trout is nothing special, this is one of my favourite bull trout photos. No grip and grin needed here, just a beautiful image showing off a beautiful fish.  Always keep fish in the wa ...
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By Mark S
  2018-03-05 at 22:05 pm

DIY Alberta Fly Fishing Trip

Planning a Do-it-yourself Alberta Fly-Fishing Trip   Alberta holds many amazing possibilities for exploring fantastic trout waters. We are lucky to have many world class rivers within striking distance. Sometimes deciding wher ...
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By Matt Hodgson
  2018-02-10 at 19:40 pm

Choosing The Right Running Line

Two-handed fishing has become drastically more popular over the last few years, particularly with the advent of 'trout spey,' or the use of light two-handers when fishing for trout. At Troutfitters, we're fully on-board with trout spey fishing because the casting is dang fun and there aren't many things that are more ex ...
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By
  2018-01-26 at 16:41 pm

Packing List for Alberta Fishing

What you'll need to have an enjoyable fishing trip in Alberta: Whether you’re planning your first fishing trip to Alberta, looking to better dial-in your own kit for this summer, or simply reading this because you have a pathological obsession with all things fly-fishing; eit ...
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By Matt
  2018-01-22 at 00:10 am

Tying Flies With UV Cure Resins

UV cure resins are easy to use, make flies more durable, add a unique look to standard patterns and can even be used to create completely unique patterns. Here is a quick look at the variety of the uses and advantages UV resins have in fly tying. Why YOU should be using UV resins more in your fly tying: Cures at your pace – no racing ...
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  2017-12-19 at 20:58 pm

Choosing the right line

HOLD THE LINE Choosing a fly line can be a bit daunting. With the plethora of different options that are available these days, choosing the right line for your needs can seem like an arduous task ...
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By Matt
  2017-12-03 at 20:35 pm

The Christmas Blog

THE CHRISTMAS BLOG Christmas is right around the corner, don’t fight it. I don’t know about you, but I often find myself hopelessly searching for a gift on a cold evening on December 23rd, although I often don’t know what I’m sear ...
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By Matt
  2017-10-03 at 17:32 pm

10 Tips for Fall Trout Fishing

  Smaller dries and nymphs Smaller bugs work better in the late season for numerous reasons. First, there are fewer mature insects, particularly larva, in th ...
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By Mark
  2017-09-20 at 18:19 pm

Winter Fishing Layering Tips

Layering for winter fly fishing can be a bit different than layering for other winter activities such as skiing, snow shoeing and even ice fishing. The biggest difference is that the keen winter angler is still wading into the water to fish, even on cold days. This means we aren’t only losing heat from being in cold air (convection), we are also losing heat throug ...
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By Mark
  2017-09-07 at 20:49 pm

Trout Food - Brown Drakes

BIWEEKLY TROUT FOOD: BROWN DRAKES May 24, 2017 Brown drakes (Ephemera simulans) are a burrowing mayfly that live predominantly in lower elevation streams throughout the South-Western part of the province. These insects are certainly one of the largest mayflies (insects in general) that trout see in good numbers here in Alberta. Brown drake nymph ...
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By Mark
  2017-09-07 at 17:43 pm

Trout Food - Mother's Day Caddis

May 1, 2017 Mother's Day caddis is one of our most coveted early season hatches. With the right conditions, some of our best dry fly fishing of the season will happen during this hatch. When planning to catch this hatch it’s important to look for consistent weather and water temperatures. As a general rule, we find that three days of consistently warm ...
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By Mark
  2017-05-01 at 18:27 pm

Trout Food - Blue Winged Olive Mayflies

April 12, 2017 BWOs are another great early season hatch here in Alberta. Although BWO’s can occur at any time of the year, their hatches are most common in the spring and fall. Blue wing hatches tend to happen at very concentrated times, where in ideal conditions, BWO’s will hatch in great numbers. Because of this concentration of hatches, blue wing ...
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By Mark
  2017-04-12 at 18:35 pm

Trout Food - Skwala Stonefly

When it comes to hatches, stoneflies are arguably one of the most exciting there is. Few can argue that big flies on the surface aren’t one heck of a lot of fun and beyond mice; stoneflies are the epitome of this when we’re talking about trout. In Southern Alberta, we certainly dream of the early summer golden stonefly hatches, but what of their relatively u ...
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By Mark
  2017-03-21 at 18:46 pm

Loop Evotec Medium Cast 4 & 5 wt rods

Mark’s Loop Evotec CAST Medium Rod Review.   So you’ve probably seen a couple photos of the guys and gals who hang out around troutfitters with a bright orange stick in their hands. You might not have thought much ...
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By Mark
  2017-02-28 at 18:17 pm

Shooting Heads De-coded Part II

How to select the correct shooting head. In our last blog, we outlined the main differences between Skagit and Scandinavian shooting heads in terms of application and design.  From short Skagit heads on one hand to long Scandinavian heads on the other but with so many variations in between, there are a lot to choose from.  Why manufacture so many diffe ...
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By Mark
  2017-02-22 at 19:07 pm

Shooting Heads De-coded Part I

What is a shooting head? A shooting head is a relatively short section of fly line (head) looped at both ends.  A level running/shooting line is looped to the back end and depending on the front taper of the head, a tapered leader/poly leader or sink tip is looped to the front end.  In fact, if one were to look closely at modern weight ...
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By Mark
  2017-01-17 at 18:55 pm

Review: R.L. Winston BIII Plus Jungle 9 ft 8 wt

On a recent trip to the Bahamas I had a chance to fish the new 9' 8 wt Winston "Jungle" Rod. I had been looking for a rod that would be a companion to my go to 7wt BIIMX Bonefish rod.  Initially I had an Airflo 40 Plus, 8 wt, Bonefish line matched to the rod but realized it was severely "under gunned". I tried an 8 wt Rio Quickshoote ...
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By Mike
  2016-12-13 at 20:30 pm

Review: Loop Cross S1 8'6'' 3 wt

I got a chance to play around with the 386-4 Loop Cross S1 earlier on in the year. I used this rod on my favourite grayling lake and was surprised by some of the unexpected power of this eight and a half foot 3 weight. I paired it with a Loop  ...
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By Jacob
  2016-12-01 at 20:38 pm

Review: R.L. Winston BIIIX 9 ft 5 wt

  As the Alberta fishing season winds down for the winter months, I find myself starting to sort gear, tie flies, and build a shopping list for my annual trip to New Zealand. Each year I flip through photos of trips past and one thing stood out for me this time around: my  ...
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By Branden
  2016-11-24 at 21:07 pm

Review: B-IIIX 9 ft 6wt

In fall of 2016 I set out to find myself the perfect “do it all” trout rod. More specifically, I was searching for a rod to cover all of my medium/large sized river applications, as well as some cutthroat and stillwater stuff. I demanded a rod with enough finesse to softly present a sz. 18 dry, and enough power to launch an indicator rig or sink tip 60+ feet ...
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By Aiden
  2016-11-24 at 21:02 pm

Everything Fly Lines

      So, your fly line is starting to get a bit beat up, it wont shoot through your guides, its covered in cracks and there may be a solid chunk of coating missing part way through your running line. What’s next? Replacing the line seems pretty steep since you’re looking at $60 to $110 dollars depending on the line. But wait, here’s a b ...
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By Mark
  2016-10-08 at 21:14 pm

5 Essential Items That Make Great Stocking Stuffers for any Fly Fisher

We have put this short list together to help the non fisher make a more educated decision as to what are good inexpensive gifts for the fly fishing fanatic in there life. These ideas fit for the beginner fly fisherman to the grizzled vet. You won’t go wrong here and if they do want to exchange a gift we can easily accommodate. Remember fisherman that would be happ ...
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By BRT Shop
  2016-10-06 at 21:17 pm

Our Staff's Favourite Reels of 2016

Our Favourite Fly Fishing Reels of 2016 At the shop we take a lot of pride in knowing our products. Because we highly value that our customers come to us for advise on what gear to invest their money in. It is for this reason that we make an effort to fish and critique all of our pro ...
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By BRT Shop
  2016-09-21 at 21:25 pm

First Week Of July - Bow River Report

Bow River Fishing Report 07/06/16: The Bow has been fishing pretty darn well as of late, with good numbers of sizeable trout coming into the boat. There are stoneflies kicking around, they are not popping off in epic proportion yet, and largely they are scattered with no real concentration, although there have been reports of good nighttime action in the city st ...
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By BRT Shop
  2016-07-06 at 21:42 pm

Gear Review: R.L. Winston BIII LS 8' 3 wt

At the start of the 2015 season I was looking for a new light line weight rod as a tool to use in smaller headwaters and spring creeks. I love spending time on mountain streams and clear spring creeks throughout western Alberta and Eastern BC and I wanted the ultimate tool to softly present small dries in tight places. The  ...
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By BRT Shop
  2016-06-27 at 21:44 pm

High Country Trout

         Opening day of the high country streams. It’s that magical number 16, which seems to trump the number 21 in terms of signifying that it really is summer. It means you’re about to embark upon three months full of backcountry camping, smores and smokies over the fire and most importantly, west slope cutthroat on dry flies ...
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By John
  2016-06-14 at 21:47 pm

Caddis: Properly Match the Hatch

In this blog I’ll talk about dry fly fishing imitating caddis from May through to October, and share what insight I have on fishing them to rising trout. Why focus on caddis? Because if there's one aquatic insect order that a trout is liable to be looking for on any given month through spring, summer and fall, we'd guess that insect would be a caddis. Not ...
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By BRT Shop
  2016-05-18 at 21:49 pm

Gear Review: Loop Evotech Cast 7110 MF

Over the last two weeks I have had the pleasure if casting and fishing the LOOP Evotec Cast 7110-4 MF on the Bow River during our recent chinooks. This rod has been great for swinging small to medium sized trout streamers on the bow in the 1-4” range. My preferred flies of choice have been skittering smolts, Bow River buggers and small rabbit strip leeches. 10 and ...
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By Max
  2016-02-26 at 21:52 pm

Seasons of the Bow

Late Winter Into Early Spring Fishing Hatches: Midges, Winter Stones, Blue Winged Olives (BWOs), March Brown Mayflies, Mothers Day Caddis,  Fly Patterns Dry Flies: Griffiths Gnat #16 down to #20s, and BWO dry patterns, March Browns #14-#16 when hatching, Tan Caddis Patterns #14 to #18 ...
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By BRT Shop
  2016-02-02 at 22:00 pm

Guide to Winter Fly Fishing in Southern Alberta

Winter fishing is a wonderful way to break the ice of the long winter freeze, stretch out the legs, and get that casting arm going again. Despite the chilly temps, winter fishing is a beautiful time to be on the water, and the low flows can really aid the angler to gain a better understanding and perspective of the holding water that exists on the rivers you may fish. T ...
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By Mark and John
  2016-02-02 at 21:58 pm

Adventures with Hooké

 In early November, John and I had the amazing opportunity to close up the shop and head out to Eastern British Columbia for some fishing with the guys from Hooke. Hooke is comprised of a group of fly fishers who, like us, are completely sick for fishing. Their goal is to share the excitement of fly fishing with the world through visual media and there's no dou ...
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By BRT Shop
  2016-02-01 at 22:05 pm

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