A feature article from Saskatchewan Environment
Writer; Art Jones
Date: January 12, 2006

Fly-fishing For More Than Trout

When most of us in Saskatchewan go fishing we break out the old spin-caster and head to our favourite spot. We then spend several happy hours bouncing a jig along the bottom, casting and retrieving crank-baits or spoons or doing some surface fishing for northern pike. The time spent fishing is even better if we manage to catch enough fish for a nice meal.

But there are a growing number of people who are turning to another kind of fishing. Instead of a spin-caster they are using a fly rod.

Rick Goett with a northern pike he caught using a fly rod.

“If it swims, you can catch it on a fly,” says Rick Goett of Saskatchewan Environment Park Supervisor in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. “Most people associate fly fishing with trout, which is inaccurate. Just about any fresh water species can be caught on a fly. I can honestly say that I have caught more and larger fish of many species while fly fishing than I have using any other method.”

Environment’s Goett lives and works in the province’s southwest, a prime area in a province he calls a fly fisher’s paradise.
 

Rick Goett, on the left, with the Canadian Fly Fishing Team at the Hotel Permon in Slovakia. The Permon was the headquarters of the Worlds.
 

“We have numerous opportunities to fish for trout and grayling and thousands of lakes, rivers and streams where we can catch pike, walleye, whitefish, goldeye and other species,” says Goett. “We have an incredible trout fishery in the streams and reservoirs in the southwest. I love fishing on Lake Diefenbaker. You never know what you are going to catch and there is a possibility of catching large fish of several species. I recently tried Shannon Lake in Narrow Hills Provincial Park. I’m sad to say I lost the largest brown trout I have ever seen. I’m definitely going back. And there’s not much that’s more thrilling that having a big northern pike hammer your fly. Bringing one of them in using a fly rod is challenging and exciting.”

In 2004 Goett was a member of Canada’s National Fly Fishing team. He competed in a world competition in Slovakia. The team placed 19th.

“I learned a lot at the Worlds and that will make me a better angler but the competition is intense and tiring. Competition isn’t really why I took up the sport,” says Goett. “I love introducing people to the sport and really get a rush when I help someone catch their first fish on a fly rod. Usually once a person catches a fish on a fly, they are “hooked”.

Fly-fishing differs from other angling methods in the delivery of the fly. Because the fly doesn’t have the weight required to pull line off of a spinning reel, fly lines have been developed to have the weight to carry the fly. A fly fisher actually casts the line, which takes the fly along for the ride. Rods are specially designed to cast the line and are usually longer than normal spinning rods.

Environment’s Goett says even though he catches a lot of fish while flyfishing he only keeps a few. “I practice catch and release as much as I can. As someone who enjoys and uses the resource I have a responsibility to make sure it stays healthy for today and into the future. Releasing fish, especially the larger breeders, will help to do that.”

For more information contact:

Rick Goett
Park Program Coordinator
Saskatchewan Environment
(306)-662-5416
rgoett@serm.gov.sk.ca

Or

Art Jones
Communications Consultant
Saskatchewan Environment
(306) 787-5796
(306) 536-8452 (cell)
ajones@serm.gov.sk.ca

(Permission is given to reprint or broadcast all or parts of this article. Previous “Environment Newsline” articles are available at Newsline )