Bow River, oldman river , crowsnest river, elk river

This gorgeous river has recently appeared in a few magazine articles, most notably in "fly fisherman" magazine. While the masses may just be finding out about this beauty of a river, we've known about it for years. The oldman can be separated into 3 distinct "rivers". The far upper, the middle section, and the lower section.

The upper as we call it is from the headwaters down to the confluence with the Livingstone River. It is extremely scenic and holds many cutthroat trout in every pool. It is generally small in nature, easy to wade, and beautifull. The water is clear, the surroundings are peacefull, and the fish are willing! The upper river holds a lot of cutthroats, and some bulls. The cutts up here range from tiny on up to 16 inches or so, and the bulls can be anywhere from 10-25 inches or so. The upper fishes very well on the dry fly almost all season long.

The middle section runs from the Livingstone confluence right down to the Oldman reservoir. This section is a bit larger, as it picks up water from various tributaries like the Livingstone, Dutch, Racehorse, Daisy, and more. In this section it flows through one of the most unique places to fly fish, known locally as "the gap", it is a slim canyon carved by the river where the front range of the mountains is peirced by the oldman, and then it spills out into the foothills and flows eastwards. The middle section offers a great variety of fishing, from fairly flat sections that are less pressured and hold great fish, to breathtaking scenery in and near "the gap" and all the ledges east of the gap as well. The river in this stretch fishes very good for larger cutts, some rainbows, and some bull trout. The cutts in this section can top 20 inches, and the bulls can go over 30 (though commonly 20-25). The hatches can be quite thick, and when a good one is on, you'll be amazed how many fish this river has in it!

The lower section runs from the oldman damn and downstream. It's a good fishery, but it's also a very moody fishery. If your willing to put your time in down there, chances are you'll hook up with a monster bull trout. Fish anywhere from 20-35 inches inhabit the many rock ledges, rock piles, and deeper runs, and they haunt anything else that swims nearby! The river also has rainbows, browns, and some northern pike. It can fish well on the dry fly for the rainbows, but the best bet is tossing streamers down here. You never know what you have on the end of your line until you see it!

Hatches on the Oldman can be incredible, and at times the entire river can seem alive with splashy rises as bigg cutts slam a good hatch. The best ones that get the fish really charged up, are the green drakes, and stoneflies. It seems the fish loose all hesitation during these hatches, and the takes can be downright violent! When smaller mayflies are on the water, you'll find fish delicately sipping them, too! PMD's, BWO's, midges, and caddis are some of the other hatches you can expect to encounter here. Terrestrials also work very well, especially in late summer.

Our Oldman River trips tailor a bit more to scenery and dry fly fishing than we do to chasing one huge bull in a day, so we tend to fish from the area around "the gap" and upstream. The scenery is tremedous and so is the fishing.