The story begins with seabass [Dan] and me packing up my 4-Runner and
pointing her North for the drive to Okotoks, AB. We arrived 13 hours later and were warmly greeted by Bow River [Richard] and his lovely wife [Wilma]. A
pleasant surprise was meeting another of our Canadian brethren, WLYBGR [Vaughn] who was visiting family in Calgary.
Bow River was gracious enough to invite seabass and I to stay in his home and after a comfortable night's rest and a hearty breakfast [the first of many, many Wilma supplied pleasant surprises] we drove towards Calgary to launch for our first float on the Bow River. It wasn't long before I was into my first Bow River Rainbow, accompanied by Richard laughing his head off when I landed my very first fish on the bow and it was one of the 20" fish that Richard had been using to tempt me into making this trip since last Fall. That fish was quickly forgotten when I hooked up with my next Bow River Rainbow and when this one made it's first jump I was treated to a phrase that put a smile on my face every time I heard it the rest of the week.... "She's a beauty Boys!" This beauty measured a little over 23" and is the first picture in this story:
We would return several times to this honey hole of Richards and every time there we hooked into some real hogs and even landed a few.
As it turns out, this was not destined to be my "fish of the day". That came a few hours later at another of Richard's honey holes and another place where we got out and waded so we could really work the hole - by the way, if you are floating with Bow River and he announces that you are coming up on a honey hole - BELIEVE HIM - he has the big fish spots on his river dialed in.
This next picture is the 23" Brown that surely weighed over 5 pounds, took me WAY into my backing and on the way home seabass said was HIS favorite fish of the trip - and he caught a lot of big trout! Here she is Boys.......
I've caught fish the size of that tail!
It was one heck of a float - we got off the water at 10:30pm in the pitch dark where Wilma was waiting with the truck and trailer and had dinner waiting for us when we got home!
The highlight of the next day was an evening into night fish with WLYBGR at the hole that was now known as Madison Brown [great song - seabass has it memorized and he has a top-notch singing voicel - adding to his value as a great fishing buddy - never heard Gierach say that about AK Best or Mike Clark or Ed].
Seabass was on top of his game and caught a bunch of beauties using nymphs, streamers and swinging a wet fly behind his streamer.
We floated the Bow again the next day and Dan was catching nice trout all day.
Here are a few pics:
We even let Bow River fish a little bit and every time we did this is what happened....
On Day 4 we drove about 1:45 hours South and West from Okotoks into the Oldman River drainage to fish a tributary stream: Racehorse Creek.
This was mostly done to humor me - I wanted to see some of the Alberta mountains up close, wanted to walk and wade up a nice drainage, fish a lighter rod and catch some of the native cutthroats on dry flies. Seabass spent most of this day dreaming about 23+" fish.
The cutts were cooperative and the scenery was beautiful but at day's end I was forced to admit that we were in the wrong place [see below.....]
Here are some pictures from Racehorse Creek, including a lovely still life arranged by Bow River:
Day 5: last float on the Bow River
First the Brown trout that "killed" Bow River's net
Seabass must have caught 15-20 fish averaging around 18" on this float alone
This is my Hyde Boats/William Joseph promo shot
Our last day in Alberta: the Oldman River
When I mentioned earlier that we may have been in the wrong place the day we fished Racehorse Creek [as pretty and pleasant a day as it was] - we should have fished the Oldman that day too!
The perfect Cutthroat River - as pretty a place as I've ever stood in my waders and boots.
We got there early, before the light was in the canyon and with the wind blowing it was CHILLY! It has been about 95 degrees every single day in Salt Lake City for about 8 weeks and having to put a sweater on under my Simms shirt was OK with me [seabass decided to nap in the truck until it warmed up]
The fish were pretty, the scenery was spectacular, I was fishing my Para 15, and they were eating dries most of the day - I'll let the pictures tell the story.....
I always wanted to get one of these photos with a nice loop in the air
Sad to say - that's the end of the tale for this year.
Dan and I have already reserved a week with Bow River for 2009.
Thank you Richard and Wilma for your incredible hospitality. Dan and I felt like we were coming home every night after fishing all day
Bow River was gracious enough to invite seabass and I to stay in his home and after a comfortable night's rest and a hearty breakfast [the first of many, many Wilma supplied pleasant surprises] we drove towards Calgary to launch for our first float on the Bow River. It wasn't long before I was into my first Bow River Rainbow, accompanied by Richard laughing his head off when I landed my very first fish on the bow and it was one of the 20" fish that Richard had been using to tempt me into making this trip since last Fall. That fish was quickly forgotten when I hooked up with my next Bow River Rainbow and when this one made it's first jump I was treated to a phrase that put a smile on my face every time I heard it the rest of the week.... "She's a beauty Boys!" This beauty measured a little over 23" and is the first picture in this story:
We would return several times to this honey hole of Richards and every time there we hooked into some real hogs and even landed a few.
As it turns out, this was not destined to be my "fish of the day". That came a few hours later at another of Richard's honey holes and another place where we got out and waded so we could really work the hole - by the way, if you are floating with Bow River and he announces that you are coming up on a honey hole - BELIEVE HIM - he has the big fish spots on his river dialed in.
This next picture is the 23" Brown that surely weighed over 5 pounds, took me WAY into my backing and on the way home seabass said was HIS favorite fish of the trip - and he caught a lot of big trout! Here she is Boys.......
I've caught fish the size of that tail!
It was one heck of a float - we got off the water at 10:30pm in the pitch dark where Wilma was waiting with the truck and trailer and had dinner waiting for us when we got home!
The highlight of the next day was an evening into night fish with WLYBGR at the hole that was now known as Madison Brown [great song - seabass has it memorized and he has a top-notch singing voicel - adding to his value as a great fishing buddy - never heard Gierach say that about AK Best or Mike Clark or Ed].
Seabass was on top of his game and caught a bunch of beauties using nymphs, streamers and swinging a wet fly behind his streamer.
We floated the Bow again the next day and Dan was catching nice trout all day.
Here are a few pics:
We even let Bow River fish a little bit and every time we did this is what happened....
On Day 4 we drove about 1:45 hours South and West from Okotoks into the Oldman River drainage to fish a tributary stream: Racehorse Creek.
This was mostly done to humor me - I wanted to see some of the Alberta mountains up close, wanted to walk and wade up a nice drainage, fish a lighter rod and catch some of the native cutthroats on dry flies. Seabass spent most of this day dreaming about 23+" fish.
The cutts were cooperative and the scenery was beautiful but at day's end I was forced to admit that we were in the wrong place [see below.....]
Here are some pictures from Racehorse Creek, including a lovely still life arranged by Bow River:
Day 5: last float on the Bow River
First the Brown trout that "killed" Bow River's net
Seabass must have caught 15-20 fish averaging around 18" on this float alone
This is my Hyde Boats/William Joseph promo shot
Our last day in Alberta: the Oldman River
When I mentioned earlier that we may have been in the wrong place the day we fished Racehorse Creek [as pretty and pleasant a day as it was] - we should have fished the Oldman that day too!
The perfect Cutthroat River - as pretty a place as I've ever stood in my waders and boots.
We got there early, before the light was in the canyon and with the wind blowing it was CHILLY! It has been about 95 degrees every single day in Salt Lake City for about 8 weeks and having to put a sweater on under my Simms shirt was OK with me [seabass decided to nap in the truck until it warmed up]
The fish were pretty, the scenery was spectacular, I was fishing my Para 15, and they were eating dries most of the day - I'll let the pictures tell the story.....
I always wanted to get one of these photos with a nice loop in the air
Sad to say - that's the end of the tale for this year.
Dan and I have already reserved a week with Bow River for 2009.
Thank you Richard and Wilma for your incredible hospitality. Dan and I felt like we were coming home every night after fishing all day
