[Drift boat floats besides the Bow?]

Upper north sask & clearwater river. 

[Bow River Flows]

I reached out to the Bow River Trout Foundation and Peter forwarded me this correspondence he had with TransAlta:

 

Quote

Travis / Chris:

 

 

I sent the following email to TransAlta this morning. The response came back this afternoon at 3:45 pm.

I see some modification in stream flows this afternoon – let see if there are improvements tomorrow.

What is interesting is that a contact number and email account is listed for river users to express their concerns. It is important that all of the fishing community send emails with details of concerns.

 

We will list this information on our website and Facebook page tomorrow together with an overview of hydro operations.

 

Thank for expressing your concerns:

Peter Crowe-Swords

Bow River Trout Foundation

Cel: 403-680-8320

Email: daritek@shaw.ca

Website: www.bowrivertrout.org

Advocate and Support for the Bow River Fishery

Good afternoon Peter,

 

Thank you so much for your email.

 

Bow River water level fluctuations over the past days are a combination of several factors, including extra generation due to hot weather and additional water inflows into Ghost Reservoir.  This type of wide fluctuation is outside the norm.

We have taken steps to manage and correct these unusually large fluctuations and expect water levels to return to more moderate levels in the next few hours. We will provide updates as necessary.

River users with questions can contact us at TransAlta Hydro Operations at hydro_operations@transalta.com or call 1-877-967-2555.

 

Best regards,

German Mojica, P.Eng. | Supervisor, Hydro Operations Planning

 

 

German:

The rapid drops and increase in Bow River flows we have seen this week as illustrated in the attached weekly flows at Calgary has destroyed the fishing and may well have long term impact on the future of the Bow River as a world class fishery.  There is also evidence to suggest that the survival of trout can be compromised by flow variations of the nature that we have seen this week. It appears that Bearspaw Reservoir water management protocol is unable to cushion the fluctuations in water discharge from power generation at Ghost Reservoir.

 

There is need to correct this mismanagement of our water resource before we see further depletion to a very vulnerable trout population that has seen significant declines recently. We trust that TransAlta recognizes the urgency to make changes to the Bow River water management operation procedures as soon as possible to alleviate further damage to the fishery.

 

[Fly fishing golden bc]

Check out where the Blaeberry enters the Columbia river. You can park just off the trans-canada highway by the bridge over the Blaeberry river. Its a bit of a walk from there but worth it. Another spot is the Bluewater Rec area that isnt too far. You can also find fish in the Blaeberry itself, but the Columbia is best for numbers. Also Kinbasket lake can be good where streams dump in. I grew up there and Sept/Oct was one of my favourite times. Make sure to bring a heavy set up and lots of BIG white bunny style flies. The kokanee might be starting their run, but the bulls will probably be feeding on whitefish/suckers primarily. Wouldnt hurt to bring flies with some red on them, but not necessary in my opinion. Lots of bulls up to and around 10 lbs in there. Might be some rainbows, but I've always only been able to catch them in the spring.

Have fun, it's a gem of an area!

[Fish Handling]

Will definitely call RAP next time!

[Fish Handling]

3 hours ago, Bron said:

Could it have been these dingus khans?

 

 

Haha! I saw that the other week and immediately thought it was him until I got closer. Dingus level 10000.

[Fish Handling]

8 hours ago, bowriverboys said:

That's horrible....where were they? Any sort of description of them? I will keep an eye out. 

Standing at the Bonnybrook outflow. 2 middle aged guys, 1 younger guy possibly a son/nephew. Fish handler and younger guy wearing green flannel and mud boots. Other guy (photographer) wearing tan jacket and pants, red toque and mud boots. Driving a black Jeep Cherokee. Should have grabbed the plate number. 

[Fish Handling]

Met a few dinks last night and this seemed like the right place for my question.

3 guys gear fishing from shore on the Bow. Watched them catch and "release" a few fish. They would bring the fish in, drag it onto shore and then proceed to grab it in the gill and walk it up shore to their buddy with a camera. Each fish laid on the ground at least once while waiting for the camera (worst was 4 times that I counted). After the shot they would gill the fish again and literally throw it by its gills into the river. Each out of the water for around 5 mins.

Saw this on 4 separate fish from a hundred meters or so downstream. When I walked back to my car I politely asked them to try to release their fish quicker as what they were doing was likely killing the fish. They werent happy at the suggestion and some less than nice words were exchanged before I left. I reeeeally wanted to call RAP, but I didnt see any bait or dead fish and wasnt sure if I would be wasting their time.

Is there anything illegal about this? What would you do? Maybe try to record them or something?

[Online Source for Big Streamers]

I used to buy from https://www.slideinn.com/shop/. Definitely high quality. Definitely cheaper to tie yourself :).