Smiling guest holding a Bow River rainbow trout under a bluebird sky on a guided fly fishing trip with King Trout Outfitters near Calgary

Fishing Reportgood

Bow River Fishing Report

Week of September 9, 2026

By Dan King · Lead Guide, King Trout Outfitters

Dan King's Bow River report for September 9, 2026. The river's dropped to 70 cms and falling, the lowest and clearest water of a month-long stretch, water cooled to 12°C, and fall is fully on: blue-winged olives on grey afternoons and big browns staging on streamers down low. Watch on YouTube →

Bow River fly fishing conditions in downtown Calgary on September 9, 2026 — low, clear fall water running green-blue below the skyline and Centre Street Bridge, where King Trout Outfitters runs guided Bow River trips. — The Bow running low and clear through downtown Calgary on the evening of Wednesday, September 9, 2026, looking across to the skyline and the Centre Street Bridge under blue early-fall skies. Point-in-time snapshot from the DELTATECH Calgary live river camera. Source: DELTATECH Calgary Live Camera →

Bow River fishing conditions for the week of September 9, 2026 are good. Flow is 70 cubic meters per second and falling. Water temperature is 12°C. No angling restrictions are in effect. Active hatches include Blue-Winged Olive (BWO), Terrestrials (Hoppers/Ants/Beetles), October Caddis, Trico.

Flow (m³/s) ↓

12°C

Water Temp ↓

good

Overall Conditions

None

Restrictions

iFlow context: The Bow read 70 cms late this afternoon, and it's been dropping for a few days now. It bumped up to about 84 midweek, sat in the high 70s, and has since slid down to 70, the lowest reading of this whole low-and-clear stretch. Still well under that 90 cms late-summer baseline, and nothing on the radar to move it. This is textbook fall wading water: skinny, gin-clear, and predictable. A few of the shallower float lines run bony at this level, so pick your water. And at this clarity the fish get a long, careful look at everything you throw, so drop your tippet a size and fish fine. The nights are cold now, the light goes flat by late afternoon, and the whole river has tipped over into fall. Source: Environment Canada

A red FLYPOD drift boat with two anglers on the Bow River near Calgary, ready to launch for a guided fly fishing trip

On the Water

Do You Need a Boat to Fish the Bow River?

You can wade the Bow in spots, but most of the best water sits along banks and seams you can only reach by drift boat. That is why guided trips here run from a boat. It covers miles of productive water in a day and keeps you safer when flows are up, like the 70 cms running this week.

What Are Conditions Like on the Bow River This Week?

“

Dan King

Lead guide at King Trout Outfitters · 15+ years on the Bow River

Dan here. Fall is fully on the water now. Flow's dropped to 70 cms and still easing off, the lowest and clearest it's been in this whole stretch, and honestly it's about as good as wading gets. The nights have turned cold, the water's down around 12 and falling, and the river's tipped right over into its fall pattern. Here's what that means for you. The Blue-Winged Olive is the fly of the moment, thick on any grey afternoon from above Bearspaw right through town, so carry #18 to #20 parachutes and a few small nymphs for when they're not looking up. The Tricos are basically done. And down low the streamer game is waking up, big Woolly Buggers and Sculpins swung for the staging browns, which are the biggest fish in the river. No official closure as I write this, but always check My Wild Alberta before you head out. And I'll be straight with you: cool water and staging fall browns is the best fishing of the entire year on the Bow, and my September and October dates are going fast. If you want a fall float, lock it in now.

Close-up of a wild brown trout held gently in hand showing distinctive spotted markings

What They're Eating

When Is Hopper Season on the Bow River?

Hopper season on the Bow runs from about mid-July into late September, and early fall is prime. On warm, breezy days the big browns push to the banks to eat grasshoppers off the surface, and it is some of the most exciting dry fly fishing of the year. Fish a foam hopper tight to grassy banks, often with a nymph dropped a couple feet underneath. This week's producing patterns are in the chart below.

What Hatches Are Active on the Bow River?

Insect	Hook Size	Activity
Blue-Winged Olive (BWO)	#18-22	heavy
Terrestrials (Hoppers/Ants/Beetles)	#8-16	light
October Caddis	#8-10	light
Trico	#20-24	light

See the full month-by-month Bow River Hatch Chart →

What Flies Are Working This Week?

Close-up of a hand selecting a fly from a well-stocked fly box

BWO Parachute

#18-20dry

Pheasant Tail

#16-18nymph

Olive Woolly Bugger

#4-6streamer

Sculpin / Sparkle Minnow

#4-6streamer

Foam Hopper

#8-12dry

BWO Nymph / RS2

#18-20nymph

Pro Tip

No restrictions this week. Fish from dawn to dusk. The best window is mid-morning through late afternoon when the hatches are active and the water has warmed a few degrees.

Where Should You Fish the Bow River This Week?

Upper Bow

Above Bearspaw Dam

Above Bearspaw keeps getting the nod. The Ghost pushes cold water in at the top, so this reach runs a degree or two cooler and the fall bugs fire here first. The Blue-Winged Olive is the whole game up here now. On any grey afternoon they pour off the riffles and the fish line up in the soft seams to eat them. A #18 parachute drifted into the slack behind a boulder is my first cast, and when nothing's showing on top I run a Pheasant Tail or a small BWO nymph deep through the same water and stay tight to the line. Wade slow and low, because at 70 cms and this kind of clarity a fish sitting in a foot of water sees a heavy cast land from a long way off.

City Section

Bearspaw to Carseland

The town water is fishing right through the day now that the cold nights have knocked the temperature down. That midday August shutdown is a memory. Watch for a real BWO hatch off the flats every time the cloud rolls in, and hunt noses in the slow water along Carburn and through the Prince's Island back channels with a #18 to #20 olive parachute. The hoppers are nearly done, but a brown will still crush one tight to the grass on the bright breaks, so keep a foam bug in the mix with an ant or a Pheasant Tail hung off the bend. This is the city reach at its best, and it's holding up all afternoon instead of quitting at noon.

Lower Bow

South of Calgary

McKinnon Flats down to Carseland is where the fall streamer game is really switching on. The lower-river browns are the biggest, meanest fish in the system, and they're staging and turning aggressive as the water cools off. Swing a big Olive Woolly Bugger or a Sculpin through the deep buckets and hard along the cutbanks and be ready, because these eats are violent. A hopper-dropper still picks up steady numbers between the streamer grabs, and the BWO comes off down here too on the grey afternoons. Water's a touch warmer this far down but it's shedding heat fast, so it fishes all day. Land these big browns quick, keep them wet, and turn them loose with plenty left in the tank.