A Change of Plans

With some of the central Alberta trout streams set to open on April 1^st, I was hoping to spend Sunday poking around in a few of my favorite haunts so that I might provide an update on hatches and general stream conditions. Unfortunately both the weather and personal commitments on Sunday necessitated a change in plans; so Saturday morning found me on a stream that I seldom fish these days – the Bow River. I like fishing the Bow River and there is no question that it is an exceptional trout stream. It’s just that it generally falls short in providing one of the key elements of an enjoyable day on the water – solitude. So to make this work I knew I needed to get an early start and put several kilometers between me and the access as quickly as possible. My strategy worked, and for the better part of the day I had an entire run all to myself.

So there I was watching the sun rise, it was -5 Celsius, and not a bug in sight. Undeterred, and inspired by the spectacular view, I tied on a small Baetis nymph (a typical searching pattern for this time of year) and worked the pockets along the bank. Result number one was having to pause to de-ice my rod guides every few minutes; result number two was hooking several good sized rainbows. And so the morning went – catching fish as the day slowly warmed, and pausing on occasion to just sit and take it all in.

As the temperature nudged above zero a decent chironomid hatch began to materialize. These minute midges were barely 3 mm long (think size 24). I am sure that the fish were plucking the occasional rising pupa from the drift but these tiny tidbits were not enough to incite selective feeding. I continued to fish the Baetis nymph till noon with steady success and decided to packed it in when the hordes of anglers finally caught up to me.

Adult Chironomid (Midge) on the Bow River