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Josh
Nugent
Occupation: Full time fishing guide:
Out Fishing Outfitters
Hometown: Calgary, Alberta
Fly fishing since:
Age of 6!
Bio:
Josh learned to fly fish at the age of six. By the time he
was in Junior High he was giving casting lessons to other
kids from his school. In 2003 Josh started Out Fly Fishing
Outfitters Ltd.
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September Bow River
Update
Posted on October 2nd, 2009 by Josh
Nugent
This was a crazy month on the
bow. Early season worries of low water levels were a daily concern
as the river seemed to drop daily to previously unheard of levels.
Obviously the floods of 2005 changed the river so dramatically as to
make any comparison to levels pre 2005 floods unwarranted, but this
is still unnerving to see gravel bars and mid river shelves sticking
out of the water that no one has seen before. September also brought
with it the heaviest and most consistent hatch of miniscule BWO I’ve
seen. Don’t get me wrong, fall always brings with it heavy hatches
of small BWO that will blanket the water, but this was a case of 3
solid weeks of day after day blanketing and almost snow like BWO
blizzards as September was also the windiest month. I sucked more
fish this September then the rest of my life combined. Day after day
throat pumps would reveal the same trend, trout gorging on hundreds
of BWO nymphs ,emergers and adults that were in the 28-32 range. So
many times the bulb on the throat pump would be filled and black
with these tiny olives that I decided to try and estimate the number
the fish had eaten.
By counting a representative group of ten and
then estimating the number of groups that size I put many of these
fish at between five and six hundred olives. If it hadn’t been for
me pumping all those fish we might not have had a hungry fish left
in the river ;) Fishing 18’s and 20’s looked like a streamer next to
these ridiculously tiny naturals but they took fish, provided you
could keep these fish from straightening out these small hooks. Day
after day the trout would gorge until between three and four o’clock
in the afternoon when suddenly they would decide they had had enough
of the tiny stuff and switch over to bigger meals such as leaches,
worms, and minnows likely to pack in the small BWO’s much like trout
in lakes eat leaches after gorging on chronimids to jam them in.
There were a huge number of big trout taken on tiny flies imitating
all stages of the BWO lifecycle.
August Bow River Update
Posted on August 20th, 2009 by Josh
Nugent
The first week of August brought
with it a few days of rainstorms which despite colouring the water,
really did not increase water levels any significant amount. What it
did do though was give us the best streamer fishing we’d had since
early May. Low water levels through the end of July had the fish
spread out in deeper or faster runs throughout the river but with
the high colored water fish were stacked tight to structure ready to
annihilate any streamer that came by. I had 2 days where clients
cancelled, despite my best efforts to convince them otherwise, which
allowed me the rarity of fishing myself instead of simply rowing and
watching everyone else fish. What a week that was, the first day we
simply did a short 5 hr float but in that time we moved over 45
fish! I say moved as we likely only landed 15 of those fish, but
when you have fish slamming streamers, chasing them over 40’ off the
bank and hitting multiple times, many times so hard that they would
explode out of the water sending the streamer flying in one
direction while they careened off in the other direction. Never
before have I seen a year where fish would chase right from the bank
to the boat and often when stripping was no longer an option because
the fish was too close to the boat you could twitch and pop the
streamer with the rod tip enticing the fish to follow all the way
around the bow of the boat and even as far back as the oar on the
opposite side of the bank they came off of before they struck. The
real enjoyment and challenge came from having to make the fish eat.
Sometimes the fish may not want to eat but a good streamer fisherman
can make them. These fish are opportunistic but if you stripped too
fast the fish would typically give up a return to his pocket on the
bank; strip to slow or too methodically and you’d set off unnatural
alarms that would send the fish back to the bank even quicker then
he appeared behind the fly.
The second week of August we were back to low clear water, but one
rainstorm the third week of August brought about the most incredible
BWO hatch I have ever witnessed in my life. I was guiding another
father son duo on this day that could be described as nothing short
of epic. Less then an hour into the float the clouds rolled in and
it began to drizzle lightly. I pulled the boat in and explained we
were going to watch to see if any bugs would pop and if any snouts
would appear to pick them off. Almost immediately we started seeing
olives hatching and for the next 2 hrs they continued to do so in
astonishing numbers. A fallen tree had created not only a weed mat
but also a funnel when water 15’ out from the bank was forced down
one seam along the edge of the weed matt. With a rarity not far off
a solar equinox a huge brown began feeding right on the seam I had
just finished explain was the ideal spot for a big fish. Guiding you
get so used to watching fish seemingly do everything in their power
to make you look bad it was nice to now see 3 giant browns gorging
themselves on BWO’s exactly where I had suggested only minutes
before would be the ideal feeding lanes. The next hour and forty
five minutes was mind boggling, and chilling. The chilling part was
a direct result of the fact that I was standing chest deep in the
water holding on to the back of the boat with my right arm and a
tree branch on the bank with my left arm in order to keep the boat
out in the current where they could cast directly upstream without
worrying about the overhanging tree branches in front or behind
them. My only regret is that having both arms occupied did not allow
me to have my hands free to photograph and document the events. I
watched a 24” brown feed incessantly on the surface, never dropping
deeper then 8” below the surface almost like watching someone pull
their chair right up to the buffet. There were so many BWO’s that
you could often see 2 or even 3 of them engulfed at a time. Almost
equally impressive to the number of olives hatching was the size of
them, typically we see 18’s and 16’s if we’re lucky. Here we had
16’s blanketing the water with many olives that would’ve easily been
14’s. The son was worried when several casts in a row had not
produced a take and I simply pointed out that several hundred
naturals had also just floated by unscathed by the safety in
numbers. Try as they might there was no possible way these fish
could eat every olive that floated by but they certainly tried. Then
even swiftly then it had began it was over. The occasional olive was
still hatching and drifting aimlessly by and climbing up the bank
revealed the trout to be in the same position relative to the bank,
only now they had dropped in the water column back to the streambed
wallowing in their gluttony.
Southern Alberta
Mountain Streams & Rivers
Posted on July 27th, 2009 by Josh
Nugent
Oh man what a summer we’ve had so
far. Early July typically marks a few short, yet heavenly, days of
heavy bordering on epic green drake hatches. These are the hatches
you never want to miss but seem to miss more often than not as the
exact day changes from year to year based on conditions. This year I
haven’t seen days with epic monster hatches, which on the exterior
may seem disappointing yet much to my amazement and enjoyment the 1
or 2 epic hatch days that were hard to hit seem to have been
replaced by countless days of moderate green drakes hatching which
has resulted in the trout being far more conditioned to feeding on
these giant mayflies.
It just seems like one day after the next has provided opportunities
to pick after big fish after big fish if you fish them in the right
spots which are also often the tight spots. I had one day of guiding
where a father son took over 20 fish in the 17-20” range, a very
respectable size for cutties and cutbows. The day that Tim Rajeff
and I were filming was another similar example where we were able to
sight cast to rising trout and take 18-20” cutties at will, it was
nuts. You cannot argue with the catch and release regulations as the
last five years have seen a big increase in fishing pressure on
Southern Alberta’s mountains streams due to the classification of
the Fernie area streams, and yet the average size of fish has just
continued to increase year after year despite the augmented
pressure.
The one thing I’m a little confused about is where all the dominant
bull trout are? I’ve seen many small bulls in the 20-23” range but
the only 28” fish I’ve seen in July so far was the one that the
father son duo landed after the big bull chased down and grabbed the
cutty the son had on. As soon as the bull released the cutty Dean
cast the big streamer in there which it didn’t hesitate to eat. This
is actually a very common occurrence what’s unusual about it is that
I’ve only seen it happen once in July so far. The population of bull
trout in most Alberta streams has shown incredible growth over the
past several years and I have no question as to the strength of the
population this year, simply where that population is hiding out at.
Most things have been 3 weeks to a month late this year so time will
tell where the big bullies are.
July Bow River Update
Posted on July 15th, 2009 by Josh
Nugent
The first 2 weeks of July the bow fished absolutely unreal. You
could float from the boat and catch fish at will, but the greatest
part was the fact that you could pull in to almost any decent dry
fly bank in search of snouts and find rising fish. Dry stoneflies ad
PMD’s all day long and then caddis as the sun started to drop. Just
when we were all starting to wonder if we should feel guilty about
catching so many fish it all changed. July 13 we finally got some
much needed rain, but in quantities the river couldn’t properly deal
with in one day. The river came up 3 vertical feet in one day (more
so from dam release then actual rainfall) and put the fish off in a
big way. The next day the river dropped 2 feet over the course of a
day. I had clients casting to a 24” brown tight to the bank that
took off because the water dropped 6” in the few minutes we were
casting to him and his lie no longer had enough water in it.
The next day they raised the river over a foot and with such drastic
changes it put the fish off and made for 8 days of very difficult
fishing. Once the flows stabilized the rest of July the fishing was
great, most people were having 20-35 fish days with easily that many
fish hooked that were lost (I call it H&R: Hook & Release the
conservational minded approach where the fish doesn’t have any human
contact. Come on I figure it sounds better then we lost another
one). Once the river stabilized the fish were hungry and ready to
eat, and eat they did. The only real disappointment is the
exceptional dry fly fishing we had in early July was much more
sporadic and hard to find, but if you just wanted to catch fish they
were there and ready to accommodate. Remember back when I mentioned
I was worried about water levels in the bow without a real runoff?
Well, turns out the worries were justified. The river levels dropped
after the freak mid July storm, but the problem is that they just
kept dropping.
Gar Hunt '09
Posted on June 27th, 2009 by Josh
Nugent
I had the privilege an honour of heading back to Belleville to fish
with Nick Pujic, Tim Myers and Paul Castellano, of Cast Adventures
in Niagara Falls, again for 3 days of hunting big Gar. Day one could
only be described as epic, and even that feels like calling the
rocky mountains a big pile of rocks. Pujic put us in front of so
many big gar it was unbelievable. Sight fishing these fish on the
flats has to be experienced to be understood. It’s so much like
saltwater flats fishing but right in the heart of Ontario. I
honestly do not even know how many fish Tim, Nick and I landed that
day but it was stupid, and for every fish we landed we jumped 3 or 4
that we didn’t land. These fish were so hard to get a hook in to,
but watching Nick was extremely helpful as he was landing the
majority of the fish he stuck, unlike Tim and I. What I do know is I
landed a 46” fish followed by a gar that made that fish look small.
We didn’t have a tape in the boat but measured it against the rod
and were surprised to find out it was only 3.5” longer at 49.5”. The
record is 52” and for a few hours we thought we might have broken
it. What’s even crazier is that Pujic hooked a fish way bigger that
we didn’t land….way bigger. We probably stuck and lost a half a
dozen fish that size that day…what an unreal day that was.
The next two days were windy and the chop created a mud line which
made sight casting more difficult but the fish were still there in
the same numbers. Paul Castellano joined us for the next two days
which was a riot (as if we weren’t having enough fun already). Paul
landed a nice fish but the highlight was the very large gar Paul
tried to grab and land for me and lost. It’s not that he did
anything wrong, it’s simply that now we could blame him for losing a
possible record fish at the side of the boat. We waited a few hours
before explaining it took 4 or 5 attempts to land the 49.5” fish the
day before, I just didn’t have this fish hooked as well. If we
didn’t give him the gears who would right? Can’t thank the boys
enough for the amazing trip and if you haven’t tried gar on the
fly…you have to. Unreal, absolutely unreal!
Tight Loops & Lines
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Bow River Report
Posted on June 21st, 2009 by Josh
Nugent
What an interesting spring we’ve had on the bow. Interesting might
not be the right word for a runoff that never really happened but at
this point I don’t know what else to call it. With little to no
early season rain and moderate temperatures we never saw a big blast
from the mountains that would flush the river, but for these same
reasons the river has yet to be too dirty to be unfishable at all.
Any of us who frequent the bow or most Southern Alberta streams are
used to chasing pike or pothole trout during June as spring runoff
typically blows our river out for anywhere from 3-6 weeks depending
on the year. This has some people excited and other such as myself
may be better classified under a more nervous excited heading.
Having the ability to fish the bow all through June has been
amazing, but not having a good flush that cleanses the river may
come back to bite us further down the road. The river has come up
and color in it with at times no more than a foot of visibility but
it’s never gotten to the point that it was unfishable. Flooding and
heavy runoff is often looked at as destructive like a forest fire
yet in many ways it rejuvenates the ecosystem letting it start fresh
and new. Weed growth in the bow is what sustains the bug life that
makes our fish so strong and large, but we want new weed, not dead
weed from the previous seasons. Given this is the first season
without a big runoff we should be fine and most of us do not expect
any real problems with broken weed like the 2004 season that saw us
cleaning hooks virtually every cast.
Enough speculation though, the reality is we’ve had an extra month
of fishing this world class river and it has been rewarding more
days then not. Streamer fishing has been entertaining to say the
least. I’ve never seen these fish follow so much with times where a
40’ cast to the left side of the boat brought a fish off the bank
and all the way around the bow of the bow chasing the streamers
before finally grabbing them next to the right oar blade. If you
don’t get excited by that I’m not sure if there’s much trout fishing
can do for you. Not to be out done by the streamer fishing though
this extra month has given us some unpredictable but at times
spectacular early season dry fly fishing. I had a brown eat on a
mouse pattern, and a number of days where BWO and PMD hatches were
bring monster trout to the surface to sip despite the limited
visibility. Caddis hatches and small stones have hatched in good
numbers recently as well giving the fish more reasons to look up.
Walking the banks take your time and soon enough you’ll see the
snouts are there and we all know how rewarding it is to take one of
these specimens on a dry, especially when you have to sort through 5
different bugs hatching at the same time and fishing only feeding on
one of them. Hope you enjoyed the extra month as much as I did.
Tight Loops & Lines
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Colin Lake Fly-In Pike
Posted on June 13th, 2009 by Josh
Nugent
As the float plane touched down on Colin Lake you could feel the
excitement among each of us on the lake. The hour and a half flight
from Fort Mc Murray had taken us North and West of Lake Athabasca
for five days of chasing early season pike on the fly. This was only
the 3rd week that the ice had been off the lake so our timing looked
to be perfect for finding monster pike in shallow bays.
The first day was all about exploring and trying to get things
dialed in for the rest of the trip. Blind casting to shorelines
would result in a chase or hook-up virtually every single cast but
these were mostly just hammer handles or squeakers, definitely not
what we came this far to chase. The 2nd day saw dramatic
improvements. Mike and Kevin found monster pike stacked in a shallow
bay and landed 9 40+” fish, including two double headers with 40
inchers…not to shabby. This was more like it, although they really
did ruin our thoughts of what a good morning was when we bumped into
them excited about the 4 fish between 34” and 40” we had boated. The
next 3 days consisted of returning to the big pike bay as well as
another 2 bays that produced big pike. When you found a previously
undisturbed fish you knew it as there was typically little
hesitation before they crushed or annihilated your fly. Since we
only had a few thousand flies with us I decided that an evening of
tying flies by the fire was in order. That’s the first time I’ve
ever tied flies outside at a picnic table at midnight with enough
natural light to keep tying. All kinds of crazy up there.
We had to laugh at the fact that we were pulling our flies away from
three footers as you didn’t want to get stuck having to play and
unhook a fish that size when you might see a real trophy you wanted
to cast to, talk about spoiled eh. When it was all said and done I
had landed 7 pike over 40” and our group of 7 had landed 30 over
40”, absolutely unreal. As if the pike fishing wasn’t enough we had
lakers to cast and hook throughout the trip and I even had a monster
lake whitefish come in and hammer a 3/0 pike fly right by the boat
at the end of the retrieve. What at trip, its nice when things come
together the way you hope and dream they might.
Tight Loops & Lines
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