The wood is gone!

Photo: Bow River Shuttles (Click directly on photo for larger image)

‘Part 1’ of several parts of the cleanup at Legacy Island was accomplished this evening. The wood is gone!

About 20 volunteers, including a number of Agrium employees, began arriving at 4:30 pm and stayed until the job was done.

Most of them were still on hand for the ‘victory’ group photo after the BBQ at the end of the evening.

Although Legacy Island cannot be said to be ‘open’, those with 4x4’s should be able to access the island.

There is a layer of silt covering the road, all the way from the side channel crossing to the parking lot. And the same layer of silt covers the parking lot itself.

There had been rain last night, and again this afternoon, which turned the silt into mush.

And, of course, there are still several metres of silt blocking the ‘boat ramp’ itself.

However, those with pontoon boats and other types of lighter boats should be able to haul them up over the pile of silt.

Brian Meagher advises once again that the permits required to remove the silt will take a number of weeks to be approved.

Stay tuned.

We also have many more photos from this event that we will be posting here in the days ahead.

VFTSV*

Hiding in the canola near Legacy Island.

*Views from the Shuttle Van

High Water Fly Fishing

The Bow River was still running at 190 cms on this early July day, 2011

Jason McCoy goes solo

Award winning Canadian country music star Jason McCoy performs tonight (10:00 pm) at Nashville North on the Calgary Stampede grounds. 

He credits several years as a child growing up in Camrose Alberta for instilling in him a love of country culture.

McCoy digs deep for solo work

Tegan and Sara

Lots happening on the local music scene.

Identical twins Tegan and Sara are back in their hometown (Calgary) for a couple of sold out shows.

Tegan and Sara get close to home crowd

VFTSV*

Photo: Bow River Shuttles

Don’t know how to ‘read’ moving water? Big mistake!

The Calgary Fire Department found this aluminum boat wrapped around a bridge abutment upstream of downtown Calgary.

It had been abandoned. 

*Views from the Shuttle Van

VFTSV*

 Day's End at McKinnon Flats

*Views from the Shuttle Van

You go girls!

International Women Fly Fishers

Via: Trout Underground

Highways

Catch Matt Masters at his "All-Western Winners" album launch party tonight at the Palamino in Calgary. This dude rocks!

Matt Masters signs loud and proud

Legacy Island Cleanup – Monday July 11 @ 5:00 pm

All photos: Bow River Shuttles

Legacy Island Cleanup - Volunteer Work Evening

Date: Monday July 11, 2011

Time: 5:00 pm

Participants: TUC Bow River Chapter

Bow River Shuttles writes:

"Who is TUC Bow River Chapter? If you walk & wade the Bow River, float fish the Bow River, guide fly fishing on the Bow River, then YOU are TUC Bow River Chapter.

Legacy Island Cleanup #1 on May 07 produced 6 volunteers, out of a possible total of over 1,000. We can do better than that." :-)

Brian Meagher writes:

Just to let all those know who have offered, we would now like to set a date to do the initial clean-up effort on the Legacy Island to remove the trees that are blocking the road and boat launch. 

Please feel free to pass this on to anyone that also may be interested- there is no need to RSVP for this event, but if someone has equipment then I would appreciate an RSVP from them to understand how many and what will be out there.

I would like to set this for Monday July 11th

I will bring a bbq and some hotdogs, chips and pop to entice you,

Please bring a refillable bottle and I will bring water and some juice or pop,

We will need people to bring gloves,

Mosquito repellent (they will be bad),

If you have a chain saw and safety equipment then we could use you,

If you have a come-a-long that too would be useful

I will be on site shortly after 5pm, please drop by if you can make it; if you can only stay for a short time that is understandable.

We will focus on:

1. Removing the trees that are on the roadway

2. Clearing the debris from the guide fencing

3. Collecting garbage (there is very little as a major clean –up was completed a month ago)

4. Some minor silt clean up above high water mark if required by hand only in specific areas

Directions:

From the Intersection of Hwy 24 and Hwy 22 -

Head south until you reach the Bell Power Pole intersection (6.53 km or 4 miles). Continue south on gravel another 3.7 km (2.3 miles).

Turn west and go past the residential driveway. Then proceed down the hill to Legacy Island.

Map courtesy: TUC Bow River Chapter

Once again, the actual removal of silt from the boat launch and roadway may take a little longer as we will require new permits from Alberta Environment for this. I have already started this process, but it does take time for them to go through the process. There still may be an opportunity to get this done with a different type of permit and I am looking into that.

Thanks for your interest on this.

_____________________________________________________________
Brian Meagher (P.Biol.) Provincial Biologist Trout Unlimited Canada
#160, 6712 Fisher St. SE, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2H 2A7
O/ (403) 221-8360 D/ (403) 209-5185 F/ (403) 221-8368 C/ (403) 875-3264
E/ Bmeagher@tucanada.org www.tucanada.org

A fifteen minute brown

Michelle chatting with shuttle clients yesterday.  Photo: Bow River Shuttles

Being a little near sighted I couldn't tell for sure if the fish splashing the surface half way through my backing was a brown or a rainbow, only that it was an especially big fish. It hit my fly and then the fast water and struck off downstream.

The bushes, normally high on the bank, were low in the water and the brown, for that's what I decided it must be, fought in close to the bank endeavoring to enwrap the line. Clever.

From opposite ends we each pulled on the line and then indifferently, he shook free. A brown for sure. A fifteen minute brown.

I was rewarded with a fine rainbow later in the day which also went into my backing and I'm not sure who was more exhausted when she made the net. It must have appeared to be a good fight to the passing firemen boat as they circled and pulled in close, smiling, to watch the catch. I’ve never seen them do that before.

They too, may be, have been lamenting the long start to the fishing this year. Unseasonably high water still but there was two foot of clarity to work with and the fish were on again off again biting.

I slung twinned streamers for a while just for the exercise as a nymphed copper john was catching the fish. Green and brown two tailed mayflies were the hatches.

It was a great sunny day and for me, marked the beginning of summer.

The Bow River

Glenmore Trail/Graves Landing to 22X/Fish Creek Park

Wednesday July 06 2011

THANKS TO STEVE S. FOR THIS VERY FINE FISHING REPORT!

The Flyfish Journal - Vol 2 Is 4

Got the latest issue a few weeks ago. 

The black & white photography in the photo essay “Blue Collar Steel” is superb.

Wonderful writing in “Sangre Latino”. The author weaves a tale of the ‘jungle anglers’ in the days of his grandfather – the influence his grandfather had on him, and how some things have changed, or not, in current times.

“The coffee table fly fishing bible”

Available at your favourite Calgary fly shop.

The Flyfish Journal

Legacy Island & Carseland boat launches – A close look

Legacy Island

We took a trip to Legacy Island today, to see firsthand the damage caused by the flooding of the island during the recent high water runoff on the Bow River. Here is some of what we saw. 

All Photos: Bow River Shuttles. Click on images for larger version

NOTE: We took more photos, which we will be posting to my Facebook Page in the next few days. Be sure to keep an eye on that site. 

Brian Meagher wrote today (July 05):

“Just to let all those know who have offered, we are attempting to set a date to do an initial clean-up effort on the island to remove the trees that are blocking the road and boat launch. Right now I am focusing on an evening effort (unfortunately weekends do not work for me until August) to complete this. I will set a date very soon and ensure you are all notified.

(Right now I am looking at Monday July 11th or Tuesday July 12th - I will have this finalized by Thursday of this week)

The actual removal of silt from the boat launch and roadway may take a little longer as we will require new permits for this action. I have already started this process, but it does take time for them to go through the process. There may be an opportunity to get this done with a different type of permit and I am looking into that.

Thanks for your interest on this.”

Legacy Island Cleanup – Volunteer Workday #2

Date: TBD, possibly Monday July 11th or Tuesday July 12th

Participants: TUC Bow River Chapter.

Bow River Shuttles writes (again):

“Who is TUC Bow River Chapter? If you walk & wade the Bow River, float fish the Bow River, guide fly fishing on the Bow River, then YOU are TUC Bow River Chapter.

Legacy Island Cleanup #1 on May 07 produced 6 volunteers, out of a possible total of over 1,000. We can do better than that.” :-) 

Please RSVP Your Interest to Attend To:

Brian Meagher

Alberta Provincial Biologist

Trout Unlimited Canada

(403) 209-5185

Email - bmeagher@tucanada.org

Johnson’s Island (Carseland)

When we learned last week that the spring rains had caused a ‘serious slump’ in the access road leading to the Carseland boat launches, we envisioned some sort of minor land slide that might have covered some of the road.

What we saw today was quite different from that.

It could best be described as a ‘fracture line’ that one would see at the very beginning of a snow 'slab avalanche' in the backcountry.

You could see the fracture line crossing the road immediately in front of the park gate. The road was very noticeably an inch or two lower on the other side of the fracture line.

We assume the line ran along the top of the valley to the east, on the left of the road. Further down the road, just before the curve to the first switch back, the fracture line crossed the road again, this time heading downhill.

The line was very visible in the grass, as it made its way down to the next crossing of the road.

After crossing the road, the line became hard to see, as it continued downhill in the tall grass.