Until quite recently, a person seen fly fishing in one of these trout-free reservoirs was thought to be somewhat eccentric or blissfully unaware of the species of fish present in the chosen location. Apparently thinking they were being helpful, non-fly-fishing onlookers felt it necessary to comment on the angler’s seemingly futile quest for trout in these waters. The less polite ones peppered their comments with unprintable language, all in what they must have assumed to be the spirit of support(?). By amazing coincidence, whenever one of these polite spectators appeared to share his opinions regarding our methods, a pike was soon landed in their presence. Few stayed around very long, having received their comeuppance, unless they were truly interested in catching pike on the long rod.

Fortunately, this has changed in the last several years, and fly fishing for pike and the other species present in the irrigation reservoirs has become quite popular. If you only fly fished for trout, it would not be unusual to complete a season or more without landing a fish over 2 kilograms in weight, but by fly fishing the reservoirs, fish of at least that weight can be anticipated on every outing.
We have operated a commercial fly tying business, Rolf’s Flies, for over 15 years. Our specialization is pike flies. When we started, it was difficult to find pike flies in retail shops, but as the popularity of the sport increases, it has become common for any fly shop to stock the big pike flies. Of course, it also means that we face more competition.

Commercial tying has opened some exciting doors for us. We’ve met many fascinating people and some very well-known anglers, and are proud to say that some of them have become good friends. We have appeared at national and international exhibitions as tiers, have presented several courses on pike fly tying and fly fishing for pike, and some our flies have appeared in fly pattern books. Rolf was a guest on an episode of “Iron Blue Flyfishing”. The theme was nothing other than fly fishing for pike.

Materials we use for our patterns are now commonly available. In the early days, the large hooks we favor (size 4/0) were never obtainable on the shelf, and would only be available by special order through tackle dealers. We had to be willing to buy them by the thousands. That isn’t a problem now, but back then it seemed that we had to commit to what seemed a lifetime supply. We now have a private joke regarding “lifetime” supplies of materials. What may seem to be a staggering mountain of materials for a casual tier can disappear during only a year’s tying. Glad our lifetimes are longer than that!

We both like to fish, of course, but only with the fly rods. We haven’t tried any other fishing method for at least ten years. The Rocky Mountains, and their trout waters, are only a two hour drive from home, and as we are planning to retire there in less than ten years, several trips a year are taken to the higher ground for “research”. Pastimes include hunting and bird watching and just exploring the country by vehicle. Our part of Alberta isn’t very populated so it doesn’t take long to get away from civilization.