Spray River

The Spray is Banff's backyard river: a small mountain stream that comes down a quiet valley below Mount Rundle and meets the Bow just below Bow Falls. Most of its water never gets here. Since 1951 TransAlta's dams at Spray Lakes have sent the reservoir's flow through a canal to the Canmore powerhouses, so the old riverbed below Canyon Dam carries only a trickle until Goat Creek and the side streams refill it. What is left is about 10 km of pocket water and small pools along the Spray River fire road and the Spray River Loop, with brook trout, bull trout, westslope cutthroat and mountain whitefish. The fish are small, the season is short, and it is a walk-in river with no crowds of boats.

Read the Banff gauge, near the river's mouth. The Spray usually runs highest in June and July and drops through August. About 2 to 6 m³/s (70 to 210 cfs) is good water: you can see the fish in the pools and fish them from the bank. Above about 12 m³/s (420 cfs) after heavy rain it runs high and grey. The season closes on August 31, so the whole year is nine weeks of summer fishing. Small attractor dries, ants and beetles, and a light nymph in the deeper corners cover most of it. You may fish only one fly on your line, so no droppers.

Two Parks Canada rules shape every trip. You need a national park fishing permit and a park pass, and an Alberta licence is not valid. And the Spray is in a Water Preservation Zone, so waders and wading boots are not allowed: fish from the bank, or step in wearing rubber boots, water shoes or sandals, with a self-certification permit for your gear. Every fish goes back where you caught it. Bull trout and westslope cutthroat are species at risk, so keep them in the water. Elk and bears use the valley, and the trails are busy with hikers and bikes in summer.