Second Season On The Bow

This year makes me wonder about inconstencies at several levels. The weather keeps switching from Summer to Spring, sometimes even acting like Fall. Fish happy as I've ever seen for a number of days, followed a river full of lockjawed residents. One of the things that make me wonder most is what happened around the first few days of August. All of a sudden, after perhaps the highest level of angler insanity ever seen on the Bow, the people have all but disappeared.

What happened? The fish are still there. There's bugs around. Lots of Caddis, Tricos just getting started with some fish eating them, and even some fresh Stonefly shucks kicking around.

Last weekend I fished the river on both Saturday and Sunday (the long weekend I should point out) and it was almost eerie. During two days on the river we saw but a handful of boats. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I just don't get it. For about 28 days in July (any copyright infringement is accidental) those of us who enjoy the fruits of the Bow were in a frenzy. 30 or more boats every morning at Policeman's, anglers getting on the river to fish nymph and indicators in the dark, two dozen boat trailers in parking lots before 6 AM, driftboat/jetboat fights, it was anarchy. I'm pretty sure that there were fish on Police to Mac that did not see sunlight for days on end as they were constantly covered by a drift boat hull.

Now, nothing, and not a slow transition, the river went from Loony Bin to Ghost Town in a matter of days. What the heck? Has everyone who fishes the Bow forgotten the Caddis?, Tricos?, really good streamer fishing?, all that other stuff. I'm very perplexed.