Articles by Neil Waugh
Articles by Neil Waugh
A Beautiful Deception
Getting There Is Half the Battle
Every travelling angler – especially when they cast their fate to an airline – has experienced that sinking feeling in their gut when they place their rod cases on the oversized luggage rack.
No Fun in the Sun – a Survivor’s Guide to Fishing the Flats
As the snow months arrive, sadly, the angler’s window of opportunity closes to little more than a crack.
Fishing through the ice, getting out on the few open-water situations available, tying flies, or dreaming of sunny ways or yesterdays...
Best of Both Worlds-Fly fishing the Hopper-Dropper
One sublime sunny afternoon a few years back I was fishing a classic northern Alberta grayling stream that tumbled over ...
Low and Slow
Western Canadian fisheries biologists, when confronting the problem of declining walleye populations, must come to terms with our most popular game fish.
Post Spawn Pike Action
In the pecking order of prairie fishes, the general consensus is that the walleye if our king of the waters.
Maybe more because of Old Walter’s eating qualities than his sporting abilities. Beauty contests are always subject to debate and controversy.
But it hard not to agree that pike are our most versatile fish...
A Clear Boat is a Happy Boat
When fly casting for pike and other apex predator game fish from a boat, the length of your line in many cases spells the secret for your success.
A lengthy, free-flowing cast gives your fly the maximum amount of exposure to the fish...
It’s OK to Be Little Bitty
Angling magazines, websites, film festivals and calendars traditionally are stuffed to the gills with incredible images of super-sized fish. Gonzo pike, sensational salmon, terrific trout, superb sturgeon and wondrous walleye with happy anglers wearing goofy grins holding them up to the camera for the obligatory hero shot.
More times than not caught on a budget-busting charter or at a remote fly-in lodge.
A trip-of-a-lifetime adventure for sure but sadly an unobtainable dream for many. For most of us angling locally is our more likely option.
Put and Take Is Great
At point of European contact Alberta’s trout were pretty well confined to the cold rushing rivers of the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies or the deep lakes of the Northern Boreal where lake trout thrived. How times have changed.