A Royal Coachman winged, wet fly, can be a good fall swing pattern on the Bow, some years. Especially, when there are October Caddis around, like there are right now. A Classic grease line presentation is in order when fishing this legendary, Classic wet fly.

Yes and hardly anyone fishes there...

There's no secret spots. Just find a place to park near the river and start fishing. The fish are everywhere and constantly moving through the season. The popular spots are already over fished because of easy access.

Sure, but we have artificially created hundreds of habitats for them to thrive. Simple logic would conclude it significantly increases the number of potential hosts for whirling disease parasites and increases the possibility of a Whirling disease outbreak on the Bow. Storm drain Outfalls are also a major source of organic pollutants.

. The Bow has over 800 man made tributaries? Yes, it does and they have names like B51.... Of course I am referring to the 800+ Storm drain Outfalls, that spew untreated storm drain water directly into the Bow, from rainfall that is collected by 60,000 storm drain catch basins, across the City of Calgary. Tubifex worms. Ever heard of them? They are the host for Whirling disease parasites. Tubifex worms are also called "sewage worms" or "sludge worms" They can be found at Storm drain Outfall pools through the city. Fun facts eh.

Well the whole point of fishteck starting this topic is the concern over the lack of data from AEP. Historically, anecdotal evidence from a wide audience actually motivates governments to take action to investigate expressed concerns. Otherwise nothing happens and actions from government becomes a reaction to crisis. Like Whirling disease. It's a familiar cycle. Just ask the fisherman from Newfoundland, who, for decades, told the Federal fisheries managers in Ottawa that cod stocks were in peril. The feds ignored them and sold the local fishery out to foreign fleets, who collapsed the fishery. So you can do nothing or speak up. Kudos too fishteck and others for publicly voicing their concerns, even if we have our differences in opinions as to what some of the significant stressors may be.

Let's have a look at the menu you listed, which is probably from the AEP website. It lists the food that inhabits lakes and "gamefish" on the lakes would mean Walleye, Lake trout. Fish that live too deep for the Pelican's to reach. Everything else, as the menu shows, is dinner. So let's assume that they're probably eating the food that's in the Bow river including, dace, sculpins, rainbows, browns, whitefish, white suckers, ling cod, pike, baby ducks, whatever they can ambush ..... The Pelican's varied diet clearly shows that they are opportunistic feeders, They're not going to selectively "not eat" the rainbows and brown trout. That would be a ridiculous assumption. As mongers photos show, they will eat whatever will fit down they're throat. And when they fly south too the Gulf of Mexico for the winter, they will eat whatever they can find when they get there, too.

Yes, the American white pelican... Let's do some counting. They consume 2kg/ day = 60kg / month x four months = 240 kg. per bird, before they head south. There's a flock of 32 pelican's circling overhead of me right now. 32x240 kg.= 7680 kg. (19,500 lbs), of fish. Only one pod. (apparently that's what they're called) That's a lot fish and only one of many pods, (15-20?), on the Bow and their numbers appear to be increasing every year. If you do the math, you may conclude, that maybe a cull is long overdue. What do you think? Or should we just keep counting trout until there's none left?

Year after year, AEP spends it's resources doing Angler surveys, fish counts, reviews of fishing regulations and continually say they are "monitoring the situation closely", yet, year after year fish populations continue to decline. All of the focus remains on C&R fisherman. We continue to look in the wrong direction to identify all of the reasons for the decline. There can only be as many fish as the system can support. Degradation of the habitat leads to degradation of bio mass. So, what are the stressor's that are contributing to habitat degradation?. That's where AEP needs to put their resources and leave us fisherman alone. We are not the problem. Our impact is miniscule in the big picture. Yet the discussion keeps going round and round us, like we all have "whirling" disease. There is no other user group that collectively, contributes more too the Bow fishery's well being, then C&R flyfisherman. Maybe I should just write a letter to that Suzuki fellow out on the left coast and ask him to come too Calgary with his camera crew to point out the obvious to the government.

Actually, numerous studies on the long term impact of C&R on trout populations show that it has no significant cumulative effect. Nor does fishing over redds. If you take a look at the Bow regulations from the 80's and 90's, anglers were using bait, keeping trout, yet the population continued to flourish and expand during that period.

Hahaha. Well said.

Seriously, you think that the increase in C&R angling is the leading cause of trout population declines on the Bow over the past 15 years? It has some impact but studies have shown the effects are negligible. As for enforcement on the Bow, it has increased significantly since 2006. F&W told me back then that they only received 4 calls to RAP to report illegal fishing activities on the Bow, for all of 2005. Evidence based science is the foundation on which good management strategies are created. The Bow isn't the only river that has experienced a 50℅ loss of Rainbow population over this time period. Several other major trout rivers in the US mid west have experienced the same decline. I feel that many of the issues that have had a very negative impact on the Bow fishery have long been identified. Doing more fish counts may not lead to any new information. The problem is the political will to make the necessary changes. Lobbying efforts have fallen short thus far. When flows get dangerously low, the City of Calgary won't even place a water advisory or enact water restrictions. Instead AEP closes the river to fishing. For the past five years the City of Calgary pays Trans Alta to draw down the reservoir levels 20,' at the Ghost Reservoir, as a flood mitigation strategy. This increase in flow can extend natural run off period by up to a month. The increasd flow and subsequent turbidity, reduces sunlight penetration to the stream bed where the basis of the food chain starts. Aquatic mosses, plants, invertebrates and all marine life is negatively affected. This is followed by water hoarding in August to fill the reservoir back up to generate power. I could go on and on... Lorne Fitch has been sounding the alarm about many of these types of issues for a long time

Nice.... The nymphs were likely in migration to colonize near the shoreline in preparation for emergence. Trout notice these vulnerable moments of activity and the opportunity to selectively gorge.

Yes certainly a two hander job, but with the abundant choices of short shooting heads, pretty easy with a 12' 6 wt. In response to the original post about fishing egg patterns on the Bow. It's important to recognize that brown and Rainbow trout eggs are dense and sticky. They don't tend to drift very far from the nest site and the trout guard them fiercely for a week or two after spawning, so its not likely trout see a lot of eggs in the drift outside of brief spawning periods. Eggs that remain unfertilized may eventually drift off as they decay. They are usually translucent, pale white.

Yes, it does get snagged under rocks sometimes and you will loose Flys. The egg sucking leech patterns that I use are unweighted for these deep slow presentations. A shallow angled down and across cast will help eliminate arc at the tip, but often where the current speed is fast enough, a slightly upstream and across presentation allows enough drift time to get the fly down deep, and the faster edges of midstream current will get the fly below the tip, eliminating some, but not all of the arc in the tip. I believe it creates a more natural presentation. The key is to go slow. Let it arc out and stop. No rush to start stripping back as the fly is now in the strike zone. Most often I just let it sit there for a bit before starting the retrieve. Leeches generally move very, very slowly. . . Depending on the terrain, 12' of T-14 or T-10 may do the job just as well when the water is shallower and/or current speed is slower.