| The Bow River |
The world famous Bow River begins in Banff National Park at a lake that calls itself Bow Lake. From there, it flows eastward through the Rocky Mountains and into Calgary where it turns into a more peaceful prairie river before it meets up with the Oldman River south of a town called Brooks. The most popular stretch of the river lies between Calgary and Carseland and covers 80 kilometres. This section has more than 2,000 trout peer mile. Along with the many fish between the Calgary and Carseland section, the Bow River also has a lot of wildlife in its surroundings. Mule and Whitetail deer are frequently grazing the Bow's banks and often go for a short swim in the river as well.
In the early 1980's, the Bow River was very popular for flyfishing and received great reviews from top fishing magazines. People now believe that the Bow Rivers reputation has slipped and more anglers are going home disappointed. However, provincial biologists are saying that there has been little change in the number of fish swimming in the Bow between then and now. The only major change that has occurred since then is the increase in the proportion of brown trout to rainbows since the early 80's. The average size of the fish that are pulled out of the Bow is between 16 and 22 inches long. One reason why angler's might think that the Bow river is not the same as it used to be is because the trout have been doing less of their feeding on the surface plus the recent unstable water levels may also have affected the fish's feeding patterns.
Downstream from Calgary, the Bow River's traffic has increased quite a bit since the Bow ever received it's good name. People are now claiming that it's overcrowded with angler's yet every week there are still people catching trouts between 24 and 28 inches long. The Calgary-to-Carseland section of the river is now open to fishing in April and May which used to be closed to protect spawning rainbow trout. Many of the biggest brown trout living in the Bow, are best found right in the section of the river which is in Calgary's city limits.
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