Sunday, July 28, 2013
Friday, July 26, 2013
Fishing Reports - July 26
Bow River Report –July 26, 2013
Holy Mackerel! (Or Stickleback, as it may be), we’re down to 166 cms. Fishing has been pretty much like any other year during the third week of July….if it’s bright and sunny you have to work at it and if it’s cloudy it’s very user friendly.
Sink tip streamers and nymphs or Hopper/Dropper are your best bet on the bright days with early and late in the day being the most forgiving.
Floating line streamers and foam flies come into their own on the cloudy days. A little darkness and the dry fly stuff has been pretty respectable.
Contrary to the predictions from the hordes of experts, the fish, for the most part, are in excellent condition…and super hot!!!!
Boat launches currently in operation: Fish Creek, Policeman’s, McKinnon’s.
Hatches: Caddis, Stoneflies
Streamers: Clouser-Black, Geek Leech, Marabou Clouser, ¼ Lb. Bugger
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, Conestone, Morrish WMD-Dark Stone,
Reeses Pieces
Dry Flies: Better Foam Caddis, Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl,
Fuzzy Wuzzy-Tan, Berrett’s GoldenStone.
Crowsnest River Report – July 26, 2013
Reports from the Crow continue to be very positive. It’s fishing pretty darn good!
Hatches: Stoneflies, Caddis
Streamers: Bead Crystal Bugger, Jawbreaker
Nymphs: Rock ‘n’ Roller Stone, Karnopps Keystone, Pink B/H Stone
Dries: Fluttering Stone, Chernobyl Ant, Plopper Stone
High Country River Report – July 26, 2013
Southern high country streams get better with each passing day. Castle has been good, as has Upper Oldman, Racehorse, etc.
Highwood above Longview fishing well, just can’t get up highway 40.
Hatches: Stoneflies
Streamers: Gartside Leech, Sleech, Clouser
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, TB Golden Stone
Dries: Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl
Holy Mackerel! (Or Stickleback, as it may be), we’re down to 166 cms. Fishing has been pretty much like any other year during the third week of July….if it’s bright and sunny you have to work at it and if it’s cloudy it’s very user friendly.
Sink tip streamers and nymphs or Hopper/Dropper are your best bet on the bright days with early and late in the day being the most forgiving.
Floating line streamers and foam flies come into their own on the cloudy days. A little darkness and the dry fly stuff has been pretty respectable.
Contrary to the predictions from the hordes of experts, the fish, for the most part, are in excellent condition…and super hot!!!!
Boat launches currently in operation: Fish Creek, Policeman’s, McKinnon’s.
Hatches: Caddis, Stoneflies
Streamers: Clouser-Black, Geek Leech, Marabou Clouser, ¼ Lb. Bugger
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, Conestone, Morrish WMD-Dark Stone,
Reeses Pieces
Dry Flies: Better Foam Caddis, Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl,
Fuzzy Wuzzy-Tan, Berrett’s GoldenStone.
Crowsnest River Report – July 26, 2013
Reports from the Crow continue to be very positive. It’s fishing pretty darn good!
Hatches: Stoneflies, Caddis
Streamers: Bead Crystal Bugger, Jawbreaker
Nymphs: Rock ‘n’ Roller Stone, Karnopps Keystone, Pink B/H Stone
Dries: Fluttering Stone, Chernobyl Ant, Plopper Stone
High Country River Report – July 26, 2013
Southern high country streams get better with each passing day. Castle has been good, as has Upper Oldman, Racehorse, etc.
Highwood above Longview fishing well, just can’t get up highway 40.
Hatches: Stoneflies
Streamers: Gartside Leech, Sleech, Clouser
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, TB Golden Stone
Dries: Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl
Saturday, July 20, 2013
One Left! Sage TCX 7126-4 Spey Rod
One only left in stock!, Demo Sage TCX 7126-4 Spey Rod
(referred to as the "Death Star").
Used by Mike Gifford, in mint condition with full warranty.
$450.00
Thursday, July 18, 2013
An update on Flood Relief and River Restoration fundraising as well as a Thank-You
Hey everyone, this is Caitlin Gifford
I wanted to send you all an update on our shops status in flood relief and fundraising.
We are really pleased to announce that we reached our goal of raising $10,000 for flood relief and river restoration funds. Thank you to everyone that helped us get there!
All remaining clothing has been packaged up and we are working to get the items to the people of High River who need them.
After speaking with multiple organizations over the last couple weeks we are handing over a cheque for $5000 to the Mormon Helping Hands and another cheque for $5000 to Alberta Conservation Association. We choose ACA as they have been tasked by Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resources with repairing many of our badly damaged boat launches. Hopefully, we will see this money make a difference in the near future.
The choice of the Mormon Helping Hands is a bit more personal.
Some of you may know that the Gifford family is from High River, we have lived there for over twenty years. It is where I grew up and where I call home. The flooding on June 20, 2013 caused significant damage to thousands of homes, including my grandparents. The staged re-entry process allowed us access to their home nearly ten days after the flooding hit; eight days after the waters had receded therefore we knew we were walking into a very messy situation.
Never in my life could I have imaged what awaited us that day, and the days and weeks following.
The amount of work that needed to be done was overwhelming. In this neighborhood in the north-west part of town, we weren't only dealing with flooded basements and ruined belongings, we were dealing with homes that had ten feet of water in them and as the water drained it left feet of mud in their basements. It took teams of ten men eight to ten hours to clear a basement out of belongings, furniture and the collapsed drywall. Only then could a vacuum truck start pumping out the mud and slurry. One house took over 18 hours of vacuum time to simply remove all the mud.
During the early stages, most volunteers were turned away except those that could drive in with home owners (I escorted dozens of people in through the road blocks just so they could help out). The only exception were the Mormon Helping Hands, somehow they were able to gain access to help when others hit road blocks.
They all wore bright yellow t-shirts (that were yellow for a very short time before becoming mud soaked) and they reminded us of a bee swarms. Dozens of them showed up on a block and just started helping house after house, bringing with them words of encouragement and extreme kindness I had never seen before.
On this street alone, we would still be working today if it wasn’t for the Mormon Helping Hands. They are still in High River, working incredibly hard to save strangers homes and what little they have left of their lives.
They deserve a huge thank-you, one that words will never be able to express.
This money will go towards tools, cleaning supplies and many other goods that this organization needs to help repair people’s homes.
The Gifford family (including our amazing staff and customers) grew massively in the last few weeks when we saw dozens of people stand up and help us through this very difficult time. We have only started on the long road of rebuilding; it will be years before things even resemble normality. This fundraiser was one way we wanted to say thank-you and do a small part in helping get our world back to normal.
Thank-you to everyone, everywhere that worked so hard during this time of crisis in Calgary, High River and elsewhere. Thank-you to Rob Owens of Onward Up and Patagonia for the generous donations that allowed us to reach this incredible fundraising goal. Thank-you to everyone that has helped us get where are today, we look forward to a day that even slightly resembles the world we lived in a month ago.
All the best
Caity
I wanted to send you all an update on our shops status in flood relief and fundraising.
We are really pleased to announce that we reached our goal of raising $10,000 for flood relief and river restoration funds. Thank you to everyone that helped us get there!
All remaining clothing has been packaged up and we are working to get the items to the people of High River who need them.
After speaking with multiple organizations over the last couple weeks we are handing over a cheque for $5000 to the Mormon Helping Hands and another cheque for $5000 to Alberta Conservation Association. We choose ACA as they have been tasked by Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resources with repairing many of our badly damaged boat launches. Hopefully, we will see this money make a difference in the near future.
The choice of the Mormon Helping Hands is a bit more personal.
Some of you may know that the Gifford family is from High River, we have lived there for over twenty years. It is where I grew up and where I call home. The flooding on June 20, 2013 caused significant damage to thousands of homes, including my grandparents. The staged re-entry process allowed us access to their home nearly ten days after the flooding hit; eight days after the waters had receded therefore we knew we were walking into a very messy situation.
Never in my life could I have imaged what awaited us that day, and the days and weeks following.
The amount of work that needed to be done was overwhelming. In this neighborhood in the north-west part of town, we weren't only dealing with flooded basements and ruined belongings, we were dealing with homes that had ten feet of water in them and as the water drained it left feet of mud in their basements. It took teams of ten men eight to ten hours to clear a basement out of belongings, furniture and the collapsed drywall. Only then could a vacuum truck start pumping out the mud and slurry. One house took over 18 hours of vacuum time to simply remove all the mud.
During the early stages, most volunteers were turned away except those that could drive in with home owners (I escorted dozens of people in through the road blocks just so they could help out). The only exception were the Mormon Helping Hands, somehow they were able to gain access to help when others hit road blocks.
They all wore bright yellow t-shirts (that were yellow for a very short time before becoming mud soaked) and they reminded us of a bee swarms. Dozens of them showed up on a block and just started helping house after house, bringing with them words of encouragement and extreme kindness I had never seen before.
On this street alone, we would still be working today if it wasn’t for the Mormon Helping Hands. They are still in High River, working incredibly hard to save strangers homes and what little they have left of their lives.
They deserve a huge thank-you, one that words will never be able to express.
This money will go towards tools, cleaning supplies and many other goods that this organization needs to help repair people’s homes.
The Gifford family (including our amazing staff and customers) grew massively in the last few weeks when we saw dozens of people stand up and help us through this very difficult time. We have only started on the long road of rebuilding; it will be years before things even resemble normality. This fundraiser was one way we wanted to say thank-you and do a small part in helping get our world back to normal.
Thank-you to everyone, everywhere that worked so hard during this time of crisis in Calgary, High River and elsewhere. Thank-you to Rob Owens of Onward Up and Patagonia for the generous donations that allowed us to reach this incredible fundraising goal. Thank-you to everyone that has helped us get where are today, we look forward to a day that even slightly resembles the world we lived in a month ago.
All the best
Caity
Fishing Report-July 18
Bow River Report –July 18, 2013
River levels this morning are down around 209 cms. Most of us around the shop, and quite a few customers, have been out on the river a bunch for the last 7-10 days and we restarted guiding this week. Yippeee!
Fishing has been pretty good. Visibility has improved to around 2 feet and the fishing has gotten better along with it.
Streamer fishing, if you can get the fly down, has been excellent at times. Good idea to fish a heavy fly like the ¼ Lb. Bugger or Clousers.
Nymphing has been as you would expect in these water conditions and time of year, very good. Stonefly nymphs are the go-to.
Getting some fish on the foam bugs here and there. Certainly better when it’s not bright and sunny. Starting to be some fish up on caddis later in the day.
All in all, pretty decent fishing!
Boat launches currently in operation: Fish creek, Policeman’s, McKinnon’s.
Hatches: Caddis, Stoneflies
Streamers: C/H R/L Bugger-Black, Geek Leech, Marabou Clouser, ¼ Lb. Bugger
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, Conestone, Morrish WMD-Dark Stone, Reeses Pieces
Dry Flies: Better Foam Caddis, Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl, Fuzzy Wuzzy-Tan, Berrett’s GoldenStone.
Crowsnest River Report – July 18, 2013
Crowsnest is in very good shape and fishing very good!
Hatches: Stoneflies, Caddis
Streamers: Bead Crystal Bugger, Jawbreaker
Nymphs: Rock ‘n’ Roller Stone, Karnopps Keystone, Pink B/H Stone
Dries: Fluttering Stone, Chernobyl Ant, Plopper Stone
High Country River Report – July 18, 2013
Southern high country streams are fishing quite good. Still a little high but fairly clear. Upper Sheep and Highwood are fishable as well. Just can’t get too far up the Highwood due to highway damage.
Hatches: Stoneflies
Streamers: Gartside Leech, Sleech, Clouser
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, TB Golden Stone
Dries: Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl
River levels this morning are down around 209 cms. Most of us around the shop, and quite a few customers, have been out on the river a bunch for the last 7-10 days and we restarted guiding this week. Yippeee!
Fishing has been pretty good. Visibility has improved to around 2 feet and the fishing has gotten better along with it.
Streamer fishing, if you can get the fly down, has been excellent at times. Good idea to fish a heavy fly like the ¼ Lb. Bugger or Clousers.
Nymphing has been as you would expect in these water conditions and time of year, very good. Stonefly nymphs are the go-to.
Getting some fish on the foam bugs here and there. Certainly better when it’s not bright and sunny. Starting to be some fish up on caddis later in the day.
All in all, pretty decent fishing!
Boat launches currently in operation: Fish creek, Policeman’s, McKinnon’s.
Hatches: Caddis, Stoneflies
Streamers: C/H R/L Bugger-Black, Geek Leech, Marabou Clouser, ¼ Lb. Bugger
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, Conestone, Morrish WMD-Dark Stone, Reeses Pieces
Dry Flies: Better Foam Caddis, Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl, Fuzzy Wuzzy-Tan, Berrett’s GoldenStone.
Crowsnest River Report – July 18, 2013
Crowsnest is in very good shape and fishing very good!
Hatches: Stoneflies, Caddis
Streamers: Bead Crystal Bugger, Jawbreaker
Nymphs: Rock ‘n’ Roller Stone, Karnopps Keystone, Pink B/H Stone
Dries: Fluttering Stone, Chernobyl Ant, Plopper Stone
High Country River Report – July 18, 2013
Southern high country streams are fishing quite good. Still a little high but fairly clear. Upper Sheep and Highwood are fishable as well. Just can’t get too far up the Highwood due to highway damage.
Hatches: Stoneflies
Streamers: Gartside Leech, Sleech, Clouser
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, TB Golden Stone
Dries: Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Surprise! Fishing Reports
Bow River Report –July 7, 2013
The river dropped a bunch over the last 24 hours but just as importantly, the river at Banff has dropped a bunch in the last 48 hours. Highwood and Sheep have dropped a lot as well.
It won’t be as long as most of you think before fishing gets going on the river.
Biggest thing will be boat launches. They need help!
Country Pleasures/Patagonia/Onwardup is raising funds for Bow River Restoration, as well as High River Flood Relief. Patagonia clothing 50-80% Off, with all proceeds going to these two causes.
Hatches: Caddis, Stoneflies
Streamers: C/H R/L Bugger-Black, Geek Leech, Marabou Clouser
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, Conestone, Morrish WMD-Dark Stone,
Reeses Pieces
Dry Flies: Better Foam Caddis, Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl
Crowsnest River Report – July 7, 2013
Crowsnest is shaping up just fine with levels getting to wadeable conditions.
Next couple of weeks should be insane on the Crow!
Hatches: Stoneflies
Streamers: Bead Crystal Bugger, Jawbreaker
Nymphs: Rock ‘n’ Roller Stone, Karnopps Keystone, Pink B/H Stone
Dries: Fluttering Stone, Chernobyl Ant, Plopper Stone
High Country River Report – July 7, 2013
Upper Oldman and Livingston clear but high. Both are fishing OK.
Racehorse fishing quite good. Remember you can only get there from Maycroft.
Hatches: Stoneflies
Streamers: Gartside Leech, Sleech, Clouser
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, TB Golden Stone
Dries: Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl
The river dropped a bunch over the last 24 hours but just as importantly, the river at Banff has dropped a bunch in the last 48 hours. Highwood and Sheep have dropped a lot as well.
It won’t be as long as most of you think before fishing gets going on the river.
Biggest thing will be boat launches. They need help!
Country Pleasures/Patagonia/Onwardup is raising funds for Bow River Restoration, as well as High River Flood Relief. Patagonia clothing 50-80% Off, with all proceeds going to these two causes.
Hatches: Caddis, Stoneflies
Streamers: C/H R/L Bugger-Black, Geek Leech, Marabou Clouser
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, Conestone, Morrish WMD-Dark Stone,
Reeses Pieces
Dry Flies: Better Foam Caddis, Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl
Crowsnest River Report – July 7, 2013
Crowsnest is shaping up just fine with levels getting to wadeable conditions.
Next couple of weeks should be insane on the Crow!
Hatches: Stoneflies
Streamers: Bead Crystal Bugger, Jawbreaker
Nymphs: Rock ‘n’ Roller Stone, Karnopps Keystone, Pink B/H Stone
Dries: Fluttering Stone, Chernobyl Ant, Plopper Stone
High Country River Report – July 7, 2013
Upper Oldman and Livingston clear but high. Both are fishing OK.
Racehorse fishing quite good. Remember you can only get there from Maycroft.
Hatches: Stoneflies
Streamers: Gartside Leech, Sleech, Clouser
Nymphs: Karnopp’s Keystone, TB Golden Stone
Dries: Plopper Stone, Chubby Chernobyl
Friday, July 5, 2013
High River Flood Relief
Country Pleasures is extremely excited to be working with Patagonia and Onward Up to bring High River citizens a TON of clothing!!
Thank you so much for the amazing donation of 27 boxes of clothing!
Much of the clothing is being packaged here at the shop for delivery to people in High River affected by the June 20 flood event. We will be delivering these clothing packages door to door in the next few days.
In addition, we have a huge number of Patagonia clothing and fishing items available here at the shop priced at 50-80% OFF! Proceeds from the sale of these items will go to help flood victims as well as aid in Bow River Recovery Projects like rebuilding boat launches, etc.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
We Have Flies!
To update an earlier post, we have received a large shipment of flies from Idylwilde.
Zach at Idylwilde is managing to get thing back on track.
We have also received a whole bunch of new patterns from Solitude Flies. Some really cool stuff!
Friday, June 28, 2013
Flood Impact Update
Everyone is certainly wondering how the flood events of June 20 will affect things in the coming weeks.
As we are kind of getting sorted out after last week we wanted to give you some information that we have.
For our Flyfishing school clients: Bow Habitat Station did receive damage from the flooding. Only two of our schools are affected as Bow Habitat expects to be restored for use by July 13. In the next couple of days we will coordinate with Bow Habitat to reschedule new dates to allow students the ability to reschedule. As soon as wee add the new school dates we will e-mail all registered students and update our Blog and facebook.
For our guiding clients: We are contacting booked guiding clients based on chronological booking to advise and allow for reschedule or cancel. We have contacted all clients booked until, and including, July 8. Over the next few days we will be contacting all clients booked from July 9-13.
HOWEVER, TO CLARIFY, BASED ON CURRENT RATE OF FLOW LEVEL DROP WE EXPECT THAT WE MAY SEE FISHABLE CONDITIONS IN AS LITTLE AS 7-10 DAYS.
Three criteria need to be satisfied and we will resume guiding operations:
- Flow levels and turbidity improve to levels that will allow for quality fishing.
- Flow levels and turbidity improve to levels that are safe for clients and guides.
- Infrastructure (boat launches) repaired to a level suitable for use.
Our shop staff and guides have been monitoring what launches we can. We will be working in the coming days for solutions to access issues.
In closing, some of you might remember 2005, where people said we wouldn't fish the river that year, the quality of fishing on the Bow would never be the same, etc. None of these things came true!
Thanks again to all of you who have offered support for the shop and our families!
As we are kind of getting sorted out after last week we wanted to give you some information that we have.
For our Flyfishing school clients: Bow Habitat Station did receive damage from the flooding. Only two of our schools are affected as Bow Habitat expects to be restored for use by July 13. In the next couple of days we will coordinate with Bow Habitat to reschedule new dates to allow students the ability to reschedule. As soon as wee add the new school dates we will e-mail all registered students and update our Blog and facebook.
For our guiding clients: We are contacting booked guiding clients based on chronological booking to advise and allow for reschedule or cancel. We have contacted all clients booked until, and including, July 8. Over the next few days we will be contacting all clients booked from July 9-13.
HOWEVER, TO CLARIFY, BASED ON CURRENT RATE OF FLOW LEVEL DROP WE EXPECT THAT WE MAY SEE FISHABLE CONDITIONS IN AS LITTLE AS 7-10 DAYS.
Three criteria need to be satisfied and we will resume guiding operations:
- Flow levels and turbidity improve to levels that will allow for quality fishing.
- Flow levels and turbidity improve to levels that are safe for clients and guides.
- Infrastructure (boat launches) repaired to a level suitable for use.
Our shop staff and guides have been monitoring what launches we can. We will be working in the coming days for solutions to access issues.
In closing, some of you might remember 2005, where people said we wouldn't fish the river that year, the quality of fishing on the Bow would never be the same, etc. None of these things came true!
Thanks again to all of you who have offered support for the shop and our families!
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