Everyone has their own dream of a perfect fishing holiday, whether it lasts a few hours or a few weeks. When we asked Jim McLennan of McLennan Fly Fishing in Okotoks near Calgary for his personal list of 10 rewarding places to fish in Alberta, he took us on a treasure hunt throughout the province.

Jim’s list does lean towards fly-fishing, but it doesn’t leave out other possibilities. Find Alberta fishing vacations and read on to discover Jim’s short-cut list and his descriptions for great fishing in Alberta, from the Canadian Rockies to city rivers to prairie streams and pretty little lakes.

1. The Little Smoky River

This river is great for fly fishing. The Little Smoky is near Valleyview, northwest of Edmonton in the Peace River system. It is great for native and wild Arctic Grayling and bull trout, both of which are native fish to Alberta. It’s a place where they haven’t been decimated, so it’s a bit like stepping back in time and you can enjoy wilderness. There is a main road that goes to it. The nearest town is Fox Creek, and it is easy to get to the river, northeast of Grande Cache.

2. The Red Deer River Below the Dixon Dam

It’s west of city of Red Deer and the attraction is big brown trout. You catch them using dry flies. You pretty much need to drift it in a boat and then you wade when you catch the fish, but they are hard to find. In the right summer, the fish can be good. You are not after numbers of fish here, but rather a few fish caught in a satisfying way. It is not a sure thing, but when it’s right it is very rewarding.

3. The Ram River System, North and South

I’m talking about near Nordegg, west of Rocky Mountain House. It’s a North Saskatchewan tributary and both the North and South Ram are great for Cutthroats, which are a great dry fly fish. And this is wilderness country that you can enjoy. On the South Ram some outfitters do multi-day drift trips where you camp out, but the North Ram is a bit more accessible.

4. The Bow River

The whole river is interesting and the best of it is downstream of Calgary, and there is the best combination of rainbows and browns. The satisfaction in fishing the Bow is the size of the fish and the average size is high.. Most of them are two to six pounds, both rainbows and browns, and you catch them with a variety of methods including dry flies. You can go by yourself because there is a reasonable amount of walking access, but it’s a tough river to figure out on your own, so going with a guide on a boat is a good way to go.

5. Badger Lake

It’s southeast of Calgary out on the prairies near the town of Lomond, about a two hour drive from the city. It’s a good place to catch big pike on the fly. The appeal is that pike are a great fly rod fish and they are very aggressive. You catch them in shallow water and see a wake behind their bodies, and you can catch them on fly, up to 20 pounds. It’s fished a fair amount, but it’s a reservoir that is several miles long and quite accessible.

6. The Trout Lakes just West of Edmonton

Lakes like Star, Hasse, and a few others, are the ones. These are mostly small lakes close to the city that are stocked and there are rainbows. These are pretty lakes in parkland and it’s especially nice in the fall when the leaves are turning. It’s fishing that might not draw people from Calgary who are used to having streams nearby, but these are very pleasant little lakes. Check out the Edmonton Trout Fishing Club.

7. The Old Man River

There’s likely about 100 miles of trout water on the Old Man River. The headwaters are small Cutthroats and the middle section is a mix of rainbows, cuts and bull trout of good size. And there’s the tail water fishery below the Old Man Dam, where you can find good rainbows. You can use everything, including dry flies, and all methods to fish these waters. Most of it is not floating in boats but the portion below the dam is a nice float. Heading out of Calgary for half a day, I suggest you go to Highway 22, which crosses the Old Man and right in that vicinity it is good to fish the river. It’s maybe about a 90 minutes’ drive to get there from Calgary.

8. The Forestry Trunk Road

This is a secondary gravel road that runs from the Peace Country in the north all the way to the Crowsnest Pass in the south. It would take you to Grande Cache and goes right to the town of Grande Prairie. You can fish everything from Graylings in the Peace to Cutthroats in the Ram system to across the Bow and the Old Man, so you have a whole bunch of tributaries.

9. The Crowsnest River

The attraction for me is that it is very accessible, and because it is so good it does get some fishing pressure. What I like about it is that it is a very technical stream with good-sized fish that range to 20 inches. They like to feed on the surface and you can quite often get frustrated, but you can enjoy the challenge.

10. The North Raven

This is a small spring creek and we don’t have many of those, so that makes it somewhat unique for this region. It’s slow and it’s clear and the stream can be difficult, you have to wade and cast very carefully. It’s a challenge but it’s got a good strong population of brown trout. It’s best to fish on a dreary day, but note that it’s not a good stream for beginners. It is located north and east of the village of Caroline in foothills just east of the Rockies.