The river is starting to drop and clear which makes for great streamer fishing. We are seeing more stone flies on the bank but not quite going full bore yet. There have been good numbers of Sally Stoneflies. The caddis are going strong as well as a few PMD's. The long-awaited season is upon us.

Projected outflows from upstream reservoirs look to be consistent for the next few days which will make for happy fish. 

Flies to try:

Dries: Bloom's Parachute Caddis or Sally, CDC and Elk Hair Caddis, Swisher's Dancing Caddis, Skid Bitch, Trina's Stimi-Chew Toy, Jake's Trigger Belly Foam Bug, PMD or Double Vision PMD

Streamers: Skiddish smolt, Galloup's Dungeon, dark colored Muddy Buddy, Conehead Bow River Bugger, Black/White Clouser, Flesh eating sculpin, BT leeches, Kreelex Minnow

Nymphs: San Juan Worm - wire or reese's pieces, chenille stones, jigged prince, TJ hooker, prince nymph, Smethurst Stone Bomb, peacock leech, Aaron’s Leech

Accessible boat launches: Glenmore Trail (Graves Landing), Fish Creek Park (22x), Policeman's Flats (take out is tricky), Mackinnon's Flats, Legacy Island, Carseland (Johnson's Island.)  Thanks to Bow River Trout Foundation for completing the work at Policeman's earlier this fall.

Headed to the Eastern Slopes? Many of the eastern slopes streams are still running a bit high but are dropping and clearing. Use the AB Rivers APP (available from the Apple APP store or on Google Play) to monitor which areas are in the best shape. Here is a link to our recent video to help you interpret the information the APP provides. We're hearing reports of lots of people on some of the East Slopes streams - camping and fishing. There's lots of water in the southern part of the province so don't be afraid to do some exploring. Finding a new stretch of water that produces fish on your own is one of the joys of this pursuit.

Flies to try:

Dries: CDC red butt Sally, Lime Trude, Micro Chubby in purple or tan, fat alberts, green drakes like green drake west, green drake Wulff, Lucent wing true drake

Streamers: pink gartside leech, olive woolly bugger, kreelex minnow silver/purple, muddy buddy, circus peanut.

Nymphs: Better-than-sex Drake, purple jig head lightning bug, UV Hare's Ear, copper john, prince nymph, jig head pheasant tail, rubber leg squirrel.

Happy Fishing.