Alberta River Report Roundup and Sage Xi3's Available Online

As promised, we have just added the Sage Xi3's to our online store. Be sure to grab one quickly, they're selling fast!
http://www.countrypleasures.com/store

We haven't done a river report lately, so here's a quick roundup of what is going on with our rivers.


The Bow:
The Bow is fishing mediocre to good. Some days the hopper fishing is unbelievable, while others it definitly leaves you wanting more. Best bet to do 'ok' no matter what is a hopper-dropper rig. You'll find fish eating hoppers and the bead, and the bead fishing has gotten better in the last week or so. Streamer fishing has been so-so, with the deeper throughs holding more fish. This is the time of year to hit the pre-spawn browns, so be ready for fat fish!

The flows are hovering around 80, so you can run into some weed problems, and makes nymphing a lot fun. Hopefully we'll get a massive runoff next year to clean up our river again.

With the colder weather, we're seeing Psuedo's around, and the BWO's should be imminent. All we need is a nice drizzly day, and you should be able to find some fish sipping.

The High Country:
Most of the High Country streams are running clear, but a little cold for the time of the year. Some of the areas have had close to freezing temperatures at night, and the rivers are running a bit high for the time of year. The water temps are quite cold in the mornings, and the afternoons are fishing much better due to this. Ants, BWOS and smaller hoppers are all fishing well.

The Crowsnest:
The Crow is fishing quite typical for this time of year. Fish are easily to spook with the clear water, but you should be able to fool them with thin tippet and a small bug. BWO's are present, and will become more present with a bit of overcast. Hopper fishing can still be quite good, and is worth doing with a mayfly nymph as the dropper. Don't forget your ants!

Southern Alberta River Reports

Trico on the Bow

Me and Caity floated the Bow with George Beasley on Tuesday and had a ton of fun.

Caitlin with a very nice bright day Hopper Rainbow

Here's the reports from Southern Alberta as of late

The Bow River:
The river is fishing well again, especially on dark days. The Trico fishing in the morning has been pretty good, and a non-windy day goes a long way in finding rising fish.
The hopper fishing has been pretty good on overcast days, and the fish are definitely responding negatively to bright days. Find some cloud cover, and you'll find rising fish.

Even with the hot weather, there is no need to heavy nymph to find fish. Hoppers love the hot weather, and fishing a big hopper in choppy water off of high banks, or mid-river slots can definitly produce some amazing fish. A dropper can be added if you like, but we've been taking to cutting off the dropper lately to get closer to the banks and finding more fish on top.

Caddis fishing has been ok, but with the rain we've been getting in the afternoon's and evenings has made it a lot harder to find a substantial hatch.


The Oldman River:
The Oldman is high and has some color. It is very reminiscent of the last week of June, first week of July flows and color. The water is very cold for the time of year, and the fish aren't too happy about it. You'll find the odd rising fish, but the hopper/stonefly fishing has not been great like the previous years. Could take a while to drop, considering how high the flows are right now. Most spots are tough to cross, and I'd reccomend picking your crossings carefully.


The Highwood River:
The Highwood is much higher for this time of year then previous years, but the water is clear. However, the water is cold and can make finding happy rising fish a little harder. Keep walking and you'll be sure to find a few.

Alberta River Fishing Report Roundup

Heres a report from most of the rivers that we frequent for the last few days.
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Bow River Report:

The Bow is fishing better again, especially on overcast days. The elbow is finally starting to clear up, so we're seeing better visibility each day. All stretches of the river are fishing quite well, and you can still be fishing big foam bugs to great success. Caddis fishing continues to be great, especially with the diminishing PMDs. Look for fish sipping caddis on grassy banks and in foam lines. We should continue to have good caddis fishing and the tricos are starting to show down on the lower end. Should be good fishing for a long time (we hope anyway)
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High Country Report:

The cutty's are finally looking up consistently. The water temps have increased dramatically since the big rain, so the fish are finally happy to be eating on top.Green drakes, Stimulators, Humpies and anything with rubber legs seems to be working extremely well. A caddis tossed over a tough fish usually gets an eat when presented with a solid drift.Be on the look out for bullys, they'll be on the move and killing whitefish like it's their jobs (oh wait, it is!).
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Crowsnest Report:

From the reports we've been getting from the Pass, the crow is fishing extremely well right now. The water has receded and cleaned up at last.Caddis, stoneflies, hoppers and green drakes continue making the fish rise. Using a hopper dropper setup will certaintly have some success on both top and bottom. Don't forget PMDs as they have been fishing well in the evenings as well.

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Highwood River-July 20

Just back from a long day at the Highwood River, fished very well for both Bulls and Cutts.
Clarity is great, Stimulators and good old Humpy's worked well for Cutts while large, light streamers were very effective for Bulls.
More information and pictures will be posted on Wednesday.

We noticed a large amount of evidence of the use of bait (recent use) so remember if you see someone who is illegally using bait call it in, the number can be found on the back of your license.
The more information you can collect, the better this includes license plates, physical description, location and even the type of bait they are using.

-C.

Conditions Update

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain. Let it STOP raining.
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While the rain is much needed it would be better received if it didn't come down in torrents. Many anglers got stuck in the extreme weather yesterday, a few trying to stick it out while most gave up and went home.
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It was early afternoon when the color change occurred, the pounding rain caused the river to rise and mud up. The Bow River spike at 153cms at 2:00 pm yesterday and has dropped to 123cms (at 5:30 am.) Its no surprise it did this since the Elbow Ranger Station received 50.8 mm of rain in six hours yesterday which explains why the Elbow would jump up to 63 cms (from 8 cms.) The Sheep River is also pumping in dirty causing the Bow below the Highwood confluence to dirty slightly as well. Above Fish Creek we've had reports of good visibility.
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This clarity level and light is perfect for a Flesh Colored Medusa or Silvey's Sculpin Leech.
Also working consistently is the Chamois Leech and of course, the Golden Stone.
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If your planning on heading further south, the conditions may be a bit better but they still received a large amount of rain in the Oldman River Sub Basin.
A Oldman River report will up ASAP, probably tomorrow morning.
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. Hooked on National Geographic is apparently not airing in Canada at this time, but still be on the lookout for it.