matt1984

Why such a focus on reducing angler catch rates? If we are trying to reduce the amount of times each fish is caught per year, shouldn't we be trying to increase fish numbers rather than reducing angler hours and catch rates. Their data, and most angler's personal experience is the bow river has a good percentage of big fish. However, their slide on Recycle Rates claims a ratio >2 will result in fewer big fish seems to contradict that statement. With the Bow river currently over 5 on recycle ratio, are we as anglers willing to catch 5x less fish, to get to their numbers? Shouldn't their be further look at increasing numbers via habitat improvements? Rip-Rapping banks, widely fluctuating water levels, and apparently less consistent and prolific hatches all seem like they should be considered just as much or more than angler success.

Other than he's breaking the new "rules", what harm would he have been causing fishing yesterday? Water temps are good, flows are reasonable. To be honest, I'd be more worried about the people fishing the river in winter causing damage to trout from the cold. Over the next two weeks if someone chooses to fish on days like today where its raining and cool past 2PM good on them. Two weeks ago the river was full of people fishing all afternoon when the water was bathtub warm. We should be making our decisions based on the health of the fish, not what an email says.

The flow meters are typically not on there until later in the spring.

There’s still over 3 ft of snow in the back country, I don’t think fire risk is a real issue right now.

The regulations state you follow the regs listed for the waterbody in question if they are in the chart, so since sheep is listed as open sept 1, that’s the regs you would follow. If the waterbody isn’t listed than you follow the general ES1 regulations. They forgot the June 16 box as Monger mentioned for the lower sheep. They had it in the 2019 version

I emailed the contact listed for issues/questions for the regs. They honestly didn’t seem to have a clue

Has anyone noticed that the regs now say the lower Sheep River opens Sept 1 instead of June 16th? Unless they made a change to the Sheep, the regulations seemingly forgot the June 16-Sep 1 part of the table. Typically sept 1-Oct 31 have different regulations to allow for whitefish retention only. I contacted the appropriate person at AEP, and they don't have a clue how to read the regs. They told me to follow the general ES1 regulations for all Rivers in ES1, even if they are listed in the tables below, which is completely incorrect but after 4 emails I have given up trying to convince them otherwise.

Almost got run over by them on Friday just upstream from Mckinnons. They came by full tilt skipping through a skinny side channel and put it sideways around the corner within a few feet of us standing fishing the side channel. They came back and offered a sheepish apology, but they could have killed us if they would have hit us at those speeds.

2)Keep in mind this is 2 days after the general rifle season opens in the oldman/livingstone area. Expect it to be VERY busy and expect lots of gunshots. Take a look at the hike up to plateau mountain though, it remained unglaciated so the top of the mountain has unique frost polygon features. Also, I believe this lies just into WMU 404 so it is out of the general hunting zone. 3) Westwood restaurant in Black diamond is a great spot, local ingredients and great food.

Probably the worst advice I've read on here. Don't do this. Go with a bite-proof leader. Unless you like losing fish, and leaving pike with hooks dangling in their mouth/throats.

What are the changes in oldman? As far as I know, you can still random camp and quad etc out there. It does seem like people are better behaved this year though.

Resurrecting an old thread, but is the building of "restaurants, hotels and other tourism amenities" really that much better than the squatters we had to deal with previously? Please take the time to fill this out and voice your concerns with developing the Castle. https://culturetourism.alberta.ca/tourism/castle-region-tourism-strategy/

Would anyone be able to tell me why the new (http://rivers.alberta.ca) website doesn't show the river flow rates and only has the water level data? Is there an option somewhere to be able to see the flows as opposed to water level? thanks

Don't get me wrong, I hate the squatters as much as the next guy. But, is everyone really onside with a full ban on random camping? I like the idea of being able to pull up to a secluded area and pitch a tent for the weekend and fish and hunt from my "base camp". Also, in the fall during hunting season "back country camping" isn't an easy task especially if you were trying to hunt with a young family along with you. I would really like to see some enforcement and rules on random camping, but I think a full-out ban is limiting a lot of opportunities for recreation.

Great pic. I've had a tough time with the elk in that area this year. Was seeing tons in bow season, now they've been pretty elusive. Good luck!