Bigtoad

Beautiful hike and lake. My suggestion is to do it in 4 days. 1 day 3/4 of the way, 2nd day hike to lake and stay/fish, 3rd day fish the morning and hike out to day 1 campsite, 4th day, hike out from day 1 campsite and fish the bigger pools on the ram on the way out. 3 days was just way to far in too short a time. I'm still nursing my feet back to health. Oh, and get yourself a topo map if you haven't already. I was constantly checking it against my old GPS to figure out when to turn up to Lost guide. It's not a big trail heading up there and could easily be missed. Have fun!

When we came back from Lost Guide Lake last weekend we were loading our crap into the car at the Ram staging area. There is a map there saying where atv's can and can not go. They've also closed some areas of the Hummingbird campsite for reclamation. When we got there, a CO showed up and chatted with me about where I had been and then he carried on up into the Hummingbird area. I told him it was great to see him out patrolling in the area. Not 5 minutes after he disappeared, about 3 atv's show up and stop at the sign. Kids are on the back with helmets but no one else has them. Then they proceed up the hummingbird road where the CO went down. I don't think they were even supposed to be on that road with quads! I bet he could have just sat up in that area and caught quadders all day. When we were driving out, there was another group of quadders screaming up the road with no helmets. I hope he caught them too. It's going to take a LOT more enforcement (and steeper fines) before we see some real improvement. I do have to say, after seeing what the area was like 5 years ago when I went out there with people and quads everywhere, and now, they have shut a lot of the Hummingbird area down to motorized vehicles, that it is starting to improve the area. I even caught a few fish out of the ol' Bird which would have never happened 5 years ago. I guess if people F*&K things up enough eventually it will get noticed and some positive changes might take place.

I'm no expert on fly tying or fishing. Hook size might be the issue but perhaps your hook-set timing is also the issue? I find the bigger the fly + the bigger the fish = a very long time to wait before setting the hook. I know this has been covered in other threads but waiting several seconds or saying something like "son of a bitch" before setting the hook allows the fish to take the fly, turn back down with it, and "chew" it a bit. If I am getting hits but just feeling them for a second and then they're off, that if a wait a fraction longer, I'll have a MUCH better hook-up rate. Cutts are probably the hardest to wait for because if the water is clear, you get to see them coming up from the bottom for several (or 10+ !!!!) feet and by the time they take your fly, your so psyched out that you set immediately. It's like when I used to try and play slow pitch baseball, I'd always foul to left field because I couldn't wait for the ball to get to me. I watched it coming for too long and had too much time to think. Anyway, waiting longer might be something to try as well as getting a wider hook gap. Cheers.

I was out on a super hot day on the Red Deer this year. I got there too early and it was still incredibly hot out. On my way up to where I wanted to fish some red sticking out of a logjam caught my attention. On further inspection, it was a backpack style Budweiser cooler. On the outside it was pretty muddy but on the inside, it had a full bottle of sunscreen AND (drum roll), 2 cans of cool Alexander Keats! So I continued up the river, parked myself on the side of the water and put my feet in the river, leaned up against my pack, and drank the beer until the evening temps dropped and the fish started rising. It was heavenly. Like some poor drunk bastard had floated down the river and flipped out of his homemade-redneck-raft just upstream of there, JUST for me. Thanks poor drunk bastard, you're the best. Never did get any Browns that night but somehow the trip still felt worthwhile.

I went on a guided trip with Joe Buck 2 years ago and he was always calling the big browns "Big Toads." He would give a running commentary while you were fishing, especially a really juicy looking spot, (read with excited English accent) "Oh, a big toad is going to come up and crush it, oh come on big toad, CRUNCH!" while making faces like he was a big brown smashing the big dry fly. Almost as entertaining as the fishing. When something would strike, I would usually be so psyched out already that I would set the hook too early. One of the best days I've had on the water. That and my sisters growing up used to (and still do) call me "Toad," (my name being Todd) so "Big Toad" just seemed to fit.

DING, DING, DING! We have a winner!!!! Nice work BigBowTrout! We started at the Ram staging area and hiked about 2/3's the first day for about 6 hours. Second day we went up in 4 hours and back to camp in 3, stopping to fish for an hour. 3rd day we were out in 5. First 2/3rd's is easy. The 1/3 part up to Lost Guide is difficult but by far the most enjoyable/scenic once you get above tree line. Took the GPS (consulted it and the topo map frequently) and it was 19km's as the crow flies from the staging area to Lost Guide. My guess is it is probably closer to 30km on foot. So 60km in 3 days. I have the bleeding heels to prove it. I was breaking in the new boots. OUCH! Here's a pic of the South Ram on the way up... so freaking pretty. I stopped on the way back at a beautiful pool while the girls had lunch. Fished for 15 minutes and caught 6 from 12-16" on a caddis. It was awesome! Then a group of about 30 ESL students on horseback showed up and decided to have lunch there. It was a gong-show so we got out of there! Wish I could have fished there and some other sweet holes a bit more. Might have been really interesting...

So my wife and a friend of ours (along with the pooches) hiked into a lake this past weekend. Had lots of fun but it was a lot further than I had previously thought (but now I'm giving too much info away). There has been way too many pics of people trying to hide locations and I wanted to mix it up a bit. Instead, can anyone name the location from the pics? After MANY "It's just over the next rise," we finally made it, and were a bit excited. I'm not sure if my wife or the scenery is hotter.....either way, I'm a lucky S.O.B. Since it was a lot farther than we had anticipated, I only fished for about an hour. Nothing monstrous but it was tons of fun. You could see them coming from 15+ feet down. The whole crew.

Islands are definitely the safest bet. Most landowners will post a "No Trespassing" sign or two or ten around if they don't want you on the land. I've only been kicked off once, luckily I was just getting my tent out and hadn't fully unpacked. I rowed across the river to an island and had one of the best evenings ever on the Bow, catching 10-15 between 2 of us from one pool at the bottom of the island. I was pretty glad to have changed locations then. I've done a 3 day, 2 nighter from FishCreek to Carsland a few times. It allows you to really slow down and do some serious fishing. Usually stop somewhere below policeman's the first night, then somewhere below the Highwood the second night. When you are close to the weir, there are signs to keep to the left. IGNORE these signs and stay to the right. The left you'll get stuck in incredibly slow and skinny braided channels that get progressively smaller until you'll eventually be forced to get out of your boat and walk it through some of the small stuff. Just keep to the right. You'll also hit a really nice stretch going to the right. Cheers.

Did an overnight float on Saturday/Sunday with some friends. 4 of us in 2 boats. Saturday was HOT and we didn't catch much the whole day. I picked up a beautiful 21" brown on a dropper just downstream of the city. Man was it fat. Caught it on my friends 4 weight. It was really fun. Picked up a few tiddlers later that night in front of camp when things cooled down but that was it. Thunder, rain, and more thunder and rain started at about 1:00 am. Tent held together and it was finally cool when we got up Sunday morning. Expectations were high that the drop in temp would help the fishing. Picked up a couple nymphing and few on streamers but nothing over 16. I did dredge another great 18" brown "trolling" a streamer deep through a slow deep area. Great fight. I was REALLY hoping to catch a few fish on the big foam but nothing was looking up. There were still stones around and I would have thought hoppers would be going somewhat but there was nothing. NOTHING!?!?! What's up with that? Anyway, it was a fun trip, even though the fishing was pretty terrible compared to previous years (9th straight year I've done the camping trip). Although I guess I shouldn't complain with a 21 and 17 inch browns... the Bow just spoils a guy I guess. Here's the big fatty. Another fatty. Cheers.

I'm not sure if we really want to get this drastic, but when I was down in NZ for a while, it was illegal to camp anywhere except in designated camping areas. Random camping, especially from tourists in minivans, became such a problem on the beaches and other areas that they finally just said "enough is enough" and kiboshed the whole thing. I think we might need to head this way. I was up in the Ram Falls area this weekend and it was stupid. There were so many rv's along the road that it felt like I was still in the urban sprawl. Meanwhile, I stayed at the Prairie Creek campground (which is fantastic by the way) and it wasn't even full? If people can afford the huge RV's and all of the toys and the truck to pull all of their crap, then they should stay in a campground!!!!!!!! I'm not suggesting that every designated camping spot would even need a fee, there could be free camping with basic camping sites (no electricity and only outhouses), but the camping sites would be designated. There could even be "tent only" sites in more remote/sensitive areas, to try and curb the quadding issues (my experience is that most quadders are RVer's but I could be wrong). I think the issue is becoming critical and something will need to be done about it soon. Designate as many camping areas as possible, keep it affordable, and in some cases; free, but stop people from just setting up shop where-ever they feel like it (obviously with some sensitivity to minimal impact camping people who stay in tents for a short amount of time in more remote areas). That's my 2 cents, if you don't like it, suck rocks. Cheers.

When fishing for pike was legal with a bow my cousins and I would go out to Gull Lake and shoot them during the winter. Shot and saw some monsters. It was too much fun to be legal and I'm glad they shut it down. However, we would leave our ice fishing hut out there over the winter. 10 x 12' ply-wood with a 4x5' hole cut in the ice. It was magical. Funny thing was, when we locked it up, it would get broken into and vandalized and our stuff stolen. When we would leave it unlocked, it was always in good shape and often there would be some leftover hooks laying around afterward. The camper reminded me of that. I'm not condoning what they are doing but I bet if they were to lock it up, all of their stuff would get busted and/or stolen. Leave it open; it might be risky, but probably a "safer" bet. Cheers.

Quoting Harps: "For a Trico spinner, go much smaller and thinner. One way to tie is to have 2 black balls of dubbing with the front having spent wings. This imitates a cluster of Tricos. I also tye mine with a dubbing ball in the middle with the wings sticking out the front and back on a larger hook or just a dubbing ball in the center of the shaft and wings sticking out the sides." What would you suggest for dubbing material? Do you have any picks of the flies? Cheers.

I tied it on a mustad 2X size 14. Probably too big for a trico but I wanted to get it right before going smaller. Looks pretty freaking small to me already. Thanks for the input.

I've been on a fly tying binge lately and have been trying out some new ideas (at least for me). I'm not a great tier by any means but I impressed myself with these ones. This is a stimmie but I thought why not add some sweet legs to these things? Body is fuzzy foam wrapped around. Should I be copyrighting this thing or am I so far behind the times that I think I'm ahead? Does anyone have a favorite adult golden stone imitation that they prefer on the Bow? I love the Chernobyl ant but I'm trying to find some other options for when they want something a bit different. This one is my first attempt at a Trico spinner. I added the post for visibility. Any suggestions? Cheers.

You guys are all wrong. OBVIOUSLY, a big brown was trying to eat it. Must have had one of its legs in its mouth and was trying to drown it. Anyone have a good goose pattern???? Cheers

It's interesting, but probably 3 out of my biggest 5 browns from Stauffer (20 inch range) have been caught within 30 yards of either bridges or easy access points that we see an incredible amount of fishing pressure. At least for C & R waters, I think this little piece of anecdotal evidence at least makes me start to rethink my ideas that heavy fishing pressure = smaller/less fish. I definitely agree that in catch and keep this would be different but I'm not convinced it's true on C & R one's. Also, how will any of us know if we are giving away a secret spot or stepping on someone's toes? I recommend that we use this thread to list ALL of the secret spots that people have, and that way, people will know that they shouldn't mention anything about waters on the list? My $0.02 Cheers.

Here's my vote for 4x4ing: My wife and I went on an extended vacation last year for 5 months; 4 in NZ and 1 in Australia. One of the many adventures we had was a 4x4 trip on Fraser Island where 10 people you don't know get together and rent a Land Cruiser and gear and drive/camp around an island with no roads. We would just drive down the beaches (speed limit 80 by the way) until high tide and then drive the 4x4 trails inland through rainforest. It was a great trip until the last night when a huge storm rolled through. We headed out early the next morning to make it back on time to the ferry. It was low tide but what we didn't realize was that the storm had washed most of the beach away further down. It also made stream crossings tricky. I eased up to one stream and dropped the front tires down the bank and the water was close to the top of the wheels. I crawled forward and dropped the back in as well. So far so good. I waited for a wave from the beach to go back downstream and then I punched it. I realized I was in a bit of trouble midway across when the top of the hood disappeared under the water!!!! (luckily we had a snorkel). The next wave was also bearing down on us and was going to hit us at the top of the cabin. With all of our gear up top, we probably would have flipped over in the river if the tide had hit us. However, I pinned it when the hood disappeared and we made it out the other side unscathed, but a little shaky. The beach was another matter. The swells were so large that there were times when there was nowhere to go but straight through. There would be a berm of sand on one side and waves coming right up to the berm. The only thing to do was drive through the water. There were times that the water rushing out was pulling the back end sideways. Basically, for about 8 kms, it was a game of cat and mouse with the ocean. I would stay as high as I could on the beach dodging pieces of driftwood the size of a VW that the storm had deposited the night before. Then, when a wave would open up some beach, I would dart out and start shifting gears and make up as much real estate as I could until the next one came back up and forced me up into the driftwood minefield again. The sand was saturated with all of the rain and was just like mud. If I had stopped, we would have gotten stuck and if we had gotten stuck, I think we would have been really screwed. What we went through with that Land Cruiser was ridiculous. When you shift them down to 4 low, they are like a Sherman Tank. Land Cruiser with a snorkel would be my pick (if I could afford one) hands down. Cheers.

I want to catch a monster brown on a mouse pattern either from the Bow, Stauffer, or Prairie. Anyone done this before??? Cheers.

In Barry Mitchell's "Fishing the Forestry Trunk Road" he explains in one of the first chapters about a study done in a lake with various types of trout. If memory serves me correctly, Bulls and Cutts were the statistically the easiest to catch. All things being equal, for every five of those you catch, you could expect to catch one Rainbow. For every five rainbows you catch, you can expect to catch one brown. Soooooo for every brown, you should expect to catch 25 cutts. I'm not sure how reliable the "scientific" data for these findings are but if they are even remotely accurate (and I'll assume there is some truth here) then catching a brown is statistically more rewarding. I would also have to say that for me, there is just something about a brown that I love. Can't put my finger quite on it but brown's are really what get my heart pumping. Cheers.

I've had my fair share of missing big ones. Murphy's law just kicks in and I miss the take, or I screw up the set, or if everything goes really well and I get the beast on, I'll end up getting the line wrapped around my reel, or whatever. I'm a disgrace... Anyway, the one that haunts me the most was on a camping trip my dad and I took down the bow 2 years ago. We had tented the night before and I was up early fishing the inside of a beautiful riffle on a corner. I was in the shallow, still water when I saw a golden stone fall into the water 15 feet upstream of me, splash across the top of the calm water and then Gulp, it was gone. I got excited, gave the fish a few seconds to swallow the stone, and then cast a Chernobyl Ant 3 feet above it, twitched it, and Gulp, it was gone, just like the real one. I set the hook and after a couple minutes I landed a beautiful 21" rainbow. I proceeded to fish the inside of riffle and caught a couple more of similar size. I had made it to the head of the riffle and decided I would throw one out to the outside seam, which was a bit of a reach for me but it hit the seam perfectly. I twitched it, and then what looked like a log floated up from the bottom and stopped 6 inches from my ant. I had made a reach cast upstream and had twitched it upstream but the faster moving middle section of the riffle was eating up my slack line quickly. The monster just floated downstream staying 6 inches from my fly for probably 6 feet and I was desperately trying to keep it drag free for as long as possible. Finally, just as my slack line ran out, it closed the distance and put it's ginormous lips around my fly. He was just closing his trap when the slack went out of the line and the fly popped out of his mouth. I just felt a light tap and he was gone. I got a really good look at him... too good. He was an absolute monster of a brown, easily over 25" and the biggest thing outside of NZ that I've ever seen. When I close my eyes, I can still see that monster mouth closing in on my fly. Another millisecond of drag-free drift and I would have had it... of course, once on, who knows what I would do with something that big??? But that fish (and the others like him) are definitely what keep me going. It's the what-could-have-been that keeps me coming back.

I was the youngest grandchild and growing up my grandparents lived only a few hundred yards away, so I was pretty spoiled. We had a pond and every summer my grandpa would put in 100 stocked rainbows and every winter they would winter kill. In desperation to catch fish, as young boys will often do, I resorted to a number of "techniques" to catch these said fish before winter beat me to it. 1. When I would catch one, I would immediately turn and run the other direction until I beached them, then run back and grab them before they slithered back into the water (I was having trouble landing them). 2. I had heard about people making their own flies so I made my own with my mom's sewing thread, a bait hook I found in my dad's tackle box, a pussy willow, and a feather I found on the ground. No glue, just a bunch of granny knots. And I actually caught a fish with it! But then it was wrecked. 3. We fed them fish pellets so in late fall, I would throw out a bunch of pellets and then toss out a piece of dog food with a hook in it. Worked like a charm. 4. In the winter my grandpa and I would snare them through the ice. Then we discovered that if we used fish pellets as bait, they would launch themselves up through the hole in the ice to get the floating pellets and land on the ice.... No more need for the snare! 5. Before ice-up, to get the last few fish out of the pond, my dad had heard that a shotgun shot in the water would stun them and they would float to the surface. So of course, we row out into the pond with the 12 gauge, and grandpa aims the gun into the water while sitting in the boat. He had to pull the trigger with his thumb because of the positioning of the gun. When he shot, the gun almost ripped his thumb off, he almost dropped the gun into the pond, and we both got absolutely soaked with the water spray from the gun. All of this would have been worth it if it had worked, but alas... no fish came to the surface. When my dad and grandpa started discussing the use of pop bottles filled with lime and there being an "explosion" my mom and grandma put an instant stop to the scheming for that year. The fish had won.

I have a macbook that I bought about 3 years ago. I LOVE it! iDVD and iMovie are also really fun to play with. Making a little DVD of a holiday or fishing expedition are incredibly user-friendly but also very powerful. Once you go Mac you'll never go back. Seriously. Cheers.

First one is not fishing related but still one of my favorite pics. It's on a hiking trip on the Franz Joseph glacier in New Zealand back toward what we had already climbed through. It was a pretty fantastic day. Second one is a pic I took on a Blackstone tributary of a really nice cuttie that wasn't in a hurry to swim away. Cheers.

I did make it out. I caught a couple of whities, saw a ton of Redds with some bruisers on them (my first time seeing Redds. I tried to keep my distance). Had a nice Rainbow on but long-released him and caught this nice brown. There weren't any Redds around and it was directly below a riffle. I was trying to be as respectful as possible. Released it quickly. Was pretty slow but a fantastic day to be out. Also saw this fantastic whitetail at about 20 yards. Beautiful day. Cheers.

I've asked before on this forum for general locations on the Bow because I am from out of town. I don't have the time to spend every waking moment on the river. I get there 4 or 5 times a year. I've appreciated the advice that people have offered me. However, I totally agree, if people want to get specific, then they should send a PM. Most of the time I'm just interesting in knowing where the fish are in the river... ex. what KIND of water will they be found in? Not WHICH pool or run. Being from out of town, its humbling to go the Bow one day and stumble on a few fish, make a mental note where and what they are eating and go back there a week or even a day later and not find them where they are at. Again, I just want info on what kind of water to start fishing. There's a lot out there and I can waste a lot of time fishing the wrong water in the right way with the right stuff. Last thought... I think it needs to go both ways. I fish Prairie and Stauffer quite a few times in the spring and early summer and am totally willing to give people that haven't fished there at least a start in the right direction. I'm not going to give them the exact locations of every sweet spot, but I want them to have enough info to be successful. Cheers.