Bow River
 

Hey all, how is the water clarity now? Thanks.

Pushing 3" below Fish Creek if you are lucky

Still murky all the way up to ghost res.,salty streets have ran off.Lowland runoff wont take long,should be reasonable in about a week,see ya there.

Well that didn't take long.Good 3 feet or more visibility.:scared0018::scared0018:

Where are you looking? Fish Creek is still very dirty and high. It gets quite diluted once it hits the Bow, but it can make the difference between 100cm and 30cm of visibility.

Up above nose creek,it's probably dirty too.I was looking off the bridge at Edworthy park.

Can't wait to get back in the water.

It is low vis and dirty down from the 17 ave SE bridge to Glenmore when I was by there today. However, it is going to be busy on the river tomorrow regardless. Lots of boats and w/w folks.

Baker park is about 3’ I would say. Little murky but has blue colour to it. Saw a lot of size 20 black midges hatching. Didn’t fish at all but looked good for streamers.

1st week of may.wid is allowed to start pulling water into the canal.which usally allows the bow river & elbow to open up there dam structures.but given they are already renoing the gates on glenmore.you can expect more flows from the elbow.

Rarj99
 

Anyone have any good fly type tips for spring season? I never seem to have much luck this time of year.

Think small and tight to the bank ...good luck

It's blasphemous to some, but the San Juan Worrm is one of the most effective flies on the Bow. It will catch fish all year round.

What! wait a sec, there are more flys than SJW ?

before the flood of 13 .i would almost swear that the bottom of the river ,around the 22x bridge.Had a reddish tinge to it..

I have no luck with the SJW. Must be totally the fly's fault and not at all the user's fault.

How is your mending technique? That's the key to the worm and other nymphs... making sure your flies are bouncing along the bottom drag free.

thought it was april ?

Runoff
 

I fished downstream of McKinnon Flats and it's pretty dirty. Not even a bite in 2 days of trying my luck. Does anyone have any explanation why the runoff started already. I was fishing and catching fish in May last year until the runoff hit in June.

Lots of snow this year, warm temps.

I wouldn’t even call this true ‘classic’ runoff. We’ll still have our typical runoff around the usual time. IMO, his is melt from areas (low foothills) that would have normally been mostly dry come the spring, but this year held a few feet. I suspect we’ll see high/turbid water for a long time this year.

Streamer season approaches

What we normally call runoff is when the Alpine slopes melt, usually the last third of May is when the higher elevations no longer dip below freezing at night.

What you are experiencing is the terrestrial melt. The Bow River in Calgary has about 1m of visibility. Last night, I even saw my first bit of rising fish. At Mackinnon, you are experiencing the consequence of the Highwood belching chocolate milk. It took Fish Creek about a week to tame itself. I bet it will take the Highwood another week to complete the terrestrial melt. There is, however, a chance the Bow will be murky at Mackinnon until July.

So, just move upstream of the Highwood. The Bow is fantastic form.

That makes perfect sense. Thanks for the info.