This Rain

[plumeja]

So how is all this rain. Going to effect the fishing??? The bow looks kinda high now with run off and the rain

[scel]

This is just rain that is making the river high. This rain fell as snow in the higher elevations.

 

When the rain stops, the Bow could clear up for a few days. Although, I would wager that we will see run-off-like conditions until the beginning of June, when we will start to see the actual run-off.

[PAV]

This is just rain that is making the river high. This rain fell as snow in the higher elevations.

 

When the rain stops, the Bow could clear up for a few days. Although, I would wager that we will see run-off-like conditions until the beginning of June, when we will start to see the actual run-off.

I think your assessment spot on.

[WyomingGeorge]

Much of what we call run-off in Alberta is due to rain in our generally damp late spring period. The snowpack just isn't that deep or dense on the east slope of the Rockies to sustain high water flows through snowmelt alone. In most of B.C. and the high mountain areas of the U.S. Rockies, there is a vastly deeper and denser snowpack (but much less spring rain in the U.S. mountain states), so that in those cases the run-off really is mainly melting snow.

 

If you look at the Alberta Environment river basin maps, and bring up the "figure" or graph version of the Bow at Calgary, you'll see that the river typically peaks in early June and holds at that level into early July. That's an average, of course, so most years vary in some way -- like this current rain.

 

When we have a hard, cold rain like this one, which comes down as snow in the mountains, the snowmelt such as it is temporarily shuts down, so what we are seeing is almost entirely rain-related.

 

What does that mean for fishing? True snowmelt would tend to remain sustained for a couple to a few weeks, whereas after a major rain, the rivers drop fairly rapidly. Second, worm and streamer fishing can become very productive, since millions of earthworms are washed into the river, and there are wounded or disoriented baitfish and young trout available to the large hunters. So, big streamers tight to the bank, and worm patterns, especially at storm drains.

 

Several years ago I drifted into a small eddy beside a storm drain, and the boat almost hit a giant brown positioned next to the storm drain, facing the outflow current, i.e., at about 90 degrees to the main river's current, facing away from our approaching boat. He was intently focused on eating the free meals coming out of the storm drain.

 

The river was high, fast, off-colour and rising, but we managed to catch several very large fish with streamers.

 

Fish Tales sells (or used to sell) a "worm cluster" pattern that can be used in these conditions.

[Jayhad]

as the man above said, worms worm worms....I just finished tying up half a dozen myself... see you at the milk shake machine.