Hawgstoppah

well the evening caddis sure haven't been out and about in any abundance this year. that alone is a major issue as bow river trout rely on all stages of caddis for a large portion of their diet.

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.

saw otters take and eat a 10+ pound rainbow trout from a small creek where I was doing some filming earlier this year. Do not underestimate the size of fish these things can and do eat. However, who was here first.... otters are not an invasive species.

he was snagged on a rock because his dry fly sank and you just happened to hit the pic at the same time. beauty shot

cool. we've hit a few nice browns in the same area but none that large. There is a nice pocket of browns in that area, for sure. I honestly thought it looked like a waterton river fish... with that head shape. gorgeous fish man.

Nice hawg. I might be mistaken, but that may not be a Bow River fish... maybe farther north, or even south

beauty! such nice colors!! congrats

ok well let's move on this. lets nominate a chairperson for the bow river etiquette committee, and a treasurer, and a few committee members, and then we can take donatuions to create aforementioned signs and start getting permission to install them at various places. wasn't there a "friends of the bow" groups around at some point? maybe we could work with them. I'd be willing to chip in some money, if we all chipped in a little bit we'd easily have enough for some signs. Many hands make light work... Brian

somehow I cant make birchys pic appear here but to add to it....

2nd is booked, we still have the 1st of Aug up for grabs. cheers Brian

nice shots

I love finding those hidden gems everyone else drives right by on their way to better water great post

awesome post. I'm headed up there on aug 8.... I hope I am able to hook into a golden, but like you, I moreso hope the beauty of the area and the challenge feed my soul and refresh me.

awesome!!! I think I was across the river from them when they hit it too... a lot of excitement!!

lol. :

right now good bet is to head out ninja early and tie on a big foam stonefly imitation - any fly shop around here will have them, though I'd bet the supplies are running low. stalk up banks with a slow flow and deep water and you will get some vicious takes. when I mean early though, I mean 4am. it'll be good for another week or so, maybe more, on the golden stonefly hatch. best action 4am till 9 or so, sometimes later. overcast days action was all day, like yesterday. for nymphing look for choppy water riffles against the main hard river current. The waves will look like little diamond shapes. That's seriously trouty water when u find it. Enjoy the Bow!

couple times this year I've found myself almost on top of someone I did not see working a shoreline. A quick apology followed by quick rowing out away from the area is usually good enough, mistakes happen and sometimes it is impossible to see someone on shore... especially at 430AM like this morning (if your on here I am terribly sorry... I hope you had a great day, fish were rising above you and I am sure you nailed a few )... I also find if your nice to everyone and wave and see how their day is going, things just simply go better.

Just Aug 1,2 now available. If you are interested drop me or dutchie a PM. Tight Lines!! Brian