Oldman-Crowsnest-Castle-river report

Levels have dropped dramaticaly still lots of dirt in the system... Expect changes in all your rivers and streams .. if you float ..Bring A Chain Saw ! Clear water can be found in some head waters . Seek and Yee Shall Find  Brother .. Road Closures found on -line my be inaccurate.. Take a drive .. #40 from hwy #3 is not closed ..I drove it last night from the Oldman to our Fly Shop at 100 km per hr. in perfect shape ?? ..The bridge over the Oldman on the #40 might be closed  I don,t really know  what will be open for the weekend. The Oldman roared and peeked  the scale at 1000 cubic meters per second .. be carefull as some  new cut banks may just need your weight to collapse (nothing personal )..The Castle river is at normal level but holding some colour down stream . Crowsnest river is at OK levels (my basement is dry now)  but has some colour .. saw some PMD,s ... Herd from a T.U. guy that Hidden Creek may have colapsed after the clear cut logging done just before it probably been protected by the feds as a special Bull Trout spawning zone ? we will all see after the water clears. The lake fishing is all good down here ..we had some great pike fishing in the area recently .... Al B.

Waters going down steadily to normal run off levels. Crow still on the high side...no roads blocked thru north forestry Oldman drainage. Road to Castle falls damaged with some shifting in the Castle ..new braids..Below the Oldman Dam is damaged at the bridge below the dam,and the campground is closed. Weather turning to lots of sunshine so we hope the Crow and Oldman drainage will improve quickly by the weekend.......hang in there!! Susan

Salmon Fly time on the Crows Nest River

June 6 th.... CrowsNest River report ... I didn,t get out until 2:oo pm .. and the trout must have had full bellies by then ... the Salmon Fly hatch was full on after all this rain lately.. a little sun was all it took .. I must say I have not seen a Salmon Fly Hatch like that for about a decade ... even the birds must have had full bellies , because , I didn,t even see one bird swoop across the river and hit one mid air in the next 4 hours ..Didn,t see one trout rise , which is not unusual during a Crows Nest river Salmon fly hatch... Fishing a big dry patterns only hooked me two fish . Nymphing took the rest .. no pictures of the big one as the camera battery and charger were last seen plugged into wall of a ocean side cabana in Belize .. the Crow also had smaller stones popping off the water as well as the usual Mayfly and caddis species ..The river it self is running clear and fast and beautiful ... don,t expect to find many safe crossing spots and dont step in those trout redds in the shallows .. Don,t miss this unique oportunity to fish this Salmon Fly hatch in clear water ( not mud ) tight lines Al B..

June!! 9 more sleeps till opening day..meanwhile a steady run off is providing viz at about 21/2 ft on the Crow..not bad eh?...salmon flies taken on the surface and golds showing their faces..Big Al did well yesterday on some of our cool patterns on the river. Don't forget to check the new regs some BIG changes on the Oldman system and the Castle....all the best, Susan