Spin Fishing The Bow River On A Warm Winters Day

It ended just like it began!

If you live in a place that gets’ cold and snows in the winter, you then know how hard it sometimes is to make it out to your local river for some open water fishing. Lucky I live in Alberta where a Chinook is a welcomed friend and a warm companion in December. Every week that passes I get more and more cooped up, wishing I could be on the river fishing instead of on my couch waiting for spring to arrive. No way could I last one more day in the house!

I have wanted to fish the last month or so but it seems every time the weekend rolls around it gets to cold and another week comes and goes with no fishing. Today there was no holding me back. I packed up my gear and loaded it into the car; the dog was even scratching my leg to get out. I loaded him up too and drove to the Bow River bundled up and raring to go. The heart was thumping and the juices were flowing. I let the dog off the leash and he bolted straight for the river. I made the first cast into a drop in the river and retrieved the lure quickly as to not bottom snag. I was almost all the way in to shore and I caught sight of the brown trout that was in hot pursuit. I was not able to hook him and he then bolted back out into the river. It was time to travel and I walked upriver about fifty yards. The Livingston Lure looked like it was going to be the hot ticket for the day. I will be selling these lures via my website so I needed to test them out before I endorse them and sell them here. I will let you all know when they become available for sale here on the Blog.

I was confident my new location was the position and fired out again cranking that lipless lure intensely hoping for my first trout. The thought crossed my mind after numerous attempts that the fish were looking for a slower presentation. Off came that lure and on went the Rapala Countdown! I made a few more casts in this area and came up empty. It was time to travel again, this is a pattern I have developed while fishing the banks over a river. Never stay in one place too long. I decided it was time to fish a deeper pool of the river and walked instantly up to the hole.

I was casting into the tail out of the pool, not the very end of the pool but the last quarter. Each cast I put a long pause on it hoping the fish would catch up and pound my Rapala. Shortly after fishing the pool I was into a superior fish, he slammed the lure on the pause and I was determined to land him swiftly. Just as I made up some line he slashed hard and broke free. Come on I said to myself! That empty feeling set in and I was feeling a little dejected. I walked a little more upriver to make my lure swing into where I hooked my first fish. The trick worked and soon after my first fish I was scrapping another first-class brown. The fish was profound and boy was he fighting hard despite the cold water. I got him to turn and needed to reel him in quickly before he got off. He had better plans and was gone in under ten seconds.

I was doing some live Facebook updates for my friends who love to fish as much as I do. The first update states “Man they want it slow today, no slimy hands yet…” I stopped fishing and started thinking. I needed to slow the lure down so they could actually take it and not just lightly hook them like I was doing. I tried a few more casts in the head of the pool where I hooked another great sized brown, I wanted this fish badly and did my very best to land him but to no avail, he was gone and I was very dejected. The next Facebook update said “That’s three big fish that just got away, insert chosen swear words here…I know where they are now at least…”

So off went the Rapala and on went the Minnow Spinner. For those of you who do not know what a Minnow Spinner is, it is the body of a minnow with a wire attached into the balsa wood body. There is a spinner on the wire which emits sonic vibrations, hence the name minnow spinner. I decided to leave the deep hole alone and wander on down river to give that spot a rest. I flung the minnow spinner outward and crossed my digits for a fish. I made the lure move leisurely in hopes the fish would catch it and I could finally land one. After countless attempts I finally hook a rainbow and bring it to hand. Ah the glory of that first trout made me happy. Then on the very next cast I brought a trout to the surface but he too could not catch up to my minnow spinner and was blessed to escape my grasp.

By now I had left the deep hole alone for twenty minutes and had a different lure on, that is also part of the pattern. Stick and move, stick and move like a trained boxer. I walked back to the middle of that deep pool and fired that minnow way out past where the fish were hanging in a weed bed just past the ice shelf that had formed there. I slowly made the lure move over the weed bed and boom, an exquisite brown trout is fighting hard to get unfastened. I maneuvered him past the ice and landed him just past the ice where I could get to the shore. I snapped a few quick pictures before I released him back into the nippy water. As I was walking back up, the ice below my right foot broke free and my foot was submerged up to my knee. My lure boxes went scattering on the shoreline as my foot began to get extremely cold immediately. Most guys would pack up and go but not me, I guess I’m just too stubborn for that. My foot was frozen, my lure boxes were scattered all over, and the lure on my rod was in a tree behind me. At this point I felt like a complete rookie out there.

I saw my buddy Todd walking towards my location and wondered why he had no gear with him. He arrived and I handed him my rod so he could have a go at it. Approximately three casts later he hooks into a sweet brown trout that was landed. I snapped the shutter rapidly before he released the fish back into the river. He asked me how the fishing was and I filled him in. He hooked another trout soon after his first and stated “man we sure are spoiled”. Yes we are spoiled I replied while handing him my pliers to remove the hook from the trout’s toothy lower jaw. It was getting time to leave so we fished our way downstream casting as we walked. Todd hooked two more rainbows and then handed the rod back to me so I could finish strong with some more fish.

I purposely left that stretch of river alone as I planned to fish it on the way out. I fired out with a Rapala Todd had tied up before we walked out. I said to Todd, I feel a fish coming on and stopped the lure and then he smashes it right on cue. I started to feel like a professional again! Todd started laughing and says “gotta love it when you call it like that”. Indeed you do gotta love it. As we were almost at the end of our destination, I asked Todd to give me the rod back. “I bet there is a pig just sitting there in that drop off buddy” It just looked like there would be a fish holding there and I wanted a few cracks at it. I had the gold Rapala Countdown on a flicked it out in front of where I thought the fish would be sitting, the first cast yielded nothing. On the next cast I adjusted the angle and slowed it up pausing along the way. On the second pause I thought I hit a bottom snag until the fish started pumping my rod up and down like crazy. Ok this is the trout I have been looking for all day, he rises up to the surface and I see his profile. At least twenty five for sure and he is angry. I needed to get him away from the ice ledge that was directly in front of me. I had to walk down river five yards or both my feet would have gotten wet. I was conscious to keep a tight line and as soon as I made the second step he was off. Wow what a beast of a fish and he was right where I thought he was going to be. So the day ended off just like it began, with that hollow blank feeling only a lost fish could provide.

As I type this story and look out my window at snow, I am grateful I was able to fish the river yesterday. You gotta love those days when a Chinook blows through and let’s you fish in open water for even just a few hours. I can’t wait for the next Chinook to blow through again, please Mother Nature give us another Chinook soon.