Bow River Drift Times Increase

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Fly fishers floating the Bow this weekend will need to add a bit more time to their trips. In recent days, the flow rate was in the 220 cms range. It's now down below 90 cms.

The reason: The water level in the Ghost Reservoir was originally scheduled to be raised begining July 07. However, with the Rocky Mountain snowpack now gone, that process began earlier this week, on Monday. More info in the article below. 

Snowpack in Rockies melts four to six weeks earlier than normal

Colette Derworiz, Calgary Herald, June 16, 2015

June’s hot weather has completely wiped out this winter’s snowpack in the Rockies, prompting concerns Western Canada could be entering into a drought.

Last week, the mountain snowpack — already 10 to 25 per cent below normal — melted about four to six weeks earlier than expected by scientists monitoring the situation.

“The hot weather in the past few weeks has really wiped out the snowpack,” said John Pomeroy, a University of Saskatchewan hydrologist.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/1N7RAhr

Bow River Flow at Calgary Drops to 40-50 cms for Sept 03

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Those planning a float tomorrow are advised to put in at McKinnon Flats. Adding in the flow from the Elbow (5 cms) and Highwood (12 cms) will give you a flow of 57-67 cms at McKinnon.

This would be a good day to give McKinnon to Legacy Island (14 kms) a try, rather than the longer McKinnon to Carseland (23 kms).

The map segment above shows the Legacy Island area.

Bow River flow rates drop

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The recent unseasonably cold weather, especially at night, seems to have slowed the snow melt in the mountains.

Bow River Flow Rates - Post Flood 2013

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Bow River Flow Rates - Post Flood 2013

The flow rate at 11:00 am today (Tues July 09, 2013) at Calgary was 309 cms.

It may have been wishful thinking, but we think we could see a little bit of the colour green, coming through the grey/light brown colour of recent days. 

In a recent report, Fish Tales Fly Shop writes:

"- In 2005 float trips resumed the first week of July with water levels between 220 and 295 cms (Calgary Station) and fishing was very good with some of the largest brown trout of the year caught.

- Similarly, in 2012 we experienced very high water during early July. All float trips were canceled until July 4th when we did our first float trips which turned out to be very good again with big brown trout being the highlight of those early days back on the river. At that point, the river was running at 323 cms (Calgary station).

We are putting this information out there to give people an idea of what we have to wait for, water level wise, in the coming days. Obviously safety continues to be the primary concern once the flooding is down. Once water levels drop we will make decisions about trips once our guides have been able to spend some days on the water exploring the “NEW” river. We will only start to float once it is safe to do so and access can be determined."

Read more here: http://bit.ly/1a9NrX2

Carseland Boat Launch - Earthen Dam Breach Flood 2013

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River is flowing from right to left in this photo