Jan 15

Ask Mike- Tips & Advice

Let’s talk about what lures or hooks if you will, work best for Brown Trout all over the world. When I target Brown Trout I usually will tie up a plug first thing. The reason for this is simple; Brown Trout love to eat baitfish. They do not eat baitfish because they are necessarily hungry, the will also eat baitfish mostly because they are very territorial. When a Brown trout hears or takes sight of a baitfish imitation moving through its territory, it will aggressively strike at this baitfish to protect its territory from this predator, YOUR LURE. I have several presentations I like to use when I target Brown Trout.

One is, when fishing a river I will cast the lure at a ten o’clock position and slowly reel the lure across the river finishing at a three to four o’clock position. Another method which is one of my favorites is, cast your lure directly upstream and retrieve the lure downstream towards where you stand. The fish are looking upstream to find their food so this presentation is the most natural looking to the fish. I like to use the Rapala Brown Trout pattern when fishing for Brown’s. The Berkley Frenzy has produced some of my biggest Brown’s as well.

This lure has a silver under body with a black top. Looks like a silver shiner. And finally when all else seems to fail I will use what’s called a Buzz Bomb. This is also a baitfish imitation with a kick, its loud noise or “buzzing sound” attracts big fish wherever they hide. Also try the Zinger made by the same tackle company which is the Buzz Bomb & Zzinger lure company.

Jan 15

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.

Jan 14

Rainbow Trout Info

I have always wondered where and how the government of Alberta acquired their Rainbow Trout fry. This article will give the reader a good idea on where the Bow River Rainbow Trout came from. How they were interbred and what the future looks like for our Rainbow Trout population here in Calgary on the Bow River as well as across the province. Surplus trout eggs, produced by the Department of Sustainable Resource Development are available to Alberta’s private aquaculture operators. The self-sufficient nature of the provincial program requires that the two government brood trout stations rear sufficient numbers of trout brood stock to ensure the continued genetic diversity of our captive breeders. Surplus brown trout, eastern brook trout, and rainbow trout eggs are offered for sale to qualified purchasers from November to mid February. Rainbow trout eggs have generated the greatest interest since eyed eggs were first offered for sale in 1997 and are available from both “certified and uncertified” disease free stock.

The Allison Creek Brood Trout Station in the Crowsnest Pass and the Raven Brood Trout Station near Caroline produce the majority of trout eggs for Alberta’s trout stocking program. Eggs for the other salmonid stocking programs (Arctic grayling, cutthroat trout, and bull trout) are collected from wild spawning operations. Up until the late 1970’s, the provincial government purchased all rainbow trout eggs from private sector producers in the US. Concerns over the importation of fish diseases with eggs and regular trout egg shortages led to the development of our own brood stock program.

Initially, eggs were collected from mature fish and as the effort showed success, egg purchases were phased out. The trout rearing station at Raven was converted to a brood facility in 1980 and the Allison Creek Brood Trout Station was opened in 1982. The rainbow trout stock at Raven began as eggs imported to Calgary’s Sam Livingstone Fish Hatchery from Mt. Lassen Trout Farms located in northern California.

Jan 13

Rainbow Trout Info

The success of the Mt. Lassen strain as a fast grower, excellent survivor, and good sporting fish has led to the continued maintenance of this strain. An experimental enhancement was conducted in the mid 1990’s when the Mt. Lassen eggs were crossed with males from natural spawning rainbow trout from Pekisko Creek, a tributary to the Bow River. However, the “pure” strains of Mt. Lassen rainbows were found to have superior characteristics on all counts. The trial cross has now been retired and Raven has returned to the exclusive use of the Mt. Lassen strain.The Allison station currently uses two distinct strains. In 1985/86, four rainbow trout strains and seven crosses were evaluated for egg production suitability. These stocks originated from: Troutlodge (Oregon), Beity Hatcheries (Washington), Mt. Lassen (California), and Pennask/Beaver Lake (British Columbia). A variety of strains and crosses were used up until 1989 when the Beity strain (BEBE) and the Beity x Pennask/ Beaver Lake (BEBL) had exclusive use. The BEBL strain was back-crossed with the BEBE’s in 1990. This strain is still referred to as the Beity x Beaver Lake cross and is used alternately (two year alternation) with the pure Beity rainbow trout strain.

Since the establishment of cultured rainbow trout strains in Alberta, both Raven and Allison use a system of rotational three line crossing to maintain genetic integrity. Laboratory analysis has shown that this system has been successful in maintaining genetic diversity in rainbow trout stocks. So, that is the origin of the three strains of rainbow trout used in government fish culture operations. What are the origins of the strains of rainbows originally brought into Alberta? Well that is the subject of recollection, opinion, and incomplete records. With some degree of certainty, those strains originated with the Shasta, Arlee, Montana, and Donaldson varieties of rainbow trout in the northwest United States and Beaver Lake in British Columbia. One thing we CAN say for sure is that the rainbow trout is native to the Pacific Northwest, intermountain and east slope regions of North America and is now a popular hatchery and sport fish all over the world. Aren’t we lucky! I will gather information on the Brown Trout that occupy the Bow River system and post an article on the Brown Trout Information page of the Blog.