The fishing was good. In fact, kind of dumb good. The way the Bow R is when the trout lose inhibition. The good of the golden stone hatch when you get 2 double headers and each miss a few others in 250m of a fast moving bank. When you put too much pressure on the fly and tippet just to get the trout in so you can shake it off and get back to casting, working the water - that good.
It wasn't like that all day but over two mornings last week it was that good in spurts. Amazing stuff with browns and rainbows in the 17 to 26" range hooked. When you get to work every seam while drifting in a drift boat, and you time it well, these things happen.
By the time things slowed down though, we asked ourselves if we wanted to continue to catch fish badly enough to do anything but dry fly. None did. Others drift past, catching on streamers and nymphs. We continued on the dry. We likely got out fished. So? We all began the day wanting one fish on the dry, and we each did that the first 10 minutes. But we fished how we wanted that day.
It was with that in mind that we pulled out beside a field with good shoulders. A long tailout glide with knee to waist deep water and good, trout holding rock. I was interested to see what I could see, so I got atop the bank. Immediately I saw a good rainbow holding. And another. Interesting. Kevin moved into position and for the next hour we worked up the shoreline, me spotting and directing from the bank, and Kevin casting to what he interpreted my communication to mean. It went fairly well and we had a lot of fun.
Then the entourage of pontoons and drift boats, rafts and car toppers began to come down the river, each really enjoying the day and the good fishing. Each was doing the same thing, nymphing the river and catching fish here and there. It was neat to see the action from my perch, able to see 600m down and at least that upstream. Lots of fish were caught.
But we were doing something different and - when crowds occur - he who is different generally is cast aside. And we were. A few pontoons got in tight to the bank. A little too tight. One raft with a stereo booming came down 12 yards off shore. I watched as the fish I'd sighted just upstream bolted off the bank for deeper water cover. More pontoons came down. One fellow lifted his line - I assumed to avoid Kevin - only to cast his bobber 3 feet from Kevin's knees. His partner was right behind in another pontoon maybe 7 or 8 yards off shore.
This gets back to the point of my blog post on the jet boats on the Red Deer R. In that case, we know that the jets, inner tube and air mattress crowds are all going to impact our fishing. We're the oddballs. So, why should we expect preferential treatment? In the case of the Bow, it's painfully obvious to anyone who has ever tried to wade the shoreline that folks in boats, at least 20% of them, simply don't know or care about etiquette. It's unfortunate, but part of the way it is. Do you yell and scream at every boat to respect your water? But even if you protect your 100m of water, if that's the only water you fish that day you might be fine doing so, but the water above or below that "ME" zone is going to get fished too - what are you going to do about that? You can't control every inch of a river, let alone what happens on or in it.
No matter how much we each set our boundaries and try to keep others outside their parameters, someone is going to cross them. How we act and react ultimately sets how much we enjoy our time on the water. Allowing external forces to impact that makes no sense. Sure, I suppose Kevin and I could have been upset that others came floating over the fish we were sighting and easily could have gotten into a heated argument if we were that kind of people. But why? We knew that boats would eventually come down. We knew that a few would likely cast into or float over the fish we were working. We knew those people would be indifferent or clueless. And we knew that once the boats came down the river, our way of doing things and the enjoyment we had would quickly end. And it did. But, again, if you know the parameters going in to a situation, you certainly can't get upset when you watch them unfold exactly as you knew they would.
And we simply knew it was over, each enjoyed the time we had, and walked off that bank with smiles on our faces and a few really nice photos. It was very enjoyable.
I only mention this because I see some interactions that aren't positive. I read internet forums and see conflict about this exact scenario on a weekly basis. It's so odd - and there's no need. We simply encourage folks to take a look at the larger view of what's happening, the likelihood of someone impacting your enjoyment, and realize that you don't have to come away with a negative experience. A simple reminder that we can't control anything about fishing - the fish, weather, or water conditions, etc - so why on earth would we ever expect to control what others do? People are more unpredictable than the weather. There's over a million people in Calgary, and generally only one or two weather fronts a week. Odds are people are going to impact your fishing more than the weather. Enjoy the moments as they unfold. Expect nothing more than to look back on the day after it unfolds and enjoy the moments you experience while encouraging others you interact with to do the same.
