Bow River

The river

The Bow leaves the Rocky Mountains at Canmore and then runs through Calgary as a broad, cold tailwater fed by three reservoirs. Fish densities in the city reach are among the highest measured anywhere — survey work has found brown trout biomass above 60 kg per hectare in some sections — and because the water comes off the bottom of Glenmore and Bearspaw, it stays cold even in August. This is one of the few world-class trout rivers you can fish between work and dinner.

On this river

The after-work session

The Bow's city reach is best fished in a two-hour window: arrive at 18:30, fish the caddis emergence until dark, and leave. Because the water is cold and the fish are resident rather than migratory, the same runs produce fish day after day, which lets you learn one run properly instead of always hunting new water.

Streamers for browns

The Bow's browns are piscivorous from about 30 cm upward. Fish a #4 streamer on a 2 m sink tip across the current, let it swing, and strip it back with the rod tip in the water. The best water is the deep outside bend and any place a storm drain or tributary dumps in, because that is where sculpins concentrate.

Reading a big tailwater from the bank

At 100 metres wide, the Bow is too big to wade across. The productive water is within 15 metres of the bank on whichever side has the deeper edge, so pick your bank by looking at where the current slows, not where the access is easiest. A cheap way to learn this is to walk the bank at low water in March and photograph the seams.