Humbled on the Crow!
 

Four fish in 6 days of fishing has been a humbling experience. Lots of rain events have not really diminished the clarity that much. Bugs that normally produce have drawn blanks. Going to buggers, SWworms, chironomids, was responsible for one, small Whitefish.

Question; what size and color (pupae, larvae) chirnomids for Old Man system fishing?

Still a great 7 days in some of the most beautiful country on earth!

Fished two days for about 30 minutes on the way home from work and the crow was slow but still managed 2 fish the second day (1 bull 1 rainbow) on San Juan worms and a rainbow on the first day on a stonefly nymph.

Black stone flys on the bottom .

Or stimmies up top!

https://i.imgur.com/Kwq5rf5.jpg

The big guys remember and are starting to look up top!

Four casts

Three fishies!!

Oooooohhh baby!!!!

I have noticed slow fishing on the Castle and lower Oldman as well! Could it be the cooler temps / lack of bug life?

That's what I figure, normal hatches seem late. Opening day I caught a big rainbow, its tail and belly all chewed up like it just finished the spawn. Never seen it there in mid June before

Hope that fish tasted good!

:p
 

Lol


Hurt your feels eh?


Yes

You are better than me. I agree.

And now the internet knows.

Lol. I guess so!

or....maybe...

Instead of trying to win the internet with a glib, flippant reply, you could...

...learn how to handle fish when trying to take your ego stroking hero shots.

Unless of course you ate it. Legally.

Have a good one! :)

Done!
 

You fired first.

Hmmm..... is there the slightest chance that you and you opinion may be wrong due to context?
Nope.. your decision/ judgement is beyond reproach. I get it.

I’ll stop stroking my ego and cease posting pics.

Hope that makes you feel better.


In the future.... if ya got nothin nice to say....yada yada.

That is a big fish . Very colourful .

Nice fish Bessie and an excellent picture!

Nicely done!

Well done bessi! Great picture and better eats!

BW

Awesome fish..

nice fish, looks like it's had a few good meals.

nice fish!

Seems like when ever I post on this site some sort of controversy ensues which is not my intention. I really enjoy my one week of fishing a stream or two in some of the most beautiful country in the world. Believe me I cherish this one week and take the rules seriously by practicing catch and release. Nevertheless, I had just one question that was never answered: What type of chironomids (size and color) are most dominant in the Old Man river system? No hot spotting or secret fly just some simple entomology, please.

Chironomids are not a big hatch on most flowing waters, especially at this time of year. Sure, midges hatch year round, and fish will eat them year round, but there is a bounty of bigger meals right now. And if you are fishing midge patterns, they will be small sz18 and smaller.

Here is a hatch chart: https://www.bowrivertroutfitters.com...-Hatch-Charts/

If I was to fish nymphs on the crow right now. I would be going with a 2-fly set up, a sz8 stonefly nymph and a sz14-16 mayfly-like nymph (hares ear, copper john, etc). However, before the fish become too picky, a dry-dropper set up would work, like a stimi or a big caddis, with a sz16 dropper.

Dry fly action is very possible. I would pack some stimi, chernobyl ants, and PMD dries.

Ok.... so I been fishin three different stretches of the OMR over the last week.
They all have different hatches. I don’t really know why you want a chronomids report for this stretch cause the fishies are up top hitting green drakes, small Caddis, caddis emergers... blue wing olives, or various Stimulators..... again this all depends on where you are on the OMR and what time of day.
The ONLY time I’ve used chronomids was early spring. And then it was on the spillway... size 18 black with silver flashabou ribbing... white bead head.
Now again, I wouldn’t use them unless it was like Feb or March right at the spillway or around Summerview.
These guys also work ok on the Crow at that time as well.

If your fishing now... the hatches are getting a better response from dem fishies now that there haven’t been earth shattering storms lately.

On the Lower OMR you can set your watch to some kind of small mayfly hatch happening around 9:30 AM to 11 ish ..... there could be a drake hatch as well... just watch the water.
The fish will turn on and tune in real quick. It’s been fun.
These hatches happen on the upper stretches as well... but times vary due to altitude and air temp.
Two nights ago we fished the upper OMR and stuff got crazy crazy fun in spite of high water flows from a storm around 7:40 PM. Huge cuties taking very small size 14-16 caddis... I got three for three on a size 14 sparse caddis with a yellow Antron body and Antron trailing tail....

And I got a real good couple pics too... and I’d post em too... but the fish nazis would start chirping again.....

One taped out to 17.5...

Anyways.... it’s that time of year now where both the Crow and the lower OMR have consistent evening free for all rise events. Fish till dark... haul in some nice fishies.
Try to figure out how to apply bug spray w/out getting any on your gear.... dem visa is savage this year.

Hope that helps and makes this thread more positive. :)

Thank you gents for the detailed info. I have fished these same streams with basically the same strategies and bugs you have illustrated. Nevertheless, this last trip forced me to try chironomids after talking to a few anglers. Eventually, by accident, I discovered a particular mid that gave my final license day a lot more meaning. I was very surprised that that fish that had preferred many of the same bugs previously mentioned were ignored in favor of such a small, incidental, fly.

Please remember how blessed you guys are living by and fishing these streams located in your back yard. Except for seven special days, being on this forum is as close as I can get until next year.

You don’t need hatches to fish nymphs. If I could only have one or 2 nymphs to use they would be pheasant tail and prince. If your not losing them, your not fishing deep enough.

The crow report
 

The crow is good fish grey/tan drakes with a CDC wing or shucking caddis with a bit of a tail on them . Go small if theyre not taking your flies. Black stones are the only thing I’ve had success on for nymphs. Girdle bugs anything that looks like a stone. (Buggy with legs) I fished with pmd and caddis emergers trailing my stones.

Caught several big rainbows last weekend all within an hour of sunset. Nymph during the day it super difficult to catch on dries unless your casting to rising fish. I uploaded the brown I caught I can’t uplod the rainbows as the file is too big but if you check out my insta my latest posts you will see. @farandwideoutdoors

They are electro shocking the crow as of Monday so fish will be stressed for most of the week. I wouldn’t fish it for a few more days

biggamehunter: Thanks for the info. I am a brown trout fanatic and have caught about 6 in the Crow over the past 20+ years. Trailing a Caddis emerger is very interesting and I will add that to my notes.

I am told there is an increase in browns caught in the Crow due to a few possilbe reasons:
Browns coming down from Crowsnest Lake and at least one trib is stocked with browns. I fish mostly below the falls and see very few browns. I have heard that more browns are being caught above the falls and will have to expand my fishing horizons.

Yeah I was shocked to see a brown, it hit a size 12 grey drake in the riffles of a corner pool. I’m not even a regular southern AB fly fisher more so central AB, definitely one of the best things u can do is stop in at the crowsnest cafe and talk to any of their guides and spend a few bucks and they’ll tell you what stretches produce more fish and why , fly patterns and how to fish them. They definitely contributed to the success of my weekend. I’m honestly not too sure why there is browns in there I’m sure the fly shop could answer that one for you