May 6th To May 13 River Observations

Man, what a May so far.

The weather is gorgeous, though maybe not enough rain but that is what June is for.

With the temperatures that are in the forecast it looks like runoff will be in full swing over the next couple weeks.

River Flows

The Crow has been running high but with good clarity, 10.46m/s at the time of writing this but it’s also 6:30 am so it’s bound to bump up a bit as the day heats up.

Having Crowsnest lake at the head of the river really helps to moderate the flows but it is the tributaries like York Creek and Blairmore Creek that join it through the Pass that tend to colour it up.

Overnight lows are supposed to rise in the coming days so we may see another jump in flows and turbidity into next week.

Also if it rains the unregulated rivers will blowout for a day or two.

Observed Bugs

On a bug search mission with the kids we flipped rocks on the Crow downstream of the falls. We found some stoneflies starting to migrate to the banks but not in large numbers yet.

We were able to get our eyes on the odd Salmonfly nymph (Pteronarcys) and Golden stonefly nymph (Hesperoperla) along with the smaller but more plentiful Yellow/Lime Sallys (Isoperla).

Like last week heavy nymph rigs and dead-drifting or slow-swinging dark streamers would be the go to right now.  

A 9 foot or longer 6 weight rod is good for this kind of work.

You need a bit of extra giddyup in your rod to fish heavy rigs like this more comfortably.

Use a floating line, a 9-12 foot total length leader.

Use of an indicator is up to you.

But some extra weight to help get flies down quickly is a good idea.

For the Crow my go to flies right now would be…

Size 6 Salmonfly nymph

Size 6 Golden Stonefly nymph

Size 10 Beadhead Pheasant Tail

Size 8 or 10 Beadhead Prince Nymph.

Size 6 Black, olive or brown Woolly Bugger.

My feeling is that we are still a week or more away from any real mass emergence of Stones.

With the warmer temps though the season is progressing quickly, I hate to say it but maybe too quickly.

I feel like we are due for a shot of cold/wet weather and it would be needed to keep water up and forest fires at bay.

The Tailwater has been holding fairly steady since the 8th so with that long period of stable flows the fish that aren’t off trying to spawn should be willing to grab.

Tailwaters tend to produce lots of small bugs so overall, downsize your flies here.

Also swinging and stripping streamers in the tailwater can produce bites from Browns or Pike if you can find their hidey holes.

Brown Trout in Lee Lake

Speaking of Brown Trout, I found it interesting that the Alberta lake stocking reports show that Brown Trout were stocked in Lee Lake.

Check out this info for yourself

Even though they’re not a native species I’m always stoked to catch a Brown Trout so this is cool to see in my opinion.

Hopefully you can get out and enjoy the rivers and take advantage of these high but clear flows.

Just be careful wading and send us some pictures!