General Info- Bow River

I would like to dedicate this post to the fisherman/women who are looking to fish the Bow River in the winter months. December, January and Febuary can be excellent fishing months but You can really only concentrate on one area of the Bow River for a few different reasons. Above the weir at Memorial Drive the river freezes and only a small channel has open water flowing through. Not fishable at all in this area. As you work your way down river the Bow begins to open up and then becomes fishable say after the Water treatment plant off of Ogden road. The treatment plant releases a certain amount of chemicals into the river which increases the water temperature. After this point, the river is fishable a kilometer above Mackinnon Flats. At Mackinnon flats however, you will face the same problem as above the Memorial Drive weir; totally iced up and no available water to fish. See here. I concentrate my fishing in the winter months inside the city of Calgary and a little south of the city. Then you are faced with another problem in the winter, when the temperature drops below -10 degrees the river flows with ice and then becomes unfishable as a result. I like to catch fish not ice. So you targeted area lies from The Western Headworks Diversion Weir (Memorial Drive) to just north of Mackinnon flats. Have fun fishing and catch the big one.