Northern Alberta Rivers Daytrip
The wife and myself took advantage of a beautiful fore cast and ventured west for a little river adventure.(warning- large pics.)
From Edmonton we headed west to Edson and then south west to the Embarras river. The water here was high and dirty from the spring runoff. It may be a couple of weeks before she’s good for a Grayling outing. The day was nice so we ventured further west and then North. We came across an active mining operation by Cadomin where we saw a herd of some of the biggest Bighorn rams I have ever seen. They were grazing the mountain meadows at the Cardinal mining site.
North from here we hit the headwaters of the Gregg river where I finally wet my line.The spring runoff was making fishing difficult. Using a 4pc 5 weight rod I polked around any pools I came across in this freestone stream. SW worms, BH prince and stone fly nymphs
covered any fishy water but to no avail.
I believe it was too early in the year to get anything this far up the river. It would probably be much better for flyfishing in a couple of weeks. My new breathable waders worked great and I wonder how I fished rivers with anything else.
The tough thing about exploring mountain rivers is finding good holding water at the right time of year. Often a little exploration is required but I find my followup trips a lot more productive because I’ll hit the right section of river when it’s more fishable. With the scenery the Rockies have to offer the exporing is that much more enjoyable.The Gregg is home to Bulls, Rainbows and some Brookies and will definetely will see me again in July. Mosbos
