Bow River Has Changed - Post Your Stories

[mako]

Please post your stories of how the Bow River has changed post flood.

 

Cushing Bridge - 17th Ave SE

East Side under the bridge is inaccessible. Tall steep bank with no access to water or bridge from the North side.

East Side - South to Inglewood Golf course is fenced, and is inaccessible.

East Side - South there is a large rocky flat shore that you cannot reach accept by boat.

East Side - North to the Harvie Passage has a deep shore line with fast running water.

I estimate about four feet and deeper. From the edge, it drops straight down.

There is still a lot of debris knotted against the shore line.

 

West Side under the bridge in inaccessible. Waterline now above the old pathway.

West Side - South has massive errosion damage. Tall 20 foot steep bank to the river. Water is deep on this side.

West Side - North is accessible with a small peninsula that has developed at the end of the Harvie Passage.

 

Went out Sunday afternoon to see how one of my favourite spots was doing?

It's gone. I mean, I cannot stand on the same land I stood on before when I came here to fish.

Didn't even get a nibble. Gave up too soon. I was to busy analyzing the river.

The river has changed. Wow.

[mako]

A week later... and nobody has posted their stories of the Bow River changes.

[SilverDoctor]

May not be many people out as yet.

[bcubed]

Well... I parked my boat where I used to eat lunch

[fishinglibin]

Big changes all over I am sure, but only saw Mac to Carseland. Lots of change, and above the weir is trashed. Conor is right, it is hard to describe without writing a book.

Edited July 31, 2013 by fishinglivin

[Conor]

I think it is just so different people don't know where to start in describing it.

 

 

I checked out a couple of my normal spots and there is nothing the same as before. Nothing.

 

 

I did notice a much larger percentage of heavy undercut banks with deep water. A lot more than was present before. I wonder if this will change slowly over time to more normal bank-type percentages?

 

 

It is kind of sad to loose your old spots, but it is easy to see a bright side if you stay positive. That would be easier if the fishing picked up. I found it tough this past weekend, and the bugs were way out of wack.

[FraserN]

As an example. One stretch, where I fished today in Silver springs. The mid stream island is mostly gone, the river is wider and much deeper and slower. Stepping off the bank into what was normally shin deep water near shore is now waist deep for hundreds of yards downstream. The sandstone cliff above my head has lost much of its face. Sandstone boulders, some the size of small cars are jumbled just below on the bank. This place is radically changed, having lost all its inshore structure, it will take years for fishing to recover here.

[Jayhad]

As an example. One stretch, where I fished today in Silver springs. The mid stream island is mostly gone, the river is wider and much deeper and slower. Stepping off the bank into what was normally shin deep water near shore is now waist deep for hundreds of yards downstream. The sandstone cliff above my head has lost much of its face. Sandstone boulders, some the size of small cars are jumbled just below on the bank. This place is radically changed, having lost all its inshore structure, it will take years for fishing to recover here.

Bowflyman, i'm not arguing as everyone's perceptions can be different, me personally i view that strip differently now, I think the sandstone bolders along the bank are awesome, I've found a few fish come off there in my post flood drifts.

 

There are tons of changes in the NW, as all stretches of the bow saw, a few notables;

 

Upstream of home road about 2k there is a section of concrete pipe with a man hole still attached, stuck right in the middle of the channel, besides the weir that might be some of the sketchiest water to drift, you have to shot between two downed trees to avoid the pipe and the currents sucks you hard to the pipe.

 

Pumphouse Rd, the concrete platform which was part of the pumphouse is 75% gone, like not there, it was a good wall to slide some bruins off of.... oh well

 

If you drive over Crowchild look upstream, there used to be a big horse shoe flow over and many islands along the south bank... nope not any more looks like a rock quarry.

 

The class 2 section of harvey passage is exactly what the city should have done. Right after the 2nd of 7 drop the river turned right and cut a deep smooth descending channel through the bird sanctuary. The last 5 drops are 10' of gravel.

 

Downstream of calf robe and the next rail bridge is a mess of powerlines.

[Muffin]

It is interesting with all the trees in the water as they seem to be making some nice holding spots. Although sometimes a guy seems to get greedy and will hook-up with that tree. Or I have even caught a fish away from the tree and he ran there for cover.

 

I do like that where it was very solid chunks of rock as they appear to be cut away a little more making for some nice deep trenches for fish to hide.

[bcubed]

Pretty surprised by the amount of deepening the river has had. It's promising for the future, and hopefully it will provide some new wintering holes and fill in some old ones. Make us work a little more to go find fish when they stack up again.

 

Looks like the plug at the Mallard Point Back Channel (Poplar Island) was washed out, and enough of the bank was chewed out so that the river is not going into the channel at 90 degrees anymore. This *should* keep a good amount of flow running down that channel, which will be awesome for fish spawning and rearing(now only need protection for the spawners in that channel....that's another topic). Hopefully it will continue to flow.

 

Downstream of policemens, it's very evident what happens to a river when the riparian zones have been wiped out. Anywhere that a cottonwood was on the bank held its ground considerably better then those without. Time to start pushing land owners for more responsible riparian zone management, as well as getting out and wrapping the cottonwoods to keep the beavers off. We should have a lot of cottonwoods this year, just need to protect them (seems like a good project for TU to get on)...

 

Word on the "street" is that carseland will likely be out of the game for boat launches until late august or september (if at all) this year. Need to push TU to work on their leased land at Legacy Island to get that launch open. Time to put some of those fundraising dollars and large volunteer call-outs to work.

 

 

Craziest change IMO - the new channel about 1.5 km downstream of policemens on the north bank, the one that comes out upstream from the gravel highbank. That thing is insane!

[clancy]

New set of mean rapids south of 22x before the island gave me a big surprise in my pontoon boat. Got airborne. Two fellas in a canoe got flipped and were drying out their stuff on the bank.

 

Also, new Island just south of Burnco Bridge. The island was on dry land, and has a big steel girder that supported power poles. River is permantly forked around it.

[Vagabond]

Looks like the plug at the Mallard Point Back Channel (Poplar Island) was washed out, and enough of the bank was chewed out so that the river is not going into the channel at 90 degrees anymore. This *should* keep a good amount of flow running down that channel, which will be awesome for fish spawning and rearing(now only need protection for the spawners in that channel....that's another topic). Hopefully it will continue to flow.

 

 

X2

I been outta town working since flood,first time to Mallard Point post-flood yesterday....Wutta difference!!

Lotsa water coming down back channel,it's a bit wider and alot deeper then ever,no way I could cross the heavy water at MP/top of Poplar Island where the channel begins(where it was normally ankle/shin deep).I'll predict the back channel will fish better than ever in the future,guessing the volume of water coming down it has at least doubled?

[bcubed]

Id say, and enough flow to keep people off the island for at least part of the summer

[fishfreak]

I thought I'd throw this into the thread. I was in the US on business and took some pics of the Bow both ways. These were taken August 25 and 30. For those that are familiar with these stretches, you'll see some changes. Enjoy!

 

Looking downstream - Highwood confluence

 

Looking upstream - Highwood confluence at the top

 

Close-up of Highwood at the confluence

 

Fish Creek - 22x on the left

 

More Fish Creek - Deerfoot on the right