Sept 8 Bow River Float Trip (Police - Mac)

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Sept 8 Bow RIver Float Trip (Police - Mac)

Jim joined us today for his first of 3 days on the river. We got a late start as Jim ended up having to drive in all the way from British Columbia that morning, where his wife was hiking. Hopper dropper fishing has been so productive that's what I wanted Jim to start with, despite his reluctance to cast multiple flies.

Jim's reluctance stemmed from the overly tight loops he throws, not any inability to cast multiple flies. Let's just say we were both very happy that he decided to listen. Right off the start Jim was into a gorgeous trout (on the dropper), and it was great because wherever I wanted him to put the flies he did. Next he pulled a big brown off the bank, it was literally inches from the bank in less then a foot of water. The cloud and overcast day had the fish in shallow water, which was great. Unfortunately while we were on the water Jim got a phone call that he was going to have to pick up his son at the airport by 5:30. Jim's problem quickly became my problem as it was 2:00 and we had 6hrs of water and an hours drive to the airport. The day absically ended up me rowing so that Jim could make it to the airport on time, wjich was too bad as Jim was hooking some big fish up to the point we had to blow through. Hopefully the next 2 days will fish as well but allow Jim to fish for more then a few hours.

Sept 6 Bow River Float Trip

Today I helped out my friend Tom with a multi boat trip. We had three boats on the lower bow for their 3rd annual trip down the river, and this is the 2nd time I've been out with them. The guys had spent their previous 3 days fishing the elk river in Fernie so they were looking forward to hooking some big and strong fish.

Last time I took theses guys out they had an unusually exceptional day so expectations may have been a tad high. Fortunately the bow delivered for them againa s the fishing was as exceptional if not better then last time. We were able to fish hopper dropper's almost the entire day. The first hour saw them landing one trout after another, and with the number of hopper's and trico's out I put the boys on hopper droppers. They hooked fish, after fish, after fish, it actually got a little on the ridiculous side of things. The only thing as prevalent as the fish they were hooking was the amount of laughter coming out of our boat. Once again the bow left them wondering why on earth they spent 3 days fishing for 14" cutties and only one day hooking one 20+" rainbow and brown after another.

As per usual good day was had by all.

Sept 4 Bow River Float Trip (Police - Cottonwood)

I was able to volunteer at the Fish and Chips derby today, their 4th annual golfing and fly fishing tournament to end Calgary homlessness and mental health issues. Bob and his future son in law Ryan joined me. Bob is the head of the board and had done this trip 4 times and had not caught a fish on it yet. I had taken Bob and Ryan out one other time a few years ago when Bob had purchased a trip from a silent auction at the St. Mary's University College golf tournament and athletics fundraiser, where they had both caught fish, but Bob had yet to catch a fish during the Fish & Chips tournament. His luck was about to change.

Not only did both Ryan and Bob catch fish but Bob won the trophy for big fish with this gorgeous 23" brown. (unfortunately Bob's head got chopped off in the nicest picture of the fish). The other great thing about that fish (besides winning him a new rod and reel) was that it was a tagged fish. The river fished reasonably tough today and they still landed 8 (with Bob getting 6 of those). The guys were only a few fish off the most fish trophy as well, as many of the 14 boats were skunked or boated only 1 fish. Ryan was hooking up early but having trouble keeping the fish buttoned as many people did. I was very happy that Bob finally got his tournament fish and that he won the big fish tourney.

Sept 3 Bow RIver Float Trip (Glenmore - Police)

George and I got to fish the bow today. We floated the city stretch down to Policeman's flats. We had already put the boat in the water but just before we pulled out of the boat launch we got hit by a wall of mud. The construction on the glenmore bridge that had been holding water back was removed by a hi ho and muddy water flooded out ahead of us making the right hand bank unfishable for several miles downstream.

George started stripping streamers off the banks as the city is one of the best places for streamer fishing. The first few miles were a bit slow with only a few fish landed, bu things picked up after that. We had one fish after another chasing streamers off the bank, but many of them did not want to commit. That's one of the greatest appeals to me of streamer fishing, they may not want to eat, but its my job to make them eat. Twitching, stripping, making the fly come alive, responding to the movements of the fish chasing, trying to excite or aggravate the fish, its a riot. The best part is you get to watch the whole thing as it unfolds. Its a great way to fish, and in the end you know may not have wanted to eat, but I made them eat. 1 point to the fishermen.

Aug 29 Bow River Float Trip (22X - Police)

Akasha and I hit the water again for an afternoon float. Kash is back in school teaching during the week now so this was his chance to unwind, and mine as the college basketball season starts next week and getting ready to coach another season has its draining effects.

After the success Barry had on hoppers the day before with the short heavy leader so we figured long lighter leaders should just slay them right....if only. I started on the oars so Kash could start fishing, that way it was his fault when the fishing was slow. For the first time in our last 2 weeks of trips we switched rowers without having hooked a fish. I started fishing a hopper dropper setup with different hoppers and nymphs then I would normally use as an experiment. I did get 3 eats on the first bank but wasn't able to hook any of them. Bopp was back up and we saw more of the same slow fishing for the next half ile or so so I pulled over for us to switch up. I changed back to my standby droppers and hooked a nice rainbow within the first 25 yards, which I lost after the 6th jump. So much for the value of experimenting with new flies. Bopp changed up to his go to flies from the last 2 weeks and he hooked a fish 50 yards later, which also got off. My turn fishing again and I landed nice brown. Kash hooked another fish that got off and I was up again....things were back on track.

We stopped in a run to check out a bank and ledge we hadn't worked from the shore in a while. The angle of the sun made it impossible to spot fish from the treed bank so I went out to see Kash who was fishing the ledge and had just hooked a sizeable brown. It was only about 21" long but it was just a football.

The next hour we hooked fish very stedily on the hopper dropper setup before the sun dropped and made it too difficult to see the flies. We fished streamers the rest of the way and Akasha landed another heavy brown on the grass infamous grass bank but that was the only fish we saw after dark. Its funny when you stop to think that we landed double digit numbers of fish (and lost easily that many) in a 6hr float, with the average fish being 21-22" and we were almost bold enough to call that a slow day (compared to what we've had the last few weeks on the bow)

Aug 27 Bow River Float Trip (22X - Mac)

Today was a very interesting day of guiding for me. When I did my Master's Thesis I needed Certified and Master casting instructors for participant's and offered to take each of them out on the Bow. Barry took me up on that offer today. Barry has been guiding on the Bow for over 30 years now, longer then anyone else so I was interested to see him fishing in my boat.

I must say we had a lot of laughs and I learned some intersting history of the Bow, however the fishing aspect was not exactly eye opening. Barry wanted to fish dries so dries we fished. He fished a single hopper all day, and had no interest in droppers, nymphing or streamer fishing. Baryy satrted out with a hopper pattern that didn't produce a take so we he switched up a few times until he found a pattern he got a take on. After a lull I offered a hopper pattern of mine that had been working lately that Barry put on and brought several more fish up for it. Barry landed his first fish just after the Deerfoot extension, a gorgeous 22" football of a brown that we watched swim downstream after the hopper eat it and then hook himself, it was great, and hilarious. At one point I saw a fish take the hopper and said, "Barry, Barry!" trying to get him to set. Barry simply looked at my and said "Its a good thing I'm not concerned about catching fish huh", and we had a good laugh. Another time he had an eat that I responded to the same way, this time Barry just responded without moving his head or the rod, "yup I saw that too". "At least were on the same page then", I laughed. Barry and I enjoyed a lot of laughs watching fish eat his hopper while not reacting to the take...see everyone misses hook sets, no matter how long you've been in the game.

Barry switched up to another hopper pattern stored on his hat which produced the most takes (the old standby;) It was windy pretty much all day and at one point Barry had a wind knot that I offered to look at with slighlty younger eyes. Barry's supposed 3X leader must've been 15-20lbs test and couldn't have been more then 7' long (might have only been 6"), and he was still getting fish. The extra leader Barry thought he had must've got left in his truck and I hadn't brought an extra as I knew Barry had brought all his own equipment so we simply added some tippet to his existing leader which I'm confident did help matters as we saw more eats on the dry after that point. Late in the float Barry hooked something big...very big. Barry laid a nice cast inches from the bank, right where he needed to put the fly. It was a super subtle take, which usually indicates a big fish, and the way it fought it had to be a very very large brown. The fish pulled so hard that it spun the boat as it pulled. Barry's rod was bent under the type of strain that only a very large fish can produce, and fought in a manner very indicitive of a big brown....but we'll never know forsure as the brut eventually spit the hook as quickly as he had taken it.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day with a lot of laughs and even some fish to show for it. Fishing no droppers and nothing but the hopper on the short heavey leader he still must've boated ten fish and had easily twice as many eats.

Aug 25 Lower Bow Float Trip (22X - Mac)

Wolfgang and Jurgen from Germany joined Akasha for a full day float on the lower Bow. The day started a little late as the young lady selling fishing licenses was a little confused as how to proceed and the two clients spoke very little English. Wolfgang knew a few words, and Jergan could only communicate using sign language. It certainly made for an interesting day on the river. We finally arrived at the river and put in at 11 am. It didn’t take Wolfgang long to hook and land a feisty little rainbow and a gorgeous little brown on a hopper-dropper set up. Jurgen joined in on the fun with a scrappy little rainbow on nymphs. About fifteen minutes later, Wolfgang had a nice brown take a look at his hopper and decided that one of the nymphs below looked even better. After a great battle, Wolfgang landed a thick 22’ brown. Before starting to fish again, I changed Jurgan’s set up to a hopper-dropper. Literally two minutes later Jurgan hooked a freight train of a rainbow that took him well into his backing. It tapped out at only 20’ but that fish must have been on performance enhancing drugs! The fishing continued hot for several hours with lots of takes on both the hopper and the dropper nymphs. By the time we stopped for lunch we had ten fish in the boat and many fish lost during the fight.

During lunch, some clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped. When we started fishing again the fish were clearly being affected by the weather. Although we still caught some fish, the fishing was slower than earlier in the day. We tried streamers, different nymphs and small dries all with limited success. The little fish would still take, but the larger fish lost interest. Finally, at about 6:30 pm we started getting into some better fish again. When we finally made it to the takeout we had boated 15 decent fish and lost double that amount. The big smiles on Wolfgang and Jurgan’s faces let me know that they had had a great day even though they couldn’t speak English. I am sure that they will be back again for more great fishing on the Bow.

Aug 21 Lower Bow Float Trip (Police – Mac)

Kevin from Stettler joined us today for a float trip on the bow river. Ken's son was supposed to be able to join us but was not able to in the end due to work.

The weather changed today, we've had several weeks of very hot weather but today it was overcast and rainy. Fortunately the change in weather did not change the fishing we've seen the last few weeks. Kevin experienced the Bow the way its supposed to be experienced. Kevin landed one helthy trout after another. His camera spent as much time in my hand as it did in the bag. I remebered to take 1 picture at least on our camera so we would have a picture for the report.

The day started off very well with nymphs. Again we were finding the fish tight to the banks and in very skinny water. Right off the bat Kevin did battle with a nice heavy 22" brown that took him well into his backing (and included the spool popping off the reel twice) only to lose the fish just yards from the net. Kevin quickly redeemed himself and went on to land double digit numbers of trout, hooking easily twice that. Hopper droppers took the majority of the fish as we switched over to that well before lunch.

After about 4:30 the rain went from spotty to full on rain. By 7:00 when we hit the boat launch it was raining pretty good. The heavier rain did seem to put the fish off but up to 4:30 the fishing had stayed very consitent and very good.

Aug 19 Bull Trout Walk and Wade

In the afternoon after floating the bow river with Akasha I was able to sneak out after bullies with my older brother Daniel who was in town. We found easily 2 dozen bulls in the first pool but they were not in the mood to eat. We kept moving down river and found fish in each pool but in lower numbers each time we went further downstream.

We picked up a few fish and had a few follows but these fish were not in the mood to eat. Bull trout fishing is always a blast though, especially when you get to see the fish, even if they're not cooperating

Aug 19 Lower Bow Float Trip (22x – Police)

Bopp & I got to fish one more time and the river was just as incredible as it had been. One gorgeous fish after another on hopper dropper rigs in shallow water. We hooked more fish while floating and slightly fewer fish when we stopped and wade fished the runs but it fished unbelievably well again. We found the 27” brown again and I was able to trick him again this time with a tiny little #18 trico nymph imitation. Crazy to see fish that big eat bugs that small. The other interesting thing to see was that the brute had a noticeable scar on its back that was not their 2 days ago. My guess is that a predatory bird spotted him in the shallow water and tried to make a meal out of them but couldn’t handle a fish that large.

If you can make the tough casts you could expect to hook very good numbers of very big fish….just don’t ask me why I’m telling you to cast into that water that doesn’t look deep enough to hold fish. Cast first ask questions later. This week has been the best fishing I’ve seen on this river in the last 5 years. It renewed my faith in the numbers of 24+” fish in this river. Fortunately this hot weather has actually driven the fish to water that is easier to locate them. They’re always around, its just some times they’re easier to find then others.

Aug. 16th Lower Bow Float (22X – Mac)

Brad fished the lower bow river for the 2nd time in his life today and suffice to say he was not disappointed. The amazing fishing we’ve been seeing this week continued today. As has been the rest of the week the fish have moved from their typical lies and are holding in very unassuming spots, but if you know where they are life is good. Brad didn’t have a typical day or even a good day, he had an exceptional

Brad landed around 20 fish and hooked easily that many that he lost, and I don’t recall a single fish under 18” or more then half a dozen under 20”. We saw the 27” fish that I landed yesterday but he spooked before we could get Brad into position. The chance of fooling that brute again in the near future is pretty slim though, fish that big don’t get fooled very often. Brad just kept landing one 20” rainbow trout after another, but we didn’t land a brown. That’s not to say that we didn’t see or hook them though. Much like the past few days almost all the fish came on the hopper dropper set up. Most of the hopper eats Brad had were browns though which was interesting. At one point Brad was casting to a 25+” brown that wasn’t interested in his offer, only to row 20’ back upstream just to cast to another 25+” brown that ate the dropper…unfortunately we did not hook the big brown trout but the fact that Brad fooled a fish that large into eating is an accomplishment. I can’t think of the last time we’ve seen this many huge trout. We’ve always know with the Bow they’re around, I just can’t remember seeing or hooking this many 24+” brown trout since 2004.

The weather has been exceptionally hot, but so too has the fishing been. There are a lot of people having tough days on the water right now with this heat, and we just feel extremely fortunate to be on the water enough to have figured out where the fish are and what they’re feeding on. Let’s just say that if the Bow river fished this well everyday as it has this week it would ruin and spoil every fishermen that was tempted enough to wet a line in its water’s. In the mean time we’ll why not take your next day O.F.F. today!.

Aug 15th Lower Bow Float (22X – Police)

Todd and I finally got to fish together after several years of guiding together on the bow. Todd had been out with clients the day before when Akasha and I had the exceptional fishing. I rowed to start as I wanted Todd to experience what we had. Unfortunately the setup Todd was fishing was a little heavy for how shallow the water the fish were sitting in and instead of going lighter he fished the deeper water, which wasn’t producing many fish for us that week.

Todd hooked a few fish deep nymphing but it was pretty slow. When he switched over to a hopper dropper rig he hooked up pretty quickly. The first time we pulled in to stop we saw the same big dark 25” fish again but spooked when 2 fisherman on the banks walked by and they took off before we could ever cast to them.

Todd and I started fishing the same shallow fast run that Akasha and I had so much success in. Todd landed a rainbow right away and I had hooked 3 fish in my first 3 cast including a gorgeous brown. It was much earlier in the day then the times Akasha and I had fished this run and the fish didn’t seem to be as shallow, although the angle of the sun made it very difficult to see with all the glare. After landing a half a dozen fish I went back to see if the big brute of a brown had returned, he and another fish had returned to the bucket. I snuck in behind them and made one drift over them with the hopper dropper rod. The fish I couldn’t see as well took the dropper and took off like he was possessed. That fish hit my backing in an instant, Todd asked why I was letting the fish run so far…I was sure he must be kidding as this fish went straight for the deep fast water and didn’t slow down. I had to run after the fish to keep from losing all my backing. Almost a mile downstream I ran out of backing, I actually had to wade across a channel with my backing not being the only thing I had left on the spool and only hoping to keep up in order to keep from losing my fly line. The fish finally got out of the fast current and tried to rest in slower water against the bank which allowed me to catch up and land the fish. I was blown away, it was only a 22-23” brown…let me explain. This isn’t exactly a small fish however I was looking at this huge brown and then hooked this fish and was hopeful that this might be the big brother of the fish I had been looking at. After wading over a mile back up river to the boat and where Todd was waiting I needed a rest. The big brown had come back and Todd had tried casting to it but it had not been interested in eating. I was however after that run and need to get something to eat and drink. After lunch I tried my hand one more time at this big brown. He wasn’t interested in the hopper or dropper’s however I did manage to get the brute on a streamer. Fortunately he ran upstream so he was much easier to land. We measured the fish and it was just over 27”, a gorgeous trout…a huge trout. We moved on and fish the run we had been on earlier and now almost ad hour and a half later the fish were up on the shallow fast water and we picked up more fish as we floated by. It was windy and the hopper dropper rig with 2 droppers was very awkward to cast but if you could make the 60+ foot cast you’d hook the fish more often then not. We’d watch them chase the hopper downstream before hitting either the hopper or one of the droppers.

We only had time to stop at one more bucket and wee once again rewarded by several big fish. As we floated in to it Todd had a huge brown come up and take a swipe at his hopper but missed. We both fished while the boat was anchored unlike the previous day and we had double header that ended with a 24” brown on my line and a 20” rainbow on Todd’s and a bunch of people clapping as they drifted by in a raft. The wind made the long casts difficult for Todd and I was fortunate that I’d had a little more practice casting these type of rigs and casting long distances. I definitely enjoy casting and distance casting which is why I love teaching casting clinics and it paid off. If you could get the fly in front of those fish they would eat it…it was unreal again. The river was fishing unbelievable again. To think I landed 3 or 4 23” browns, a 24” brown a 27” brown, 22-23” rainbows and at least 2 dozen fish myself in another 4 hour float and Todd added at least a half a dozen fish himself as well.

Have I mentioned I love the bow river? I do…I love it…I love it a lot…

Aug 14th Lower Bow Float (22X – Police)

Akasha and I were able to sneak out for a half day float today as we both had obligations in the afternoon that kept us from being on the water. After the day we had on Monday expectations were high, which usually means the likelihood of disappointment is immanent. Fortunately that was not the case today.

The day did not start off fast and furious as we both wanted to streamer fish, and streamers did not turn out to be what the fish wanted to eat the most. Akasha started off rowing due to a misplaced comment in the parking lot. I had 1 brown chase the streamer just about to the boat in the first hundred yards but didn’t land a fish until nearly a mile into the float, a nice rainbow that gave a similar chase off the bank and needed to be convinced to eat the bug.

After landing the rainbow I was on the oars and Akasha was up. He started off streamer fishing and had 1 fish chase but little excitement other then that. We switched up to hopper dropper’s and Bopp hooked a fish right off the bat, we switched up and 2 casts later I landed a rainbow on the hopper dropper, which put Akasha up and me back on the oars. I had Akasha cast into a bucket over we were about to pull into to drop anchor and fish the run that Akasha hooked his 24” brown in on Monday. He made a cast into the shallow bucket with no response so I pulled the boat in only to watch a huge brown spook and take off downstream. I figured that had to be at least a 25” fish it was big, and dark too for this time of year.

Akasha got out and started nymphing the water from Monday while I rigged up another hopper dropper setup and grabbed a snack. When I got out of the boat and started wading downstream I spotted what I assumed had to be the big brown we spooked 10 minutes before. Assuming it was the same fish we had spooked with the boat there was little chance of getting that fish to eat, but let’s see you walk away from a pig of a brown lying in 14” of water. While I drifted multiple hopper dropper rigs over this fish with no response I could see Akasha with a bent rod more then once. I went back to the boat I tried a streamer when I heard Akasha yell at me to bring the video camera to get footage of his current fish. When I got to Akasha I found out that this 23” brown he had was the 5th fish he had landed in the 10 minutes we had been there. We got some video footage of this fish and while I walked back to put the video camera in the boat to then try and find that big brown again Akasha yelled at me to bring the camera back as he had hooked a beautiful rainbow not more then 30 seconds after releasing the brown. After that Akasha took pity on me and took the video camera and let me try the other side of the camera lens. Fishing the hopper dropper set up I pulled half a dozen fish out of there in the next 10 minutes and saw my backing for the first time in years…only to see it 3 times. Akasha and I must’ve hooked over 2 dozen fish in the hour we were then and finally had to leave as we were both supposed to be off the water in 30 minutes and were only half way through the float at that point.

Once back in the boat the trend continued the fish were all in super shallow extremely fast moving water that was extremely oxygenated, given the extreme heat. The number of fish we were hooking was bordering on ridiculous. We watched a nice 18” rainbow turn and chase my hopper dropper setup down stream and when I hooked it we then watched a absolute monster brown trout come off the bank and started chasing it. 50 yards downstream Akasha landed another rainbow on the hopper dropper and as we puled in to land this fish I had a fish take my fly off the water behind me while I was stepping back into the boat. We laughed and Akasha celebrated as it mean I was back on the oars. I rowed 10’ and Akasha hooked his next fish. We then rowed to hold ourselves in the current and cast at these huge fish that were holding in super fast and shallow water…this is were things got stupid. We were able to anchor and hooked easily 2 dozen fish in a half an hour almost every cast. Akasha got broken off by 6 or 7 fish and I broke off 2 myself as well. These were huge fish that were on the feed and sitting in super shallow water so it was all sight casting, although it was very difficult to make the 65-70’ cast with a hopper dropper up to were they were sitting…difficult but doable and very rewarding. We had to row out the rest of the way as we were very late at this point and we still hooked more browns on the dries while pushing down the river as quickly as we could get off the water.

If the bow fished like this everyday it would ruin the economy. Nobody would go to work as they’d all be on the water and nothing would get done. The craziest part is a few of our buddies who were on the river working (guiding) that day were having terrible days with the heat. We told them the flies we were using and how shallow the fish were sitting but they didn’t think the fish would be in water that shallow…you’ve just seen us hook 4 fish (with only 1 person fishing and one person video taping) just since you floated past, what more do you need? In the end we fished about 4hrs and hooked over 50 fish, with probably less then half a dozen fish under 20”. Well over 40 of the fish were on hopper dropper setups where you were sight casting to the fish. The rigs we were casting and the length of cast you’re forced to make are definitely not easy to do, but extremely effective. Its days like this that you always hope for when you’re on the water, so when you get them you just have to count your blessings and enjoy every second of it.

Aug 13th Lower Bow Float (Police – Mac)

Pat our website designer from Mya Software was finally able to join us on the river today after years of attempts on both our parts. After defending his thesis yesterday Pat was ready to relax and do some fly fishing on the world famous bow river today. We were able to make some updates to the website in the morning before we went out, including getting the fishing reports back up and working.

Pat started the day nymphing and hooked his largest rainbow ever within a mile of the put in. Shortly after he hooked a couple of browns that gave him the slip in the end. The next few hours Pat was hooking fish but it wasn’t like it had been the previous days. Heavy winds pushed a front in that really put the fishing off. We didn’t see anyone hook a fish and talked to many guys that hadn’t seen a fish all day which was unfortunate.

We stopped and I fished with Pat as well and only hooked 2 fish in the 3 stops we made, although I did have the biggest brown I’ve ever seen come up for a dry fly, only to disappear to the bottom again. I went back to the boat, lightened and lengthened the leader and tried another hopper pattern. Pat followed with the video camera and was able to get footage of the take; however this was a different fish a much much smaller 22” rainbow.

I decided to try and wait out the wind and see if we could get Pat into some better fishing in the evening once the wind died down. The wind did die down but the fishing didn’t get spectacular we’ll say. Pat hooked a few fish on droppers and then landed a nice rainbow on a streamer in the dark to finish out the day. I was blown away to see that the river had dropped 8” in the last few hours of the day. Over 3 and a half feet of rocks were wet at the takeout showing how far back the water had receded. Fish are very sensitive to fluctuations in water level which is obviously what kept Pat from having the exceptional days we’ve seen the rest of this week.

Aug 12th Lower Bow Float Trip (Police – Mac)

Dr. Vincent Joanis took one of our Fly Fishing 101 Trips down the bow river as he had missed our Fly Fishing 101 schools in June. Given the number of years in Med-school Vincent was no stranger to learning and was a quick study to say the least. We started Vincent on an indicator rig as that is the easiest to cast when taught properly and Vincent was functionally fishing within minutes. Only a few hundred yards into the trip his first ever fly rod fish was landed, with the second one only a few meters down stream. Vincent hooked a fish on every fly we put on (which was only a select few as throat pumps had revealed exactly what the fish were eating).

The river continued to fish this way throughout the day. In the afternoon we had Vincent hopper dropper fishing and he took big trout on both the dry and the dropper’s. Again it was the tiny nymphs that were producing the best for droppers (#18 flashback pheasant tails and copper johns). To round out his arsenal we had Vincent streamer fish as well and to be perfectly honest he hooked so many fish today I really don’t remember if he had a fish landed on the streamer or not, I know he had chasers. Its almost unbelievable to think that someone who has never fly fished before could come to a trophy trout river and walk away having landed double digit numbers of fish with easily twice that many fish hooked. There’s no question much of this is credited to Vincent picking things up fairly quickly, but this river we have in our back yards is something else.

Aug 11th Lower Bow Float Trip (22X - Police)

Well Akasha and I had a day to remember today. For the first time since June we got to fun fish the bow today. I've been doing so much guiding that I have not had the opportunity to do any fun fishing, but today we were going to change that. We both had meetings in the mornign which is why I wasn't guiding today so we put on the water at about 5:00 in the evening.

Despite the river fishing very well when I'm guiding so often when you try and fun fish you experience slow fishing. The day may have started slow but it turned a corner very dramatically. Akasha landed a nice rianbow within the first mile but it was fairly slow. The first hour or so we only hooked a couple of fish from the boat. When we stopped I landed a brown right away but then we had to work to get our fish. Akasha then moved up on the run and hooked a nice rainbow, followed by another, and 2 good browns. The water the fish were sitting in was very surprising as it was exceptionally shallow and fast.

The next run we stopped at I took the streamer rod and Akasha took his nymph rod. I worked that long run very thouroughly and only picke dup 2 rainbows out of it. Akasha got 4 fish on the nymph set up including a very thick 24" brown but he worked that water to. Not many people would spend that much time or work that hard on one run which left us somewhat surprised at how few fish we had picked up despite the qulity of the fish.

The sun was dropping in the sky so we started floating down river again. We took a few more fish nymphng before there wasn't enough light left to see the indicators. After Akasha landed his last fish and we switched rowers I grabbed the streamer rod. Right away I landed a fish and we switched back. Akasha's first cast back to the bank and he hooks a fish, but loses it. I laugh and we switch rules are rules (hook a fish over 16" and landed or not you're on the oars). My laughing was quickly drowned out by Akasha's as my first cast to the bank resulted in a hooked, and lost fish which pt me back on the oars. 3 casts 3 hooked fish.

The next bank was much of the same. In 50 yards of bank we must've hooked at least 2 dozen fish (which meant switching rowers on the fly 20+ times). The moon was bright enough that we could still see where the bank was. We got some video footage with the nightshot but I'm not sure how usable it will be with all the laughing. I've never had fishing that fast paced at night, and maybe not even during the day. Neither of us could beleive there were that many fish over 20" on one 50 yard stretch of bank. There were at least half a dozen times we made 3-4 casts with a hooked fish on every cast. We lost far more fish then we landed but it was hard to care, the fishing was too exceptional and we were having far too much fun.

Days like this are what you always hope for and what keep you coming back, no matter what the fishing does. You always know that any day could turn out to be a day like this, especially if you're on the Bow

Aug. 7th Lower Bow Float (Police - Mac)

Aug. 7th Lower Bow Float (Police - Mac)
Mike & Dillon from Spokane floated the bow river with us today. The fishing was amazing early with 3 double headers. The guys did hook the odd small fish (12-14”) but we saw several 20” fish for every fish under 16”. The guys hooked fish on all nymphs we used (granted they were selected based on the throat pumps I’ve done on fish recently). Again in the afternoon big winds made for a lull, but once again hopper dropper fishing picked up in the afternoon, this time right before lunch. Mike had had a few chases on the streamers during the lull but it was when Dillon started fishing the hopper dropper that things turned around in a hurry. Dillon landed 2 fish in 20yards as we pulled in for lunch, the last one being Dillon’s 2nd time Dillon had bested his largest rainbow ever with the 23” rainbow.

Tiny droppers (#18’s copper johns & flashback pheasant tails were once again the ticket). Hopper/stonefly patterns were the ticket in evening as the fish kept hitting the dries right to the point we hit the boat launch. Dillon snapped off on a big trout only 50 yards above the takeout.

It’s always great to see people experience the bow river for what it really is.

Aug. 6th Lower Bow Float (Police – Mac)

Mike & Linda from New Mexico floated the bow river with us today. The fishing was great early with nymphs. Both Mike and Lind a hooked one fish after another up until the wind hit. Heavy winds pushing a front through killed the fishing for an hour or so but things picked right up again as soon as the wind calmed down. After lunch they had lots of big fish on hopper dropper setups. We had easily as many fish eat the hopper as the droppers with the best droppers being tiny stuff imitating the trico nymphs as the trico’s are hatching in big numbers (droppers #18 copper johns & pheasant tails

Aug. 5th Lower Bow Float (Police – Mac)

Anita from Reel Hookers Club and her son Hudson joined us for a bow river float trip as she had won this year’s draw at the Western Canadian Fly Fishing Expo. Anita set up the Reel Hookers Club a women’s fly fishing club that is doing wonderful things in the sport of fly fishing.

Anita started the day as a spectator, as she wanted to have Hudson into fish before she started fishing. Hudson landed a nice rainbow early and had his two fans going wild (Anita and myself). Now that Hudson had caught a fish Anita gave the evil aerobics instructor response and told Hudson she’d start fishing after his net fish. Hudson proceeded to land a second rainbow in professional form. Hudson was excited about his rainbow and now set on catching a brown. In true evil aerobics instructor form Anita informed Hudson that she would start fishing if he landed a brown. Hudson had a few hits in a run near cottonwood so I walked the boat back upstream to do the run again 3 times which paid off as Hudson landed his brown.

Anita was now off the bench and into the game...well sort of. Anita started fishing a hopper dropper set up which turned out to be very entertaining for everyone involved (the trout included). We laughed hysterically as Anita made wonderful casts exactly where she should and had one big trout after another come up and eat her hopper, eight in a row to be exact...turns out sleep deprivation does not improve reaction time. As trout know how to do many fish hit in the exact moment Anita would look away or say something to Hudson or eye, which is typically all it takes to trigger a big trout take. Anita landed a nice rainbow on the dry and Hudson continued to hook fish on the nymph setup all though long distances releases were often involved.

It was great to hear the things that the Reel Hookers Club is doing for the sport of fly fishing, and I must say Hudson and Anita were an absolute joy to have out in the boat.

Aug. 4th Lower Bow Float (Police – Mac)

Good friends of ours Dave & Victoria finally made it to Calgary to do a float down the Bow with us. With their family obligations and schedule we were doing a short trip putting on at 2:00 and having to be off by 8:30. Dave was fishing while Victoria and I were spectators, and hecklers. Dave started off with a nymph set up and was into fish right off the bat. After a bit of a lull in the action we switched Dave over to the streamer setup and was that ever a riot. Dave hooked into one gorgeous trout after another… big browns, big rainbows, rainbows big enough that he finally understood while I have buddies who guide on this river who are not interested in driving 10hrs to chase steelhead on the coast when our bow river rainbows are this big and this strong (actually the rainbows originally put in the bow decades ago are of a steelhead strain. All the trout in the bow are wild fish, but the rainbows being of a steelhead strain are exceptionally strong and acrobatic fish. The bow has many big rainbows that will rival many small steelhead).

At one point while Dave was landing his biggest brown (22+”) we had a 2nd even bigger brown follow after his fish and even look at the other trail streamer dangling in the current before heading for the safety of deeper water once he saw us. I’m so glad Dave had the type of day he did. The river fished the way it should and he was rewarded for his efforts. There are few things in fly fishing like watching big wild trout chase your streamer off the banks and chase in shallow water where you get to see everything unfold. As exceptional as the fishing was it was rivaled only by the company. Dave showed me a lot about his home waters when I’ve gone steelhead and salmon fishing so it was nice to be able to return the favor.

Aug. 3rd Bow River Float Trip

Sam took Dr. Morin for a float trip down the bow river with us today

Aug. 2nd Bow River Reserve Float

Kevin & Frank from Red Deer joined us for another float on the reserve. Both Frank and Kevin were experienced fly fishermen and came in with big expectations of the untapped stretch of river. Frank was determined to fish dries as he’d heard of the great dry fly fishing the reserve stretch had offered us in the past (the past being the operative word here). Frank was casting dries in the side channel while I finished setting up the boat. Once we put the boat in the water things started to happen pretty quickly. The guys hooked 2 nice fish on streamers before we even hit the main channel to better the performance from the day before. We stopped at the first ledge to work it from outside the boat. Frank worked the water along the high bank with his hopper dropper and hooked into a nice football like brown in the 17 – 18” range. Kevin was working the ledge with a nymph setup and brought a nice rainbow to hand, but considering how well the guys worked the water I was a little surprised to only see 2 fish landed from it.

We hopped back in the boat and went back to pounding the banks with streamers. Kevin and Frank were moving a lot of fish with the streamers, especially white ones. What had initially worried me though was the 4wt Frank thought was a streamer rod. I believe in landing fish as quickly as possible so they’re still fresh and ready for release, which is why Kevin’s 7wt is more my idea of a streamer rod. I must say though that Frank managed to defy my thoughts of what a streamer rod is, while still living up to my belief in landing a fish quickly before they wear themselves out…possibly even surpassing it. Yes Frank II have never seen anyone land that many fish over 20” in under 30 seconds, using a 4wt as a streamer rod, first time for everything. Frank and Kevin had chases, follows, big takes, subtle takes, and even explosive takes, but the biggest thing was there were lots of them. Kevin landed a pig of a rainbow, it was only 22”long but it was so thick it looked much bigger. No matter how many fish they hooked on their steamers there was always the comments about the fish on the surface, or lack there of. We went 8 or more hours without seeing a single fish on the surface. For some reason we have not seen much dry fly fishing to speak of so far this year on the Reserve, which is completely the opposite of what we’d seen in past years….turns out Frank and Kevin reminded me of this fact every few minutes ….as they should. I had a riot with these guys, they rode me about the lack of dry fly fishing but they did so while casting to every pocket a guide could ask anyone to hit and producing the fish to show for it. They landed between 25 and 30 fish, hooked many more, and had me laughing much of the day. Frank’s an impressive fly tier as well and we had a good time digging through each other’s fly boxes, while no fish were feeding on the surface ;)

I hope Kevin and Frank enjoyed their day half as much as I did and I hope to see them back on the water again soon.

Aug. 1st Bow River Reserve Float

Ken, from Edmonton, and his son in law William, from California, floated the Reserve stretch today. We put in at a different launch today (below where we put in yesterday and above Tuesday’s trip). The wind was absolutely howling before we had even started. I was not looking forward to rowing in this and was concerned about how difficult it would make the casting. At this launch we put in on a small side channel 50 yards upstream of the main river. I was struggling to keep the boat in the center of the channel with all the wind yet William hooked a fish right out of the gates, and Ken followed suit shortly after.

Unfortunately the side channel was actually offering more protection then we thought. I had to hug the right hand bank to try and stay under the protection of the bank. This gave us a false sense of how bad the wind really was. William had done a lot of nymphing and was hooking fish often; as was Ken, but when we came around the first bend the wind hit us so hard that things got ugly in a hurry. Standing rowing downstream with the current we were still getting blown upstream, it was ridiculous. We tried stopping for lunch to let the wind blow through. The wind was blowing the chairs over as well as the salad out of the bowls. We fished from the gravel bar for a bit and fortunately the wind started to lull. Before long the fishing picked right up again and we were back on track. There was a bit of a lull in the fishing when we passed the clay banks again where the water muddied up but once we got downstream of the sloughing banks the fishing was consistent again. Ken and William hooked fish the rest of the day right into the last hours of daylight. Thank goodness the wind died down and the guys were able to get back to hooking fish.

July 31 Bow River Trip (Police - Mac)

Pat & his son Fr. David joined us on the Bow today. Pat is in his 80's and still fishing with his son which is great to see. Both Pat and Fr. David caught some gorgeous Bow River fish. Fr. David also let me know about Saint Xeno the patron saint of fisherman who we will definitely be calling on for divine intervention. Fr. david is also a fly tier and had some nice ties that worked well on our Bow River fish.

Today the weather as enjoyable as the fishing and the company. All in all another greta day on the bow.

July 30th Bow River Reserve Float

Doug Green joined us for a float down on the Sik Sika Reserve today. We floated higher up today to try and stay above clay banks that were making the lower part of the river so muddy. The water was super clear and Doug had gorgeous weather to start the day…or so we thought. Soon after hitting the river the wind started to blow. The water looked great but the front that was blowing in was obviously putting the fish off. Doug put nymphs, streamers, and dries through one exceptional piece of water after another with no responses. Finally after an hour or so Doug landed a really healthy brown trout that validated his efforts. Minutes later he had a rainbow race off the banks and hit his streamer but it came unbuttoned. As a wind surfer Doug estimated the winds at close to 65 km/hr…not ideal for fly casting but at least streamers punch through the wind better.

As the wind lulled in the evening the fishing picked up. Doug hooked a few more rainbows on the streamer and landed a very nice rainbow off a gravel ledge. After hooking 3 rainbows on the bank coming in to the boat launch, I rowed across the river and walked the boat back up to do the bank again. At the top of the run we got a fish on a dry before heading down the bank in the waning light. The last few hours of the day without wind were more productive then the previous 8 or more hours shows how much weather can affect the fish.

July 29th Bow River Reserve Float

Akasha and I headed down to the reserve and the river ranche to float that stretch for the first time this season. With the late clearing of the river this due to the sloughing of the large clay banks effected from spring runoff the 2nd half of the float saw only a foot or two of visibility. Right out of the gates Akasha hooked a nice rainbow, the 2nd jump the fish made practically landed in the boat launch…not a bad start to the year down there. The first several miles fished very very well. Each of us hooked one nice rainbow after another and even 3 pike. We saw both bald eagles and golden eagles watching us fish but other then that you don’t see anyone which is pretty cool. Once we hit the toilet bowl where the clay banks are sloughing there were a few miles where the fishing slowed right down but then picked up again and finished as strong as it started.

July 26-27 Overnight Bow River Trip

Cary and Eric decided to do a 2 day trip with an overnight campout on the Bow river for Eric’s birthday present. The first day we floated and fly fished the stretch of the bow river from Policeman’s flats to an island just below MacKinnon flats where we camped. The first day the river was fishing tough for everyone we spoke with. Some of the best guides I know on this river were fishless 6hrs into their day so I didn’t feel quite as bad with our 4 or 5 hooked fish. The constantly changing weather patterns throughout the day have made fishing tough but we’re always finding a way to get fish still. As evening rolled around and we were getting to the island the fishing picked up. We hooked a few nice fish right before we got to the island. While I set up camp and cooked supper the guys went and fished dries on the flat above the island and each landed a trout.

We sat around the camp fire until nearly 1:00am so we didn’t get up until 6:00am. The guys fished from the island while I prepared a hot breakfast and caught a few small trout. After breakfast the guys went back out fishing while I packed up the tents and the rest of camp. We pulled away from the island at 8:45 fishing dries and streamers. Nothing came up for Cary’s dries and nymphs hadn’t moved many fish over the last 2 days. Eric finally landed a gorgeous 22” rainbow on a streamer. I say finally because Eric had been casting the streamers for a day and a half without a landed fish on it, and he was doing everything h should be doing…the fish were just not responding while the front’s kept rolling through one after another. A huge hail storm swept through in the afternoon that we were fortunate to only catch the very tail edge of. Cary and Eric did a fantastic job of fishing and were as enjoyable as anyone you could ask for in your boat. It was very frustrating trying fly after fly and watching them do everything they should and just not see many fish respond. Like I told them, I don’t guide to only get people into 3 or 4 fish a day, sometimes the fish don’t want to cooperate but that change the fact that our job is to get people into fish…it just makes it a heck of a lot tougher.

July 25th Sheep River Exploration

My younger cousin Kerry was in town today so I took her to the Upper sheep to try and confirm rumors of cutthroat above the falls on the sheep river, with a section of the river opening above Indian Oils campground. The water was exceptionally fishy looking, however there was not a fish to be seen anywhere. We did see a cougar on the river which was very fortunate to see one in the light of day. We ran into a Fish and Wildlife Officer that confirmed a hunch I had been having….the upper stretch was supposed to be stocked but fisheries never did. There were no fish because it had not been stocked as it had supposed to be, glad we were able to discover that…oh well, pretty stretch of river.

July 24th Oldman River Walk & Wade

Lee joined us for a walk & wade in the form of one of our Fly Fishing 101 trips whereby he could learn the wonderful sport of fly fishing while fishing the Oldman River. Lee picked up the casting very quickly, and while casting and learning to mend was often interrupted by a cutthroat taking his fly. His first fish landed was a 22” bull trout on a streamer.

The early parts of the day saw limited numbers of bugs on the water. Most of the fish that Lee raised had not been feeding on the surface but simply willing to eat a well presented dry. At one point Lee had a huge 30” bull trout chase his streamer that didn’t take. Only minutes later that same bull returned to grab a cutthroat that was hooked. The bull trout wanted that cutty so badly that he didn’t even let go when I reached down and grabbed his tail. I reached under his head and lifted the 30” bull from the water still clutching the 13” cutthroat in his jaws. Lee asked what we should do then, I simply replied I guess we should take a picture. Lee started wading towards my pack with the camera as I made my way over with the bull trout clutching the cutty in tow. Before Lee was able to get the camera the bull trout started thrashing and I lost my grip. Bull trout always make things more exciting.

As the evening progressed more and more bugs were showing up, as hoped. Brown drake spinners were returning to the water, midges were all over and caddis were all over the river edges. We found Lee another pocket of aggressively midging cutties in a swirling foam eddy. Again it was almost impossible to see the flies but the takes were unmistakable, but still hard to set on. As the sun disappeared and evening set in brown drake duns began appearing, but at this point Lee was ready to head for home after a very full day of fly fishing. I convinced Lee to cast to one last feeding fish and hooked a beautiful cutthroat at the last pool before heading back to the truck.

July 23 Bow River Float Trip (Mac – Cars)

We put all 3 of our boats on the water today with Fr. Jack and Fr. Mark in from Louisiana, Dan and his father Mike and George and Pat with Akasha. The fishing started off a little slow but then the 2 priests started everything off. We started hooking many nice fish nymphing before getting hammered by rain. After the heavy rains subsided we continued floating down the river. After the rains streamers were the order of the day. With in 40 minutes Akasha had his guys into over a dozen fish with Pat’s 24” brown being the most impressive of the group. Dries were very sporadic but streamer fishing continued to produce fish right up to dark.

July 22nd Bow River Float (Police - Mac)

Ken and Rick from Cranbrook British Colombia joined us for a day of fly fishing the Bow river. Ken's goal was to land one of the bow's monster browns so of course he landed a big rainbow right off the bat. It was bright, sunny and hot, not the ideal conditions for browns but that didn't stop the guys from hooking fish. Given their pursuit of the big browns they hooked one rainbow after another but only a small (17-18" brown).

The river fished a little differently today as each time we stopped and worked water from the bank they didn't touch a fish, yet fishing from the boat they hooked fish steadily throughout the day. Since the guys had hooked so many rainbows we decided to switch up to streamers to try and get that elusive brute of a brown Ken was after. Fortunately enough Ken did hook a pig but it wasn't were or when he was expecting and the fish got the better of him. Frustrated but remotivated I had Ken cast into some very shallow choppy water 50 yards down stream that I know many big fish hang out in. Another pig of a brown nailed his streamers and came out of the water to show us his size. In less then 5 minutes and 50 yards of water Ken had hooked 2 browns over that 24" range. I switched Rick over to streamers and 100 yards down stream Rick hooked into his own pig that came flying out of the water in a fit of rage. Between the strength of a fish that size and Rick's strength when excited and startled 12lbs test was stretched past the point of no return and the line snapped. Rick then had to watch his fish jump 2 more times with both streamers hanging out of its mouth. 3 browns well over 24" hooked in less then 150 yards�but not one of them in the net, welcome to the Bow river.

July 21st Bow River Float (Police – Mac)

Two close friend’s Asia and Jacinta who are like little sisters to me came down the bow to learn to fly fish. My initial casting lesson was interrupted Asia stating that something was wrong with her line as it wouldn’t cast. Closer inspection revealed that casting making a second cast was not possible with a 20+” rainbow on the line. As it exploded into the air Asia let out a scream that left me unable to hear out of my left ear for a few minutes. I must say this was the first time I’ve done a bow river flat trip and heard shrieking, singing, and humming while fly fishing.

The girls continued to hook fish and I continued to laugh hysterically at their reactions. The river was fishing much better then it had been. It was nice to be out with friends and have a day not working…even though I did exactly what I would do on a work day….

July 20th Bow River Float (Police- Mac)

For Bob & Barry's 4th day we did the stretch from Policeman's flats down to Mac Kinnon flats again. The fish were on again today. Bob started with nymphs again while Barry stripped streamers. Barry had a few chases right off the bat but it was Bob who put the first fish in the boat. Bob was hooking enough fish that Barry wanted to switch and try his hand at the nymphs as well.

They guys hooked fish steady throughout the day, but unfortunately Barry was getting many L.D.R.'s (long distances releases) which we could tell was frustrating him (8 of his 9 fish). It's too bad but that's fishing some days to and you don't want to let it ruin your day. Bob had his best day on the bow landing many rainbows and browns throughout the trip. I'm not sure what we did more of over the 4 days laugh or hook fish, either way it was a good time. I must say that if I'm as active in my 70's as Bob and Barry and still have that sense of humor then life went wel

July 19th Bow River Float Trip (Mac - Cars)

Barry & Bob's 3rd day of their trip was spent back on the Bow river again. We did the bottom end with the hopes of some dries in the evening and for the streamer fishing Barry wanted to do. Bob decided to start the day off with a bang by throwing a fish at my head...ok so it wasn't entirely his fault. After the number of exceptionally subtle, especially by the big fish, the previous day on the Bow Bob was quick to set at the first movement of his indicator. That's were you find out how a tried and true bass fisherman is able to launch a fish threw the air at my head when the take turned out to be from a 6" fish instead of the standard 18-22" fish they were used to seeing on the Bow thus far. Barry landed a nice rainbow over 20" early on which had us very optimistic however the day did fish much tougher then their first day on the Bow. We had sporadic rises to dries, follows on the streamers and Bob was still hitting fish on the nymphs but they had to work for them.

With the heat we decided to wait out the sun and hit the channels once the sun dropped below the high banks to go and do some dry fly fishing in the channels. The fish were taking caddis, but unfortunately a #14 caddis was to hard for them to see on the surface in the evening light so we fished bigger stonefly patterns that brought several fish to the surface, just not as many as the fish were actively feeding on caddis.

July 18th Oldman River Walk & Wade

For their second day we took Barry and Bob down to the Oldman River. The day started with a great deal of wind making casting difficult as well as bug identification. Any bugs hatching were being blown off the water so quickly that it was hard to identify what mayflies were coming off. Bob was into a nice cutthroat early on a beetle pattern, and brown drakes were also taking fish as they’ve been hatching just before dark down here as of late. Bob picked up a few more fish and rises when Barry finally came up river tto join us. Shortly after joining us Barry was into a nice cutty, raised a few more and then landed another cutty.

After lunch we moved further down stream. As a storm front began to move in Bob hooked a nice fish from the tailout of a big pool. Unfortunately as the fish ran at Bob, Bob tried to back up and lost his footing which resulted in a full submersion baptism in the cold water of the Oldman. We emptied the water from Bob’s waders and then I took Bob back to the truck to change into dry clothes. Bob opted to remain in the truck and warm up. I returned to the river to try and get Barry into some fish as I could see frustration mounting. We moved to the head of a pool where fish were feeding very actively on midges that were too small for Barry to be able to see, but with my eyes at his disposal he was able to get into 45 minutes of exceptional fishing I’m sure he’ll never forget. Half a dozen fish were feeding on the surface at a time, never returning to the bottom between rises simply cruising below the surface until the next insect was swallowed up. The turbulent water made it very difficult, if not impossible to spot the small flies on the surface, but it was hard to miss the takes of these large and aggressive cutthroats. With a huge storm rolling in Barry had take after take. Having to listen for me to yell…SET!!!... added to the delay process which resulted in 9 hookups out of likely 40-50 takes. Barry landed 8 of these 9 fish with only one fish breaking him off that we were not able to land. Of the 8 fish only 1 was under 18” and 2 of them were over 20” (both cutbows). In between 2 of the storms a double rainbow appeared over the hill while Barry was fighting another nice fish. Lightning caused us to pull the pin and head back to the truck to see Bob and head home. As per usual another spectacular day on the Oldman River.

July 17th Bow River Float (Police – Mac)

Barry and Bob from Texas joined us for their first day of a 4 day fly fishing package. We did a float down the bow river today. Barry had fly fished many parts of the world, but Bob was still in the early stages of fly fishing (but a very experienced bass fishermen at 71 years young). The first day on the bow was very productive. Both Bob and Barry hooked fished consistently throughout the day. We started early with nymphs and indicators for Bob and streamers for Barry. Bob and I learned that he had never heard his name repeated so fast so many times, each time his indicator went under...I laughed and simply replied I was just pointing out what the indicator was doing, if that also happens to be his name then all the better.

Barry was hooking and landing some nice fish on the streamer but switched over to the indicator because of the number of fish Bob was hooking. Barry later switched back to streamers and hooked several very impressive fish coming down the home stretch. He had 2 big browns that he hooked and lost right above and then across from the boat launch. Barry did land an impressive number of rainbows on the stramer in the evening though. All in all they had an impressive first day of their trip.

July 16th Bow River Float Trip

Dave B. joined us on the bow river today for a float trip we had donated to a fundraiser banquet. Dave had a successful day on the bow river and we look forward to seeing him again soon

July 15 Oldman River Walk & Wade

Akasha, George and hit the Oldman river for a day of cutty and bull trout fishing. Akasha and I headed down to the Oldman to meet George who was already down there. We had a great day on the Oldman, we got fish on dries throughout the day as well as getting into a few nice bulls. I wanted to freak out though when I watched a 35+" bull trout engulf my fly only to not hook the fish. I saw the 25" bull while casting dries on my 6wt and just cut the leader back and cast the streamer with the 8wt. When the big bull hit I set but the tip of the 6wt was just too soft to set the large streamer hook home into the behemoth fishes mouth�.I still can't believe I lost that fish.

The evening saw a midge and brown drake hatch that was very conducive to catching fish. We had to leave earlier then usual to get back into Calgary and ready for the trip tomorrow however as always another amazing day on the Oldman river.

July 12 Crowsnest River Walk & Wade

Akasha took Scott, his wife Deone, his brother and his father for a walk & wade on the Crowsnest river today. The Crow is Akasha's home water so he does all our Crowsnest trips on the Crowsnest.

Here's Akasha's report:
The day started as we met at Lundbreck Falls and marveled at the beauty of the surrounding area. We were blessed with a great day that included blue skies, hot temperatures, and unusually calm winds. Everyone piled into my rig and we headed downstream. As soon as we arrived at the fishing spot, it became clear that the water levels were still extremely high as this previously fast section of the river as placid and fill of water. We started fishing both dries and nymphs and almost immediately fish were hooked. Although not large, the spirit and beauty of the cutthroat and cuttbows made up for any lack of size. Everyone landed fish except for Scott's father who lost several quality fish on stonefly nymphs. This was the first time that he hooked fish on a fly rod and was very excited about experience. After lunch we headed to a new area of the river further upstream. The fish in this section are notoriously tough, but are usually larger. Fish started to take stoneflies on the surface, and provided a great challenge for these new fly fishermen.

They really enjoyed seeing the trout come up and eat their flies, but did not experience much luck with the hook set. Like in the morning, Scott's father, Bill, hooked the several of the largest trout but was unsuccessful in landing them. Throughout the day, everyone learned a great deal about reading the water, choosing the correct flies, and different casts and mends for different conditions. They also learned a great deal about the Crowsnest River and many of the access points and areas that hold quality fish. I am sure that they will be back for more fun on this beautiful river.

July 15 Oldman River Walk & Wade

Akasha, George and hit the Oldman river for a day of cutty and bull trout fishing.

July 12 Crowsnest River Walk & Wade

Akasha took Scott, his wife Deone, his brother and his father for a walk & wade on the Crowsnest river today. The Crow is Akasha's home water so he does all our Crowsnest trips on the Crowsnest.

The day started..

August 5th Update

Hey so sorry about the lack of fishing reports. In short I've been on almost everyday since the last update in July, the guide reports on the website weren't updating properly so I'm just waiting to transfer the info from my notes to the fishing reports page here.

-The river has finally dropped to typical summer levels
-The weather has stabalized and the long range forecast looks good
-The Bow river is fishing very well again with dries, streamers and nymphs...its a good time to be on the Bow


July 11th Bow river Float trip (Mac - Cars)

I picked Graham and George up at 7:00am today so we could try and get some early morning dry fly action. Graham does at least a half a dozen trips a year with me, but this was George's first time fishing with us. Right out of the gates I could tell it was going to be a good day as George was an experienced fly fisherman like Graham is.

I started the guys on dry stonefly patterns as the bottom end has fished well for dries. After the guys hit every pocket and seam I wanted on the first 2 banks without so much as a snout to speak of we switched up to streamers. On the first bank Graham hooked up and landed a healthy lochlevin brown. We spent a lot of time working water from the bank as well as the boat. I switched George up to an indicator to try nymphing. George took a nice clean rainbow about 18" off a gravel bar and Graham hooked up with several fish that ended up giving him the slip.

They had to work for their fish in the morning and afternoon, but both guys were hooking fish. They hooked alot of fish that didn't make it to the net. Graham was moving fish on the streamers and George was hooking fish on stonefly nymphs, caddis larvae, and san juan's. Getting Graham out on the water is always a great day and I really wanted these guys to experience the way the river has fished later in the evening so we took our time getting down into the braids. The last island we stopped to fish at around 8:00pm Graham hooked up 7 rainbows and landed 4 of them on the streamer and George landed a healthy brown on a caddis pupae.

Once the sun had dropped below the high banks I headed into the braids. We busted out the stoneflies dries and were not disappointed. Graham landed a 24" rainbow on a caddis emerger dropper, and George landed a goreous and thick 21" rainbow right after. They hooked fish after fish and were seconds away from double headers an numerous occasions. This was one of the first nights that I was also seeing fish feeding on the surface regularily as well. By the time we got off the river it was quarter after eleven. I dropped the guys off after midnight and didn't get home until 1:00am. Long day but an enjoyable one, and well worth it.

July 10th Lower Bow River Float (Mac - Cars)

Joel from Colorado and Chris from New Jersey were in town for Stampede and to fish the Bow river with us. Given the dry fly activity I'd seen the last few days I wanted to fish the bottom end. A Big rain and hail storm through the night had brought the river up and dropped the visibility to less then a foot down at MacKinnon Flats where we put in.

Right out of the gates Joel hooked a gorgeous 23.5" rainbow on a dry fly still within 50 yards of the boat launch. We weren't seeing any other fish coming up so after a few banks I had Chris switch over to a nymph. Chris started getting a few hits and the wind was making casting dries difficult so Joel opted to try streamers. Much like the other days while the storm was blowing in the fishing was tough but once the system got in the fishing picked up. Chris got his first fly rod fish which was a gorgeous 22" rainbow.

Nymphing continued to produce well as both guys were taking fish on stonefly nymphs and caddis larvae patterns. Joel and Chris had to be back in town to meet their friend so we didn't fish the evening but both Joel and Chris had hooked alot of fish and were very happy to have experienced the bow for what it is none for. I know they'll be back as they promised they would.

July 9th Lower Bow Float (22X - Mac)

Grant from Grand Cache was in town for Stampede and was able to get out on the Bow with us. After the incredible dry fly fishing we'd had I wanted to start the day on stonefly dries again. After a half hour of watching Grant hit all the seems and pockets I wanted without so much as a snout coming up for a look it was time to change. Much like on Monday the river fished tough while a system was blowing in. Grant had to work for his frist 2 fish. The fish were not on the feed at all but stripping streamers he was able to entice a nice rainbow and a brown to eat. Again neither fish had anything in them when I pumped their throat.

Once the storm blew in and settled in the fishing picked right up. Grant landed 7 of the 10 fish he hooked on caddis larvae patterns and stonefly nymphs and had lots of other fish take that he wasn't able to stay tight on. Later in the evening Grant had 5 fish come up and eat a dry stonefly but wasn't able to land any of them. Its been interesting how bady the fish have been off while the storm is moving in, but then how incredible the fishing was once the storm settled in. If only we could control the weather...

July 8th Bow River Float Trip

Dan B. and Fr. Jack joined us for an evening on the Bow after Dan finished work. Fr. Jack's from Lousiana has fished with us several times over the last 5 years when he comes to Calgary to visit Dan. We fished from Legacy Island down to Carseland, getting on the water at 5:00 in the evening. Right off the start Dan had 2 fish explode on his adult stonefly pattern. (I wanted to float the bottom end as the fish have been eating more and more stonefly nymphs the further down the river you get from Calgary. Stonefly hatches work their way upriver so I was hoping we'd see more adults down at the bottom end.

The fish were eating dries early. Fr.Jack had a fish explode on his adult stonefly pattern and break him off on a big jump. Once the sun dropped in the sky though things got a little crazy. Despite not seeing adult stones on the water the fish were all over adult stone patterns. Dan even took over on the oars for me once and I got a beautiful brown that rolled on my stonefly and put up a very impressive fight. He was the only brown of the day and a very deep and healthy fish. That was good enough for me and I was back on the oars. Dan and Fr. Jack landed fish after fish and hadn numerous missed takes that would've made for several double headers. When you row off the river after 11:00 at night everyone else is at home in bed, and they just missed out on some of the best dry fly fishing you could ever hope for. Big dries, big fish, big explosions, big fun.

July 7th Bow River Float Trip (Fish Creek - Mac)

Gary Lawson from the UK joined us for a day of flaoting and fly fishing the Bow. This was Gary's first time to Canada and he was in for a treat. The day started off with hot weather and average fishing. Gary's first 2 fish were his first 2 wild trout as well as the biggest rainbow and brown he had ever caught. Both nice fish over 20".

With the heat we had a big hail storm roll in half way through the day. The sky got really dark and we had huge thunder heads roll in. While the storm was blowing in the fishing shut off. Then we were hit by 5 minutes of hail, another 10 of rain, 30 more minutes of heavey wind before the weatehr settled in and the fishing picked right up. Gary landed half a dozen nice trout but hooked more then either of us wanted to count. Unfortunately Gary's used to float fishing with bait back in the UK so instinctively he was throwing slack at the indicator when it went under. You've got a very narrow window of time to set the hook and we were missing it. Oh well Gary had his best day of fishing so mission accomplished.

July 5th Bow River Float Trip (Police - Mac)

Sam and Dan B. floated the bow river with us this Saturday afternoon. This was Sam's first day of fly fishing and he was some excited. We hit the river around 2:00 in the afternoon. The day was hot but the fishing was luke warm to start things off, but they didn't stay that way. Dan landed some nice fish while Sam was stillgetting the hang od setting on subtle takes. Sam did an unbelievable job of picking up on the casting, definetely a natural. Few people I've taken out have caught on so well, to the point that they could fish as easily from the banks as from the boat within just a few hours.

I wanted to fish the evening and see if the fishing picked up as the sun dropped. And pick up it did. As the sun dropped in the sky the fishing picked up. The fish were definitely on stonefly nymphs. The further down river we went the more the fish were keying in on the stonefly nymphs.

Sam was doing great but kept getting short strikes that he was having trouble hooking. We passed a seem that I wanted Sam to get his flies into. He made the perfect cast and got a great drift through it. Dan cast into the seam right after Sam and proceeded to hook and land his 6th or 8th rainbow, with many others hooked and lost. Sam's woes were soon over though as he landed his first fly rod caught fish of his life after a very exciting an emphatic fight. Sam was so excited it was awesome. Watching someone catch there first fish and get that excited is the reason I guide...I love it it was great. Dan hooked several more rainbows after that to finish off another impressive day on the water.

June 30th

I defended my thesis today. School is fianlly done. My Master's thesis looked at the visual system with respect to accuracy, and how manipulations of attentional focus effect outcome aaccuracy during fly casting.

School is fianlly done...its all about the fish now.

Tight Loops & Lines
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June 29th Bow River Float Trip (Police - Mac)

Tim and Kelli from Utah joined us on the river today.

June 28 Bow River Float Trip (Glenmore - Police)

Mark and his friend Steve both joined us today for their first time fly fishing. Steve got on the board first with a nice bow river brown. This Saturday was extremely hot and the fishing was fairly tough but the boys still hooked fish. Mark's a good friend of mine that I've been trying to get out on the river for years now. We finally managed to get him out there and in the first few hours Mark was hooking up like crazy...problem was we were hooking pretty much everything but the fish, it was getting almost comical, and there was absolutely nothing he was doing wrong, just some tough luck. Both Steve and Mark caught on very quickly and were casting extremely well.

As the day went on the fishing did get better but it wasn't phenominal by any stretch of the imagination. The weather was extremely hot which makes for tougher fishing.

June 25 Bow River Float (Glenmore - Fish Creek)

George and I hit the Bow late this afternoon after an incredible day on the Oldman yesterday. Much like on Monday the banks were prime and had big fish holding tight to them.

We had a riot stripping streamers for browns and even a rainbow but the highlight of the day was a gorgeous brown just before dark on a hopper(stonefly) dropper rig right at the take out.

June 24th Oldman River Walk & Wade

George and I hit the Upper Oldman today to see how the water looked. The river just opened up on the 16th of this montn and this was my first trip down there to see how it was.

As per usual with cutties the first hour of the day was less then spectacular, but the day very quickly picked up once the sun started to warm things up....cutties love the sun. There was the odd stonefly shuck out on the rocks but not too many yet. Fishing a stonefly nymph was as close as you could get to a sure thing. Cast after cast produced a hooked or landed cutthroat. George had a huge bull trout chase and try and eat one of the cutties he landed. The cutties were not interested in the adult stones yet, but they were coming up to eat beetle's and ant's.

After catching probably close to 3 dozen fish in an hour or 2 we decided to do some exploring and check out a bunch of new access points and parts of the river we'd never seen or fished before. We found some exceptional summer water that I can't wait to fish later in the season. As always a phenpominal day on the Oldman.

June 23 Bow River Float (Glenmore - Fish Creek)

The Bow has finally cleared up! There's now a foot of visibility. The snow is still in the mountains as all the rian we had in Calgary through May and early June was primarily still snow up in the mountains.

Akasha and I hit the water today to see how it would fish. The water was high and still very colored but with a foot of visibility it was more then fishable and the banks looked ideal. We stripped streamers with very interesting results. We would have slow stretches without a hit or chase for nearly a mile then we'd go less then a mile with a dozen fish chasing our streamers off the banks. Akasha had the hot hand today as he often seems to with early season streamers. Greta to be able to fish the bow again.

June 22nd Fly Fishing 101 School

We ran another Fly Fishing 101 School today. We had a few people that had to back out last minute which isn't good for us, but it was for the people still in the course. After the classroom session and slide show presentation we spent the remaining 3 and ahalf hours outside. Everyone did very well with the knot tying and the casting lessons were great. We had first time casters and an experienced fly fisherman there that all improved their casting greatly.

Now that the river is cleaning up we'll be back on the river everyday and we'll have to wait until the season is over to run another school

June 20th Pike on the Fly

Bart and his florida fishing buddy joined us for another pike on the fly trip today. The water had cleared up substantially from even the previous day which in theory I thought would be beneficial. The pike were not as active today as the two of them only landed the same number of fish as Bart had on his own the prvious day. Near the end of the day Bart landed a nice pike around 8lbs though that made the day for him, as well as hooking another fish in that 8-10 lbs range earlier.

Overall a good day on the water

June 19th Pike on the Fly

Bart from Florida joined us today fro a pike on the fly trip as the river is still blown out. The water had cleared up slightly from yesterday and the fishing had picked up as well. Bart landed 15 pike and hooked up at least 2 fish that got off for every fish he landed today. This was Bart's first trip for pike and he enjoyed it so much we're going to do it again tommorow when his fishing buddy will join him

June 18th Pike on the Fly

We finally did it...Akasha and I made it out on the water for pike on the fly. The day was hot and the water was actually really colored due to some work they were doing on a culvert. The pike were not overly aggressive but we hooked fish. Akasha got his first pike on a fly rod and several others as did I. Nice to get finally get out for pike on the fly with Akasha.

June 15th - 17th Cold Lake Pike on the Fly

I made the 6hr drive Northeast to visit my brother in Coldlake. The first day we fished Marie lake that evening. I saw more trophy pike swimming through the shallows then I have at any other lake. I was fortunate enough to land a real trophy pike that would push 25lbs. The pike wasn't really long but it was amazingly thick across the shoulders and deep. I was so glad to have the 9wt when I hooked that fish instead of an 8wt. The pike fishing was great and my brother even landed a nice walleye.

I also found out that a wakeboard tower makes an ideal casting platform, I could spot fish and being 12' above the water allows you to shoot an entire fly line with ease even with a 5/0 pike fly on it. It was great to see my brother and his family as well as to land a pike that big on the fly, and there were many fish I saw that size and possibly even larger.

June 14th Beaverpond Brookies

The Bow isn't flooding which is positive, however its still too high and muddy to be fishable for some time yet. Before leaving for a pike trip I went out and hit up a few brookie ponds.

The ponds are so small that each time you hook a fish you have to be careful not to spook the rest of the fish in the pond, but if you play the fish carefully it can be incredible. Each fish I was able to get ou of the main pool and then just sat and waited for the fish to settle down for a bit. By taking this cautious approach I was able to pull a dozen brookies between 13" and 18" instead of just 4 or 5 fish. I grew up learning to fly fish for brookies so they hold a special rank with me. In my mind they're the most gorgeous trout there is

June 6th Bow River Conditions Update

With all the rain we've had through May the river is still extremely high and blown out. The sheep river and the highwood (both tributaries of the Bow) caused flooding, although the Bow itself hasn't flooded yet which is good. We haven't had any snow melt yet, just rain and ground runoff. Not sure how high the river will get if the snow starts melting as well. Let's hope we don't have the floods of 2005 on our hands.

May 31st - June 5th Vancouver Island

May 27th - 31st Ottawa

May 20th - 27th Florida Keys & Miami

May 19th Alpine lake trip

Norman and his wife Cindy joined us for a trip today fishing alpine lakes since the bow was now unfishable. We staretd the morning on Gap lake fishign fro brown trout. Cindy was on the board first with a very colorful 11" brown trout. We watched an eagle and an osprey sitting on their nest watching them fish. Norman hooked his own brown trout not longer after...and lets just say it was horizontally challenged, ok it was small, it out in the open now. Norman had a bunch fish chase and hit his streamer but we couldn't hook any of them. After about an hour or so I pulled the pin on Gap and went to chase some beaverpond brookies.

Once again Cindy was the first one to point a point on the board with a gorgeous 13" brookie. For small beaverpond brookies these are tanks. The size and colors of the brookies had Norman anxious to hook his own. It was long before he did...again and again. Nomran hooked 4 or 5 brookies, each one bigger then any brook trout he had ever caught before. The coloration of these fish is spectacular.

To round out the evening we went to chase some arctic grayling. The grayling were visible actively cruising the shallows. Unfortunately these fish were not interested in eating as they had other things on their mind...these fish were in prespawn mode.

All in all it was a good day, Norman was exstatic with his brookies and rightly so

May 18th Fly Fishing 101 School

We ran our Fly Fishing 101 School today. We had 10 people in the class teaching them about casting, knot tying, entomology, fly selection, and equipment. The wind started blowing 20 minutes into the casting session but we were able to get everyone behind a building that broke the wind for them. Its great watching new people learn about the wonderful sport of fly fishing.

The school is the perfect opportunity to show people that this fly fishing gig just isn't as sophistimicated as people want them to believe. Turns out its pretty easy and a whole lot of fun.

On a less positive note this hot weather has casued the river to blow out earlier then usuaul

May 17 Bow River Float Trip (Fish Creek - Police)

James Tenute and 2 of his friends from Eastern Canada joined us on the river for a half day float trip. We had exceptionally good weather for mid May, it was more like late August. The sun was bright and hot, the sky clear and beautifully blue without a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately the unseasonably hot weather turned out to be more favorale to sun tanning then it did for fishing. The boys landed a nice trout fairly early in the trip but the rest of the fish managed to get off.

May 16 Bow River Float (Glenmore - Fish Creek)

Akasha and I floated the bow this afternoon. We mainly stripped streamers. Nymphs were producing most consistently the last 2 days but we wanted to experiment and see what else the fish were willing to eat. Akasha landed a gorgeous brown for early spring, as well as a few other healthy fish. I then got to listen to Akasha ride me as each of the fish I hooked got off. We had a lot of fish chase and slash at the streamers that didn't eat in the end.

The water quality is good, but there's just not quite enough visibility for the fish to be on the surface yet.

May 15th Bow River Float Trip (Glenmore - Fish Cre

Had Dan B, from Calgary, out after he finished work for a half day float trip on the Bow river. The river fished muched lke it did yesterday, not fats and furious by anymeans but consistent. Dan got 3 very healthy trout to hand with several others that won the battle. The browns are super thick and healthy, this is a very good sign

May 14th Bow River Float (17th Ave - Glenmore)

My father joined my on the Bow today. The water is still very cold but its more then fishable. Dad landed some nice browns, a really healthy rainbow, and a rocky. We only had a few hours on the water but they were good one's. Really impressed to see how healthy the browns are, and surprised to see the rainbow looked as good as it did. Winter was good to the fish which is good for us.

May 11th & 12th (Miami)

After my short stint in Miami back in January I couldn't wait to get back there and try for the peacock's again as well as chase the tarpon and many other sport fish in the area.

Day 1: Today I walked the canals of Miami in search of peacock's. I caught 3 fish within minutes of setting up, including one fish that broke me off before I manged to coax him into hitting another fly allowing me to retreive my 1st fly. While fishing for peacock's I saw some Jack's crashing bait up against the far shorline, but always beyond casting distance...almost always that was. I managed to hook a nice Jack that pushed that 6wt harder then a 6wt was meant to be flexed. The Jack won this round.

Day 2: Today I fished the lake at the University of Miami. I hooked a huge peacock bass the biggest I've seen yet. While trying to set the camera up on a timer I lost the fishing capturing nothing but me bent over the water with the fish thrashing from my grip back into the water. I caught a bunch of talapia, a few barracuda, and a little Jack as well as hooking and losing a snook.

I then met with Captain Mark and we headed out on Biscayne Bay to chase tarpon at night under the bridges. I had and absolute riot. Despite it being night the bridge lights made all of the fishing sight casting. I hooked and landed my 1st 2 tarpon before losing my next 5 including one the ran side ways between the pillings that just about cost me a fly line. Captain Mark put me on the tarpon and did everything you'd want a guide to do...I had a fantastic time, watching tarpon eat a fly and then explode out of the water is such a gas

May 10th (Ottawa)

After finishing the 1st completed draft of my thesis I left for Ottawa to visit my sister and her family (her husband Dave and my nephew Isaac). The Ottawa river has Long nose gar which I've wanted to catch for some time now, however the river was blown out, high, muddy and cold with the snow melt.

The Rideau river had some very large carp that I tried chasing. The 2nd fish I cast at I hooked which must have been close to 25lbs. The fight was rather short lived as the last run the carp made snapped 2X like it was tying thread. 200 casts later I realised carp were far spookier and fickle then my initial impression. These fish would spook just from twitching a fly that had already been cast in their anticipated path. I hooked 2 carp and didn't land either but was very impressed with those fish. Carp are nothing like our suckers, they are skittish like no fish I've seen, they made bonefish look lackadaisical. They're big, strong, fast and have a sense of smell like a permit, and much like a permit if you moved the fly they would spook. It was exclusively sight casting as you had to see the fish in order to try and get the fly in their path were it may get intercepted. More often then not the carp would change directions so many times that you could hardly pattern their movement enough to get a cast in front of them. All in all they were a more then worthy adversary that I wish we had out here.

While chasing the carp I did pick up a few small mouth, a large mouth,some panfish, crappie, perch, and even pike...just not the fish I was really after.

Jan. 21st (Miami)

On the way back from a Mission trip in Peru I had a layover in Miami. I had always wanted to chase Peacock bass and I finally got my chance. Originally the plan had been to do a night trip for tarpon, however the weather did not permit that with the high winds and cold front that had rolled through. Walking the canals of Miami I got a chance to hook into several peacock bass. They're a fantastic fish, they didn't start moving at all until the sun finally popped out but when it did I was hooking them steadily until I had to run and grab my plane home.

The peacock's didn't ever seem to eat the fly they would charge it and start half an inch short or run at it as if they were trying to spook the fly off

Welcome to the 2008 Season

Another season is underway. The 2008 season started later for us this year given the fact that Josh was completing is Master's Thesis on the visual characteristics of expert fly casters at the University of Calgary. This is Out Fly Fishing outfitters 6th season in operation and promises to be one of the best and busiest.

We look forward to seeing everyone out on the water.
Tight Loops & Lines
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