Hawgstoppah

Wherever you go, pack me in your suitcase.

great colours! gotta love those overlooked streams!

Edit: there are absolutely no fish in rivers in southern alberta whatsoever. They all went to the Bow. Or into reservoirs. They all hang around the docks waiting for pellets.

Here's a few big ol' girls (and boys) from my wanderings this fall. A nice big male 23.5" Same fish closer up net opening is 18", this fish actually went 25 hard to tell in the pics I didn't get a good angle and didn't want to mess around getting a better one. Yes it is in the water, halfway, as you can see my net is mostly underwater. Tight lines!!

beauty pics!

yeah that's no redneck boat. I don't even see spit cups and beer holders. might be a bait fisherman's rig though

sweet pics and story!!! gotta love those goldens!!!

I have to admit, reading your story makes me feel nauseated.... I would be the guy who clammed up going down. Call in the chopper!!!

amen.

1660 + posts and finally for FNG ... hahaha welcome to the board Xjeepguy!

got the same brightly colored rainbow on the crow once within 2 minutes of release... first time on the sjw, second time he had changed to the prince, lol. another time I was on the liv, landed a whitefish on opening day I was nymphing a zebra midge. he thrashed and snapped the line and slunk back into the pool. I tied on another of the exact same fly, placed a cast, and hit the same fish again... I got both flies back, one in each corner of his mouth like he had tusks.

First off: Bow River Adventures is a sponsor of this forum. We'd be happy to take you out. We will not pester you with any PM's trying to get you out, though. Anyone who is doing that, has not paid to be a site sponsor, and is trying to take business from those who are. There are several top notch guiding companies who are sponsors, you will find them all listed in the sponsors section.. any will offer a great experience. I have a spot open for a drift on Aug 26th, might be able to find you a second person and your cost would only be $200. Or a full day cost is still only $400 (includes lunches, transportation to/from meeting place). On my drifts I do 6am to 7pm 'ish... a full day with a ton of getting out and wading, with access points for wading pointed out, so my guys learn tactics for the Bow on foot too. I also could do a walk and wade, your choice. drop me (Hawgstoppah) or richard (dutchie) a PM if that interests you. or call 403-995-3677 cheers and tight lines Brian

there are also western gray drakes coming off. size 12-14 adams will do just fine. cheers

fertile high elevation lakes can fish very similar to lower elevation lake fishing. bring your nymph box, bring chronomids, damsels, scuds, leeches, and boatmen. small dries like #20 adams is a good bet, but do bring some bigger mayflies as well. #14 adams, #14-16 light cahill... #14 Elk Hair caddis, some lakes a #10 goddard caddis is the shizzam.. (window mountain). Take trico's in a #20-22 and do take some 6 or 7x tippets up with you. Depending on what lake, I'd go with a very small indicator and a couple nymphs to start... match what you see in the film of the lake... if there are chironomid shucks, use a similar sized chronie... if you fish boiling set them shallow (2 and 3ft deep) you'll do great. Same with if you see the odd caddis around, use a caddis emerger or hare's ear, etc, the same depth under and indicator. If the fish are not playing around you'll have to go deep, 6 to 8feet or more. Try quick short strips with a boatmen or damsel pattern through likely areas (dropoffs, weed lines, shallow with cruising fish, etc) good luck

sweet post! thanks for sharing!!!!

glad we have something now, it's a start!!! keep snapping those pics... especially ones showing license plates!

castle area is now fishing pretty darn good on dries. lots of streams to fish in the area.

Nice colored brown. the second one actually looks bigger... great fish!! cheers

as a guide I find it hard to sleep after reading this. I am having nightmares. I feel so badly for the people who are lost and also for the poor guide who had to have it happen. Taking people fishing is a dangerous proposition, anywhere. Bears, Cougars, Lightning, rocks tumbling down cliffs, people slipping and falling, it all can happen in the blink of an eye. The outdoors is not a 100% safe place to be all the time. I hope the press doesn't blame the guide, unless it was directly something she did to cause it, like push the person off the edge... other than that... your out in nature, and stuff can and will happen

looks like a lot more snow was there then when I was up there on Aug 8. Was this a couple weeks ago? Great pics!!! Yeah the hike down hurt pretty bad on my feet, next time I need proper hiking boots instead of my wading boots I think!! Having a good strudy stick sure helped me maintain balance and stop from cartwheeling down though!.

fish n' stirfry 2 x 1lb trout from a stocked lake. gut fish, cut head/tail off, cover inside with lemon pepper, and cover each fish with real butter. wrap in tin foil. cut broccolli, baby corn, water chestnuts, almonds, cauliflower, mushrooms. place in tin foil with enough butter to simmer. BBQ the works for 5 minutes each side, turning each tin foil wrap once. Voila. enjoy.... and the tin foil should peel back the fish skin leaving nothing but trouty goodness behind... if the stirfry is still needing a few minutes leave the trout in the tin foil until ready to eat to keep everything warm, the more stirfry you make the longer it can take. best served with red wines, or something tangy like cranberry cocktail, etc.

awesome view!!!

There I was, at the trailhead.. about 2 hours before Dustin (fishpro) would arrive and we would camp before getting up early to beat the sun into Barnaby Lakes. I spent an hour fishing the castle river, managed a cutt and a bull both around 15 inches, and then gathered up some wood to start a fire when Dustin arrived. The mosquitos were insane down at camp, I had to apply bug spray a couple times. Dustin arrived and we lit the fire and spent a few hours talking about goldens, steelhead, jurrasic lake, and other fun experiences we'd had. I told Dustin I didn't care if I got a golden tomorrow, I was in it for the experience and to have fun and enjoy a beautifull area. I've always thought (and witnessed) that when people are so tight about HAVING to catch fish it ends up hurting them because they are missing the whole point of going. The folks who relax often do so much better. So I wanted to be one of those people tomorrow... maybe I'd luck out. Eager with anticipation of the morning, we went to bed around 11pm with plans to get going at 6am. 6am, bags packed, water slammed, extra water, clothing, etc in packs, and off we go... for about 15 steps. I had to turn back and grab my Motrin!! I knew I'd need it... it's a muscle relaxant and a good one at that. So after a slight delay were off! Quickly across the castle and found the trailhead.. after about 15 minutes of fairly level flat trail, winding through pines, we start going up sharply. And I do mean sharply! No rush, we stopped every 100 or so metres (maybe less) of elevation gain to catch our breath and rest the legs. Carrying a lot of water up was heavy, but neccessary. Here's a few views on the way up. The hike up was breathtaking (in BOTH ways). the view was insane, and the elevation gain was also insane! Finally we cleared over the hardest part, and after that it seemed easy after the strain of the hard climb was over. We got to the lower lake and it was DEAD CALM.... and we even saw a rise or two. I asked Dustin if maybe we should fish this one, he's like "No, let's go!!!!!!" so we blasted up to the second lake. A quick view of lake one looking back from the trail to lake two. and we cleared the last little hump to lake two, and my jaw dropped. my heart started racing. are you kidding me!!! golden trout rising EVERYWHERE... the lake was alive!!! We set up our gear on a small point and tried to rig up. I couldn't get a fly tied on for the life of me... I was so excited. Finally I had the smallest dry in my box on. I waded out and started fishing, and started....... getting refusal after refusal!!! finally one took my fly... and I missed it. Dustin had a couple swats as well, but we just were not getting onto them. A half hour into it, and 30 refusals into it I am thinking... ok this is what I expected, they'd be tough... I am going to make adjustments all day and see what happens. So I went to shore rigged up a tiny indicator and some micro small nymphs on 7x.... and stepped back in. BLAT! are you kidding me???? he took my indicator!!! BLAT!!! again!!!!!! no way!!!! his happened about 3 or 4 times.... nothing taking below, wait!!! swoosh!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! missed one!!!!!!!! I missed another one about 5 minutes later... and was admiring some flowers near shore I thought BobLoblaw might like a pic of them when it happened.... Whoosh one took the indicator again.... and I watched it let go, but wait, the indy is still down... SET SET SET!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fish on and I got this one into the net and the goal was achieved!! My first ever golden trout!!! worth the aching muscles and sore back!!! ooooh yeah!!! the next 10 minutes saw another fish to net!!! unreal!! two in ten minutes!!!! ok small nymphs are going to do it!!!!!! DUSTIN SWITCH UP!!!! I yelled over to him. He said he wanted to try dry a bit more, as he'd had 3 or 4 takes. Here's fish #2 I ended up getting TWO MORE smaller ones withou a lot of color in the next 20 minutes... and that was all Dustin could handle. To shore we went to change rigs and relax. And the pressure was off... I'd already had an amazing day... and this was within the first hour. We were blessed with amazing weather, hardly a ripple on the lake until mid afternoon... and the goldens were SOOOO into what we were fishing with. Lots more fish came to our hands. The final tally was an incredible 32 fish between us. I know not many folks would believe that, and I am still wondering if it was some weird dream I will wake from too. It ranks up there with my top fishing experiences ever... the hike, the scenery, the company, the brilliance of the fish, the absence of other people... we had the whole place to ourselves... Thank you Dustin for the awesome experience and thanks to the people who run the SW auction for things like this to happen. Please continue to support the yearly streamwatch auctions folks!! Let's get this golden trout trip to $200/person next year... it's worth so much more. Cheers Brian

nice chunkaroo's!!

terrible tragedy. sounds like they were doing a walk and wade from that article in the province.