Best Bow River Spots for March
 

Given the warm weather I tried my luck at river fishing in the Bow last weekend by Fish Creek. I was skunked. Just curious if any members can let me know what spots along the Bow would provide the best opportunity for bites this time of year. I want this fishery to stay healthy so I'm only looking for catch and release, even for non-trout species.

My setup:

5 foot 6 light spinning rod, 6lb fluoro with bobber and 3 to 4 foot leader. I tried brown and green #14 nymphs and a couple of spoons (Northland forage minnow and Len Thompson five of diamonds). Not sure of the spoon size, but they were most likely No. 6.

I moved from just south of Poplar Island to just north of the Fish Creek waste water plant. I tried casting in calmer areas and faster rapids. I was able to cast about half the width of the river and no further (need some bubble floats I think). I would usually cast upstream and let the line float downstream before reeling in, sometimes varying my speed or pulling the rod up intermittently during the retrieve.

This was my first time doing this so I was definitely working out some kinks with my casting and rigging. I know some people will suggest I use a fly rod rather than spinning gear, but I'm not quite ready to take that step yet.

Just looking to learn. Thanks in advance for your responses!

*I've cross posted this on the fishing forum.

Can't help much with spots, but some things you may want to try out:

Were you fishing deep enough?
Typically (for flies at least) you want you leader to be around 1.5x the depth of the water you're fishing. Basically, you should be occasionally ticking the bottom during your drift. If you're not, lengthen your leader and try a few more casts. Keep tweaking it until you're ticking the bottom once every few casts since that'll be where most of the fish are this time of year.

Were you setting the hook on everything that even remotely could have been a fish?
Hook sets are free!
tick (what you think is) the bottom - set the hook!
bobber pauses for a few seconds - set the hook!
bobber twitching - set the hook!
Don't give yourself time to think / process what's going on or try to determine why your bobber is doing what it's doing. Just set the hook. By the time your bobber has translated a fish on the end of it, the fish is probably already in the process of spitting the hook, so the faster you're trying to set the hook, the more likely the fish will actually be hooked. Don't give it time to spit the hook - STRIKE!

It's honestly hard to convince yourself to constantly be setting the hook. But the days where I've made a conscious effort to set the hook on anything even remotely strange happening with a strike indicator are the days where I'm typically catching about twice as many fish.

Hope this helps!

I'm getting back into fly fishing this year. I live just off the Bow in Douglasdale and used to just walk down to the river. The stretch between the Deerfoot and Sue Higgins bridge was considered world-class...

I've heard some guides and others say that since the flood and the new weir by the zoo, things have changed significantly...such that the good fly fishing has moved well south, past Policeman's Flats down to Carseland.

Any truth to this? Might just be excuses (which I may just use lol)

You were in a fine area. My guess is not deep enough. I fish the area and do really well. I had difficulty here as well it is deeper then you think and a heck of a lot faster. Everyone says 1.5 X then the depth of the water. That may be a good starting point. But not set in stone. I fish with a 13' leader this is imposible with a spining rod. Spinning rods are good for chucking lures thats about it. Try a #4 panther martin cast up stream let it drift on a slack line for a 10 count. Slow roll retrive is deadly in deep pools. Hope that helps

Thanks so much for this advice. I haven't been doing that, so this could be the problem. I didn't realize I'd need to make my leader somewhat longer to account for the push of the current. Awesome tips. I'll give them a go this weekend and hopefully nab my first ever Bow river trout!

there are many spots on the bow right above glenmore bridge right down past 22x :) but where fishcreek meets the bow is one of the best :) and at this time of the year use san juans

There is absolutely no need to cast half the width of the river. (80% of the fish will live within 25 feet of the bank. The bank is where the vast majority of the structure is. Current beak because of the friction, rocks that have shifted off the banks, portions of the bank that have let go, undercut banks, trees that have fallen in... It's endless.
Fish are cold blooded. They need to conserve energy when the water is cold. Their whole world can be summed up in one statement. Calories earned versus calories burned. When they need the calories to keep from freezing to death they key in on areas that will give them the most benefit from those calories. That means slower water where food is present. It means they can take in more calories than they burn.
Stay away from the riffly stuff for now. When the water temps start to rise again and the bug activity gets busier then you can start to look at those areas.

If you are going to spin cast use the smallest yellow and black five of diamonds during these cold weather months and retrieve very slowly. A really good area is just below the weir at memorial in the deeper water for Browns and you can continue to the Calf Robe bridge. Read the regs for the closed area at the Inglewood bird sanctuary. Slow and deep is where they will be until the water starts to warm up and rise.

I'm going to be in downtown Calgary this week and have not fished the bow before. Am i going to be able to find some fish? Or do i have to go to the south side of the city to get into some fish? Thanks for the help .

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It's a Travesty
 

Really ,an on going discussion about spin casting
On one of the greatest fly fishing rivers in the world .
Old guys are getting soft , especially on here . I wonder
Where the real feather tossers are hanging around .
There was a thread about how much Alberta fishing
really sucks , you can add fly fishing obviously .
My buddy was accosted while spinning a fish creek
Backwater . The fly fisher working down from him,
Told him if he tossed that Rapala where he was casting again .
My buddy would be having it removed from his ass .
Some people are serious about their religion .

No offense, but if you don't understand proper fishing etiquette, which doesn't matter if you chuck metal, plastic, fur of feather, you shouldn't be out there... don't cast into another persons range unless you're fishing with them... enough said..

yeah what Sliver said X2