Gone Fishing- The Lower Bow River

Trout Fishing in the Fall.

Fall has set here in Alberta and the leaves are already turning their annual colors from green, to yellow and red. I left the house today in search of peace and quiet and those big trout that seem to be hungry around this time of the year. Fall can be one of the best times of the year to fish for trout. If there are Brown Trout where you live than you very well know that Browns spawn in the fall and always look to fatten up during this season. I always take full advantage of this knowledge and search out pools where I suspect these trout will be occupying. I always pack in more gear than I usually use in a day but it never hurts to be fully equipped now does it?  My back pack which I substitute for those ugly plastic tackle boxes, now weighs approximately 50 pounds. Why so much gear you ask, well why not a wide variety to choose from. If you limit your gear to only one type of lure than you limit the odds of catching fish. What happens if the fish want spoons that day and you only have spinners? What if they will only take bait fish imitations and no spinners or spoons. Do you see my point? 

Today as the leaves were falling into the water and the afternoon shower had subsided, I chose to tie up a pure white spinner and cast away into the tail end of a riffle known to produce big browns and rainbows as well. It seemed as though the browns were just not there but the rainbows were interested in my presentation of dressed spinner bait. I set the hook firmly into the first fish and slowly began to gain ground on him, taking in the slack he peeled off. This fish was wily and was doing his very best to shed that hook. He became air born three times as I battled to keep him in the water. You do this by turning your rod down toward the water. After several minutes I finally landed this aggressive trout on the rocky shoreline. This was only the beginning of what was to come. I moved up river and duplicated my cast slowing up my retrieve speed to let the hook sink deeper into the river and bang, another rainbow was battling to get free. This fish was larger than the first and taped out at 23 inches and had that lovely dark red stripe from head to tail.

I switched lures again after great success with the Bang Tail to a Minnow Spinner. The color I selected was silver with a silver spinner blade. I figured if they were taking the all white spinner, than they would surely take the silver minnow spinner. I casted straight upstream and reeled in the minnow bait when my sixth rainbow of the afternoon took flight from the chilly water. I landed him and snapped a couple of photos. I had an excellent day out on the river bank and tried an assortment of lures while fishing today. I chose lures that were perfect for this time of the season and landed six fish for my efforts. I guess it goes to show you that the better the selection of tackle, the more fish you will catch.