bow river rules!!!
 

Title says it all....the river rules...been hammering fish....were talking 10 a hour at least...just mind blowing how strong these fish fight...keepmmm wet and wild folks and get out there

Yes it does.Going to be a beautiful day and that's where I'm spending my day looking to hook up with some monster browns and rainbows
I'll chime in later with details and hopefully some pics

Im up on the north end of the river. Bowness area. Catching lots on hoppers!

Awesome...but you all suck...j/k

It occurs to me I've never fished it in the fall. I just might have to think about that in October on a nice day...

Thanks for the update!

I know it is asking a lot but would someone be able to help wit a suggestion of where to go on the Bow tomorrow? I am coming up from Black Diamond.
I have been 3 time with not even a bite yet.

Thanks in advance.

Except for the dead of winter (where fish will stack in an area), the humbling thing about the Bow River is sheer size means that I cannot tell you 'a spot'. If you happen to catch fish, that spot may or may not hold fish 2 weeks later. The good news is every 100m or so, you can access a spot that *could* hold fish. During the heat of summer, the fish are literally everywhere. At this time of year, the fish move back into typical trout areas---you are looking for current seams and current breaks. Slightly deeper water at the end of a run and other tailouts will also hold fish. You have got to cover water to find the fish, which means finding a run, fishing it methodically (cast near inner seam, cast middle of run, cast outer seam, then move up the run 2m, repeat)

If you are running a 2-nymph rig, make sure one of your flies is sz16 or smaller. If you do catch dry fly action, the flies will be small---usually sz16 and smaller BWO or Adams would be the fare. You will catch the odd fish blowing up on an october caddis, but if catching fish is the goal, unless I see rising fish, catching fish on the dry is a gamble.

So true! I watched a fly fisher across the river from me last year catching 22-23 inch bows all evening while I caught 1 and a lost one. We chatted back and forth that evening and I found what he was using, how much lead, and obviously knew the exact spot and time/date. Etc. etc.

I go back this year on the same date (yes, one year later…) and have both of us setup with the same fly, same time of day, same date. Etc, etc. I tell him watch this…

2 hours later I’m still saying watch this…but more like “watch…this?”. Not a
sniff. And we covered not only that run but the one just below as well. Meanwhile, across on the other side of the river where I was the year before, 3 people are all taking turns catching nice fish…sigh.

True story. I know a year later is a lot to expect same thing. Especially when the weather alone is so drastically different from 2016 to 2017…not even considering a ton of other factors. But, it made me chuckle at myself and keeps me coming back more humble :)

That's unreal! Hahaha

thanks for the ideas. I am off to go fishing, hopefully with a little catching also.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the help
 

I went to the Bow at noon today.
I did what you all suggested. Seam line in the bubbles where a side channel came back in to the main flow. I caught my first Brown ever on my 3rd cast :sHa_shakeshout: he was about 12 inches.
Kept slowly moving down swinging 2 nymphs.
Not 5 min later I caught the biggest rainbow I have ever hooked. It took me into my backing twice. From measuring my net he was 21 or 22 inches.
I caught 3 more has I worked my way down stream.

Thanks for the help and encouragement.

Nice fish congrats I looked after the little guys for you tonight certainly not a lot of water in that river right now.First time in years I could almost cross it.All fish where caught on a parachute Adams.

I've never fished the Bow river. Is this a river where you kinda need a drift boat to get to any good spots, or are there decent spots you can just hop out of a car and start wading downtown Calgary?

I have drifted the Bow three times in October, it was by far my best fly fishing trips. Used a hopper dropper setup with a foam hopper and a tungstud dropper in olive or black. When we worked a run we would start really shallow, like a foot or so and work into the run. I could not believe how shallow the fish were.

We took 9 fish on this foam line, all about the same size, all with hopper dropper. My best day fly fishing ever, finished the day with almost 20 fish this size.
https://i.imgur.com/TsZaINd.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/gRjy7TW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/dTwAw2s.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ry4dEjS.jpg

Beautiful fish!

Nice fish Bobalong! Looks like I might have to make a trip this Oct. Thanks for posting.