I had always wanted to catch a big brown trout. One of those brightly colored specimens that you see on the magazine covers. The hook jawed males with broad shoulders and a sharp set of teeth. From my home in southwestern British Columbia the city of Calgary, Alberta isn't really all that far away. A 55 minute flight to tell the truth. It's a wonder then, that in all my years of fishing, I had never made a trip to the Bow River prior to fishing it last September(2010). Even on that particular trip the Bow was an afterthought.
I was meeting Richard Mason and his friend Roddy at the Calgary airport to drive back into BC to fish the Bulkley river for Steelhead. Steelheading was cut short due to a river that looked like a large coffee with 2 cream, so we headed back to Alberta, giving me a chance to try and catch one of the Bow's famous Brown trout. The Bow wasn't in good shape for the 3 short days that I fished it and although I did get a Brown, it was a small fish in the low teens. Not the type of fish I was hyped on catching. I had an excellent time fishing with Richard and Greg, another Bow river guide, and I landed enough nice Rainbows to keep me busy while hunting the big boys. Plus I knew that at some point I would return. So when Richard sent me an email, inviting my wife and I to come stay at his place and hunt some early season thug Browns, we jumped at the chance. He also wanted to record some video for his website and ours, plus some pictures of Meiser spey rods. Richard mason has been fishing the Bow since 1982. About 5 years ago he started his own guiding business Bow River Adventures . In the beginning he primarily guided bamboo rod enthusiasts and soon created a large following. Richard uses a Hyde drift boat with a jet outboard to access the river. He is booked solid during the prime months of the year and has recently added a second drift boat to handle the extra business. Richards m.o. is to target large Browns with 2 handed rods and he has the game figured out.
"There are about 2200 trout per mile in the river, and roughly 30% of them are Browns" Richard told us. That's close to 800 bad ass-ed Browns per mile. "Both the Browns and Rainbows average 17 inches" he added. He assured us that we would get at least one Brown in the mid twenties during our 3 days on the water. I believed him.
Richard and his wife Wilma picked us up at the airport. We chatted about the coming days and had a whiskey before heading to bed for the night. Early the next morning we were at the boat launch site, geared up for the hunt. We had come to the river at the perfect time. Early spring, prior to freshet, and late fall are prime seasons for big Browns. It had snowed heavy the week before the trip but the forecast for us included sunny skies and rising temperatures.
Fishing with streamers as well as nymphing is the best way to get a trophy fish. We had rods to rig up for both. There were two 4/5 Meiser switch rods for sink tips and streamers. One 12'6 Meiser 5/6 to set up to match and another Meiser System 5 switch rod, set up for nymphing. I handed Sarah her 4/5 switch/streamer set up at the first place we stopped, a nice back channel not far up river from the launch. Richard and I watched her fish while we set up the other rods. Two casts in and Sarah's rod was bent over. She hollered to us over the sound of the rushing water and Richard quickly grabbed the net and rushed over. Shortly after Sarah was holding a nice, brightly colored brown. A 17 inch fish that got us hyped for the day ahead.
With the rods strung up it was time to start floating down river. Nymphing with an 11 foot switch rod is a deadly tactic on any river but this was the first time Sarah or I had done it from a drifting boat. It's a skill that takes time to learn but Richard's coaching had us in the zone in no time. We floated down river a short ways, taking turns nymphing, before pulling in to a spot that looked likely to hold fish. A nice seam where a back channel joined the main river. Sarah and I fished a nice slot close to the bank while Richard fished the main-stem. We hooked about 10 fish, landing 5 of them. One was a nice Brown of 22 inches, the type of fish we were searching for. Sarah pulled out a Rainbow close to 20 and we both had another nice Brown each. Richard landed a nice Rainbow as well. Once the bite was off we jumped back in the Hyde to drift to other spots downstream.
During our float, Richard explained that the season for fishing dries starts near the end of May with hatches of Caddis and Blue Winged Olives. There's a big Stonefly hatch at the end of June and into the first part of July. Sometimes there's good hopper fishing from August until mid Sept. Nymphing is good all year. We landed a dozen or so fish between the three of us, Both swinging and nymphing, before it was time to pack up. Some nice Browns and Rainbows came to hand.
The following morning we were at it again. The water had started to color up a bit but there was still 3 feet of visibility. It was another nice and sunny day. We were feeling confident that a big fish would end up in the net. We stopped at some of the same runs but this time we weren't as successful. After only a couple of fish landed and it was time to move on. We wanted to drift further down river to some spots that Richard felt would have plenty of fish. We ended up at a perfect run that reminded me of the Bulkley River in Northern BC. We got a couple of nice fish right away and then stopped for a break. Richard and I did some filming and then it was back to fishing. Sarah and I started below the boat and Rich walked upstream a bit. A few casts later I was into something heavy. I knew the fish was big but didn't realize how big until I saw the look on Sarah's face when it rolled as she tried to net it. It was a true trophy brown. The fish that we were hunting for.
We snapped some nice shots and released it carefully. I joked that we could go home now, but we kept fishing. There were fish in almost every run we stopped at after that and we had another great day. Day three was a little tougher. Visibility dropped to a couple of feet and we didn't come across as many fish, though each of us hooked fish that felt astonishingly large. Maybe 6 or 7 Browns were hooked. Our skills were definitely off though, and we only landed a fish each. Two of the fish hooked broke us off on 14 pound test line. Richard certainly proved that he knew where the big ones live and the methods for hooking them.
In our three days on the water we had caught some nice fish, talked about 2 handed rods, filmed some video, and shared many laughs. The Bow lived up to it's reputation as one of the top Brown trout rivers in the world. Its now on our list of favorite rivers and we will definitely return as often as possible. In fact this April we're putting together a group trip to share this great fishery with other fly anglers.
It's easy to see why so many anglers return to fish with Richard year after year. He knows the river and it's fish like the back of his hand and his services remain reasonable in a world where the cost of doing just about anything is constantly on the rise. Send me an email if you want more info about fishing on the Bow, our upcoming trip this April or spey fishing with light 2 handed rods.
Dave Henry
waskocreek@shaw.ca
