Any reports on the Upper Castle, Upper Oldman, and Upper Highwood systems?

[highwood]

Howdy folks,

I'm headed to the headwaters of these systems for a few days and just curious if there's any reports. Bulls starting to stack up yet? Any bear reports as well would be great, the Castle System can be a little 'Hairy' at times .

Cheers,

highwood

[cfowl]

We were there last weekend and the fishing was pretty good, not lots of fish but what fish there were were mostly larger than 12". Fished the Livingston, Dutch and Oldman ( above the trunk road). Water was a but higher but clear.

Good luck.

[fishstix]

look here for up todate flow rates....http://www.thebowriver.com/stream_flows_south.htm

[highwood]

I check the flow rates regularly, thanks for the report. There's some good runs on Dutch if you're willing to get off the beaten path.

[Bow flyman]

Had my best day fishing for cutthroat trout in years. Landed 4 and lost about the same number. The smallest was 14 inches, largest was 18 inches. I was expecting typical mountain steam cutts in the 8-12 inch range, so I figured 5x and 6x leaders would be adequate. After the first three big trout I hooked ran out and busted off, I went to 3x leaders for first time ever on dries. The fish were incredibly strong, with the biggest one taking 10 minutes to net. I also got a thick Rainbow on the elk hair caddis. The only downer was the wind. They said that "the gap" has bad wind. This is an understatement. It was like a huuricane at times. Difficult to even stand up straight! But it was worth it. I'll be back next year for sure.

[highwood]

Ya, the gap can be tough at times but holds some nice fish as you found out. We went tribuatary exploring and caught a ton of fish. Nothing over 13 inches, but lots of virtually untouched pools and happy little cutts. Not to mention some bulls that were nearly as long as the creeks are wide.