Hawgstoppah

If you want to fish a certain area and see someone working within 500ft of where you'd like to go, ASK them. 99% of people who you actually ask will be happy to share the water they are in. If you don't ask 99% of the folks you step in on will be a bit ticked that you did so, and a few might get vocal with you (and I encourage them to do so, people need to know when they are not showing proper etiquette). Common sense is NOT common, unfortunately. People need to be educated.

best idea this time of year is head up for cutts early in the day, fish from 10 - 5 or so, then back down to calgary to get the very best of the bow from 7pm onward into darkness. The perfect day and best of both worlds, you'll always be on active fish.

The area is forever ruined for me too. I cannot find what I seek in a fly fishing experience there anymore

I tend to use as short of a leader and as short of a cast as I can get away with. The reason: kill drag. I have fished over steadily rising individual Bow River fish for 20 minutes before actually getting a take from them, if they were leader shy they would have left on cast #3 not cast #792 which hooks them because I finally get the perfect drift in the perfect 1 inch lane he is in.

sounds like an absolutely fantastic trip. Bucket list for sure.

You are a monster Jared. You totally hogged all the fish last time we fished. Jerkasaurus Rex. When am I going to get the chance to get even?

I always tried to give folks a wide berth, even the other drifters. If I ever did make a mistake it was becuase I became so focused on a seam or a rising fish somewhere that I failed to completely take in my surruondings, or a couple times in the predawn hours fishing the shore lines I came up on some pretty camofluaged folks (yeah GREG mister "hide behind a bush" Im talking about you! LOL). To anyone I may have offended out there I apologize, and I hope you would let me know if I did.

talking to insurance about it. I gave them an account of what was in the bag. approx value. we'll see. I will definately have to look through my policy. as far as the family / wife. I did go outside, went fishing even, to vent, and also wrote this short message on the computer. I never spoke a bad word to her, and in most cases I am sure I would have acted like a complete a$$hat, so I am thankful I was able to hold my tongue (and emotions) in check. Thanks for all the PM's about lending gear out. Sadly most of this gear was my steelheading collection (tippet, lines, spey tips, couple hundred to 500 steelhead flies at $5 or more per fly), and then my spare reels - an islander IR2 reel and lines, an okuma 7/8wt reel and a reddington 5/6 reel. I'm hoping insurance will cover it.

I'd say just enough so that you dont bang your knuckles together when rowing. Maybe 4-6" apart would be perfect. That's where dutchie's hyde was set last year for me and I loved it. And if you can get "oar-rite" attachements for the oars they'll keep you oaring true all day long, effortless and blisterless. Highly recommended.

I'd bet they can find a way up. There are lots in the reservoir. Somehow they can find there way through, just like the browns on the Crow have found a way above the falls in recent years and are starting to show up more often.

I am going to the dump (transfer station) though my chances are unlikely. They took this stuff only god knows where, I know they had another company in here for hail garbage and that's who took it.

Um, I don't think they cover stuff that you throw out in the garbage. I couldn't live with myself to try and BS my way through it, it's not who I am. Dave, yeah I might be interested in that spool but I now have no islanders left (reels) as I lost my other one ono the bank of the Bow last year. Still hoping to see that one someday but it's been over a year now

So as I am thinking about doing some fishing this weekend I go looking for one of my fishing bags. inside this bag was a couple reels (including my spare islander IR2, and a couple of reels for 6wt's) and about 1000 flies, lines leaders tippet splits etc. plus this bag had ALL my steelhead flies and gear and lines (spey tips etc). well I come to find that when the wife and kids emptied out a shed after the hail the THREW IT OUT. THE WHOLE BAG!!! So I need some advice. How do I react? I am so choked I cant even talk to my wife right now... but if I get upset she'd never understand the value of it anyways. Anyways, I just thought I would vent somewhere.... and I know y'all would KNOW the pain of this loss... I think I am going to go fishing with what's left (at least I have another bag with a bunch of stream / river fishing gear) :$*%&: :$*%&: :$*%&:

I agree with peter. Put on a lafontaines sparkle caddis emerger pattern, and stand about 20 feet upstream of the fish, cast downstream and across, and swing the flies by the active feeding area. you should get at least a few pulls, it's worked decently for me. Another tactic to try is forget about the huge indicator and 9ft of line so many people tell you to use all the time on the Bow. Take a small indicator and a couple hare's ears tied 2 and 3ft down the line from the tiny indicator and ride a drag free drift through the pod, should hook up that way too as obviously the fish are not hugging the bottom and I find the depth they tend to suspend at when eating dries is about 2-3ft. good luck

I just saw this, we've been too busy cleaning up. I was 20 minutes from the house fishing and did NOT get hammered in my smaller car, but did not fish either due to the lightning overhead. Got holes right through our roof and about 75k in total damages to vehicles, and property. On the bright side, I get a new roof and siding and can pick some more modern colors as the ones we had were not to the best of my liking anyways. Video the kids shot of the start of the storm. The biggest hail starting coming near the end of this video and my wife told the kids to get away from the windows. We did lose a bedroom window shortly after. It was pretty wild. The fun has begun, the cleanup and the insurance claims, and the insurance people trying to tell me that stuff wasn't damaged from the storm that clearly was. Had to rip a section of wall out to prove to them yesterday that water came down the inside of the wall and soaked everywhere and that section of roof was compromised, they were trying to tell me it was not going to be covered until I ripped down the drywall and revealed soaked insulation, etc. They are really starting to annoy me.

hahaha awesome *high fives* I tried one for cutts a while back, not sure where they dig natural worms up in a rock filled river....

I know of some that go up that way that know damn well the rules, so I'd say they are not ignorant of the fact, but just plain ignorant.

Last weekend I had a similar experience. I was wading down a bank stalking rising fish. A boat came all the way from the FAR shore, to drift within 15ft of us and go down the bank I was watching for risers on. I exlamied my disdain over their actions and they decided to threaten me with a "fight" over it. I said all we wanted was a bit of respect not a fight. What has the Bow River become that so many people are acting like children on it?

couple of year ago (maybe 3 or 4) I was getting some cutts up to 23-23.5 inches from southern BC drainages. The last few years have been different. Maybe just population dynamics. I haven't ever seen a bonafide 22+ cutty in Alberta except for ONE freak fish, which I got right in Lee Creek. I have seen many in BC. I think regulations and controls have more to do with it than anything (a lot less random camping and quadding in BC, right?)

nice! yeah everything loks so high and cold almost, looks like the last week of June up there still!

Just realized that second one was the last beasty of the day for me love that underwater shot and holy crap your camera takes good pics. Can't believe the girth on that fish Tim got. I had fun man, we'll have to do it again, soon! I'm heading out there tonight, Tim is there again today and I'll fish the evening with him

Slabs! Love that first one...

It honesty looks like a tiger. Brown x Brookie

River's just fine ... lol, get out and double stone nymph with that bad boy about 3ft off slow banks or right in slow seams nest to slack. You'll be fine. nice rod. I am not normally a fan of new age stuff, but for some reason I do like this. EDIT: never read the date of the original post, LOL

beauty!