This is the time of year that I never seem to enjoy very much. The only fishing a guy can do is from the shore or sitting over a hole in the ice somewhere cold. Ice fishing is just not for me, this type of fishing is summed up with one word; boring. I love the summer months when a guy can get in his dingy and go fishing all day long. I gave up skiing some time ago so there’s not much to do in the winter outside for me. I’ve decided to go fishing tomorrow with the afternoon high being only minus four degrees Celsius. That is not so bad to go fishing, so off to the Bow River I go to see what kind of monster trout will be hungry for my snacks.

I’ll meet up with the newfie and I’ll probably take him to school as usual. Hopefully the big trout will co-operate and we will get some excellent pictures once again. I have a hunch the big fish moved to the south west side of the river. When I get a hunch it’s usually a good thing! Anyhow, enough jibber jabber from me, it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. I’ll keep you all updated. Oh yes I almost forgot, I’ll have some fun while I’m at it.

We seem to be getting some very nice weather here in Calgary, Alberta with today’s forecast at 9 degrees Celsius. My friend Todd and I arranged to meat down at the Bow River at twelve thirty to do some trout fishing on the Bow River. When I arrived I could not help but wonder if the big Brown’s have started to make their way back down from their fall spawn. The Brown’s here on the Bow make their way upstream in August then make their way back down stream after they have spawned out. I decided to start fishing a deeper pool on the east side of the river with a Berkley Frenzy crankbait. The color I chose first was the black and silver combo.

I tie up and fire away, nothing on the first cast so I keep plugging away. About the fifth or sixth a cast a massive 25 inch Brown hammers my lure and the fight is on. I land this massive hog and release him to fight another day, but not without a few photo’s first. The next fish turned out to be the biggest fish of the day, another massive Brown Trout measuring 27 inches in length and weighing in at 7-10 pounds. I then clue in that there are probably some more huge fish occupying this deeper hole that we are fishing in.

I proceed to move down stream and fish the tail end of the pool, on about my third cast I see a large fish following my Berkley Frenzy and I’m running out of room so I stop my retrieve and wham-o; a 25 inch Rainbow hammers my hook and goes on a big run. I try to reel this scrappy fat Rainbow in to shore, but he straightened the hook and swim to freedom before I could land him. That’s the really cool thing about the Bow River, you can go down and fish for three or four hours and do very well almost any time of day or year.

So were only here for a half an hour so far and I’ve landed three fish over 20 inches, our day has just begun. We fished for a while longer in this hole and I managed to pull out two more trout, one Brown that was about 21 inches in length and one Rainbow that was over 20 inches but very fat. We then decided to move further upstream to try our luck in another deeper spot on the river.

Todd made his way to the hole before I did and he was able to land his first fish of the day, an 18 inch Brown, we snapped a picture and gently released him. I changed hooks to a Minnow Spinner and shortly after pulled in a smaller Brown. Todd banged in to another bigger Rainbow shortly after which brought a big smile to his face. I changed lures again to a Zinger (blue magic finish) and piled into a scrappy Rainbow Trout. The sun was going down by this time and we decided to end our trip off in the deeper pool we started at.

We got back to the hole about an hour after we moved upstream and I switched color patterns from the silver I was using to gold, and landed three more fish as a result of smart fishing. I can honestly say that this was one of my best days of shore fishing I’ve ever had. Nobody around all day, a nice warm sunny day and big fat trout. Two words to sum up this awesome fishery, totally unbelievable.