Brown Trout And Coconuts

I got down to the river today around noon and parked near the water treatment plant as you suggested.  Hiked a short way to the river and found it dirty from the city storm run-off.  Maybe 12″ of visibility in some places, but I figured I’d try my luck anyway.  I walked downriver towards the Deerfoot Bridge and tried a variety of lures, mostly Rapala Countdowns and a couple of Panther Martin spinners.   No luck until about 1:30 when I hooked into a nice 16″ brown on the Brown Trout Countdown (thanks for the tip).  Then nothing again until I got past the bridge and then, just like the other days, at around 2:30 PM, I started getting fish.  I had switched to a Berkley Frenzy Gold Shiner which brought in two nice browns and an 18″ rainbow but then it went dead again about 3:15 PM.  Weird how that happens.
 
So I changed to a Berkely Frenzy Silver Shiner and bang… I started getting fish again.  A fly fisherman came by just as I hooked into a nice 20″ brown and that’s who took the picture.  He started fishing nearby and saw me take another brown on the Berkley, so he came over to get a better look at what I was using.  I showed him the Berkley (he called it a Rapala and I didn’t correct him) and explained how I was casting straight out and letting the lure drift slowly and when it came around on the downstream swing, that’s when the fish hit.  So he digs in his tackle and comes up with a silver/black streamer (called a Clouser Minnow) and starts to fish it just as I described, and he starts getting fish.  He got three while I was nearby, one being a nice 20″ Brown.  I took a couple of pictures for him and he thanked me for the tip!!  That’s a first for me… usually the fly fishermen don’t say much about the fact I’m spin casting or they wait until they think they’re out of earshot to comment on how “anyone can catch trout with spinners”.  Yeah, well, it just goes to show that a smart fisherman is willing to take a tip from anyone… and the smart ones catch fish!!
 
You’re probably wondering about the reference to coconuts in the subject line… well, I mostly walk and wade when I fish and I find all kinds of strange things on the river, mainly because we’re downstream from the city.  Today, I was walking along and saw a blue package tied with a red string stuck between a couple of rocks in the water.  I kicked it up on the shore and slipped of the string and started peeling back the layers of cloth and nearly freaked.  I swear the first thing I thought when I saw what was inside was that someone had put a shrunken skull in there.  But it turned out to be a coconut and off all things a quarter.  So I took a couple of pictures, tossed the quarter up onto the bank (with a little wish to the Fish Gods) and moved on.  Another spring day on the Bow River, 7 Browns, 1 Rainbow, 1 Coconut and a quarter.  Not bad.
 
Chris B.

Bow River Fishing Report

As the weather warms up my fishing gear comes out. I almost could open my own tackle shop with the amount of lures I have amassed over this long cold winter. I have put in many hours on the internet and in fishing stores collecting the gear I will need to guide the river this season. I figured I may as well mosey on down to the Bow River and see if those fancy new colors will work. I called Todd and we met at Wholesale Sports. Todd bought a new fishing rod and reel, the Berkley Series One fishing rod and added a Pflueger Supreme spinning reel to it. We briefly browsed the shelves and picked out some more fishing line, eight pound Berkley XT monofilament. We left the store and jetted to the river. A hike in and we were there, the water stained and high from the melting hot sun.

On goes the hot new color and out into the river casting far to improve my odds of hooking a fish. A second cast rewards me a nice brown trout about sixteen inches in length which I unhooked and released. There was a great deal of ice along the shore so we settled into a spot a little further down river of where I caught the first fish. I managed to catch another nice rainbow, and then another, and another. Here is a piece of advice for you, I almost always do this but failed to do yesterday, check your hooks and your knot after hooking every fish you catch. Sometimes your knot will come loose or the line will fray a little from the fighting fish or the hook will straighten a little. I chucked my lure back out without looking at the knot or the hooks. In the middle of the river I get thumped, bang and no hook up just a good hit. I slow the retrieve and stop the lure, still no fish. I pick up the pace and reel smoothly and wham-o, I am into something large. I fight the fish for a second or two and then the line breaks like a dry twig. I reel in the line and check it, sure enough the knot was good but the line that connected to the split ring was broken. I was disappointed and tied another hook on and tried to forget about the one that got away.

Todd was a little slow to start out but finished with a good day, three large rainbows’ that were all over twenty inches long. His second fish was magnificent, what colors in that rainbow and not a mark on the body. His mouth had a little scar from someone previously catching him but that healed up nicely. I was able to hook and land a dozen fish yesterday, not too bad all things considered. It looks as though we are turning the corner into spring now and hopefully the weather stays on the plus side so we can all come out of hibernation and fish the rivers and lakes once again.

Lately I have been getting a lot of queries for fishing reports on the bow river, so I have decided to make a new category to address these inquisitions. In the categories side you will see the new link “Bow River Fishing Reports”. I encourage each and every reader to contribute to this new link. After you go fishing please send me a quick response to how your day went, once you enter a few posts on the report I will upgrade your status on the Blog to “author”. You will be able to make posts directly without me moderating the information. Please include the date and where you fished in the information you post. In turn we can help other people with the information posted here. I look forward to seeing your reports as soon as you finish fishing the river/lakes you frequent often. Cheers to your fishing successes.