THE LIVINGSTONE RIVER
Put together good fishing, great scenery, and easy to wade all in one package, and you
have Alberta's perfect cutt stream. The Livingstone... What more can be said? This little river is just amazing.
It runs north/south along the Livingstone Range, just east of the main Rocky Mountain
front range, and in doing so, most sections are very easy to fish when the ever present alberta westerly breezes kick up.
The river has so much holding water, and this supports it's good cutthroat population. Pool after pool await you, with rising
fish in all of them. The fish are almost all cutthroats up here, with the odd bull trout to chase, and very rarely, rainbow
trout. Most cutts are in the 12-18 inch range, and some even larger cutts have been caught (one in particular, was 24 inches).
In most cutthroat rivers you can expect the fish to be gorging themselves on dry flies
in riffle water, and the Livingstone is no exception in that matter. But the fish here also rise from the back of the pools
as well, as the summer progresses, and they get pressured more and more. Don't worry, we have the tricks required to fool
those finnicky fish, and to watch one coming for your dry for an agonizing 5 seconds or so before he takes, is a sight to
behold!
Hatches on the Livingstone can be thick, and one of our favorites is the green drake hatch.
It seems to come just after a shower, and the entire river is alive with fish slapping at these larger bugs. It can be the
best half hour of dry fly fishing you will ever see. The PMD hatch also happens on this river, and can provide some great
fishing. Caddis hatch throughout the summer, as do stoneflies, and midges. Large grey drakes hatch in the later summer, and
fishing can be great on them. Bring lots of hoppers, ants, spiders, and other terrestrials too, they are good here, especially
late in the summer and into fall.
The one thing about the Livingstone that stands out, is the serenity of the pools. The
river seems to call to you, and invite the fisherman. It is a small enough river that you feel completely comfortable wading
it, yet it holds very nice sized cutts. The fish are extremely pretty, and the scenery is excellent.
The excitement of a big bull trout latching onto a hooked cutthroat in the Livingstone
is not uncommon, as a matter of fact, if you fished it a couple times a week, it would happen at least once a week. It's quite
a rush to see this happen, and if we have streamer rod ready, usually the bull trout can be hooked by throwing a large streamer
beside the action!
LIVINGSTONE RIVER - $400 , Let us take you to this gem, and show you some great
fishing in one of alberta's best and prettiest cutthroat streams.
