Looking for beginners Calgary bow river tips

[twotwo333]

Hello guys and girl, new fly fishing angler here, not completely new to fishing though. Just finished my second day using a brown hopper  and swapping between a leech nymph and olive wooly bugger hanging from the bottom. no luck but managed to only loose one leech nymph today due to a snag. None due to casting to aggressive! Have been casting about 45 degrees up stream, then pulling in the line. Not sure if that’s the proper way to fly fish. But looking for tips, types of places to fish, good flies and nymphs. Best time to use hoppers, stuff like that for a noobie, thanks in advance! 

[Vitalshok]

Just my two cents for what it’s worth.You can use any dropper off your hopper you like but try to Match the hatch caddis right now seems to be the go to.As for the hopper be the hopper if you fell in water and wanted to get out and couldn’t swim you would twitch and struggle so try that or dead drift the hopper till the end of the swing.The bow is a tough   river but try to look at it as it’s small river pick out seems and obstructions back Eddy’s etc unless your fishing hoppers look for grassy banks or fallen off peices of shore line that’s where a hopper could fall in.This site is excellent and many people will be willing to send you in the right direction.I could go on for hours but I’ll let others chim in.

[Wrighter]

I learned to fly fish on the bow. My first season I pretty much exclusively fished 2 nymphs under an indicator. First nymph something heavy like a wire worm, second a prince nymph, pheasant tail, or San Juan worm. A wire worm is a good higher nymph as it gets the flies down to the bottom fast and also gets lots of eats. It also makes it so you don't need a split shot, which will avoid lots of tangles. Before I could cast well, I would let line out downstream to start, allowed tension to form, and then would just lift the rod tip and lob my rig upstream at my target. Let it drift to the end, wait a few seconds and repeat. Line management early on will be the biggest struggle, so using a hopper up top will not be very effective as it will likely be dragging lots anyways. The main thing to work on while fishing this way is mending line every drift so that your indicator isn't dragging, and adjust the height of the indicator frequently so that your flies are ticking bottom. The indicator should twich every drift or few, it's either a rock or a fish so set every time. Your line management will improve tons over a season and you will learn where fish like to hangout in the river. Once I mastered this technique, I started fishing dry flies more, and I was alot more prepared

[twotwo333]

Thank you both For your inputs,  looking forward to trying some different setups and places. Going to try sheep river in Okotoks, heard it’s a good spot to go, even if it’s small I can still get a feel for how the trout bite and how they like to fight. Will post a photo if I catch one on the bow!

[yonderin]

For fishing streamers, fling it out as far as you can, give some mends to let it sink to the bottom.  As the line tightens and it starts to swing, that's when you're actually fishing it.  Once it's below you, give it a couple of strips and repeat.  Two or three casts then a few steps downstream and start over.  You might get a bite before the line tightens but chances are you won't realize it unless the fish inhales it.

I muchly favour a Marilyn for the Bow.  You could use it with a dropper.

[twotwo333]

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fishing a small dry fly on the sheep river, first ever fly fishing catch!

[ÜberFly]

9 hours ago, twotwo333 said:

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fishing a small dry fly on the sheep river, first ever fly fishing catch!

Ha! Pretty much all I caught on the Bow today!!