August 2 - August 5, 2007
I spent these four days as one of seven or eight guides for the first of two Royal Canadian Pacific Fly Fishing Adventures planned for this summer. I had the pleasure of spending the time guiding Norman, who was on a fishing vacation with his wife and several friends. Our first day, on the Bow River was like several days we've had lately; hot and slow, with the addition of very strong winds for much of the drift. Only two rainbows were landed. Read more »
Filed under: Recent Trips on August 9th, 2007 | No Comments »
Well this time we're going to include one from August, so it's technically a fishing trips blog entry about August and July....
July 29, 2007,
Another slow, 30+ degree day on the Bow River as two of us guided a group of four from McKinnon Flats to Carseland. Today we threw pretty much everything we had in our fly boxes and between the two boats we landed only four or five fish. Streamers seemed to be the only thing working for us and Dave landed this nice 21 to 22 inch brown trout using a Bow River bugger. Read more »
Filed under: Recent Trips on August 2nd, 2007 | No Comments »
July 21, 2007,
Danny and Brandon are in town from Georgia for a couple of weeks of training and wanted to give fly fishing a try while they were here. We decided to head out to the Oldman River which is a great location for first time fly fishers. The river and scenery are spectacular, the fish are usually eager to take dry flies, and by the end of the day, most fishers are doing a good job of reading the water on this smaller river and have a pretty good sense of where the fish are holding. Despite having to deal with fairly strong winds most of the day, both Danny and Brandon looked comfortable with the fly rods early on. They landed a few Rocky Mountain whitefish, and a number of rainbow trout and cutthroat trout. As we headed back to the 4Runner at sunset, we had an opportunity to watch a mountain goat and it's young forage on a mountain side. It was a great end to a wonderful day on the Oldman River. Read more »
Technorati Tags: Bow River, Carseland, McKinnon Flats
Filed under: Recent Trips on July 30th, 2007 | No Comments »
July 13, 2007,
Mike and his sons, Mike, Colin, and Mark, are in town from Minnesota for a few days and they were all eager to get on the Bow for a day of fly fishing. A couple of browns and many rainbows were landed, mostly on size 10 peacock and black wooly buggers and large golden stonefly nymphs. Many of the fish landed were in the 16 to 19 inch range but some 20+ inch fish were also brought to the boat. We had a great day on the river and all were impressed with the fight in our remarkable rainbow trout. Read more »
Technorati Tags: Bow River, stonefly nymphs
Filed under: Recent Trips on July 16th, 2007 | No Comments »
July 10, 2007
Walt was back today with his colleague, Kelly, for another half day drift that took us from Fish Creek to Policeman's Flats. The weather was much better today and we weren't battling the strong winds that bothered us all day yesterday. Like yesterday, however, the fishing was really slow right off the start and we didn't land our first fish until well into the drift. We changed flies constantly throughout the day looking for something that would attract some attention. The fishing finally picked up on the final stretch of river with Walt landing a decent sized brown and two small fish on a copper John, all within a short stretch of river. We decided to anchor the boat and try fishing some deep water along a cut bank. A size 16 copper John was cast just inches from the bank and after a good fight, Kelly landed this 22 inch brown. The Bow disappointed most of the day but it's fish like this that keep us coming back. Read more »
Technorati Tags: Calgary, McKinnon Flats, Policeman's Flats, wooly bugger
Filed under: Recent Trips on July 14th, 2007 | No Comments »
July 4, 2007,
Got down to the Bow for an hour and a half this evening. Started off throwing nymphs but about 10 minutes into it I saw a nice fish sipping caddis off the water's surface. A quick change to an elk hair caddis and a couple of casts later I hooked and landed a nice 19" rainbow. Not much action the rest of the time out but did get one more rainbow that moved me a good 50 metres down the riverbank. No photos as the camera battery was dead. The Bow is still running high and fast but is looking pretty good. Read more »
Filed under: Recent Trips on July 11th, 2007 | No Comments »
June 30 to July 2, 2007
The Canada Day long weekend was spent in the Crowsnest Pass fishing with John and also with Scotty and Lynn who have returned again from Florida for a week of fishing the streams of south-west Alberta. True to form, the Crowsnest Pass was windy and it blew all day Saturday and Sunday and it really didn't calm down until later in the evening. On both days the best fishing for us occurred after 8:00 P.M. during the caddis hatch. On Saturday evening the fish were very active feeders and a little slower but still steady on Sunday. As expected, the fish really keyed in on elk hair caddis and pretty well ignored everything else including caddis emerger droppers. Many rainbow and cutthroat trout were landed both days. On Sunday we stopped for an hour at the Oldman River on the way back to Calgary. The water is now crystal clear and it was a lot of fun watching trout come up to take dry flies. A royal wulff with a beadhead dropper proved to be very effective with most fish taking the wulff. The water in both rivers has dropped over the past week and are in great condition. Read more »
Technorati Tags: beadheads, Crowsnest Pass, Oldman River
Filed under: Recent Trips on July 3rd, 2007 | No Comments »
June 16, 2007,
Today was opening day for fishing on our mountain rivers and streams and as luck would have it, a weather advisory for heavy rainfall was in effect. After some hesitation, I loaded up the 4Runner and headed off to one of my favorite spots on the Oldman River. The weather was fine when I arrived but a storm was moving in over the mountains and after about 15 minutes of fishing in decent weather, the wind came up and it started to rain and hail. I managed to land two rainbows, two smaller bull trout, and one cutthroat trout before lightning forced me off the river. Read more »
Technorati Tags: Oldman River
Filed under: Recent Trips on June 19th, 2007 | No Comments »
May 26, 2007,
Floated Bow River today from Policemans' to McKinnons' Flats with Hunter, vacationing from San Antonio, and his grandfather, Roger. The river was running high and fast today. No doubt some was the result of melt water from the heavy snowfall we had on Thursday but it looks like most of it was water being released from Glenmore Reservoir in anticipation of a heavy rainfall forecast for Sunday. Visibility above the Highwood was about a foot and a half.
Read more »
Technorati Tags: chenille worms, McKinnon Flats, Policeman's Flats, wire worms
Filed under: Recent Trips on May 28th, 2007 | No Comments »
May 11, 2007,
A beautiful day fishing the Bow River with Lyle and Dennis, who also guide out of Calgary. Fishing was sporadic today but we managed to catch 2 browns and several rainbows. Most of the fish we caught were in the 16 to 18 inch range but we did land a couple over 20 inches. We tried a variety of flies but wire and chenille worms were the hot flies today and we landed a couple on streamers. Visibility was good at 3 feet above the Highwood River and despite the muddy water that it was dumping into the Bow, visibility was fine all the way to McKinnon Flats.
Technorati Tags: Highwood River, McKinnon Flats
Filed under: Recent Trips on May 14th, 2007 | No Comments »
