Fishing After The Flood Your Predictions

[LastBoyScout]

I predict the rivers will fish fine and there could be a lot of personal bests with fish being caught in places you didn't usually find them. I think when the water recedes you will see much wider, shallower and straighter rivers and streams. Most of the wood will be left high and dry as the water recedes and woody debris and undercut banks will be hard to come by for years to come. Boney areas will have survived better & get worked hard & many long slow deep wintering pools will be completely or partly filled in and some new ones will be carved, in my experience it takes the river not changing channel to create the deepest slowest ones. Finally I watched more huge quarried stone go into our water ways after 95 than I could believe, they protected bridge abutments and huge berms. In 2005 the improvements didn't seem to help and we responded with bigger berms and even more armoring and stream training and in 2013 none of the improved improvements seem to help. From the rock I have seem being hauled out of every quarry in the east slopes it looks like we will see how the 3x improvements work out. I don't have a hundred years to wait so I'll be out there having fun & we'll see you on the water.

[GregoryV]

Was down in SW corner of AB this weekend. Some rivers cleaned up real nice already. The lower Oldman is still filthy with significant damage from just below spillway to reserve.

[LastBoyScout]

Thought I would review my post flood fishing predictions. The big fish seemed to be very hard to come by, I never got a fish past 20 all year in flowing. Lots and lots of small 1 and 2 year fish that likely won't all spawn for a year or two. Fish were caught in unusual places, many seasonal creeks seem to be year round for the last few years. Major riverbed changes are obvious and the low water in winter will be revealing. Was a great year and my fingers are crossed for a perfect spring spawn.

[BigFoamy]

Size hasnt been there at all, tons of small fish 10-12" and only 2 that were threatening 20", 1 was over probably 22-24" anything big fish i saw was an infected zombie brown. In 05 the river came back great and there was little change, this flood was a game changer, besides the river still being there and us out fishing it everything has changed. Its like fishing a new piece of water. I explored more of the Bow in Sept and Oct than i ever have in my life. All old spot are now new spots, walking around is dangerous as all worn paths are gone and have been replaced with tons of debris and steep banks. I found getting to or into the water to be tough at times, be careful out there, especially now with all those sketchy looking ice shelves! Regardless its flyfishing and its awesome!!