Crowsnest River Fishing Report /April 28 th

The River has cleared up a bit with this cold weather ( visability was 4-5 ft .) , but with the full moon, miniscule midges plagued the water .. size #28 would be too big..making it tough fishing ... but I did catch fish on a #18 midge pattern fished deep on both the Crow and the Oldman. A few skwalla adults skittered about with out being ate . We did not see many May flies hatching even with the bad weather , but it is still April and it,s going to change soon .. Visibility was good this week .. Suzy and I will be fishing the Upper Bow River tommorow in the snow ...guess we picked the wrong week to have a holiday! The streets of Calgary will get a good wash with this weather but that will probably blow out the lower Bow ...maybe we will check it out around Cochrane and report back Saturday .. good luck out there ! Conditions will change soon .... Al B.

Peace River and back

Heading north from Coleman at 6:00 am to the Mighty Peace River by Ft. St. John .... I was fueled for the 1300 kilometer drive by caffeine . Unfortunatly the last good cup of coffee was bought in Bragg Creek just two hours north of our Cafe' .. It,s amazing what people think is good coffee these day,s ... but I was forced to drive on... pulling into Ft. St. John at 9:00 pm. A couple of times I almost poured a coffee out the window but drank it down and cranked up Jimi Hendrix just to keep my eye,s open... After working on this compressor rebuild for a week I got my act together and drove up stream in search of clean water ... I am certainly spoiled, living in the mountians and I am not impresssed with the northern bush and rivers that have been flowing mud since modern industry rapped the north .. but I heard of the legendary clear water that flows from the Bennett Dam in B.C. After 45 minutes of driving , the Mighty Peace River was in veiw ...clear and blue , it was big, jet boat big ! So decending the valley I was soon standing on it,s banks or should I say shores . Ted Dansen (guy from Cheer,s) once said , "having sex with Whoopey Goldburg was like throwing a weiner down a hallway ". well thats how I felt casting a fly rod at that much flowing water... fairly insignificant .. and I didn't put on waders when I got out of the truck , my first thought was of the Alberta Didymo algae on my wading boots ... for the first time in years I had travelled to a potentially Didymo free enviroment . ... I fished up stream not able to reach good water without wading , so what did I dredge up on my heavy steamers but Didymo !! Hey I'm a tourist up here ! But what a beautiful place on this planet... I would love take a week and float that valley . Across from me was an island made up of just cliff face 80 feet high, that split the Peace in two ...each half of the river was far bigger than the Thompson River . Work was over a week later and on the radio they announced that Premier Cambell will have that part of the Mighty Peace River and all it,s farm land damed for hydro power .. So you have two years to go experience the mighty river ... Rainbows, Dolly Varden , Artic Grayling , Pike ,Walleye ,Goldeye and more . I suggest you contact Darren Thiel at BACK COUNTRY Outdoor Shop 250-785-1461 for info ..he is quite enthusiastic about his fishery ... GOOD BYE .. MIGHTY PEACE