bow river calgary data

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The flow rates are important to locating trout. A rising river does not fish well as the trout are moving. Substantially increased flows such as those experienced after a big storm tend to push the trout to the banks. This also occurs if Trans Alta decides to release water from the reservoir. Unfortunately, they don't do this incrementally but seem to open the gates and bump the flow within a matter of minutes. On the other hand, a falling and clearing river provide excellent angling conditions.

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@ 2002 "Must Be Nice" Drift Company

Run off is another time that the river jumps up in flow and the trout migrate toward the banks in an effort to find current relief as well as cleaner water. With as little as 6 to 12 inches of visibility at the banks, run off streamer fishing can be absolutely fantastic. This is one of the times during the angling season that the fly fisher is able to locate, hook and land big trout. It seems that every trout hooked during run off is a big, big fish. There are times that the cast is made to the structure, what ever it might be, and the fly barely hits the water and a large trout has "smacked it". I believe that in these instances the angler has hit the trout practically on the nose and the trout has hit the fly out of anger. It is important to be accurate when casting your fly when streamer fishing during run off. Obviously, the trout's vision is impaired given all the sediment in the stream and if you make an errant cast the trout will not see the fly. A cast 6 inches to the right or left or 6 inches deeper into the structure will sometimes produce the trout living in that particular structure. Run off fishing will find trout in back channels and also in bank side depressions that only see water at this time of year. Run off streamer fishing is one of my favorite times of the year to fish.

2003 the trout did not seem to be holding on the banks. Consequently it was a poor streamer fishing year. There was much talk about the reasons for this. My belief is that the trout need a certain flow rate to be pushed to the banks during run off. Once on the bank they remain there until the river drops enough to move them to deeper water. Of course, there are some banks that are know as "streamer banks" and they seem to hold trout all year long. If the flow is not sufficient, the trout hold in deeper holes behind rocks and don't migrate to the banks. It seems that in past years if we had a run off of above 12,000 cfs then we had good streamer fishing. A run off of 15,000 cfs is even better and flows of this volume will scour the river bed and blow out the weed from the previous year. In low water years during a heat wave, the trout move into the deepest water they can find. They become stressed and sluggish during these times. There are cries heard, "Time to close the river to angling". Our local Fish and Wildlife people monitor the river closely and have the authority to close the stream if necessary. The Police to Mac run has more riffles and runs than the bottom reach ( Mac to Carseland )and the water temperature will vary. The river below the Carseland weir ( The Reserve stretch ) seems to be the warmest. There were temperatures in the middle 70s F recorded last year during one such heat wave. Fortunately there haven't been any fish kills due to warm water and Fish and Wildlife did not deem it necessary to close the Bow to angling.

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To get an accurate flow rate for the Bow below Calgary, that is the Police to McKinnons reach or the McKinnons to Carseland stretch, the flow for the Elbow and Highwood Rivers need to be factored in. The flow for the Reserve reach must take into account the flow diverted by the Carseland weir. To view these flow rates and other trout streams in southern Alberta, Click Here.