monger

Pretty good course. Lots of information that many anglers could use

I appreciate that the government has recently shown far greater interest in the Bow river trout population. The river has been ignored for a long time because it just seemed to look after itself and we were blessed with awesome fishing for decades. I understand the complexity of the problem and the difficulty of narrowing down a short list of the most powerful factors putting pressure on the trout population. I just wanted to clarify that I have trouble going along with the suggestion the angling is THE MAJOR contributor to the population decline. For me, I have a feeling that it has more to do with the environment/water quality/habitat/disease than the number of hooks in the water. In the short term, it would seem prudent to try and do something in an area we can actually control.....angling. It would make sense that any help we can offer to the river would be wise. I guess time will tell if the trout populations will bounce back. I have seen significant fluctuations in the condition factors of the trout in the past, both rising and falling, since the 1970's. There have been years that produced huge fish even while the nutrient input from the sewage plants was decreasing with technological advancements. There are so many pieces to this puzzle. On a positive note, the rainbows that I have seen caught in the last month look to be in much better condition than they have been in the last 2 years. There are a few more fish breaking 20" and they are much heavier. Hopefully something good is going on

This is quite the leap without any evidence: period of 2003 to 2013. Although the cause/effect for the decline was not determined, it was suggested that angling effort could well be the major contributor to the decline. Really??? Angling is THE MAJOR contributor to population decline. Do we know who made this suggestion? Was it the author of the paper that summarized all the bad science from the past?

Chunks are falling like it's April

You know fishinglibin....fish longer than your inseam are a real pain

It is kind of sad isn't LastBoyScout. Years ago I got started on learning the finer points of lake fishing just to get away from all people. It is a fun game and the rewards can be significant

Great shots Lornce. Eventually the ice will go

A long ways and lots of pennies....but sure looks awesome!

The influence of chemicals we are adding to the environment is no doubt having a significant effect. Ever-growing City/road runoff, herbicides/insecticides and the vast increase in pharmaceuticals excreted down the toilet are probably all adding to the problem. A complex issue indeed.

Unstable banks that lost all their root protection continue to add fine sediments. This is going to be a problem for quite some time. Hopefully the rainbows can find enough food/change their hunting practices to put some more weight on. They are still quite thin compared to what used to be normal

Nitrogen and phosphorus from waste water fertilizes the river to increase plant biomass and subsequently the bugs. These inputs have been decreasing with more sophisticated sewage treatment. The giant weed mats of the old days left the evening skies clouded with caddis. I miss those days. Parking lot runoff and pharmaceuticals are having much different effects. The big flood we had blew a bunch a bugs out to Sask. The result of the flood really changed the available habitats left for the bugs to select as optimal. I think the change in the substrates has changed the bug populations. In many areas there is a lot more sediment. This is really noticeable below the Highwood where there is a lot more long stretches of flat water

I caught a bull by accident last year in a spot I didn't even know they existed. Other than that, a couple from streams in the last 10 years. The number of people going specifically to target big, staging bulls sure has increased. They are quite vulnerable being so visible sitting in their gin-clear pools I fish for Cutts about 3 days per year over the last 10 years. It is a treat to go feed them some dries on a special trip. I think they are too valuable to abuse. You can catch every one in a pool on nymph In the past BC had a "flyfishing only" rule on certain streams.... No bobbers, no attaching weights to the leader, single hook....I think we should do the same for the southern AB streams that are getting loved to death. It would be nice to see a few fish that don't have their mouths ripped up. They are only Cutts, work for them a bit

Are you willing to change your behavior when fishing? Handling, where and when you target fish, what species you go after/and timing, techniques used (fish without your bobber....it is possible) Thoughts... "Another way to improve best practices may be to institutionalisevoluntary conservation ethics that transcend the basic regulatory requirementson C&R (Fobert et al., 2009; Cooke et al., 2013). For example,in the 2019/2020 Alberta Fishing Regulations, anglers are encouragedto avoid targeting fish species-at-risk such as bull trout andnative westslope cutthroat trout, and to voluntarily reduce their efficiency,i.e., “Practice this proven method to drop your release mortalityby half; catch half as many fish.” (Sullivan, 2019). Appeals to normativebehavior or ‘doing the right thing’, accompanied by informal sanctioningsystems (e.g., angling community appeals to appropriate behavior,and anglers confronting those who don’t use best handlingpractices), can be powerful social institutions."

Thanks for your input with some more background bcubed. The smaller number of fish in the Bow are getting beat up. It is time for changes to be made

When it comes to discussing limiting angling it will be interesting to see if the only concerned "stakeholders" that the government listens to are the ones with a financial interest in the fish. Will it be just like what happened in BC.....guides pushing their agenda? Will we see it again......Limit access to the public and then artificially inflate rod days, increase fees and keep those dollars rolling in while we "protect" the fish. Perhaps saturating the media with advertisements for the opportunity to have a guided angling experience day after day has a deleterious effect on the resource! Just thinking out loud....classified bull trout streams, Skeena area steelhead

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165783619303133?via%3Dihub

Thanks fishteck. "The largest percentage of fish are caught annually by guided anglers that equals the combination of non-guided boat and shore anglers" So the greatest angling stress (by far) comes from guiding....that sounds like exactly where the government needs to focus it's attention when it comes to limiting angling. If we see anything different than this there needs to be a lot of screaming coming from the public

Is there any plan to limit angling on the Bow?