monger

Well my son finally asked to learn how to fly fish ....I thought maybe he missed the gene or something. We packed up the dry flies and headed for the mountains to learn how to cast. After a 20 minute lesson we were on the hunt for the perfect dry fly fish. The fish were eating tiny emergers so we had to scale down the usual Cutty fly to a little BWO. And then it happened. Ryan is on the team as a 17 year old! Then he continued for the next two days fooling lots of these pretty surface eaters

So quiet in the mountains.....heavenly

I have seen some scary dudes riding bikes around the neighborhood peaking into people's garages. While folks are in the backyard, they are in and out of your garage. You can't leave your garage unattended at all these days. So sad to see the city reaching this state

So the low lifes hit my truck last night on my street and went through everything. Thankfully they left my rods but took my pack stuffed with flies, a reel and associated fishing stuff. They took a few other little things, but I think they are looking for money. I figured they wouldn't want all my flies so I was alley cruising looking for my pack when I got a call. A guy a few streets over found my stuff scattered between his house and his neighbor's. Being a fisherman himself, he looked through my stuff to find my licence. Then he packed the stuff up and brought it to my house......SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any way, this fellow Darrel, has just started a little fishing company with a couple of patents on some lures. Pinwheel Lures. All the best to Darrel. So thankful to see all those fly boxes and my new reel this morning. Some serious hours of labour invested there.

I am curious halcyonsancta, when was the last time you caught a rainbow out of Upper Kan lake?

Standing and sight fishing from a canoe is awesome. My buddy and I paddle together standing up and take turns with shots at the fish while the other guy controls movement. Having a couple of stabilizers would be nice

Thanks for the info Joe. I can see the advantages when fishing a large lake like Whitetail where you might want to travel from one end to the other. I guess one would have to try it in a big wind at Police (or further south) to experience the comfort level in the waves with a 25+ km/hr breeze. One needs to consider what type of water(location) you are going to be exploring and your fishing style. It looks like a well built tool for fooling the fishes.

Not sold on the idea. More traditional boat lets you store more stuff. Fishing in the wind would be awful with all those line catching devices, let alone landing a big fish. Good for exploring I guess.

There is a small, reproducing herd of rainbows. Still seeing some youngsters along with the big fish. They are very limited by available spawning habitat. They have been successfully spawning for 30 years. If only there was more gravel available...

I'm not sure if would matter Jay. I don't think there were many monster Bulls back when you could kill them....maybe they never got old enough before they entered the freezer? The population today is pretty stable due to a limitation in spawning habitat. With numbers not climbing out of sight, it would seem that growth rates are consistent. In my experience the 24-26" females seem a bit more plump than the past. Perhaps it is more a problem of a less productive reservoir than anything. Many of the stomach samples I saw from Bull trout showed mostly Mysis shrimp rather than fish parts. Perhaps in lakes with huge bulls there are a greater variety of food items to snack on. Biggest I heard of was 18lb in the about the mid-90's

Seen a few over the years. Most were within a few miles of the Highwood

When the reservoirs were made they were stocked with Mysis shrimp. These shrimp live in deep water during the day and migrate up in the dark and feed on zooplankton (thus competing with the trout). This is a problem the Kokanee face in Kootenay lake as well (and subsequently the big rainbows). The water sucked out of the Upper lake into the Lower lake is rich in Mysis. The young Bulls and other trout take advantage of this feeding trough. Hopefully the new biologist, and perhaps a better budget, will consider stocking bigger Cutts again. It is a treat to catch trophy class Cutts

Thanks for sharing. Almost time for me to leave the Bow

There are some great Cutts around in the big lakes this year because a number of years ago catchable sized Cutts were stocked. When the government stocks tiny fish, their mortality rate is huge in Upper and Lower Kan. I have heard the plan is to go back to stocking tiny fish...it is a waste of money. Lower Kan got 14.9k of 21cm Cutts in 2013 and 20K of 18cm in 2009...some survived. It is a way better plan than stocking 6cm fish in a Bull trout reservoir Upper Kan got bigger Cutts in 2011, 2013

Wedge pond fish 14-16" this year. Perhaps odd larger one. Your pontoon and chironomids are recommended.

His response was "whatever". Above the law I guess

Is the motor boat boundary the Deerfoot extender bridge just above Policeman's? The navy "power drifter" that jetted up this morning didn't seem too interested when asked why he was way above the bridge today. Perhaps he is more special than all the other "guides".

Great news. Don't need no frustration when out playing

I just put the pic on Photobucket and then post the image link

You are right Smitty, there needs to be some common sense involved. Kind of like when they log the crap out of a valley with an essential Bull trout spawning creek in the bottom of it. Some creeks are more valuable than others. They should get special treatment. Logs need to be cut, but I think we could do it in a better way.

Great point. The riparian buffer zones left are a joke

They were giving you a chance to try and catch another fish

The biggest fish decline in the Bow happened with the 2013 flood. Numbers of fish certainly dropped from being sent to Sask or stranded in a field somewhere. Since then, the fish in the Bow are growing to record sizes. I have never seen this many rainbows this large in 40 years. While numbers may be lower than pre-flood, there seems to be quite a few young 10" rainbows around. There also seems to be good numbers of 2 year old fat browns in the city section. A yearly inventory certainly would be beneficial for watching long term trends and provide some quality data beyond angler catch rates. I grew up fishing the Highwood around Longview in the 70's. The river was stuffed with young trout (rainbows, cutts and Bulls) and lots of whitefish. Through the 80's things started to drop off and there was some major Didymo that blanketed the river in the late 90's. After the river became catch and release, the numbers seem to have rebounded somewhat, but it is no where what it used to be. Being one of the Bow's main nurseries, the health of the Highwood certainly effects the Bow. Low oxygen with high temps below High River have been a problem as well. As the populations in towns along the rivers grows, there will be more pressure on water quantity and quality

Cutty from the Oldman....perhaps limited rainbow in this one