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I’m in agreement with a lot of things you are saying toolman. I don’t think they need to do tod restrictions to all of ES1 because it doesn’t make sense if water temps are cooler. I fished 2 streams this week with temps at 54 and 55F at the hottest part of the day that were in the high country. We need better management of our streams as well as better education. It’s probably been said a hundred times on here but it would be nice to have to take a course to purchase a fishing licence, another opinion of mine. Sorry if I was out of line in any way

I simply posted some new ADVISORIES for said areas. Whewph..even true Science is getting run-over these days! Didn't want to start yet another diatribe about whether we should fish or not...etc..etc... . Deep breaths, everyone. YES I am the OP! I simply wanted to notify folks that might not know about the new areas. If one is reading the Forums for the first time, and trying to learn about the difference between 65ºF and 73ºF fishing here in the Bow Valley...in-fighting is pointless, and 3+yr-old studies of another watershed does not equal our Valley. I respect your posts @toolman and will continue to do so. If I'm able to get out there and fish, with all of you out there too, I'm in!! Let's go! They are sluggish here in Calgary, so get geared up with heavier tippet and get them back quick! Stop photographing our fish to death! Get out early and have some fun! The last posts I made about creating a new ' ES1 - Alpine ' zone were serious. Maybe it's time to separate the Carseland measurements from the Alpine? We've had numerous folks come into the shop, younger, maybe fly fishing for a couple - 3 years... didn't even know about the new advisories, let alone the ES1. Sigh.

dwday... Meaning, release mortality goes from 2% too 3.5% (at 73F, and it rarely gets that high), which will have zero population level impact on the fishery. And should we restrict angling in all of S. Alberta even if water temps are not high in the Alpine streams? Seems a bit much to me and quite frankly, ridiculous. Fishery conservation policy needs to be driven by scientific fact and evidence, not opinion polls.

Now they try and “guilt you” into not fishing flowing waters by saying it’s much better fishing stocked ponds and lakes. Ahem, pine coulee reservoir, lol. Yes, agreed all the fish I have hooked were rockets as well on the bow. Now I can potentially agree that small foothill freestone creeks could be potentially closed aka sheep river, Highwood below Longview, yada yada, but to put on a carte Blanche on all southern Alberta streams is extreme laziness at its worst. Rivers like the bow have enough deep water and shady banks to provide all the shelter a fish could/would need. Fish alter their habitat during the day by moving out to deeper water then slide back into pockets and deflectors as the sun goes down. I am going to go out tomorrow morning and shut down at 2 and not feel guilty. The minute I see distressed fish is the minute I shut it down. To date this year, I have not seen a distressed fish unless it is a fool fishing a 3 wt with 2 lb tippet and taking 10 min to drag in a fish and take multiple pics….

I fished the Bow yesterday. At 2:00 pm, the water temp was 63.7F and the fish were rising to the abundant spent, egg laying Caddis. The trout hooked in the previous hour (3), were rockets and next to impossible to land. The last trout hooked at 1:40 pm, a 18"-19" Rainbow, broke off 6 lb. tippet as it raced out to mid-river and upstream. Heat stressed trout were nowhere to be found. TOD restrictions are an unnecessary disruption to the short fishing season and have no conservation benefits. In fact, there are numerous scientific papers on the topic which clearly show that C&R angling has no population level effects. C&R angling in low flow, high water temperature also have no measurable population level impacts. So, would one of the "Hooters" please provide scientific evidence that TOD restrictions have population level benefits.