Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => Fishing Reports => Members' Fishing Reports => Topic started by: Jonny 5 on April 06, 2008, 03:07:35 PM
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Hello fishers, I just thought I would put up a few pics from the last couple outings from this side of the hills. I have a friend planning to come over this way late spring, so lets see if he's checking the FWR reports section. ;D
So here are the details, this is the bow river just as it's warming up but still before the big melt in the mountains makes it unfishable... Its been pretty good for the amount of time we put in. It seems that the fish are homing in on stonefly nymphs at the moment and any week now the dry fly fishing will be sure to pick up with blue winged olives probably showing up some time around the middle of april... We'll see.
A nice little brown trout... A tough fish to fool some days.
(http://webdisk.ucalgary.ca/~jzuccolo/public_html/April%2008%20Bow/Picture_1403_sized.JPG)
And a few bow river bullets... In this first pic, you can just see three people standing on the opposite bank! What a gong show!
(http://webdisk.ucalgary.ca/~jzuccolo/public_html/April%2008%20Bow/Picture_1425_sized.JPG)
(http://webdisk.ucalgary.ca/~jzuccolo/public_html/April%2008%20Bow/Picture_1423_sized.JPG)
(https://webdisk.ucalgary.ca/~jzuccolo/public_html/April%2008%20Bow/Picture_1415_sized.JPG)
Why is my head always cut out of the pics? ::)
Anyhow, just a few months ago those ice shelfs would have been 15 feet tall just to get an idea of how cold this area gets some times.
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Cool report and beautiful pics! What part of the Bow were you fishing near? Banff? I'm planning to go to Alberta again this summer, already lookin forward to it! ;D
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Just downstream of Calgary... upstream like banff and lake louise is a bit harder to fish as there aren't nearly as many trout to be found, but it would be much more scenic and the fish are pretty much unfished way up in the mountains. If your fishing in the late summer, don't forget your hopper patterns :o and don't forget to check out some of the other rivers for cutties.
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Look at those glacial ice shelves!!! :o
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It's been my little fishing dream to fish the bow. Will be up there late April for the first time with my 6 weight targetting browns, and bows. Hopefully The snow won't be as bad as the region really got hammered. Any of you guys ever get out to Highwood river in Kannanaskis country ??? Those bulls look fierce.
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wher is the bow i never heard of it??
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Yeah the highwood is nice, but not opened until June 16 :-[
I prefer fishing some of the nearby streams instead of the bow, but the bow is convenient as its 5 blocks from my door. Its snowing this weekend with about 30 cm on the ground, should be gone soon though. If you get a chance fish the bow in the section south and east of the city as there are a lot of big rainbows there now getting ready for their migration up the highwood. If this cold weather holds then those fish will stick around for a few more weeks, as soon as the highwood hits about 5 degrees, they will be on the move (right now the highwood is solid ice)
Good luck.
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Jon, I'll be down next weekend. Hopefully this cold weather hold up... I've heard of some absolute bests being caught in the last week :o
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I heard of 30 fish days, and seen a few photos of 26-29 inch trout... but not for me ??? too much work to get out much. but next week should be better!
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First time out on the Bow in hostile Flames country to try and entice some trout. Hit the Bow around Carseland getting into some rainbows but nothing to write home about. Was really after those elusive Browns with no success. Day 2 was even slower fished a few hours upstream of the mouth of Highwood on the Bow, beautiful scenery, lots of fisherpepes. Stonefly nymphs, streamers, blue winged olives, Bow river buggers with no success. Temperature is rising. It felt like walking on glaciers on the river edges, kept hearing ice crashing behind me. Good times !
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If you were upstream of the highwood confluence on saturday you would have seen Biffchan and I fishing out there. We each got a bunch of fish, but only one brown for me. Seems that the fish were sitting in a few spots only so you had to luck out and fish right on top of a school of them. Try using a san juan worm and a prince and a midge on a nymph setup... you might have more luck with that this time of year.
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Thanks Jonny 5, yeah I hit the Bow on Sunday so I missed you. It was hard moving about with all that ice on the rivers edge. I've being spending most of my time doing recon as I don't know the river too well. It took me awhile to find the confluence of the Highwood and Bow, so the temp had risen dramatically by the time I got there. Thanks for the intel.
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Try using a san juan worm and a prince and a midge on a nymph setup...
It would be nice if that was legal in BC I want to give it a whirl , sounds like fun !!!!
You ever make to Elkford to fish the Elk or the Fording ???? I know they have made it harder for the Alberta guys but its worth the coin.
CandT 8)
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I could fish the elk, but we have some excellent cutty streams here too :P At 20$ a day, I would rather support a local fishery that is not nearly as busy. As far as I can tell, a lot of local shops stopped carrying BC licenses for that reason.
But really, I will fish the elk before I move out of this area... at least for the bulls it has.
Anyhow, if you BC people want to fish in alberta, its only 26$ a year and the fish are bigger and you can attempt to fish 3 flies and its not crowded and so on and so forth. ;D
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Hey Jonny 5 how is the Bow holding up? I missed my chance at the Browns and was hoping for another shot at it. Hope to make it back over the Rockies before the end of the month.
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Well, the rainbows are all upstream doing their spawn thing at the moment, so they are off limits due to closures in those areas ect... Saw a few really nice fish in the shallows last weekend, presumably browns, but couldn't get a single bite... As for the weather, run off is picking up, so by the end of the month it might be blown, but it really depends on temperature. Or you could give the bow a whirl if it is not blown. Lots of good alternatives though... might try some of the lakes like wedge, or quarry for grayling. Bullshead in medicine hat has huge rainbows (a trophy fishery). Stauffer is a beautiful spring creek, so it probably doesn't experience a big run off, but is probably one of the hardest to fish creeks due to the cut banks, willows, smart fish, really specific hatches ect... But it is awsome! (try it if your ego is ballooning ;) )
Cheers,
Jon
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Thanks Jonny 5 for the intel. Its nice to get out and try for different types of species of fish. I wish I had more time to spend in Alberta fishing. So many types of species that I havent had the pleasure of catching yet. Rappala fishing for Browns at night, swinging huge streamer patterns through those deep pools in the Eastern Rockies for Bulls. And stripping mouse patterns for chars n pike. Ah heaven, keep them reports coming. And no, I had ego shrinkage in my last outing on the Bow :-\ Good times though
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Hey rg500, if your in town again some time shoot me an email, and maybe I can show you a couple nice spots on the river. jzuccolo at ucalgary.ca