Fishing Trips- Lower Bow River

Happy thanks giving everyone. It is now October 10, 2006 here and the long weekend is now over. What a fantastic weekend of fishing again here on the Bow River. I was finally able to take my good friend Isabelle out fishing for her first time this year. We have been talking about going fishing for quite some time now and our schedules finally worked out. We started out at 9:00 AM and the top end of the float was a little slow. I finally landed my first fish after about twenty five minutes of fishing.

Isabelle took a little while longer but her first fish was worth the wait, an 18 inch brown trout. Then shortly after her first fish she makes a perfect cast about one foot short of the shore, starts to reel the minnow spinner out from the shore than wham-o; a 25 inch Rainbow hammers the hook. She does an excellent job battling the fish and gets it to the boat with no problems. I should have used the net on this fish but I opted not to, and the big one got away. So no photographic evidence this time but that’s o.k. our fishing day was only half over.

Fishing Trips- Lower Bow River

We stopped for lunch where the Highwood River meets up with the Bow River and had a sandwich and then carried on. I switched Isabelle’s hook over to the Panther Martin Sonic Spinner and within twenty minutes she was into some smaller Rainbow’s. Today I was rowing the boat and guiding so my new fishing partner could pound out some of the Bow Rivers largest trout. A short time later she has a 23 inch big boy Rainbow on the end of her line. I’m telling you with the rite guide and the rite tackle, you can catch some extremely large fish on the Bow River. This is why people come from all over the world to fish the Bow River system, hard fighting large Brown and Rainbow trout.

Isabelle’s last fish of the day was a 23 inch Rainbow that probably weighed 5-7 pounds. She was kind enough to stop fishing for awhile and row the boat so I could at least save face and catch something over 20 inches. So if your wondering how the fishing is here on the Bow River system in October, it’s still very good. The pictures of our trip are in the photo gallery. Enjoy and I will keep you posted on my next journey down the Bow River.

General Info- Bow River

Hello again from Calgary, Alberta Canada. It’s now the beginning of October and the fishing on the Bow River is still pretty good at this time. I went down to do some shore fishing and made out pretty good. I arrived at dusk or 6:35 pm and started out with the Blue Fox Minnow Spinner with no luck. I kept this lure on for about 15 minutes and then changed over to the Panther Martin Sonic Spinner. I often try new techniques when I am out on the water and tonight was no exception. I tied up the spinner (number 15 in size, yellow body with a silver blade) and proceeded to fire away at will.

I was casting upstream as far as I could cast and letting the lure bottom bounce along the river bed. As the lure was bouncing I would pull it off the bottom and let it bounce again. I would lift it off the bottom about 1-2 feet and then slowly reel it in towards the shore. On my third cast I hit a smaller Brown trout; he was oh about 13-15 inches but very feisty though. I proceeded downstream on the river using the same technique and then I smashed a 22 inch Rainbow trout from the slower moving water. I seemed as though this was the presentation they were looking for tonight.

General Info- Bow River

A little piece of advise for all you fisherman out there. When you think the fish are not there or you think that they are not biting, or you’ve used almost every hook in you box; try a different technique. This is sometimes my last resort but I go out to catch fish every time. I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t want to leave until I have hooked at least one fish. I think that’s called an obsession but I am not positive on that.

Another key point is if one color pattern is not successful try a different color lure of the same brand name, sometimes it’s just the color they are hitting on. And then if all of that fails completely pack up and go back the next day. I know that’s very hard to do but it’s good for your sanity. If you are looking for more information than leave a comment on this post and I will gladly answer any and all of you questions. Good luck on your next fishing trip and always remember that safety is the number one priority.