trailhead

I just talked to a fellow downtown who told me the guy attacked is a good friend of his, and he stated it wasn't a black bear but instead was a yearling dark colored grizzly. Apparently the fellow saw the bear and slowly started to back up, the bear then went back into the bush, circled around and ambushed him. This wasn't in the papers so it can't be true.

I posted 4 times today and was tied for sixth place so I figured I'd post this just to break things up a little. And then I thought; why not add these guys.

I went by Racehorse on the weekend and it seemed to be open. Lundbreck Falls is definitely open.

You can ride across on the bridge at Little Elbow campground and then ride the road on the south side of the Elbow. Takes you right to Quirk.

From my perspective I think he did try to play dead. The woman jogger who was mauled by a black bear earlier this summer by Lake Louise also tried to play dead and the black bear bit her on the back of the legs and arms. Sounds similiar, only she fought the bear off as soon as it started to bite. Yeah I feel for the guy, but I have buddy who told me a couple of years ago that he doesn't fish the Dogpound because he and his father ran into a very aggressive black bear there. I make noise and wear bells and carry spray when I fish the 'pound' I still catch fish and I have never run into a bear there. As far as more run ins with bears goes, I think it's a reflection of the increased reporting more than an increase of encounters. The locals in most rural areas still shoot, shovel and shutup.

[i disagree with that. Personally I think the folks that do stuff like this are younger folks that just dont give a *hit, I would be amazed if they even considered for a second that someone besides them would clean it up. Anyways its a dam shame but unfortunately this problem will never end as long as people inhabit the earth, some people just dont care and that will never change. I have to disagree with the statement that it's younger folks. I say two guys that had to be in their late forties/early fifties leave most of a six pack of empties, took the one or two full ones back with them, plus cigarette butts and food wrappers on the banks of the Elbow. They were chucking hardware so weren't fly fishers, again we generalize. But this all reminds me of a random camp I found on the Oldman. There was a pile of *hit, literally, about 2 feet high and 3 feet around and the remnants of all their garbage and food. I do not think random camping should be allowed for more than 3 days. They should have SRD come around and chase them all off at regular intervals through the summer and have some type of registration system. Right now you have to register to back country camp, but not random camp.

I live for the day I never see a BC plate parked at any access point on any river in Southern Alberta. Though that'll never happen, they are as two faced a group as you'll ever see. And if any of them don't like the tone of this thread; then DON"T FISH IN ALBERTA. I don't fish in B.C.

I wonder if it's the same group that was hanging around the Crowsnest at Frank about a month and half ago?

Usually I just go with the spotting across the top of the head and also if there are faint slashes and a pink rainbow style body stripe I call it a Cuttbow. The official way to ID them is via the teeth on the tongue. Cutts have them and Cuttbows don't, but then I have heard rumours that even that isn't definitive. Though according to most biologists and a lot of the old fellows here, there are very few remaining populations of pure strain westslope cutthroat trout left in Alberta.

The Crowsnest Angler sells them for sure, Troutfitters used to sell BC licenses, not sure if they do anymore.

The most popular fly on the stocked lakes in southern Alberta is the pink marshmallow. No I'm just kidding, a leech fished under an indicator or slowly trolled is usually effective, try black, brown, olive, chartreuse. Dries work in the evenings and mornings, an Adams will do the job well. Or try a small nymph, or scud pattern fished like a leech.

Encountered a smallish grizzly or a cinnamon black bear, didn't get a close look, on the Oldman last weekend. Seemed that he was more afraid of me than I was of him. That being said I got checked by a CO and he said there are a lot of bears down in the valleys this summer, because the wet spring has delayed or curtailed the berry crop up high and also produced a bumper crop of saskatoons and other low altitude berries. Be bear aware.

I believe Vic Bergman does that out of his shop in Bellevue.

I have had similiar luck, but last year I saw a bait chucker catch one that had to go at least 3 pounds, 20 inches long and about the same around the middle.

They tag fish every year in the fall when the fish rescue is done at the weirs in Calgary and at Carseland.

So I guess the recommendation is any dryfly will work, I had a 100 fish day at a location similiar to the one you describe. Literally hundreds of grayling at the base of the waterfall and they would fight over the fly. The only time they would disappear was when a big laker or pike would swim by. Pretty cool, though in all honesty after awhile I got kind of tired and tried to see what different types of flies they would take, and all the flies I tried worked though the dark ones worked best.

If it's close the McLeod is good.

I propose a different solution. I think that they should ban fishing in Allen Bill 'eddy' and stock Forget-me-not pond.

I don't know if this is a myth or not, but I heard that there was some electro-fishing done on Nose Creek and there were some brown trout there. Perhaps that is why TU is working very hard to rehabilitate it. Like I said could just be a fishtale.

Cataract Creek is a good spot to camp and catch a few fish.

Dogpound and the Little Red were the color of weak insipid coffee with milk.

I put down other because I use abot four different systems for different situations. Backpack in a boat, pockets on the belly boat, vest for spring/fall/winter fishing, shirt and fanny pack for wetwading. Only use the net when I anticipate large hard fighting fish, then I use the same setup as Castus. Which has been a detriment on a couple of occasions. ie WTF is that monster doing in this crick?

You might be out of luck this weekend, with all the rain the conditions could be a bit on the muddy side.

I made a couple of suggestions on this board under the "Saturday Suggestions" post. The Bow around Canmore can be a bit tough to fish at times and I have very limited experience, so maybe someone else can give you more information about it. There are also a couple of other lakes nearby called Grotto Mountain Pond and Gap Lake. But if you are short of time Quarry might be your best bet.

What Dave said, and you can do the same at Quarry Lake across from the Nordic Center up from Canmore. Or try the same at Buller Pond. There are a lot of lakes that have stocked fish where you fish chronomids/leeches under an indicator. Good luck