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This article basically says mortality for hooked fish does increase significantly in warm water conditions, but this is mitigated by the fact that fewer fish are hooked during warm water conditions. So, no worries, go ahead and fish because you're probably not going to catch anything (but if you do, bad news for the fish...)? Hardly a strong argument against the restrictions discussed here (which, btw, are now in effect starting 2 PM Saturday). The Global News link posted above by Walton confirms the reasoning for the closure extending to the high country upstream waters (rudedawg nailed it). No doubt there are other factors and activities at play here with worse impacts than c&r flyfishing. However, being reluctant to accept any restrictions to our part of it is not a good strategy to influence change on more important factors, IMO. I suspect those who are affected the most by the restrictions (shops, guides, shuttles, etc.) have probably figured this out. For the rest of us, not fishing past 2 PM for next couple of weeks is a pretty easy sacrifice!

So, with that logic they need to close ES2 as well. Maybe AEP forgot to look at a map. Fallentimber, Little Red, Dogpound and many more... they are all a short distance from Calgary. These closures are nothing more than a Public Relations campaign which costs little and gives the appearance to Joe Public that AEP is protecting our fisheries from the boogie man, C&R anglers. Meanwhile, no Whirling disease research on the Bow's spawning tributaries where the majority of our declining population of Rainbow trout come from. Cheaper to have a boogie man... We're it. In case you haven't read it.... https://idfg.idaho.gov/blog/2022/06/some-perspective-trout-fishing-during-low-water-and-high-temperatures

As I was wet wading a foothills stream today, I was wondering why hoot owl restrictions would apply to a stream that is flowing around 13C. But on reflection, I can agree with basin-wide restrictions: otherwise, our favourite small waters would get overrun by the Bow crowd looking for unrestricted afternoon/evening fishing opportunities.

I was fishing the upper Elbow today and the water temp was 54 F at noon

Hmmm...not sure how accurate the Alberta Environment & Parks data is...yes it has the Bow River at 97 Cubic Metres/Second in Calgary, and 99 CM/S in Cochrane, but I don't think the Bow is 16m deep in Cochrane. These flows/levels were updated through the wee hours of Aug. 17th. Also, the level/depth of Bearspaw Reservoir is rated at just over 1000 metres...!? I know it's a deep reservoir, but it certainly isn't 1km deep...is it?! https://data.calgary.ca/Environment/River-Levels-and-Flows/5fdg-ifgr I took a walk up and downstream in the Votier's Flats section of Fish Creek this past weekend, and I would say it's 30cm deep or less. No fish, just minnows. Water temperature was 64F at 8:45am - 65F at 10am, with minimal flow, so I stopped casting my Sz 22's. Maybe I'm up too far to find any good spots, but it's starting to look like the same conditions in the upper creek as last summer.