Bow River Fishing Report - from Aug 30 2012

Late morning on the Bow River, Thursday Aug 30. 
Photo, Copyright Bow River Shuttles All Rights Reserved 2012

We like this fishing report that was posted by 'WyomingGeorge' on Fly Fish Calgary Forum.

"Thursday August 30, 2012 Bow report. Police to Mac, driftboat. Eventful day, fishing-wise, I could go on forever but will try not to.

After a quiet early start (I was third boat on) there was an escalating flotilla that intensified into a two-hour non-stop cavalcade. There were numerous rather tight passes and tuck-ins. But this isn't the etiquette thread...

For fishing effectiveness, the best message I can convey going into the weekend is to be observant, flexible and adaptable, look hard for risers and don't miss an opportunity to cast to one. Don't insist on fishing one way and then flogging that method to total frustration. I strung a hopper-dropper rod, a technical dry rod, a nymph rod and a streamer rod -- and I must have switched methods two dozen times. Many folks stuck to nymphing for hours on end, if not the whole day, and I talked to several disappointed boats.

The morning started OK on nymphs very early, then died right off, with no initial hopper bite and no rising fish observed. By 11 am I'd had only one early fish and a couple of strikes, and had seen only one other fish (though a giant) landed among the dozens of boats.

At about 11 am a gigantic, bank-to-bank cloud of trico spinners appeared where I had stopped to wade fish, and I expected to see fish start sipping spent spinners, but this didn't happen where I was.

The hopper bite started quietly about noon and became a major flurry -- multiple large fish landed over the next hour. Two groups of nymphers I talked to missed it completely. The hopper or dropper takes weren't just on banks or in riffles -- fish were coming up from deep pools and in the middle of the river to sip or crash hoppers. The most reliable action was in riffles -- including really fast water, virtually rapids.

With the huge amount of boat traffic, it also made sense to fish small, obscure pockets -- really small and really obscure. Focusing on the big, classic banks might mean you're the 50th rod past that spot that day.

By 2 pm I had noticed only three fish rising to naturals -- but all three looked or took. As with my report a week ago, if you could put a bug in front of a rising fish, the fish was likely to eat. At 2 pm the hopper bite tailed off and for the next couple of hours there were more lookers than takers, but the nymphing didn't come back for me. At about 4 pm things died altogether. At 5 pm I switched to a streamer and had multiple chases or takes, but no solid hookups. The streamer bite died after half an hour, still within the same feature.

At 6 pm fish started rising to hopper/droppers again and were taking nearly every time rather than just looking. Incidentally one of my droppers was very small, a size 20 black tungsten beadhead, imitating a trico or pseudo, and this pattern took two large fish. A few fish started sipping on the banks and would eagerly take a tiny trico spinner or a tent-winged caddis, usually on the first pass.

The fishing remained good past the Highwood confluence. One bank was lined with sippers, mostly small flippers or "guard fish" protecting a couple of larger risers, but all were catchable. In addition to tricos and caddis there were now some pmd spinners around. The fishing remained good right until dark, with fish rising in very shallow flats and side channels. I was second-last boat off the river, and the boat behind me seemed to be doing very well casting to sippers.

Have a wonderful long weekend, everyone!"