monger

I have found the chironomids in AB tend not always to look like all the ones you see from BC. A good plan is to get a throat pump and learn how to use it so you can see what the bugs look like in the actual lake you are fishing. Color and size of the bug can be pretty important. I just use a corkie indicator with a tooth pick. Always works. Leaders....many use tapered leaders. I just tie on a piece of 15lb Maxima mono for 75% of my leader to a swivel. Then I will use 10 or 12lb Seaguar fluorocarbon to my flies. Use a non-slip loop knot to tie on flies. Anchor you boat. Cast downwind or slightly across. Tiny strip every once and a while. Start near the bottom. Can use hemostats or homemade weight clip attached to fly to lower down and find water depth. Set indicator so fly 6-24" off bottom to start. As hatches progress some times it pays to move fly up the water column. Use good quality hooks for bigger fish so the hooks don't bend open. I don't use a full sink line unless the water is over 25ft deep

https://www.rmotoday.com/vox-populi/letter-the-kananaskis-fee-at-work-5203613

It just seems like bizarre behavior to me. Half the fun of fishing is exploring and finding new challenges to figure out. If people camp at a hole there is no opportunity for the next person to experience it. This was never the norm in the past and now it is so common that I don't even bother going up. Everyone knows most of the fish are in the pools. If all the pools are hogged, doesn't leave much fun for the next group. Steelheaders rotate as they swing streamers down the river. Perhaps Cutthroat fishermen could rotate as they move up the river tossing their dry flies. Better yet, go for a hike a few miles up along the river and see some new water

True Silver, and parking their guide boats

How do feel about folks parking their butts on a hole on the mountain streams for the whole day?

A study which showcases the results of bad handling behavior https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337655272_Can_smartphones_kill_Trout_Mortality_of_memorable-sized_Bull_Trout_Salvelinus_confluentus_after_photo-releases

But it should be noted that many of us have witnessed incredibly poor fish handling skills. I have seen folks fight 18" trout for over 10 minutes, then drag them out of the water and set up for a measure, and photograph them. Those fish are dead! So, put some pressure on your fish, use as strong a tippet as you can get away with and get them into shore. Most trout in the Bow can be landed in under 2 minutes if you put the boots to them. Try to minimize air exposure to under 10 seconds. We can all do better. There are tons of anglers these days. Lets be willing to learn and accept some constructive criticism. Hopefully we can lessen our impact when so many other stressors are getting worse.

But then you don't have to put pressure on industry or OHV to stop dumping contaminants, destroying habitat, causing excessive sediment loading, leaving hanging culverts, compaction of substrates, or removing giant volumes of water for irrigation.

So this is what I see.....don't use bait, keep fish out of water less than 10 seconds, don't fish in hot water, and better not to use a net if you use some good tippet

Pretty hard to NOT get out of the water. Better to get permission in the first place

Yes Don, it seems obvious doesn't it. Police lake parking lots are full of fisherman as well. But there are still those locals who are not satisfied (though poachers like catching the big fish off the bridge at Police) More complaints come from the put and take crowd that they need to continue to fill their freezers. Those complainers are potential UCP votes.....

I don't think there is much for walleye reproduction at Pine Coulee. The walleye didn't appear to get much over 16" there. Therefore the walleye population should disappear with angling and old age. The lack of whitefish has limited the pike size as well. I don't know what the percentage of trout stocked make it to a size that makes them unattractive to the pike, or maybe there is just some trout that learn to hide well enough. Perhaps the trout stocking numbers need to be increased a bit to allow more trout to evade the pike. No bait or ice fishing would help more trout make to 3 years old as well.

I wish they would make the size limit 1 over 56cm for Police and Pine Coulee. One more year makes for some 22"+, then they become something special

Part of Zoom meeting with Southern AB fish biologists tonight. One thing that was of interest for us was the plan for Pine Coulee Res by Stavely. Biologist said the plan is to let the pike and walleye fishery continue to degrade to the benefit of the trout. The biologist sounds open to making it a Quality Fishery, but it depends on the public desires. The regulations need to be changed to open only Apr1-Oct 31, limit 1 over 50cm and NO bait. You can express your views here: https://www.alberta.ca/2022-23-sportfishing-regulations-engagement.aspx I asked if there were any plans for additional quality lakes......No was the answer. So if you want to catch bigger trout, let the government know

You can file the teeth off the jaws of your forceps to make them flat if you need to

The UCP is having meetings this weekend at the Grey Eagle casino in Calgary. There will be a demonstration on the east side of 37 Street (across the road from Tsuut'ina nation lands) to voice your dissatisfaction with the government's plans to allow coal mining on the Eastern slopes. There are lots of concerns regarding Selenium, sedimentation, water usage/loss, habitat destruction are erosion issues. If you have concerns about Bull trout and Cutthroat trout populations it would be good to let the government know how you feel.

I have caught 3 gulls now. 2 while throwing streamers at the bank and one on the back cast. Another took my floating stone, but dropped it 2 bats on dries

I agree Toolman that the 2013 flood did the greatest amount of damage to the river. It is also apparent that the river is taking it's sweet time in getting back into healthy shape. It is simplistic to think that we can have a giant effect on things by catching less fish. There are indeed a number of factors working to depress the fish population. I agree things are going in the right direction, but we are still far from where we were in 2012. There certainly is less bugs around, but it was encouraging to see nice trout with more meat on their bones this summer. Another scary factor to consider it the rising number of Prussian carp in the river. They will be very hard on the prey items in the river. It is so unfortunate that folks have no clue of the ecological disaster they have initiated by dumping/moving carp around. Changing your angling techniques (hopefully for the short term) is a way we can lessen one of the stressors on the fish during the rebound. Are we so desperate to catch a fish that we can't sacrifice a little bit? You could challenge yourself to try something a little harder and maybe learn something new. Perhaps that would make you a better angler (rather than just a world renowned worm thrower). These thoughts equally apply to the mountain streams where the Cutthroats are under greater pressure ever year. Why not challenge yourself to catch them by not nypmhing. It is doable if you take the time to improve your skills a bit and challenge yourself. As for guides not will to give up anything so they continue to profit from a stressed public resource....I have no words

But don't you catch way more fish nymphing vs streamers? If the goal is to catch less fish, no nymphing seems like the way to go. In my experience, fishing streamers usually excludes little fish from coming to hand. I haven't found streamers do any more flesh damage than a big stone, hopper or Jimmy legs

Yes the data from Quirk Creek is not necessarily representative of what is going on in the Bow. I am just wondering about angling techniques as the government seems determined to change angling pressure to decrease the catch rate on the Bow. If the goal is to decrease the number of times fish get caught, should we not exclude the most productive technique on average? And the information offered said that fishing from a boat was better than from shore. So how can we limit our technique the most effectively from a boat?

Dry fly fishing is no fun and never works though

How much more effective is nymphing vs streamer fishing? same, 2x, 3x What is your experience?

Research suggests that recruitment of young fish is not a problem. It is what happens to the 1+ year old fish once they get down into the Bow. Whirling disease is also not considered to be a major factor considering the level of recruitment

Too difficult to get regs changed to barbless, and the research doesn't show that it has much effect anyway. We all know it is easier to unhook fish without a barb, so just do it anyway

Here is a great place to start for decreasing recycle rate: single hook and BAN STRIKE INDICATORS That should have a great effect on decreasing catch rate