Bow River in Banff, CANADA

Fly Fishing the West

Vol. 102, Issue 1

August 29, 2013

Bow River, BANFF, CANADA 

Thursday, August 29, 2013—About 10am John and I arrived at the park on the BOW RIVER just below the FAIRMONT HOT SPRINGS HOTEL in the town of BANFF CANADA. Here the river is a cascading water fall that makes a left turn and flows south-east. The Bow River is a large, high flow, turquoise-green river. Just below the falls where the river turns the SPRAY River flows into the Bow River. The Spray is a small clear-running stream, easy to wade across. We fished where the Spray river flows into the Bow. This is also a place where they launch large rafts (8-12 people) to float down the Bow river. We tried fly fishing both bounce-rig nymphing and wet flies with no luck. I switched to a spinning rod with a water bubble and a fly trailing about 2-3- feet. I filled the bubble with water so it would slowly sink. The weight of the water in the bubble made it possible to cast a mile. I started to cast about 50 yards out into the Bow River and let the current take it downstream for about 15 seconds. I then stopped feeding line so the bubble and fly would wash into a large pool from which rafts were launched. After several casts I hooked a 16- inch cutthroat on a size-12 nondescript wet fly, dark grey with brown hackle. About ½ hour later I caught a 15-inch cutthroat on a size-14 red Zebra midge tied by Tyson.

What a beautiful setting to be fishing. Although not off somewhere where you are alone in nature, it was fun to be fishing where there were a lot of people milling around probably from a very famous hotel. We met and talked to Canadians, Germans, Asians, etc. 

 Other Miscellaneous Information/Observations:

1. The weather was slightly overcast nevertheless it was warm and pleasant.
2. Non-resident Banff National Park fishing license for 2013 was CAN$10 (exchange rate about $US 1 = $CAN 1.02) for one day.