SW Alberta September *Pic Heavy*

[ROVERT]

Back in the spring, I planned a solo trip to Alberta for September. The idea was to float the Bow for a couple of days with a guide and spend the rest of the time exploring the Old Man River system. One significant change to the trip occurred over the summer. My wife agreed to my 13 year old son missing some school and joining me on the trip. This would definitely affect the type and amount of fishing I would do but I was really excited to share this experience with him.



Day 1



We left from Dulles on the morning of the 9th, arriving in Calgary midday. Our Turo host met us at YYC and we were off. We made a couple stops for supplies, checked into our hotel, and headed for a Bow River trib southwest of Calgary. Being a Saturday, it wasn't surprising that all of the public access points on private lands had at least a couple of trucks parked at them. We followed the river until we hit public land and realized that we needed a Kananaskis Country pass to park there. It took a little backtracking to pick up enough cell signal to purchase the pass online. After driving quite a bit more than intended, we made it to the water. Without a lot of time left in the day, we found some likely water with some good woody structure. We found fish there but they were fussy. We hooked a couple and missed a few but only netted one on the first evening.

Day 2



Our plan was to fish the same river the next day but we chose to move one drainage to the north to a slightly less popular river given the number of anglers we had seen on

Saturday. We got to the river fairly early. The water was low and clear, which would be the story of the trip. For the most part, I sent my son through the best water with a dry or dry dropper and I followed with a streamer.

It didn't take long to catch my first Bull trout.

We covered quite a bit of water but had no luck on the dries or nymphs. The fishing may have been a slow but the location made up for it.

We moved north another drainage and didn't really find any water to fish that wasn't crowded, mostly with people recreating rather than fishing.



Our last stop of the day was a small creek that dumps directly into the Bow in west Calgary. We fished quite a distance upstream on public land. Here we found lots of small but willing fish.

It wasn't exactly what we were looking for but it got my son into some fish after a slow day.



Day 3



This was our first of two days floating with Scott of Bow River Fly Fishing Co. on the Bow.



Put in at McKinnon Flats

Hopper action was, unfortunately, nearly nonexistent due to low water levels. The hoppers were there but there wasn't much grass overhanging the water. We did a combination of indicator nymphing and hopper droppers. It didn't take long at all to start getting into fish.

 

[ROVERT]

Here's my first brown of the trip

We wrapped up the day with lots of fish to the net. My son had landed some nice fish and had a great day. It was really satisfying to see how much enjoyment the day had brought him. He was definitely excited for the next day.



Day 4



We met up with Scott and again put in at McKinnon Flats. This day we would fish a longer stretch of water with less wade fishing. We started with streamers and I got a nice bow pretty quickly.

My son was struggling with the streamers a bit so we switched back to indicators and dry droppers. It took a little while for the fishing to pick up but we were in for another good day. I caught my first whitefish, a couple of browns, and a bunch or rainbows. My son cleaned up on steady diet of bows once the bite turned on.

We caught, and lost, a lot of nice fish. This was my first time using a guide to fish. I was a little apprehensive but Scott was great.



It was hard to leave the Bow but the prospect of chunky cutts on dry flies had us excited for what was to come.



Days 5 and 6



We checked out early and headed south to fish a popular trib to the Old Man on our way to our next accommodation in Blairmore. The drive down the FTR was beautiful. The leaves were starting to turn and it was great to be back in the Rockies.

This was our first view of the river. Not bad.

 

[ROVERT]

We made our way into the canyon and found started with our previous strategy of my son going after them with dries and me following with streamers. It didn't take long to get into another bull.

Cold weather had arrived to Alberta with us and it took a while for the water to warm each day. It seemed to be around noon before any dry fly action was a real possibility. The fish also seemed to be congregated in a few pools and runs with few fish in the riffles and even many good looking pools vacant. Despite that we were able to find plenty of fish willing to rise and keep us interested for the afternoon. My son caught his first cutthroat which made for a pretty special memory in a pretty special place. We started the next day on the Old Man itself but moved back to this trib by the afternoon.

 

[ROVERT]

Day 7



We planned to fish a Crowsnest tributary well known for its grizzly population this day. We started on the west branch but moved only a few fish. The scenery was worth the hike, though.

After lunch, we headed downstream to the main stem to try our luck near an empty campground. While it was currently empty, it was very apparent that it gets a lot of attention. I managed one cutt below the campground but it was a frustrating day in terms of fishing, especially for my son.

We decided to try the Crowsnest for the evening. This was the first time, other than the Bow, that we left the bear spray in the car. We found this as soon as we started fishing.

Now, that looks like a black bear track to me but the bear that crossed the river just above my son was not black. I was pretty sure it was a cinnamon black bear but we loudly left by walking straight up the center of the river to the bridge where we had entered just in case.



I really wanted to get my son into some more fish the next day so I bought some one day licenses for BC and day permits for the Elk River which I had heard many good things about.



Day 8



We started out downstream from Sparwood at the Olsen launch. Had there been much more flow, my son would not have been able to cross it to access the water we wanted to reach upstream. There was nothing happening on top and he didn't want to nymph fish. I can't blame him too much as my nymphing efforts only turned up two small whitefish. Streamers did nothing. Somewhat discouraged, we decided to go above Sparwood to fish the river where it was a little smaller. We found a chunk of public land that had about a 1 km walk down to the river and started searching for fish. We covered a bunch of water and the only fish we could produce were by jigging streamers along undercut banks. Nowhere else or any other technique produced anything. We saw one rise which was induced by a combination of us walking the bank, disturbing grasshoppers and the wind blowing in the right direction. Of several dozen hoppers that were blown into the water, only one was eaten. I netted a few fish courtesy of a streamer and he lost one and missed one. My mission to get him into fish had failed. Catching isn't everything but its a big part of it when you're 13.

 

[ROVERT]

We stopped at the walking bridge just above Sparwood in the evening to see a disgusting number of cutts, whitefish, and bulls congregated in the deep bucket. One of the bulls was huge. Out of hundreds of fish, we saw a couple rises. On the way out of town we checked out the largest truck in the world. I had my doubts but google seemed to confirm it. My standing reach is about 8'4". It's a big truck.

Day 9



After couple of tough fishing days for my son, it was obvious that it was getting to him. We went back to our first Old Man trib to get after some cutts with dry flies. While I had been giving my son the best runs and pools throughout the trip, I decided to pretty much just guide this day. The weather had warmed a bit and we had pretty good cloud cover. The wind was a bit more than desirable but there were some olives on the water and we had a really good day. I tracked our route this day and know that we fished just over a mile of river. In that mile we found three pools with risers. Apart from one other large pool with cutts, whitefish, and bulls, we didn't find fish in any of the other equally good looking pools in that mile of water. The fish really seemed to be concentrated. I fished just long enough to catch one fish in the middle of the afternoon but the rest of the day was his. I would just hand him my rod with a BWO when they seemed to go off of the ant he was fishing and then rotate rods again when they went off the BWO.

The day certainly got a smile back on his face. When he caught his best fish of the day towards evening we decided to make that the last cast of the day and head back for dinner.



Day 10



This was our last fishing day. As we would be back in Calgary for the night, we decided to wade fish the Bow for a bit in the middle of the day. We got there late morning and quickly realized just how much water was out of reach without a boat. I got into several fish much more quickly than I expected, though nothing of any size. When they turned off, we walked far upstream to the next decent water we could reach. My son lost one but we didn't do much else. We walked back down to the first riffle we fished. It didn't take too many casts before my son hooked into his first brown of the trip. That put a smile on his face.

We both decided we would call it a trip with that fish.



It was a great trip with my son. It was the first time on a drift boat for both of us and I have developed a definite appreciation for what that tool brings to the table. Low water and cold temps didn't make things the easiest but it is definitely an area I would like to get back to. Now to try to convince my wife that we should go on a "boat trip" in Alberta for our 20th anniversary next summer...

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Yeah!
That is awesome!
Great pics and write up.

I'm sure it is something your Son will never forget.

 

[Tigereye]

Wow!!!!!

 

[wildtrout2]

Awesome trip, looks like you both had a great time! Alberta is a beautiful province. I hunted the Edmonton Bow Zone several times. Talk about a vast region, it seems to go on forever.

 

[goose54cdd]

Great report and great photos. A good father and son trip to remember.

 

[Clams]

Tremendous. Congrats on a great father/son trip!

 

[falcon]

Nice report and photos. Great time was had for all.

 

[lars]

Nice trip! Beautiful country.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Love it! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Boulders]

Building memories, your son will never forget that trip. Great photos and write up.
I fished SW Alberta for years.

 

[JimKennedy]

Everything about that report is beautiful.

 

[Mike]

Kananaskis Country is a great place for hiking to alpine lakes and “exciting”mountain peaks, fishing, scenery, and wildlife. Any step off the beaten path puts one in wilderness…griz, mtn lions, and wolves. Glad to see some pics (thank you) of the fisheries that I passed up there and elsewhere along your route when bicycle touring and hiking.

 

[ROVERT]

Thanks everyone. It was a great trip. We saw a lot of land based wildlife in addition to the fish. Mule deer were the most prolific. I was a little surprised when I found a shed whitetail antler at over 5000' elevation.

My son made a lot of progress as a fly angler on this trip. This past spring was the first time he caught and netted his own fish. To this point, he has only dabbled in fly tying. He now has a strong desire to catch a fish on a fly he has tied himself and land it himself. That will complete the cycle in his mind. I can't really argue with that, though I haven't introduced him to rod building yet.

Nearly all of the photos were taken with a GoPro. As a pretty committed DSLR user, it was hard to leave the Nikon and lenses at home but we were traveling light. I found the GoPro to be, perhaps, the best fishing camera. I'll make a post in the Gear forum about my experience with it rather than here.

 

[Shawn Joseph]

Looks like it was an awesome trip! Loved all the pics! I have a Nikon D500 and agree that it’s hard to leave behind but a trip like yours it would’ve been more cumbersome to bring along. Did you bring bear spray or a shotgun?

 

[tomgamber]

Amazing!

 

[ROVERT]

We had bear spray. It hurt to throw it away at the end of the trip. I would have left it for someone at an access point but the canisters have serial numbers and the purchase requires a similar amount of paperwork to a firearm purchase here.