Bow River/Banff, AB

Looking for info on stretches of the Bow river near Banff that are easily accessible for fly fishing.

Will be there late June. Thanks.

The Bow is a BIG river. I have bank fished it and done okay, but a raft or boat is a huge plus. As for the size the Bow has trout in excess of five pounds. That is one place I would definitely try to book a guide for some trophy trout. I have a friend that is blind. He fishes it every year with a guide. When the guide says strike, he does. Seems to work okay

Tryin' not to laugh.

I don't deny that a blind man could out fly-fish me.

I freely admit that.

Banff is awesome

I haven't fished the Bow that far upstream, but have put several days on it below Calgary. There are nice sized Rainbows and Browns in the section I have fished.

I concur that booking a guide would be your best bet.

I will post some photos and the contacts for guides I have fished with in the next day or two.

As Mr. Vedder says, it is a big river.

I don't have time for guides or any of that BS. Maybe I'll hit some tribs and just wing it.

There's decent water right in town. I fished it a few years ago at the end of June. Unfortunately it was unseasonably warm and the runoff made the river marginally (at best) fishable. There's good water adjacent to a golf course there. It's only 1 run but I caught a couple real nice browns in that stretch on streamers.

At dusk, the herd of elk decided to move off the course and toward the river pinning me on a little peninsula of land right next to the river and a high bank. Don't think I've ever been more freaked out in my life. When I tried to walk back up the bank to get out of there they just moved in closer. I was able to wade out a bit and very slowly make my way back upstream and flank them to get back to the trail. Scared the living [censored] out of me.

Not sure if it's still there but there a flyshop in town.

I was there in the winter a few years ago and the place was just sick with elk.

The rivers were blown all to hell. Like over the banks. The lakes were pretty decent though. Minnewanka was alright, so was Kootenay down in Creston.

The locals recommended using these huge beadhead dragonfly looking things.

No keepers.