Mike Robertson

Hello to all my fishing friends around the world. My name is Michael and was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. I have a deep passion for the sport of fishing and is what I live to do in my spare time. I have 20 years of fishing experience under my belt and started fishing when I was 10 years of age. I have recently opened my own guiding service here in Alberta and would love to pass on my knowledge and experience to my clients.

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  1. My wife won’t hold them either, but I don’t think she will grow out of it!!

  2. Yes perhaps she is past that point of no return Dave. This year I think my daughter will have the nerve to hold one with my guidance.

    Thanks for the comment, hope the new year brings you big fish and big smiles.

    ~Mike

    • James on January 22, 2015 at 12:16 pm
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    Hey Mike,

    I’m new to fishing the Bow river and I have learned a great deal from your website. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

    Just have a question for you. I mostly use Rapala Countdown lures on the Bow and it’s been working great, but one problem I have is that I get snagged too much and lose my expensive lures. Over the last 6 months, I’ve lost more than 10..would you have any tips on how to prevent snags?

    Thanks,
    James.

  4. Hello James, thank you for reading the Blog as well as your question. The best way I can answer your question is as follows.

    Each area of the river (depth of water) requires its own specific lure/lures to be fished. If you are only on 3-5 feet of water you will have a greater chance of losing lures due to snags if you are using a lure that is designed to dive deep, like the Countdown. When fishing in shallow water, say 3-5 feet I would select either an X-Rap or an Original Floater Rapala. These lures are designed to run in shallower water as opposed to the deeper diving Countdown. The right tool for the job as they say!

    If you are adamant on using the Countdown in shallow water, it can be done but you may loose some. My advice would be to keep the rod tip held up high in the air as this will force the lure to run higher up in the water column. Speed of retrieve will also need to be increased to keep the lure from diving down and snagging bottom.

    In deep holes you will not have much of an issue fishing the countdown method and you can slow up the retrieve. Remember in the winter when the water is this cold, you will want to fish a slow (dead stick) type of presentation and look for slower moving water. You can see a Rapala depth chart by simply entering (Rapala Depth Chart) as your query into Google or you can download this PDF file http://rapala.ca/sites/rapalabrand.com/files/u995/Depth_chart_Rapala_Web_View.pdf and keep it in your backpack for easy reference.

    I hope that does a good job answering your question James. Thanks so much for reading and thank you also for your question. Be safe out there and keep me posted as to how the tips work for you.

    Cheers,

    ~Mike

    • James on January 23, 2015 at 10:46 am
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    Thanks for the great tip Mike!
    I gotta get myself some x-raps and original floaters 🙂 I can’t wait to get on the river this weekend (forecast says 11 degrees on Sunday) to try your suggestions.

    Here another interesting trick I found online to get out of a snag. Have you tried this method before? Maybe worth a shot, but I don’t want to end up polluting the river with a bottle in case this doesn’t work.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWn5pm_HWTM

  6. Hey James, I will also be heading out to the river Sunday with my daughter and my fishing partner. Should be a killer day to fish the river! I am sure every man and his dog will be out.

    I watched that video just now and it is a neat idea and would probably work on some of the snags where the lure is stuck in the rocks, not so well if it is buried in a log. I usually let the line slack as he suggested and walk way down the river in the opposite way the lure got snagged, that will usually get the lure free.

    Losing lures used to really bother me but then I stopped caring after. I always say to my clients, “Losing lures is part of the game, its like golf. When you golf you sometimes lose a ball or two.”

    Thanks for posting the video, kind of made me chuckle. I liked the part where the fish came up for a fly near the end of the video. I would be all over that fish !!

    Let me know how you made out after you fish on Sunday.

    Thanks,

    ~Mike

    • James on January 25, 2015 at 2:45 pm
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    Hey Mike,

    I went out for a couple of hours near the fish creek park this morning and landed 3 rainbows. And what do you know..I didn’t lose any lures today 🙂

    All 3 were caught on a Blue Fox silver spinner….I usually do very well with the countdowns, but for some reason the silver spinner was working better today. Perhaps this warm weather had something to do with it?

    Anyway, I hope you also had a successful day out with your daughter.

    Thanks,
    James.

  8. Good Day James, very happy to hear you never lost any tackle, 12.50 smackers is not nice to leave in the river.

    I love the Blue Fox spinners, another great product from Normark. They are flashy and make lots of noise down there which makes for a perfect trout catching combo!

    My daughter and I latched into one nice brown trout but for the most part it was tough sledding. That is why they call it fishing and not catching.

    Thanks for the update James,

    Mike

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