Back on the Bow

[BeeGuy]

Headed down to the river from 6-730pm just to check things out.

Water visibility is about 30" and pretty cold.

River has changed oh my and still flowing pretty good.

Put away the monster gear I normally use and chucked a small crank and spinner.

Action was pretty hot, but never have I ever caught so many small fish and so many rainbows in the Bow.

Fish were hitting the surface pretty aggressively, but sporadically.

All the rainbows were 10-14".

The only photo worthy fish was the first one of the day to the net.

A thin cutty brownbow.

[MtnGiant]

Wow that is tiny.

I have never caught one that small on the Bow.

It would have thought the smallies would not have survived.

Maybe it's just the lil guys that are agressively hungry at this time.

Did it seem like some good top action for fly fishing now?

Did you notice the flies buzzin round?

I know your not really a fly fisherman but I'm just asking.

[BeeGuy]

I fly-fished the Credit River for years. I got sick of the culture and found other gear to be far more adaptive. I still enjoy it and I am an entomologist so I always have an eye on the bugs.


All I saw was midges and mosquitoes. Very small midges. A couple sizable mating aggregations.

Not a lot of top water action but what there was, was aggressive. Not sure what they were hitting.

I think one could do well in that spot with a hopper, hopper dropper, with a dropper hopper or a small streamer fished 18" down.

[MtnGiant]

Thanks

Maybe I'll have time to hit it this wknd.

They go nuts over midges.

Hopefully some biggy's are still in there.

Guess we'll find out soon enough what the damage is.

Cross your fingers

[fedfred]

I guess those scientists don't know what they think they know after all. There's gonna be plenty of fish, this flood stuff happens.

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by fedfred

I guess those scientists don't know what they think they know after all. There's gonna be plenty of fish, this flood stuff happens.

Well, I can tell you this.

In the very short section of river I fished, which was likely less than 100m I found the remains of several fish.

I sat on a cobble stone shoreline and took a phone call and noticed a fish scale stuck to a rock, a big scale, and then another, and then a medium sized scale, then a small scale, and then I realized the rocks were coated with dried fish scales all along the shoreline.

Not good.

Normally in this area I would catch 3 browns all in the 17-20" range, like clockwork. Today, 1 baby laker and a slew of small rainbows.

It will be interesting to see how it fishes late in the season.

[MtnGiant]

That's kinda spooky Bee.

I hope it's not a sign of bad times for the Bow.

And I hope all the river's that were hit weren't hit too hard.

Again....cross your finger's

[BeeGuy]

As we know, flooding cleans the river bottom which provides better spawning habitat.

Anyone see any didymo lately?

The reduced numbers of fish also reduce competition for food.

This can allow for some demographics to grow much larger than they would have under the previous conditions.

In 3 years I think we will see that: 1) things are ok, and 2) there are some unusual catches made.

[goldscud]

I went for a river stroll this morning. Seems to be less fish around, and less bugs around. I did find a few willing fish of good size and they fought hard. It will be interesting when the water clears and you can actually see the best spots to fish in post-flood. The character of the bottom has changed significantly. It will be fun learning the "new" river.

[dodger]

Talked to someone who drifted it last week and fishing was awesome. The river is wider than it use to be South of Cowtown and moves slow.

Dodger.

[JReed]

Originally Posted by MtnGiant

That's kinda spooky Bee.

I hope it's not a sign of bad times for the Bow.

And I hope all the river's that were hit weren't hit too hard.

Again....cross your finger's

Go to the Orvis website and watch a video submitted by a group of guys called "the bow aint dead". They fish post flood, even when the water was still murky brown they were hammering all sorts of nice sized fish on the fly

[aulrich]

I walked the dog, today along the Bow after being on vacation, a interesting run has formed on the bit that I saw(just down stream of the mallard point foot bridge west side), it will be critical to do some drifts soon to scout out the new lay of the land.

[MtnGiant]

Originally Posted by JReed

Go to the Orvis website and watch a video submitted by a group of guys called "the bow aint dead". They fish post flood, even when the water was still murky brown they were hammering all sorts of nice sized fish on the fly

Good to know thanks