May Long Weekend Bow River Fishing Adventure

Girls Just Wanna’ Have Fun

The clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped rapidly Friday night. As I was down checking water conditions I could see my breath as I stood along the river bank looking upriver at the weather front coming in over the N.E. end of Calgary. The wind was bending the tall weeds that line the banks of the river, still brown from winters chill. I opened my smart phone and checked the weather conditions for Saturday, said high of 4 degrees at 9:00AM and then gradually warming for the rest of the day. At least it never said -5 with snow! As we Albertans know, May long weekends are known for unpleasant weather and often that S word. Homeward I returned to dig out the hoodie and some long sleeve shirts, boy am I ever glad I wore several layers on Saturday morning.

I was contacted by Evelyne Asselin of CBC Canada a month ago in regards to a show she need to film. The show’s focus was on fish consumption in a metropolitan.  Evelyne’s request stated “CBC’s French network is doing a series about food in Alberta and we would like to do something on fishing in the Bow River”. Evelyne wanted to fish the Bow River and keep a few fish to eat as part of her television episode. So off onto the Bow River we went under overcast skies and mild temperatures. We met at the coffee shop and then onward to the boat launch at Graves Landing under the Glenmore Trail Bridge. We unpacked the gear from Evelyne’s truck and loaded the camera and tripod into the boat along with several bags of gear. I then tied up the hooks onto two rods and loaded the fishing gear up into the boat then off we went drifting peacefully on the river. After a few short minutes of floating, Evelyne started rolling footage with the backdrop of downtown Calgary seen from the middle of the river. I rowed the craft into the far bank where we cracked open the rods and heaved minnow imitations into the bank. Jinny had on a Rapala and Marie-pier was bottom bouncing a Panther Martin.

The first quarter of our journey was slow fishing wise and I decided to pull the boat off the river in the Southland Dog park area to fish the bank there. This location usually holds fish so I suggested we get out and fire away. Evelyne needed a fish to keep and cook for her piece so I was hoping to get that out of the way early in the trip. All of us piled out of the boat and I tied up a Rapala countdown Silver to fish alongside the ladies. The fishing was kind of slow at first then I got action, a large brown smashed my minnow and headed back into the deep looking to shake my lure free. I reeled him in as Evelyne rolled the tape. I landed the fish and removed the hook form its yapper. This fish was well over 35CM so I informed Evelyne we need to release the fish by law. No fish are allowed to be kept over 35CM so we released it back immediately.

We fished this location with no trout caught after that beautiful brown. I was really trying to get that keeper fish in that hole but no dice, time to shove off and move along! Rowing us along back into the flow, we set off for another shoreline location for more footage and fish. As we exited the boat and touched the bank, it was time to remove the Rapala’s and tie on some fresh spinners. The Rapala was not working its usual magic so out with the old and on with the new. I removed two Panther martins from the packages, a black salamander and a yellow with red dots. Only three casts in and Jinny had fish on, she reeled in the fish and it was a keeper trout, under 35CM. I lifted the fish onto the rocks and removed my knife from my vest sliding the sharp blade into the gills. It is better to kill a fish this way than to bonk it over the head with a club. When you bonk a fish over the head it releases endorphins that taint the taste of the meat. It is much better for you to slice the fish’s gills and let it bleed out, his way preserving the taste of the meat. I put the fish in the cooler to stay fresh and cold. Then Marie-pier got action, she also had a nice rainbow on and we kept her fish as well. So we had two fish for the ladies to cook. I was pleased we had all the footage for Evelyne’s episode. I was very happy we had all the necessary footage and fish in the cooler.

The rest of the float trip was kicking back and relaxing in the sunshine. I would like to thank Evelyne, Jinny and Marie-pier for a fantastic day on the river. It was my honor and pleasure to be in your company for the day. The girls caught 7 rainbows on the day; I would say that’s the definition of having fun! Today’s choices of lures were Rapala Countdowns, Panther Martin spinners and Luhr Jensen Bang Tails.