Opening Day – 2023

The fishing season on our local trout streams officially opened today. While a couple of rivers around here, including the Crowsnest, are open year-round, most close at the end of October. It’s been 8-1/2 months since anyone has fished these waters.

Most of the rivers and streams are in great shape for this time of year. The mountain snowpack melted quickly this spring and we did not receive much in the way of rain until a couple of weeks ago. The heavy rain was a welcome relief as flows were already at mid-July levels. Stream flows increased significantly as a result of the rain, but water levels are dropping daily, once again. Cooler temperatures over the past several weeks have been helping, and there is more rain in the forecast. Hopefully, this will happen, and we’ll get more rain, come July and August. We will need it.

Some of the hatches on the Crow have been ahead of schedule and are providing some great early-season dry-fly fishing. The salmonfly hatch went off without a hitch in late May and a lot of anglers had productive fishing using big, bushy dries.

Currently, golden, yellow, and lime Sally stoneflies, caddis, and pale morning dun mayflies are hatching on the Crow. Best of all, the trout are looking up, too! The dry-fly fishing should only get better and better from now on.