toolman

Yes, water boatman and backswimmers are a very good option. Especially if it's a warm sunny day.

Sounds like a great cause.... The trophy should be a big red SWJ, because that's the fly that will win the tournament...🐟

For clarity..RAP.... Restricted Activity Period Google "AEP Restricted Activity Period fact sheet", for details.

Both bait rods were set on forked sticks. The man was the only one sitting near them, occasionally working the rods by reeling in any slack in the line and checking his bait. The lady with him was just hanging around 15'-20' away. He was the only one I saw "fishing" the two bait rods.

Likely a written warning for bait fishing and a fine for each retained fish unless he had a previous fisheries violation. He had a fishing license as I saw him hand it too the CO. The CO filmed him before making his appearance. Then they all headed back to the parking lot to do the paperwork.

Yes they got him and his wife. I watched the bust from across the river. Most of the "poaching" is usually just people who don't know any better who come from a culture of eating their catch. For the majority of anglers in the world, catch and release is a bizarre concept. I try and have a friendly talk with people I see fishing with bait or attempting to keep fish and educate them to the reasons behind the C&R laws. If they get hostile or continue bait fishing, I call it in too RAP. I've handed out plenty of SJW's, leeches and bobbers over the years. Education is an important tool in successful conservation.

Wicked ties Doc, as always. Them fishies in big trouble next time you visit.

I've also caught a few as well. All 8"-12" and always on the dry fly, including one I caught last week.

There was a fish population survey completed on the Bow in August of 2014. I spoke to the fish techs on the river a few times during that month. Personally, I would like to see annual entomological surveys completed on the Bow river. Starting with one comprehensive survey to establish a baseline, followed by annual surveys of key indicator species such as Stoneflies that are very sensitive to low levels of dissolved oxygen saturation and pollution. Aquatic invertebrates are important indicators of the health of rivers/riverine systems and this data should be included in management decisions and policies. If the aquatic food chain starts to erode at the bottom, logically, declines in populations of fish, shoreline birds, amphibians, mammals will follow. Of course I am off topic, Whirling disease.

I have mostly used type 2/3 or 3/4 full sink scandi heads for swinging on the Bow. Intermediate Scandi heads are not going to get you very deep even with type 6 poly tips and I've not had as much success as the type 2/3 or a type 3/4 for deep and/or colder water fishing.

I prefer a fast action 12'-12"6" spey rod, in a 6wt., for fishing the Bow. Gets pretty windy sometimes and you need to create high line speed to maintain control and that's what gets it done for me. Effortless. I also like casting many other switch/spey rods with a variety of lengths/actions/line systems. I have fished dozens of different switches and spey rods in just about every length/weight/action made, but my favorite to date is still the Loop Goran Anderson Series 6120. Though there are many great sticks that are similar in performance from a variety of manufacturers.

Just curious when a "mass fish kill" due to water temps, ever occurred on the Bow river?

I have never seen significant numbers of Salmon fly's on the Bow. Have never even collected more than a couple of samples in any single season. Have tried fishing large Salmon fly patterns starting in early May with very little success. However, that said, things can change dramatically on the lower Bow from year to year and Salmon fly's could suddenly appear in large numbers. It has happened with Skwala's and March Browns that went from historically minor hatches, too epic dry fishing in a single season. Although Salmon fly's (Petronarcys dorsata) thrive in high oxygen environments of mountain streams, as do Skwala stonefly's, several Bow tributaries can be a source of new Bow river aquatic invertebrate species. From an entomological perspective, the lower Bow is still maturing as an aquatic environment. Thus the recent arrival of Skwala curvata which was not positively identified or documented until 2009. Another previously undocumented newcomer is a species of Mahagany dun, paraleptophlebia bicornuta.

Great to see and thanks for your positive contributions, Brent.

Sad news. Was a pleasure to have known and fished with him. He contributed much to our fly fishing community and also served our nation.Thank you Ron. You were a good man. Condolences to his family.

Probably not once the line gets relaxed but PU lines are temperature sensitive and tend to coil a bit in cooler temps.

This is a common issue with many new PU lines and easy to fix. I would recommend lightly stretching the line to get the coil memory out, Just tie off the end of the line to something solid and put tension on it from the other end, to stretch it out. It may take a few minutes of tension. After stretching, let the full line out in fast current to just hang on the dangle for a few minutes to remove twists. Strip the line back and start casting. PU lines often just need a short break in period to relax. My experience with many dozens of Airflo lines that I have owned has been consistently good in both durability and performance. http://www.airflofishing.com/airflo-fly-line-care.cfm

The issue is the health of the river ecology. If the flows are so low that the fishery is at such a risk that we have to close it to c&r fisherman, then there certainly is an urgent need to correct this mismanagement of our water and intolerable threat to the aquatic life of the river. A river with a world class fishery at that. Is the government not listening to it's own Biologists? Maybe that's a perspective that needs to be included in the conversation going on in the media these days.

Well, I see very little progress with the water management issues on the Bow river. Anglers are not the ones responsible for the low flow rates. In my opinion, the responsibility rests with Governments who regulate and sell our water too water intensive, commercial interests, and it seems, without due consideration of the environmental consequences and the city who have not enacted any type of water restrictions. The SRD Biologists are sounding the alarm and the government decides banning fisherman is a solution? Unlike most other streams on the list of fishing closures, our flow rate problems on the Bow are often greatly influenced/created by governments/industry. Maybe we need to try and convince the provincial government to order a temporary, controlled release of water from Ghost Reservoir to assure adequate flows for a healthy fishery? If we use Ghost for flood mitigation, why not drought mitigation as well? Seems pretty simple to me. I think that's the discussion we need to be having, solutions to maintain adequate/stable flows, especially during a drought. Time for the city and the province to step up to the discussion and set some guidelines, with, an action plan.

Both Max and Brian are incredibly skilled anglers and excellent guides.

The Bow has had shoreline water temps in the high teens and low 20's C for the past month and a half and also many decades in the past, without negative effect to the fishery. I've seen even lower, warmer flows than we are currently experiencing. Suddenly it's a crisis. From my own personal observations and the fishing reports that I get on a regular basis from colleages and professionals in the industry, there has not been any kind of mass die off. Just another normal season. The fish are fat and full of fight as usual with no issue with trout recovering quickly if released immediately. The Bow has plenty of adequate structure for the fish to thrive in spite of perceptions that the fishery is in crisis. The impacts of c&r fishing on the Bow are negligible. What needs to happen is the Municipalities need to enact water restrictions and we need to shut down the irrigation canal to increase flow on the Bow. That's what the fish need... F'ing water. There's some logic for ya.

Call the Calgary Fire Dept. and explain the situation, that your boat is creating a navigation hazard to other watercraft on the river and your concerns regarding a safe salvage operation. CFD Water Rescue unit are the experts and have the proper tools, experience and training for these type of situations and are always willing to help.

Toilet paper, sunblock, bug repellent, bear spray, garbage bags.

Too bad the government shut down all efforts to maintain the Oldman Stream Watch program. What a dam shame. How many times do the poachers get away with this? Answer: Most of the time.

Only ones to blame are the previous provincial governments. They refused to allocate the necessary funds for enforcement and thwarted all efforts to establish new enforcement partnerships with the community, such as the StreamWatch program, which a few dedicated conservationist put so much of their time, money and energy in too. Disgraceful. The only community enforcement partnership program that has had modest success, is the RAP program, which unfortunately, most often results in the offenders being long gone before F&W shows up. That said, our F&W Officers, Fisheries Biologists and Techs and dedicated Conservationists/Associations are the heroes. These folks really do give a dam.