Your Largest Bow River Trout/char

[ladystrange]

i still dont think there are fish in that damn river.... it's all photoshop i tell you

[Hawgstoppah]

speaking of that night chris, did you take the pics or did I... or did we not have a camera? I remember the fish but don't remember seeing any pics of them... so... I Don't believe you!! :D Your lying!!~ (mine must have been 27 1/4 )

[seanbritt]

Wetduck urged me to post a memorable one. Here's one of two memorable ones caught this year, this guy was the fattest....fishing solo so had to snap a quick one while he was netted in the water. Didn't tape it, but Wetduck and I just measured the rod and think he's in teh 25/26 range. I noticed on the poll that there were quite a few 30+, I'd love to see some of those pix....

[Bigtoad]

My dad and I drove down on Friday from Lacombe and were on the water by just after 6:00am. He landed this 23.5 incher at about 7:00. Was his biggest fish ever by far. Caught on a big foam chernobylish abomination. I think I was even more thrilled that he caught it than if I had. Beautiful morning to be out on the river.

 

Cheers.

 

 

Keep in mind he is 6'6" and has hands the size of baseball mits. Should put the size of fish into perspective.

[bigbowtrout]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gil]

 

Unfortunately, never measured him. He was a brute....I've caught measured 25" fish, but I think this is the biggest I ever caught...

[hydropsyche]

Probably the longest but that guy is skinny as an eel.

[Gil]

Probably the longest but that guy is skinny as an eel.

You are right. Actually I think it was a post spawn female. The fight wasn't too impresive. The reason I didn't measure her was I wanted to get her back quickly because she looked pretty rough.

[seby]

I have never heard of this happening but today on the bow river in the NW i was shocked to rell in this little brookie. I have also caught a few weeks back a rather large lake trout below the Bearspaw dam. Has anyone any info of how common this is? or where they came from?

Thanks.

[tgo]

I have caught a few brookies in the NW Bow, two close to the dam as well but none as large as yours. I know someone who has caught Lake Trout below the dam as well, must have snuck through somehow. The upper Bow has lots of brookies so I guess they sometimes make their way downstream.

[trailhead]

Both Lakers and Brookies are not common in the Bow, but not totally unusual. I have caught brookies, but no lakers yet. The brooks come in from the Elbow, upper Bow etc. The Lakers are in the Ghost reservoir and also in the Bearspaw reservoir.

[reevesr1]

My largest bow river trout was caught this morning. I went to measure him on my net, but he was too long. The net is 26.5". So I measured him against my rod and checked when I got home. It was easy to do because he came to a ferrule. 27.5" of fat ass brown. I love dirty water.

 

Picture to follow.

[hydropsyche]

Right on, Rickr. 28 is doable. Keep at er.

[birchy]

I find it interesting that the poll results don't really form a Bell Curve. It's fairly close, but not quite.

[reevesr1]

Just eyeballing it, it looks a bit Mae West-ish if you drop the top and bottom results (which skew it because their range is bigger.)

 

I was thinking about this thread the other day, specifically about how many people refused to believe the number of people who have caught truly big (30"+) fish on the Bow. I've only fished it for 4 yrs, and have 3 over 26 so far. Biggest over 27. Why would I not believe there are bigger fish to be had? And why would I be surprised when someone catches one?

 

 

[seanbritt]

My guess Rick is that seeing is believing. If you took a poll on how many people believe in UFOs I believe it would be highly weighted towards the "no" category, unless there was proof. Then it would likely swing to the "yes" zone. How many photos have been posted of the category of 30+?

[Giovanne]

Interesting poll..

 

Says 15 on here have landed a trout 30"+

 

Not here to say it is impossible, but after a discussion with a senoir fisheries biologist that has done alot of electroshocking on the lower Bow they have never seen a 30" brown trout with this method of gathering fish. The disclaimer to his statement is they don't get in to some of the areas that these monsters may lurk.

 

With the exception of bull trout in the Bow I view the results with great scepticism. Not saying it is not possible but in 30+ years of fishing this great river I have only heard chatter, never a confirmed taped and photographed 30 incher.

 

Here is to hoping someone has a photo of a 30 and can prove the naysayers wrong!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bigbowtrout]

Hello Giovanne,

 

Let me me be the first to welcome you to FFC.

 

The question for the poll is "Your Largest Bow River Trout/Char" so Bulls might be a large portion of the 15 you see.

 

I've seen a 27" Brown that looked in great shape and if still alive today (two years later) I can't see why it wouldn't make the 30" mark

 

Also I know of a few board members who have landed 29" Browns so I'm sure the Bow must hold a few magic 30" monsters.

[reevesr1]

As I stated above, I've now caught 4 fish over 26" in my 4 short years of fly fishing. It is impossible for me to believe that there are not fish 10% bigger than that in the Bow, even if you discount Bulls. It doesn't make sense, I would go so far as to say it is statistically impossible. There is one fish I have hooked twice in the last couple of years in the same spot. I don't know how big he is, but his tail is freaking immense and was way too much fish for my 6 wt and 2x to stop on both occasions. A fisherman who used to frequent this board, whose word I take as gold, has caught a 36" rainbow on the Bow (albeit a LONG time ago). Just because there are no pictures does not mean anything. The longer I fish this river, the less I take my camera. If my buddy had not been with me last week, there would have been no pic of the 27.5" fish. Doesn't make him any less real.

 

Anyway, doesn't matter I guess. I have no trouble believing there are massive trout on the Bow. Anyone seen the picture of the Bull Humble caught this year? There are some true beasts around. Just cuz people haven't seen pictures does not make them so.

 

 

[kungfool]

Interesting poll..

 

Says 15 on here have landed a trout 30"+

 

Not here to say it is impossible, but after a discussion with a senoir fisheries biologist that has done alot of electroshocking on the lower Bow they have never seen a 30" brown trout with this method of gathering fish. The disclaimer to his statement is they don't get in to some of the areas that these monsters may lurk.

 

With the exception of bull trout in the Bow I view the results with great scepticism. Not saying it is not possible but in 30+ years of fishing this great river I have only heard chatter, never a confirmed taped and photographed 30 incher.

 

Here is to hoping someone has a photo of a 30 and can prove the naysayers wrong!

 

I personally witnessed a teenage kid catch a 32" brown (taped) below Mckinnon flats about 4 years ago on a spinner. Unfortunately it floated down the river belly up since they held in in a net for 10 minutes while one of them hiked to a truck on private property to get a camera. they tried to revive it for about another 10 minutes but I'm guessing it didn't survive.

[CF8]

Where can we see the pic of Humble's bull?

[Jayhad]

here's a pic I took there may be a video coming one day

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6662...mp;id=556240728

 

NOTE that fish isn't out of the BOW

 

I'll add it was landed on the 6wt Humblestick

[reevesr1]

I knew it wasn't out of the Bow, it was just mentioned to let people know what could be out there. Every time I see that fish it takes my breath away.

[ÜberFly]

Hey Pisan,

 

Welcome!

 

I've personally seen a former roommate (guided the bow out of Banff for many years) pull out 30" fish (yes plural) from the south calgary section (in and around Fish Creek)! If he didn't move back to TB I'd get him to post the photos!!

 

P

 

 

Interesting poll..

 

Says 15 on here have landed a trout 30"+

 

Not here to say it is impossible, but after a discussion with a senoir fisheries biologist that has done alot of electroshocking on the lower Bow they have never seen a 30" brown trout with this method of gathering fish. The disclaimer to his statement is they don't get in to some of the areas that these monsters may lurk.

 

With the exception of bull trout in the Bow I view the results with great scepticism. Not saying it is not possible but in 30+ years of fishing this great river I have only heard chatter, never a confirmed taped and photographed 30 incher.

 

Here is to hoping someone has a photo of a 30 and can prove the naysayers wrong!

 

[Giovanne]

Hey Pisan,

 

Welcome!

 

I've personally seen a former roommate (guided the bow out of Banff for many years) pull out 30" fish (yes plural) from the south calgary section (in and around Fish Creek)! If he didn't move back to TB I'd get him to post the photos!!

 

P

 

P,

 

Were they Browns? Assuming they are where you say they were caught.

 

 

 

Although a 30"+ Bull is a grand fish, you really can not compare a Bull to a Brown when you are talking length, two different beasts. At least in Western Canadian rivers.. (yes I did see the picture of the new potential record brown!)