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Author Topic: Fishin the bow - Early April  (Read 2721 times)

Jonny 5

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Fishin the bow - Early April
« on: April 06, 2008, 03:07:35 PM »

Hello fishers, I just thought I would put up a few pics from the last couple outings from this side of the hills.  I have a friend planning to come over this way late spring, so lets see if he's checking the FWR reports section.   ;D

So here are the details, this is the bow river just as it's warming up but still before the big melt in the mountains makes it unfishable...  Its been pretty good for the amount of time we put in.  It seems that the fish are homing in on stonefly nymphs at the moment and any week now the dry fly fishing will be sure to pick up with blue winged olives probably showing up some time around the middle of april... We'll see.

A nice little brown trout... A tough fish to fool some days.


And a few bow river bullets... In this first pic, you can just see three people standing on the opposite bank!  What a gong show!




Why is my head always cut out of the pics?  ::)

Anyhow, just a few months ago those ice shelfs would have been 15 feet tall just to get an idea of how cold this area gets some times.
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BladeKid

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2008, 07:12:01 PM »

Cool report and beautiful pics! What part of the Bow were you fishing near? Banff? I'm planning to go to Alberta again this summer, already lookin forward to it! ;D
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Jonny 5

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2008, 09:40:27 PM »

Just downstream of Calgary... upstream like banff and lake louise is a bit harder to fish as there aren't nearly as many trout to be found, but it would be much more scenic and the fish are pretty much unfished way up in the mountains.  If your fishing in the late summer, don't forget your hopper patterns  :o and don't forget to check out some of the other rivers for cutties.
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ejeffrey

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2008, 08:01:04 AM »

Look at those glacial ice shelves!!!  :o
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rg500

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2008, 02:57:27 AM »

It's been my little fishing dream to fish the bow. Will be up there late April for the first time with my 6 weight targetting browns, and bows. Hopefully The snow won't be as bad as the region really got hammered. Any of you guys ever get out to Highwood river in Kannanaskis country ??? Those bulls look fierce.
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Beast

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2008, 05:33:37 AM »

wher is the bow i never heard of it??
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Jonny 5

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2008, 08:55:25 AM »

Yeah the highwood is nice, but not opened until June 16  :-[

I prefer fishing some of the nearby streams instead of the bow, but the bow is convenient as its 5 blocks from my door.  Its snowing this weekend with about 30 cm on the ground, should be gone soon though.  If you get a chance fish the bow in the section south and east of the city as there are a lot of big rainbows there now getting ready for their migration up the highwood.  If this cold weather holds then those fish will stick around for a few more weeks, as soon as the highwood hits about 5 degrees, they will be on the move (right now the highwood is solid ice)

Good luck.
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Sterling C

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2008, 11:38:24 AM »

Jon, I'll be down next weekend. Hopefully this cold weather hold up... I've heard of some absolute bests being caught in the last week  :o
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Jonny 5

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2008, 02:32:41 PM »

I heard of 30 fish days, and seen a few photos of 26-29 inch trout... but not for me  ???  too much work to get out much. but next week should be better!
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rg500

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2008, 09:06:12 PM »

First time out on the Bow in hostile Flames country to try and entice some trout. Hit the Bow around Carseland getting into some rainbows but nothing to write home about. Was really after those elusive Browns with no success. Day 2 was even slower fished a few hours upstream of the mouth of Highwood on the Bow, beautiful scenery, lots of fisherpepes. Stonefly nymphs, streamers, blue winged olives, Bow river buggers with no success. Temperature is rising. It felt like walking on glaciers on the river edges, kept hearing ice crashing behind me. Good times !
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Jonny 5

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2008, 07:01:46 AM »

If you were upstream of the highwood confluence on saturday you would have seen Biffchan and I fishing out there.  We each got a bunch of fish, but only one brown for me.  Seems that the fish were sitting in a few spots only so you had to luck out and fish right on top of a school of them.  Try using a san juan worm and a prince and a midge on a nymph setup... you might have more luck with that this time of year.
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rg500

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2008, 08:46:09 AM »

Thanks Jonny 5, yeah I hit the Bow on Sunday so I missed you. It was hard moving about with all that ice on the rivers edge. I've being spending most of my time doing recon as I don't know the river too well. It took me awhile to find the confluence of the Highwood and Bow, so the temp had risen dramatically by the time I got there. Thanks for the intel.
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coryandtrevor

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2008, 12:13:04 PM »

  Try using a san juan worm and a prince and a midge on a nymph setup...

It would be nice if that was legal in BC I want to give it a whirl , sounds like fun !!!!

You ever make to Elkford to fish the Elk or the Fording ???? I know they have made it harder for the Alberta guys but its worth the coin.

CandT 8)
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Jonny 5

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #13 on: April 28, 2008, 01:07:52 PM »

I could fish the elk, but we have some excellent cutty streams here too  :P  At 20$ a day,  I would rather support a local fishery that is not nearly as busy.  As far as I can tell, a lot of local shops stopped carrying BC licenses for that reason. 

But really, I will fish the elk before I move out of this area... at least for the bulls it has.

Anyhow, if you BC people want to fish in alberta, its only 26$ a year and the fish are bigger and you can attempt to fish 3 flies and its not crowded and so on and so forth.  ;D

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rg500

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Re: Fishin the bow - Early April
« Reply #14 on: May 08, 2008, 10:45:36 PM »

Hey Jonny 5 how is the Bow holding up? I missed my chance at the Browns and was hoping for another shot at it. Hope to make it back over the Rockies before the end of the month.
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