Eastern British Columbia and Western Alberta in September

[fishbum]

Yes, I am heading for a combination vacation trip with my wife and another couple for 17 days starting in Fernie BC then north to Crowsnest Pass, Radium Hot Springs, Canmore Alberta, Lake Louise and Jasper. We will turn south back to Fernie or Waterton/Glacier and then to Kalispell Mt. for the flight home.

Hopefully, my friend and I will be able to get in lots of fishing while the wives are in the tourist towns looking around (they do not fish), or we will take a picnic along and fish while they read on shore( we have done this before in Yellowstone and SW Montana). We prefer to wade rather than drift, and like to fish on our own most of the time. We are looking at the Elk, Crowsnest, and Bow Rivers as well as tributaries. I fished a small amount in Glacier last time without any luck, so not sure about the eastern side of the park. We also would like to try the indian reservation east of Glacier park.

Our primary target is trout, but we might try steelhead if it is not too early in the year.

Any advise based on previous experience in the area would be appreciated.

[Ted]

Wow, that trip puts the "bum" in fishbum for sure.

Nothing to add but:

1. Jealous
2. I liked Kalispell airport. Got free bear spray from an outbound traveler (TSA was hinky about that in carryons and maybe even luggage for some reason).

I guess have fun and watch for bears?

TH

[fishbum]

Thanks Ted.

I will post info and pictures on return.

[fishbum]

Have been in Canada for three days, but only a small time fishing.

Both of us caught one each mid sized cut throat (15-17") on the Elk River in Fernie Wed afternoon(actually mine was a SDR after playing the fish for five minutes). Found out that it is very expensive for non residents to fish in SE British Columbia. License is $21 per day(unless you buy a four day or annual for about $40 or $ 50 respectively)with all rivers in Fernie area designated as "classified" which means an additional $21 PER DAY totaling $42 each day fished! These fees were added several years ago due to a heavy influx of fishing, designed to reduce the fishing pressure resulting in more and larger fish. Residents pay a low cost annual license fee, which is reasonable. All fly fishing is with single barbless hook, no droppers allowed. Catch and release is the norm; I read somewhere the other day that in BC 87% of fish caught are released!

The Elk river is beautiful and seems to have a lot of fish. We saw a fair number of drift boats, but not as many as I expected. River is freestone, and wadable as it is not that deep in most areas, but swift and the size of the stones make wading somewhat tricky.

We are in Canmore Alberta today and tomorrow before heading up to Banff and Jasper, where we plan to do a little lake fishing. The Bow River is muddy here from rain and snow runoff, but it is 33F and snowing today! We have heard that the Bow is not what it used to be due to global warming and resulting glacier runoff, but we had not planned to fish the best known area of the Bow south of Calgary anyway.

The bear skin was a display from a program given by a park ranger about protecting the bears from intra park highway traffic. This one was a female who had been killed by a car. When you feel the fur you understand why the indians used the skins for winter coats. They have lost two grizzlies in the Kootenay National Park this year to autos.

From Jasper we intend to return south to SW Alberta to fish the Crowsnest and Oldman rivers and then go back to the US spending the last three days in Glacier Naztional park. Will send another report later.

[Windknot]

Sounds like a dream trip, and the photos are terrific! Thanks for sharing.

[fishbum]

Sorry it has taken so long to finish this report as we have been back for about two weeks; just been busy catching up on other issues.

We really did not get a lot of time to fish as this was a vacation trip to satisfy the Mrs' since we went to Alaska last year. We kept hearing "this isn't going to be a fishing trip is it?" so much that we over compensated in spending little time on the water.

We did get a little fishing on the Bow in the Lake Louise area, but because of the glacier silt runoff the fish population is very low. The water is beautiful, but I caught one small cutthroat after fishing for about 6 hours. I am told that the best fishing in the Bow is below Calgary, but we didn't get down to that location.

We did get to fish the Oldman and Crowsnest Rivers in Southern Alberta for one day. We caught several small rainbows in the Crowsnest and saw several large fish, but they were very picky and wouldn't touch anything we presented. The same thing happened at the Oldman, with the fish right in front of us sipping tiny midges and not looking for anything else. The country is beautiful around both of these rivers and they have lots of fish. I am sure we would have done better with more time on the water.

Finally, I fished one afternoon in Swiftcurrent Lake at Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park. The lake has a substantial population of brook trout but you really need a canoe or boat to fish. I did catch one nice brookie on a small nymph dropper behind a wolly booger.


All in all, I would go again but I don't think the fishing is as good as in Montana. In addition, the license fees are substantially more than they are for non residents in Montana. British Columbia even charges Alberta residents a $21/day rod fee for trout fishing their trout streams. If you are a non resident fishing for steelhead in western BC the rod fee doubles to $42/day! This is in addition to the base fishing license.

We did get to see some beautiful places in the Canadian Rockies, and got to see a black bear, mountain lion, moose,deer, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep. If any of you are interested in more details contact me off line.

[finless brown]

Sounds like a great trip. I fished a few days on the Elk near Fernie back in 2001 during the first of September. What a spectacular place.