This past weekend I found myself down in Calgary and decided I ought to go out an wet a line. After a few phonecall though I found that I would have to go out solo as pretty much everyone I know in Calgary was either out of town or busy. No matter, the sun was out and the rumor was the fishing was pretty decent.
Upon getting to my first spot I set up my rod with a nymphing rig. My flies de jour were a san juan worm, boatmen and a prince nymph. After hiking down to the river I see there are people fishing the hole I wanted to fish. I decided to let them carry on undisturbed and hiked up river until I came across a small pocket where a dried channel meets the mainstem.
As any good steelheader would, I walked to the top of the pocket and cast out and let my indicator drift down through the pocket. After several unfruitful casts I realized I was doing things backwards and walked to the bottom of the pocket and started casting up river. For those of you who don't know, nymphing is best done by casting up river and letting your gear drift down before re-casting. When done right, this give less drag from your fly line on the surface and for some reason the fish seem more concerned with drift speed that a fly line floating on the surface above them.
On my very first cast from my new position I struck pay dirt. A beautiful 21" rainbow. A few cast later I was into another fish from the same pocket, this time a bit smaller. Over the next 6 hours I caught and released several more rainbows up to 20". Most of the fish were taken on the boatmen and prince but the san juan (extra weight) managed to fool one not so smart 17" rainbow.
Here are some of the fish I managed to fool...
On the hike back out I ran into this little feller on the trail. Doesn't look too bad in the picture but I've got a good video showing just how bad his temper was...
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On the drive back home I decided that 6 hours of fishing just wasn't enough for me and that I would go out later in the evening and try some of this night fishing buisness that I'd heard about. After a nap and a quick meal I was ready to make my way back out again.
On the way back out to the river I realized that I had left my split shot up in Edmonton. No matter I think, I'll just stop off at crappy tire and grap some. Only problem, apparently crappy tire is closed at 8pm on a saturday night..d'oh. After a little more driving around I found a walmart that was still open and grabbed the needed supplies.
Next order of buisness, finding a parking spot near the river. Trouble is that the river parking lot closes at dark so that wasn't an option. However, with a little exploring I was able to find a residential street near a path down to the river. After a few minutes I was geared up and ready to go.
My setup for night fishing is a little different than during the day. For starters I was fishing streamers rather than nymphing. My fly of choice was a bow river bugger with two split shot placed about 24" from the fly. The idea hear being to keep the fly near the bottom of the river as best possible to imitate a sculpin or small bait fish. Also, on the advice of others I upped my leader strength from 6lb to 12lb as the trout hit extremely hard while night fishing.
Within a few minutes of walking I had escaped the glowing lights of the suberbs and had descended into the relative darkness of fish creek park. My destination was a spot along the river affectionatley known as the 'poo hole'. The name comes from the fact that this pool is located directly below the fish creek park sewerage outfall
As I began casting I could tell that this was going to be completely different than any fishing I'd done before. Despite the fact I was wearing a headlamp, I had little to no vision outside of my 10ft bubble of illumination. The only sense available to me was the feel of my rod and the tension on my line as I stripped it in. At first I felt completely blind, but after brief adjustment period I could feel every rock on the bottom, every weed on my fly and then BAM! First hit of the night. The take was so hard it nearly ripped the rod from my hand. Instantly the fish takes to the surface then goes on a screaming run downriver. Then nothing. I strip in my line to find my hook has been bent straight.
After a quick re-tie and I am back at it. Within a few casts I get slammed again. This time I am more prepared and after a well spirited battle a 20" rainbow is brought to hand. After a quick picture, the fish is sent on its way. A few more casts and another fish is on. This one too is brought to hand and again it is another 20" rainbow. This one however, was sporting several scrars and a very elongated kype. Unfortunatley by this point my camera was dead, too bad... After another hour or so of fruitless fishing I decided to call it a night. Besides it was already 12:30, time to go get some shut eye.
The rest of the evening was uneventful and as I layed in bed I reflected on the wonderful day I had had and how I was going to be able to find my way back hear sometime soon.
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Topic: Bow River Sept 20 (Read 2173 times)