Bow River Fly Fishing
Calgary Alberta Canada
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The fish that we go after in cold water can be classified into two categories.  Those with large scales, and those with small scales.  Large scale fish are Whitefish and Grayling.  Small scale fish are Trout and Char.  The only "True Trout" are the Brown trout, Rainbow trout, and the Cutthroat Trout.  All true trout have black spots.  That is all you need to remember.  The other fish that we call trout are actually Char.  These include Brook Trout, Lake Trout, and our provincial fish the Bull Trout.  Char do not have black spots.  The chart below will give you a process to identify any cold water fish that you catch in Alberta.

Click on the pictures below for a write up on each fish with more identification strategies.

When you catch a fish, note if the fish has Small Scales or Large Scales.

If the fish has Small Scales, look to see if the fish has Black Spots.
If it does, it's a Trout.

Trout
(Small Scales - Black Spots)

If there are white halos around            If there is a red slash under              If it has neither halos
the black spots, it's a                          the jaw, it's a                                   nor a red slash, it's a
Brown Trout                          Cutthroat Trout                  Rainbow Trout
 

If the fish has Small Scales, but doesn't have Black Spots, it's a Char.

Char
(Small Scales - No Black Spots)

If there are dark markings             If it has light markings on the dorsal       If it has no markings on the
on the dorsal fin, it's a                   fin, and has a deeply forked tail, it's a    dorsal fin, it's a
Brook Trout                     Lake Trout                         Bull Trout  (C&R only)
 

If the fish has Large Scales

If it has a large dorsal fin               If its dorsal fin is shaped         If the top of the dorsal fin extends past
(more than 17 rays), it's an           like a Mountain, it's a             the back edge of the dorsal fin, it's a
Arctic Grayling               Mountain Whitefish   Lake Whitefish

coming soon!

The government of Alberta has put together a great online Fish Identification Quiz.

Other Fish to catch on a fly rod

If you are in a lake or in warmer rivers and you pull out a 2 - 3.5 foot long fish with huge sharp teeth, it's a Northern Pike - use forceps if you want to keep your fingers!

Northern Pike

Catch and Release vs. Keeping your Catch

Our point of view is that if the fish is a Native fish or a Wild fish, release it so someone else can catch it, and to allow it to spawn.  Stocked fish are not the same quality as those that come from a self reproducing fish population.  If we go to a stocked lake, or to a lake with a large and healthy population, then it's time to catch some dinner.  Please practice Catch and Release, especially in our rivers, and keep our fisheries strong.

Barbed vs. Barbless Hooks, and Bait

As of April 1, 2004, the use of barbed hooks in the Province of Alberta is illegal.  We have used barbless hooks for all of our fishing for a number of years to decrease mortality rates.  It is much quicker and easier to release fish if the barb is crimped.  We have not found an increase in the amount of fish that get away.
Bait, if legal, should never be used if you are going to release a fish.  When there is food on your hook, the fish will swallow it and take the hook deeply into it's throat, causing much damage, or even death upon  release.  The hooking mortality for trout is 25% if bait is used, versus only 4% when plain hooks and flies are used.  If you plan on keeping a fish, and the law allows it, then by all means use bait.  This requires, however, that you keep every fish you land, so if there are size regulation, please refrain from using bait to keep our fisheries strong..  To find out where it is legal to keep fish, please check out the Alberta Fishing Regulations.  Please, always Pinch Your Barbs, it's the law!

Bug Identification

The three most important bugs to a fly fisherman are the Mayfly, the Caddisfly, and the Stonefly.  If the Wings are held upright when it is at rest, it's a Mayfly.  Mayflies look like little sailboats.  If the wings are held back on the body while at rest, it's a Caddisfly.  Caddisflies look like a pup-tent.  If the wings are held back, and the bug has large antennae, a large body, and looks like it could pick up a fish, it's a Stonefly.

Mayflies are the most prolific bugs in Alberta that fish eat.  There are more than 500 species of Mayfly in North America alone.  A Mayfly has an incomplete lifecycle, which means it does not have a pupal stage.  It lives under water for a year or two as a nymph, and then swims to the surface where it emerges and shucks its nymphal skin becoming a dun.  In this stage it sits on top of the water to dry its wings before flying to a nearby bush to molt into an adult spinner.  Mayflies mate once and then die and lie on the water as a spent spinner with wings spread out to the side.  Fish methodically sip Mayflies, and the takes are very soft and subtle.  The smaller the take, the bigger the fish, the big ones know how to conserve energy better than the little guys.

Cadisflies are probably the second most important bug to a fish.  They have a complete lifecycle, which means they go from larva, to pupa, to adult.  They live underwater for a year or two in the larval stage, usually inside of a larval case that they construct.  They then close themselves inside their forming a sort of cocoon, where they undergo pupation.  After a couple of weeks, the pre adult caddis, breaks out of its housing and swims vigorously to the surface where it breaks free from its pupal casing, and quickly flies off to shore to mate as an adult.  Unlike Mayflies who die immediately after mating, Caddisflies can mate up to four times and can live for up to 20 days.  Fish slurp and slash at caddis flies, sometimes jumping right out of the water to take them.  This proves for some heart pounding fishing!
 
Stoneflies are big.  They are the third most important bug to us fly fishermen, and perhaps the most fun to fish.  They live in steams with rocky bottoms, where fast flowing, well oxygenated water flows. Adults have two pairs of shiny wings with visible veins.  At rest they are folded on their back like a Caddisfly.  Stoneflies have two large antennae, and two long tail cerci.  Their wings look large compared to their bodies, and they look very awkward in flight when compared to a Mayfly.  Stoneflies, like the Mayfly, have an incomplete lifecycle.  They live in the stream anywhere from one to three years as a nymph before they crawl to the edge of the stream where they climb on top of a rock to laboriously shuck their nymphal case.  Always look at boulders before you start to fish to see if they are littered with shucks, if they are, you may be in store for a great day fishing Stonefly nymphs and adults.  If the fish are turned onto Stoneflies, the fishing will be good.  Its all about energy conservation.  Fish will swim some distance to hammer a Stonefly or another small fish because they obtain much more energy than what they get from a size 24 Mayfly.

There are many other aquatic insects of interest to the fly fisherman, including terrestrials that stray into the water.  These however are the big three.  Fish them well and you will have plenty of success.

The most important thing to remember when fly fishing, is to see what the fish are eating, and then match the size and color.  The fish don't care what the scientific or common names of the bugs are, or what the names of the patterns that we bought or created.  It is better to carry only a few patterns in many colors and sizes, than to carry many different patterns in only one color and one size.

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