Bow River Fishing Report - from May 04 2012 (2nd)

Photo, courtesy Sean F.

Friday May 04 2012

Policeman’s Flats to McKinnon Flats.

Had a great time on the river, first time down so wasn’t expecting too much in the way of fantastic fishing, more of an exploratory trip for further fishing trips.

It took us about 6 hours to get to McKinnon flats, the river was running reasonably fast and we took quite a few breaks along the way to enjoy the nice weather.

Spent most of the day fishing streamers and nymphs, streamers were various coloured buggers, bead heads included and a cone headed muddler minnow, no action at all on the streamers.

Nymphs used were stone fly and San Juan worms, only caught one rainbow all day on the San Juan worm.

There wasn’t much happening in the way of bug or hatch activity, only saw two fish rise all day, one was a huge brown trout that came up about 3 feet from the boat.

The water was cloudy but not muddy so could only see about 14 inches down, as this was my first trip on the water wasn’t sure if this was an issue or not, I suspect not.

The geese along the banks were quite territorial and made for a couple of interesting encounters, they must be nesting to be so aggressive, can’t remember the last time I let birds chase me off good looking water.

Now that I’ve taken my first run down I think I’ll change my tactics a little to accommodate the larger river size than I’m used to.

I struggled with deciding if I should be fishing the deeper faster banks along the steep sides or if I should spend my time working the slower runs along the gravel banks. Never did decide which was the best.

I loved the service you provide, very convenient when you’re travelling so far and you don’t have to bring two vehicles. Also really nice to know your truck is waiting and you don’t have to spend the next hour or two ferrying vehicles around before you can head home.

I’m looking forward to my next trip and my revised fishing methods, now that I know what doesn’t work I expect to have more fish next time.

All in all a great day on a beautiful river, can’t wait to see it when the leaves are on the tree’s

I attached one photo of us stopped for lunch in the middle of the river, it does look odd with no leaves on the trees but as you can tell by the tee shirt it was nice and warm.

THANKS TO SEAN F. FOR THIS FISHING REPORT AND PHOTO