Peacock Bass & Steelhead

David Blair (Fish Tales Fly Shop) & Peacock Bass
Photo, courtesy Fish Tales Fly Shop

Sun Mar 11 (1:00 pm): Agua Boa Recap

Join David for this re-cap of his recent trip to the Amazon’s Agua Boa Lodge. Dave and 7 anglers spent February 25 – March 3 fishing for peacock bass, aruwana, and more.

Fish Tales Fly Shop - Seminars

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Brent Piche (Country Pleasures Fly Shop) 
tying Steelhead patterns. 
Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2011

Sat Mar 10 (10 am): Introducing the Intruder (& other Steelhead patterns)

Brent Piche ties some of his most prized possessions, steelhead intruders and ties some other popular patterns, with a twist of course.

Country Pleasures Fly Shop - Seminars

Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2011

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

International Women’s Day 2012

There are many ways to make a difference on this special day. Here is just one.

International Women’s Day 2012

Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2011

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

Blood Knot Magazine – “The Black Issue"

Some weird stuff. Some funny stuff. Some good stuff.

You’ll be entertained!

P.S. Have a look at “Synthetic Wonderland” by Stu Tripney of New Zealand.

We were pleased to screen several segments of Stu’s film “A Foam Odyssey” at my recent Back Cast Fly Fishing Film Festival!

Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2011

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles

The Zen of Fish & Watersheds - Mar 10, 2012

THE ZEN OF FISH & WATERSHEDS

Saturday, March 10, 10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Ghost River Fire Station, Benchlands

Lorne Fitch will share his perspective on Albertaʼs Eastern Slopes Fisheries from 1880-2008.

What is happening to native fish in the headwaters of southern Alberta rivers? The fish of the Eastern Slopes of Southwestern Alberta are well-adapted to a rigorous landscape, but cannot cope with the scope and scale of human-caused changes over the last century.

Raised in rural Alberta, Lorne has a B.Sc. in Zoology from University of Calgary. He has worked as a Fisheries Biologist, a Regional Habitat Biologist and a Regional Fisheries Biologist. His current work focuses on explanations for how the natural world works. Those explanations allow people to make better decisions about how to use landscapes.

Lorneʼs work has received some prestigious awards. He is currently the Provincial Riparian Specialist with the Cows & Fish program and an Adjunct Professor with the University of Calgary.

Following Lorneʼs talk, Amanda Bogen-Halawell will present results of the 2011 Riparian Health Inventories done by Cows & Fish in the Ghost Watershed.

Refreshments will be served and there will be time to meet and mingle.

Please RSVP to office@ghostwatershed.ca by March 08.

Hope to see you there!

Ghost Watershed Alliance Society

Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2011

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

Boat Launch Report - March 02 2012

Last Friday, March 02, 2012 was a mostly sunny day and we decided to make our annual early-March tour of the Bow River boat launches.

During a round trip of about 190 kms, give or take, here is what we saw.

If you’d like to see what the boat launches looked like in early March of 2011 and 2010, just hit this link.

All photos: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

The City has installed a locked gate at the entrance to the 17th Ave/Cushing Bridge boat launch.

17th Ave/Cushing Bridge (upstream)

17th Ave/Cushing Bridge (downstream)

Glenmore Trail/Graves Landing

22X/Fish Creek Park

22X/Fish Creek Park

Policeman's Flats

Policeman's Flats

McKinnon Flats (upstream)

McKinnon Flats (parking lot)

McKinnon Flats (waaaaay downstream, at S Bend)

McKinnon Flats

Legacy Island (upstream)

Legacy Island (downstream)

Carseland/Johnson's Island

Carseland/Johnson's Island

Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2011

Michelle with shuttle clients getting set up for launch

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

Tying The Double Bunny Streamer

Kyle Snarr, with help from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, tyes a Double Bunny. :-)

COSIA is born

Executives from the 12 biggest oilsands producers unite Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Calgary to announce the creation of the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance. The "overarching collaborative hub" was formed to share information and help advance research and technology to improve environmental practices.

Photograph by: Dean Bicknell , Calgary Herald

On Friday, twelve companies involved in oil sands extraction announced that they are joining forces in what they are calling COSIA – Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance.

They propose to cooperate on strategies dealing with four environmental issues: tailings, land, water and greenhouse gasses.

There was an editorial, “Clearing the Fog” in yesterday’s Calgary Herald as well as an opinion piece “COSIA needs to ‘up its game’ to survive” by Deborah Yedlin.

A related article “Green alliance draws praise” noted that The Pembina Institute and The Nature Conservancy of Canada were in the audience at the news event, and “applauded the goals of the initiative”.

Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2011

A good example of a skiff-style drift boat
Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

Today along the Bow River - Mar 03, 2012

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

Scale Magazine - Issue #4 Mar 2012

Check out ‘Garden of Eden: Amazon Adventures’ in the latest issue of ‘Scale: Fly & Spin Fishing Magazine’ . Great information and even better photos!

Then swing over to Fish Tales Fly Shop and have a look at the album they are building with photos from David Blair and his group who are fly fishing the Amazon at this very moment.

Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2011

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

Today along the Bow River - Mar 02, 2012

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

We made our annual early March tour of the Bow River boat launches. More on that later.

On the McKinnon Flats road, we spotted a small pack of three coyotes. What a pretty sight!

We've often seen lone coyotes, and occasionally a pair. But I think this is the first time we've come across three traveling together.

Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2011

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

Back Cast Fly Fishing Film Festival - A Look Back #2

Walter and Susan Simbirski at Back Cast Fly Fishing Film Festival

All photos: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Canada was the beneficiary for my 2012 Back Cast Fly Fishing Film Festival. Net proceeds from this event are donated to PHWFFC.

PHWFFC was very well represented by Walter Simbirski (Director at Large - Alberta) and his wife Susan.

Walter provided an introduction to PHWFFC to film fest attendees at the start of each show.

That was followed by "Operation Dry Fly". This ten minute movie, produced by Rick Harding on the Elk River in Fernie in 2010, gives a further introduction to the origins of PHWFFC and some of its current projects.

Davy Jones (1945-2012)

Daydream Believer and I'm a Believer were two of our favourites. Great memories!

Looking back along the Bow River - Season 2011

Not your father’s F-150.  But our shuttle driver didn’t mind.

Photo: Copyright Bow River Shuttles 2012