Hello all you die hard fisherman out there. I’m happy to report that the fishing on the Bow River is absolutely awesome right now. I do not know of any other river in the world that in an eight hour span, you can catch 50-60 trout. That’s how many fish I caught, my friend big Tom caught as many or more. He has fished all over Canada and has even guided on some big lakes and river systems in Ontario. Tom pretty much summed it up when he said to me “that’s the most fish I have ever caught in one day, this river is unbelievable”. Well Tom I would have to agree with you, I have never caught that many fish in one day either. Oh wait a minute, there was this time last year just after the flood that I caught 50 fish in one day, and then there was this time a couple of days ago, well I think you get the idea.

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This river has to be fished to be believed. And yes I will agree with you, certain times of the year are better than others, but on the grand scheme of things this is why people from all over the world come here to fish; lots of big hard fighting Brown and Rainbow trout. We caught so many my arm was sore when we finally ended our float at Carseland weir. The boat I use to float the Bow is a Sevylor fish hunter 360 which is a inflatable dingy which extends 12 feet long by about 6 feet wide and is the perfect water craft for the Bow River. Two people fit very comfortably in the boat and there is lots of room for all your gear and even 1 or 2 coolers for your lunch and cold drinks. This dingy is very stable and is very maneuverable in all conditions of water which makes it ideal for fishing all types of water.

I purchased the craft at Crown Surplus here in Calgary for around 300$ and was very satisfied with the boat once I took it out on the Bow River. My first dingy separated ever so slightly on the bottom of the boat which resulted in a small hole in the floor. I brought the boat back to Mike at Crown and he said that he needed to get a hold of the representative from Sevylor to see if would be warranty issue. He got back to me within a week and told me to come on down and get a new dingy. This kind of service is quite rare these days so I would like to thank Mike at Crown Surplus for all his help and prompt service and would highly recommend his company to anyone who needs a dingy.

Usually when we fish the Bow I am able to catch at least one good size Brown Trout but not on this trip, Tom was the lucky one this time around. He managed to haul in a nice sized Brown which probably was 20-22 inches in length. We were predominantly catching nice sized Rainbows all day. There was a good variety of fish caught which indicates a healthy fishery. I still am amazed at how hard these Rainbows fight and I should know well enough by now after fishing this river hundreds of times. I was getting 12-16 inch fish that fought like 20-22 inch trout. I can tell you one thing for sure, this river has to be fished properly to be highly successful. With the right lure on the end of your line, and some technical know how, you will do very well out here on the mighty Bow River.