The Bow

[Garhan]

A bucket list of things to do. So the first one was to take my son on a float trip down the Bow River with "Mr.Barry White". Barry and I have been friends since the late "70's". He not only taught me many things on fly fishing back in those days. I even found myself learning on this last trip with him about Blanket Flowers, Stoneflies and Swallows and of course about ...such..., chopping the chicken and poking the sky. We discussed what was, what is, and what is to come. We spoke with care on Flyrod's, designs, The history of the original guides on the Bow River (1st Generation) and the rest that followed those three. The friends we share fishing with and those friends that have moved ahead of us to the next place. We spoke with great enthusiasm and regard of the Sipos's, Hilburns, Brewsters, Petersen's, Thompson's, Mitchells, Grinnels, Beekens, McLeanans, Thornberries, Supersteins and many others. Those that impacted the Bow on a North American scale such as Kreh, Brooks, Wulff, Whitlocks, and others. (The flyfishing community was a lot smaller back in the 70 and early 80's) We still yearn their companionship, laughter, observations,input and miss netting a trout for them or tying a fly for them. The conversation broke into the - How to pull a hook out , buried into the skin that is stuck deep into you're casting hand thumb with the barb still on. It was a #2 in size.The discussion on Spey vs. traditional one handers and how they have come to play on east-slope water, how to select a great Steelhead rod and what do you really need to be good at it. The real reason why we now fish the Bow with small streamers versus the number 2 and 4 with 30 wraps of .30 lead we used to tie for the Bow. How the river has changed and the change in the people on it today. Etiquette and solidarity, passion, sharing and helping others in the sport we love. How without a conservation program and effort from each angler is needed to really fit into the sport completely and to protect our fishing opportunities. How a true 30 incher was caught in a spot I personally have pulled some nice fish out of and how that hen weighed a solid 18 pounds, back in 81. It must be really big today. If you take a photo of that fish of a lifetime today, the SLR chip would weigh 2 pounds, before processing and the water would drop 2-4 inches around you when she is lift out of the water.Yes, it was a great day and an enchanting day. We all survived a heavy warm down pour of a typical summer shower, we laughed, we pondered, we taught the next generation. I hope my son is hooked and appreciates what he is inheriting one day, I am sure he will, does, and is captured into the sport. It is not just a river it flows of and with laughter, joy, fellowship, memories, thoughts, experience and love for a river and its life. This is fishing. Oh yeah we caught a nice brown as well.