The Bow River: A Tough River That's Hard Not to Love

Depending on the weather, late fall in Alberta can be a bit of a down season for anglers. Most of the streams close on the last day of October and early snow and cold weather, along with depleted fish populations in the numerous put-and-take ponds, tends to keep us off of the spots we fish in the spring and summer. Also, it may look like winter outside but I am certainly not ready to trust any of the early season ice that has formed on some of the higher-elevation lakes.

Still, hope is not lost. In my experience, cold dreary weather can mean successful days on one of Alberta's most famous fisheries, the legendary Bow River.

The Bow River WITHIN Calgary

The Blue Ribbon rated Bow is a phenomenal trout river with most of the best fishing either directly in, or right below the city of Calgary. The river has self-sustaining populations of rainbow and brown trout with fish into the 10 pound range. There are also some large pike and bull trout lurking in the deeper holes. Best of all, warm water expelled from Calgary's water treatment facilities keep lower stretches of the Bow fishable all year long.

Amazing as it is, the Bow is a hard river to fish. It's a large river so it can be difficult to find fish-holding water and even if you know where the spots are, it can be hard to reach them without a lot of walking or by drift-boat. Adding to the challenge, the fish in the Bow are also quite big and therefore experienced, making them wise and weary of the thousands of artificial baits they see day after day.

My personal relationship with the Bow is a tumultuous one. Relatively speaking, I haven't been fishing the river for long as I only moved to Calgary 6 years ago and I have been skunked many times on the Bow. In fact, I wouldn't even bother fishing this river if it didn't offer me a decent trout once or twice a year. If you caught me in a worse mood I may even tell you that the Bow is a grumpy old bag, who makes you want to hate her and when you're almost ready to give up on her, she gives you a fish to remind you who gets to have the last word.

And these fish are almost always beauties. 

My first Bow River Brown. This one had no spots!

Like I mentioned above, the Bow has offered most of these fish to me on dark, dreary, cold days. When it's dark and grey I typically tie on a dark coloured lure, such as a Mepps Black Fury spinner or a split-shot rigged black Wooly Bugger streamer. Also, even though I still haven't bit the bullet and bought a fly rod, I like to dead drift nymphs under floats with my spinning gear.

A typical Bow River brown

A Bow rainbow that fell for a wooly bugger

A Bow brown I caught when I should've been writing report cards

A big brown I caught when everyone else was watching the Super Bowl

A better picture of the Super Bowl brown

Not all of the fish are huge but they are pretty!

With no other angling options until the lakes freeze solid, it may be time to see if the Bow is ready to reaffirm my love for her by giving up another hog.

Well, not all the fish are pretty. A Bow River burbot.

One Last Day Before Winter Arrived

Winter in Calgary is long. It's not unusual to begin November with a blizzard and then have Old Man Winter stubbornly leave with one last snowstorm in April.

This year seems to be following that pattern.

A couple weeks ago my friends Ivan, Adam and I went fishing for rainbow trout on a small private lake near Calgary.

The fishing was super fun. We managed to get a bunch of fish in the boat including a couple big ones.

Ice breaker rainbow

Another rainbow on a beauty fall day

Ivan and a nice rainbow

We spent the day rowing around the lake in t-shirts or hoodies, soaking in the sun, waiting for the trout to fall for our jigs. It was a perfect fall day for fishing in Southern Alberta. 

Adam and a decent rainbow

Not a bad way to end the season...literally

The next morning we awoke to 10cm of snow.

My dog, Oscar, wondering what the heck happened?!

Thanksgiving Bass Fishing on Fifth Depot Lake, Ontario

It's been a few years since my wife and I were able to make it back to spend Thanksgiving at her family cottage on Fifth Depot Lake in the Land O'Lakes region of Southern Ontario. This year, our schedule and the availability of relatively affordable flights made it possible to make the pilgrimage once again.

Alberta is a beautiful province but it is hard to beat the stunning colours and the near perfect weather Ontario offers in the fall. Obviously, the chance to catch big bass that are fattening themselves up for winter is an added bonus.

It's hard to beat Ontario in the fall

When we arrived at the cottage late Saturday afternoon, the weather was unseasonably warm and the lake was glass calm. After hurriedly unpacking and helping with the opening of the cottage, I couldn't wait to set the boat up so I pulled the paddle boat down to the lake and paddled a few hundred feet down to where Skewgaw Creek enters Fifth Depot Lake.

The sun was setting so I tied on a black Hula Popper topwater lure and started casting toward the creek mouth. Immediately, the water boiled around the lure. I was so stunned I failed to set the hook. Usually, this little inlet will yield one or two bass tops so I was pretty choked that I'd missed the first strike. To my surprise, a fat little largemouth inhaled the popper on my second cast and I was able to swing it into the paddle boat. These two first hits were no fluke. Over the next half hour I landed 4 more largemouth, two of which were around 15 inches (after bringing a scale on a recent trip I realized I'm better at exaggerating weight than I am at estimating).

The weekend's ice breaker bass

A decent largemouth that slammed the Hula Popper

Another topwater largemouth

The next day the wind had picked up so I decided to try drop shotting a X-Zone Slammer around some of the mid-lake weed humps I could find by looking for flat spots in the otherwise choppy water. I also tossed my rig toward rocky points and at a submerged tree that scared the bejeezus out of me when I nearly backed the boat into it while working along the deep edge of a weed bed. This is the pattern I fished for most of the remainder of the weekend. When the drop shot slowed down I did manage to catch a few fish on a wacky rigged pumpkin Senko and I caught a small pike on a jerk bait I tied on mainly because I had bought it specifically for the trip. Faster presentations that often work on Fifth Depot, like crankbaits and inline spinners, were not producing this weekend.

A decent smallmouth caught on an X-Zone Slammer

A largemouth from a mid-lake weed hump

A largemouth that lived in a scary looking sunken tree

Another timber-dwelling largemouth

A largemouth that fell for a wacky rigged Senko

Get off my line pike! I'm here for the bass!

Another incidental pike

After the boat was pulled ashore and the cottage was closed for the season I had managed to land around 20 fish including 6 fat largemouth and 1 smallmouth in the 15-17 inch range. Along the way I also landed 2 small pike and I lost 3 big bass that I'll have to try again for next year.

Run and Gun Spinner Fishing in the Southern Alberta Foothills

Even when the fish aren't biting, people who fish are generally luckier than many who don't. We're lucky because the sport that we love happens to take place in some of the most beautiful places in the world. This is especially true for anglers who are logistically and physically able to walk and wade the Eastern Slope foothill streams in Southwestern Alberta.

Last Saturday my friend Terry R. and I decided to try the canyon stretch of the Highwood River a few kilometers west from the town of Longview. Despite paralleling Highway 40, with river access gates right off the road, the steep climb down to the river keeps the fishing pressure on this stretch of the river relatively light, allowing anglers to fish the numerous deep pools and productive runs undisturbed. 

We scrambled precariously down the steep cliff, aided for some of the way by a rope someone left tied to a tree. We both tied on #1 red and white Mepps Aglia Spinners with a couple split shot about a foot above to help the lures stay down in fast water and sink deep down into the deeper pools.

The Highwood River

We fished for about an hour with limited success. The water temperature was quite cold and the fish were docile. I did manage to catch a medium cutthroat trout and a slightly smaller rainbow.

A pretty little Highwood River rainbow

A Highwood Cutthroat

Terry was wet wading (Terry's an old maniac who grew up in the area. After so many years wading mountain streams, I don't think he feels temperature in his legs the same way as most people) and when we came to a point in the river where we'd have to cross, we considered our options and decided it just wasn't worth it.

We decided to get back in the car and try Trap Creek. Trap Creek is a Highwood tributary that enters the Highwood just east of the Kananaskis Country Gate off Highway 40.

As soon as we got to the small stream, I cast my spinner into a tiny little pool near where we parked. A small cutthroat darted out and hit it immediately. This was proof that you can catch trout "no matter how fickle the trickle."

Trap Creek

Trap Creek

Trap Creek is a small stream with a few rapids and decent pools. Perfect for run and gun fishing. With the abrasive and fast moving presentation of a spinner, we were generally able to get one fish out of each hole before having to reel in and move on.

Terry and I spent the next 2 hours leap-frogging up the creek. I hooked and landed 3 cutthroat trout. I lost a couple as well. Terry caught the nicest fish of the day when he pulled a chunky 15 inch cutthroat out of one of the deeper pools in the little stream.

Terry's nice cutthroat. It was bigger than it looks.

A Trap Creek cutthroat

Another Trap Creek cutthroat

With the season drawing to a close I'm glad I got out for at least one last reminder of how lucky we are to be anglers in a country with as much opportunity and beauty.

Post-Flood Highwood River Report, August 24, 2013

We went back to Alberta's Highwood River, between Hogg Park and Longview, on Saturday for a second attempt to fish the river since the flood. The water has lowered quite a bit from the last time we were there and it has cleared considerably. Despite still being a little higher than normal, we were able to cross the river in several spots.

The fishing was pretty good. I cast small inline spinners and managed to catch 8 fish; three rainbows, one bull trout and four Rocky Mountain whitefish. White and red was the colour of the day. I lost a few fish as well. My friend Terry managed to catch two decent whitefish in the 18-20 inch range. He got them both in a single long pool that had been significantly lengthened by the flood.

We saw many other incredible changes to the river brought on by the flood. Debris was found wrapped 10-15 feet up tree trunks a good distance from the river. A cliff with a large undercut that we used to fish is now just a large rock in the middle of a rubble field as the river cut the cliff away from the bank and then moved itself 100 feet north. (see pictures below)

Also, the deep pool that used to be where Pekisko Creek enters the Highwood is much smaller with a much larger rapid going into it.

It was a great day exploring a familiar, yet different river. There is lots of new fish-holding structure and the presence of fish of every size leads me to believe that there's a good chance the river will be fishing well for a while longer. 

Enjoy the pictures below.

A 13" rainbow.

A Rocky Mountain whitefish.

A flattened tree on a new beach.

Flood debris wrapped around a tree.

A trailer.

Another Rocky.

That line of dirt in the bottom left is the high water mark.

The hole where Pekisko Creek enters the Highwood.

A 14" bull trout.

We used to cast into this undercut. This used to be a large deep pool.

The grassy shore used to continue to that large rock in the upper right (the old cliff/undercut).

A little rainbow.

Looking back to normal...but different.

Post-Flood Highwood Report

This June, as most people know, Southern Alberta experienced severe flooding that halted life in Calgary and basically destroyed several smaller communities, most notably High River.

Many people are still struggling to get their lives back in order but as life returns to normal in most flood-affected areas, people are getting their minds back on regular life stuff...like fishing.

After seeing the flood waters in Calgary first hand, I could not help but wonder what our favourite trout streams would be like this season. Late summer is the best time to walk and wade the many beautiful streams that flow out of the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains. My favourite of these is the Highwood River.

My friend Adam and I were especially eager to get down to our regular stretch of the Highwood this year to see how the raging flood waters had changed the structure of the river. We knew things would be different but truthfully we didn't expect much more than a few new trees brought down from the mountains and maybe some new undercuts.

We did certainly did not expect what we found.

What the Highwood River looked like this time last year.

Even before we got down to the river we noticed a difference. As we approached the edge of the coulee Adam asked, "Can we usually hear the river like that?" We could clearly hear the river roaring below which is definitely not normal this late in the summer.

When we actually got close enough to see the river we really couldn't believe what we saw. The water was still very high and chocolate-milk brown. The bank across the river had been washed away and there was rubble and exposed rock where the once grassy, tree-lined bank used to be.

The river as we arrived. It's usually half as wide.

As we got down to the river and began to walk up stream, the force of the floodwater became more and more evident. There was wooden debris a good distance up the coulee walls and a flat rock that we used to stand and cast off of was now at least 50 feet away from the river. The river had carved out a new channel as the floodwater pounded the cliff on the outside of the bend.

Wooden debris deposited well up the bank.

We used to cast off that flat rock in the middle of the picture.

This used to be the river bed.

On the inside of the bend, the willow bushes that used to come right down to the edge of the old high water level were now flattened.

You can see where the floodwater flattened the willow bushes above the high water line.

Most disturbing was the level of sediment that had and was still accumulating on the river bed which leads me to wonder what this will mean for the resident fish populations and the Bow River rainbows that spawn in the Highwood.

Despite the murky conditions, we did try to cast toward the undercut banks to see if there were any fish hiding from the rushing currents, to no avail.

One glimmer of hope is the new structure carved out and dropped off by the flood. I truly hope the river will recover and clear up soon so we can take advantage of what the flood left behind.

I can't wait to fish this when the water drops.

A nice new piece of fish holding water?