Mountain Fly Fishers
                                             (403) 609-7967             
                                   Canmore, Alberta, Canada 
             

                            john@mountainflyfishers.com                                                               http://themountainflyfisher.wordpress.com 
Providing excellence in guiding and instruction on the waters of the Canadian Rockies since 1985. Mountain Fly-Fishers offers guiding and instruction on the waters of the Upper Bow River and the Headwater streams of the Bow Crow Forest preserve. 
Effective for the year 2011, Mountain Fly-fishers will operate as a division of Unlimited Canmore Adventures

                     

2011  -  As with most years, the waters of The Upper Bow likely will remain clear and low until somewhere around May 19th +/- a week or so, as snow melt begins in earnest- just prior to the full onslaught of the spring freshet, there is a definite awakening in the river and Trout become more active and any signs of lethargy disappear. The trigger is likely subtle increases to the flow rate and in stream temperatures. All too soon by the end of the May the river will change character to a raging muddy, sediment saturated mass, and it is at this time that most fly-fishers declare the Upper Bow as not fishable. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the fish must continue to earn a living they will gravitate to flood channels, adjacent pools, ponds, and lakes provided there is some connectivity to river. These adjacent waters will filter the suspended silt quickly, and soon become clear gems, filled with early aquatic activity among the invertebrates (fish food), and significant populations of hungry Brown trout.
                                                                                             -Fish hard and live long-

"Having guided on the Upper Bow and area for many years I have learned to allow the Trout  to dictate the day, as opposed to simply working out of my same old box, day in day out. Often the best fishing opportunities will occur in some of the most unusual and unexpected places (not all pretty either), however there are so many possible facets to a day outside in the Rockies it would be a shame to not at least make an attempt at being creative, and share some of the spontaneous possibilities created by the Trout of the region.  They (the Trout) are not restricted by the same boxes we build, and so unfortunately if we choose to ignore that, then we will have missed the essence of being a fly-fisher, not to mention often some of absolutely the best fishing to be had." John Samms -Canmore

      

HECTOR LAKE AT NAKODA LODGE
PRIVATE LAKE -OPENS AT ICE OUT
   Size  Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct
                                 Midge  18-20                
                     March Brown  16-18                
             Pale Morning Dun 16-20                
            Blue Winged Olive 16-18                
Blue Dun 14-18                
             Pale Evening Dun 16                
      Western Green Drake 10-12                
Mothers Day Caddis/Tan 8-12                
Caddis -Pencil/Micro 16-18                
Caddis - Sedges Rust 14                
  Golden Stone Migration 8-12                
                                  Trico                  
Damsel Flies 14-18                
Dragon Flies -Gomphus 8-14                
Ant Migration-Females Blk 14-16                
Ant Migration-Males Red 16                
CHIEF HECTOR LAKE - Conditions 
June 29th, 2011 - Turn over of the Lake has finally occurred. The first traveling Sedges (largest of the Caddis flies) have finally shown up as of four days ago, beginning with just one or two on the first day and finally in significant amounts yesterday, Micro Caddis as well as a few Mayflies and good amounts of Midges are rounding out the menu. The migration of Damselfly nymphs is underway in earnest and it appears that we can expect a very prolific Damselfly hatch. 
Rainbows are rising in good numbers, this years plant of 12 to 14 inch fish are still the most pre-dominant, however it was refreshing to watch some larger fish begin to show yesterday and weigh in on the traveling Sedges. Noteworthy two different anglers had very large fish take their dry fly offerings and in both cases the anglers were defeated. 
For myself I look forward to having time on the lake outside of guided trips or instructing to do my own stocktaking and inventory assessment.
Incredible instability in the spring weather has delivered high volumes of rain and high winds, not unusual really for spring weather I think its just that spring weather is usually expected in the early part of June. Oh well! 

 

Bow River - Upper: Canmore to Seebe -
Open year round with. 10km. closure Hwy.1 Bridge to Pigeon Creek
   Size  Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct
                                 Midge  18-20                
                     March Brown  16-18                
             Pale Morning Dun 16-20                
            Blue Winged Olive 16-18                
Blue Dun 14-18                
             Pale Evening Dun 16                
      Western Green Drake 10-12                
Mothers Day Caddis/Tan 8-12                
Caddis -Pencil/Micro 16-18                
Caddis - Sedges Rust 14                
  Golden Stone Migration 8-12                
                                  Trico                  
Ant Migration-Females Blk 14-16                
Ant Migration-Males Red 16                
Upper Bow River - Conditions 
 June 29th, 2011- The Upper Bow began to show significant flow increases in the last week of May and have continued to swell through June, fed by continuous high rain volumes and very hot days in between the rainy days. I believe the reality for this year is that the UBR will continue to rise well into the first week or weeks of July and this will have an impact  on float trip availability certainly until the end of the first week of July. 
The existing snow pack of the frontal ranges is still significant with high elevation snow best described as significant and much will depend on the weather pattern of the immediate next week or two with respect to just how high the UBR will get.

 

Head Waters: Livingstone & Oldman Area
Open June 16th - October annually
   Size  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct
                                 Midge  18-20          
                     March Brown  16-18          
             Pale Morning Dun 16-20          
            Blue Winged Olive 16-18          
                        Grey Drake 14-16          
      Western Green Drake 10-12          
              Assorted Caddis 10-16          
  Golden Stone Migration 6-12          
                                  Trico 20          
                           Hoppers 12-16          
  16          
Head Waters - Conditions 
 June 29th, 2011 - A trip to pick up a drift boat in the Crowsnest area on the 19th presented a perfect opportunity for a quick research trip down the forestry trunk road allowing for a quick look at the headwaters. 
The Highwood river looked particularly good with much better clarity than I expected to find, regretfully this trip did not permit the time to actually wet a line. Catarract Creek looked particularly good with big flows and good clarity, the Livingstone was definitely pushing significant volume and while off color it certainly would be fishable then and absolutely by now (depending of course on rain volumes). Regrettably this great area of the Bow Crow forest has been denuded by logging to the extent that the watershed is now totally incapable of handling any volume of rain without immediately having a negative effect on the waters as soil erosion is now immediate and silting of these rivers is inevitable due to the lack of forest cover. As recently as 5 years ago these rivers could handle solid sustained heavy rainfall for multiple days without losing clarity, whereas todays reality is that a one hour downpour will muddy the waters - sad! 
The waters of the Oldman are in high flow, if you know the river well you will find the right places to fish as clarity on our travel day was quite good.. 
I look forward to hopefully finding a break in the existing guiding schedule, allowing for a bit of a headwaters exploratory trip, say maybe a day or two.