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I for one had been in denial since the report(s) came out and up until last year before I really notified the obvious decline in rainbow population. Year prior was a little better. If I remember correctly when the stats or report came out it was a sampling from a small section of river and perhaps not not entirely accurate. my understanding. My network of buddies , guides etc. goes pretty deep, we all talked about poor fishing , decline etc, floods , birds, rip rap, pressure, drought, heat, rain, cold, climate change, water up and down all the time and on and on. Im a little slower than others when it comes to realizing the full picture but point is I get it and am concerned. Whatever the process lets do it. Reflection period is over. This is a crisis I'm all ears.

There is a need for all of us to recognize that we have a different sense of urgency on the Bow River fish population decline based on when one starting fishing the Bow. This has been described by academia as a Shifting Baseline: "Why is it that a young fisherman views his catch of a few scrawny sardines as natural, while an old-timer sees it as the sad scraps of an ocean once brimming with giant wildlife? Two decades ago, renowned fisheries expert Daniel Pauly introduced “shifting baselines syndrome” to explain our generational blindness to environmental destruction. In recent years the idea has found a particular advocate in George Monbiot, a respected environmental writer. Oceana spoke with Monbiot and Pauly to learn how much we’ve lost, and what it will take to make abundance the ocean’s new baseline". https://oceana.org/blog/daniel-pauly-and-george-monbiot-conversation-about-shifting-baselines-syndrome Give some thought to this - for me I think back 20 years and see a dramatic change - for those who have only fished the Bow since the 2013 flood (the majority?) see minimal change. AEP regional fishery biologists are aware of the different action that is needed to meet a multitude of opinions. Will, or is it even possible to return the Bow River fish population back to the glory day? Almost impossible!

You're a confusing man. I would suspect that stocking is a bit of a non-starter, at least for rainbow trout as they are trying to get away from introducing additional rainbows to areas with WSCT. Furthermore, if we are truly having an invertebrate problem, then why would adding more fish to the mix help? We'd likely have a lot more little guys, so it would be a question of quality over quantity.. The relentless angling pressure that was described in the OP is definitely starting to have a toll from a 'quality' perspective. I think this will be the most important piece of the presentation, see where the government actually sees this river going. Are they just looking at keeping it at current levels and have people just realise this is the new norm, or will there be an attempt to actually get it 'back' to the way it was. Considering Bull Trout just got listed on SARA, and the current government's tendency to not fund, I'm not sure how much focus the Bow will be getting from the limited resources out there. Maybe someone needs to take Nixon and Kenney for a float..

Alberta Environment & Parks has indicated that a Bow River Fish Population Cumulative Effect Computer Modelling Program is being developed. It will include all the possible reasons for the decline in trout populations. It is clear that no single reason for the decline has been identified, but there is evidence that combination of effects can contribute to a greater influence on fish population declines. For example the combination of less organic content in water water + variable flows could have a greater cumulative effect impact than for example whirling disease + loss of spawning habitat. But maybe vise-versa Another example could well be the impact of less organic content in the river that results in less weeds in combination with a year round open fishing season will increase catch rates far more than if the organic content was higher. The weeds are the issue here - more weeds - less fishable water. It is my understanding that the concept of Cumulative Effect Computer Modelling will be presented at the Bow River Trout Fall Fishing Festival. But lets hope the complete data set of information is made public by AEP at the same time.

"The decline in Bow river trout and aquatic invertebrate populations are uniform from Banff too the Bassano dam, regardless of the degree of fishing pressure." Can you expand on this or share the reference we can take a look at? Thx

Where is the report that indicates this?

This has come up at least 3 or 4 times since the report came out, and once again we’d hate for a bit of self-reflection from anglers. Whirling disease, climate change, flow control (or lack thereof), 2013 flood, nutrient load, flood control, riprap, angling pressure.. you tell me which is the lowest hanging fruit.

Unfortunately flood mitigation trumps fisheries/recreational concerns. I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist but add to that the likelihood of power generation profiteering under the guise of flow management just may explain the weird flows we've seen the last few seasons. I would like to see the fall city closure again. Close the mouth of the Highwood/Fishcreek for Rainbows in the spring. Social media has made an Instragram gong show of those locations. Fertilize the Bow below the water intake like they do in BC to restore steelhead/salmon stream. Yes, we have world class sewage treatment but lack of nutrients may slow/stall recovery. Keep in mind that this is a tailwater fishery that otherwise has little to no downstream recruitment of nutrients nor spawning gravel. This would kick start the recovery of invertebrates etc. lost due to the 2013 flood. Licence and manage the guiding biz that exploits our shared natural resource for free. Rod days or some such mechanism. If anyone knows any of the Tran Alta shareholders that fly fish, I recommend you try to educate them to the current dire state of our fishery.

Come on everyone - don't live in a state of denial. The Bow River trout population will never revert to what it once was in the '90 and early part of this century. Too much man made intervention has changed and is irreversible!: Calgary Waste Water Treatment Plants have cleaned up the river - I can remember when the weeds were so thick you could almost walk across the river. The cleanup of the river has seen a demise of invertebrate habitat for much of the year and therefore the spectrum of bug life has changed. A drop in caddis and mayflies lava and an increase in stone-flies. This will hopefully continue, but no guarantees. The historical water management model put in place by the governments of both Canada and Alberta many years ago gave us reasonable stable flows outside of spring runoff. Now we are faced with the GOA intervention in these norms to protect the City of Calgary against future flooding. Don't blame TransAlta for this - its a GOA directive. After the disaster of water management in the early part of the modifies water management operations from April to July 2018, Transalta have recognized the importance of stable flows to the fishing community and have done there best to meet projected demands from AEP while stabilizing variants in flows as best they can for the past 2 years. What we have seen this year is the impact of rainfall over the Calgary. Some days the flows increased by as much as 100 cms over less than an hour when the rain gods dumped water across our city. Don't blame Transalta but pray to the rain gods to respect the fishing community. Although the Bow River modified water management operations each spring will not change for 10 to 15 years. Distasteful as they may be, the proposed addition to dams on the upper Bow River could well improve and stabilize flows through and downstream of Calgary. See a post I put up on the web a few days ago. Go to one of the information meetings later this month to get a better understanding of the proposals. The future of our fishery is in your hands. Will or should we see a cull of pelicans, cormorants and other fish loving predators? Probably not. Angling, even with CnR may well contribute more fish loss that predators! So what left? Angling pressure and habitat enhancement. I put my money of river closure and fishing gear restrictions. Yes, the Bow River is still a good recreation fishery and with some help can be maintained for future generations - but it will never return to what some of us old guys knew 20 plus years ago as a world class Blue Ribbon Fishery

Lol, such a typical response. the stats must be wrong, everything’s fine, the bow will recover.if there’s one sure way to get us to the bottom, it’s to do nothing

Does Trans Alta have some of the blame as well?

There are some important man made issues that are having a negative impact that we need to address. Flow stability, city development, the relentless expansion of rip rap walls (the city stretch is quickly turning the Bow into an aqueduct), organic pollution from storm drain catch basins/outfalls, ongoing and heavy use of agricultural pesticides and fertilizers, to name a few.

In my view, it is mostly due to the change in habitat and conditions. The number of fish in the Bow = too what the habitat can sustain. The great flood of 2013 both destroyed and changed the habitat for aquatic plants, invertebrates and all species of fish. Now, the river is slowly recovering at the base of the food chain (aquatic plants, moss's, algae, diatoms,). This recovery is slow and closing the fishery will not assist, or speed up the recovery in any significant way. The vast number of Pelicans, Osprey, Cormorants, Bald Eagles is an obvious indication that there is still sufficient fish populations in the Bow for sustainability and eventual recovery. As for the statistical analysis of some phd student at the U of C based on fish count/catch, creel survey data, that has as wide a margin of interpreted error as the guy holding a 21" brown out for the camera selfie claiming it's 24". (And yes I have read the report.) The Bow will recover. Patience people, patience....