Fly Fishing The North Saskatchewan River
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The North Saskatchewan River is a hidden gem located in Edmonton, Alberta. It's a premier fishery destination for pike, walleye, goldeye, and other sport fish that can be targeted on the fly.
Great fly fishing opportunities can be found within the city limits. What you're looking for is big slow moving backeddies, seams, and fish holding structure. The NSR can be a big intimidating river, but for the most part the fish really aren't that far from shore, distance casting is not needed.
Rainwater outflows can be a great place to start, especially after a rainfall!
When targetting goldeye and their little cousins the mooneye, 6 weight rods paired with a floating line and both dry flies and nymphs can be productive. Leader and tippet sizes should be kept to a 2-3X as big goldeye in the current will easily break 5X tippet.
Goldeye will readily take streamers too, even the bigger streamers used for pike and walleye. When streamer fishing for goldeye it is wise to use 7-9 weight rods paired with a sink tip line. The heavier rods will not only assist in casting the heavier flies and lines, but will also provide the necessary backbone needed to quickly and safely land a big pike that may take your offering! Wire bite tippet is a good idea as well.
Streamer selections for goldeye should include: sparkle minnows, circus peanuts, crystal buggers, and other minnow & leech patterns that can be found at the shop.
Streamer selections for walleye: clouser minnows, bunny leeches, circus peanuts, crystal buggers, etc.
Pike flies: Large deceiver style flies, bulky bufords, both singles and articulated, go bigger in the fall! 9-10 weight rods are ideal for targetting pike, and are not as limiting when it comes to fly size.
Switch and doublehand rods can be great tools to have on the river too, providing maximum casting ability with minimum casting space, as well as a longer swing, keeping your fly wet longer! However an integrated line like our Hybrid line is preferable for streamer fishing on the river as you will often be stripping the fly right to your feet and have fish following. A loop to loop running line/head connection can be an issue when that big pike grabs your fly and that loop to loop connection gets hung up in the rod guides.
Don't have a doublehand rod? No problem! check out our Hybrid lines and interchangeable tips from Vision, they come in lighter sizes to be used on singlehand rods to achieve similar spey casting ability. They also make fantastic streamer lines for overhand casting. We can get you set up with the correct size for your rod and intended use.
Happy fishing!