The southwest corner of Alberta, Canada, is becoming a popular destination for fly anglers. Hundreds of miles of rivers and streams flow down from the Rockies through this area, providing numerous opportunities to fish for wild or native trout in a beautiful setting. The Crowsnest River is perhaps the most productive and best known of these streams. The "Crow," as it's called by those who fish it regularly, is located approximately 120 miles southwest of Calgary and 270 miles northwest of Great Falls, Montana.

This river is one of the most accessible, user-friendly trout streams in the country. The average width of the Crowsnest is less than 50 feet, making it ideally suited to wade fishing. Anglers can access the river at more than a dozen bridges. Highway 3 parallels the river for miles and a bicycle/walking path follows its banks through several towns, providing additional access to the water. Other parts of the river pass through private land, and anglers should always obtain permission from landowners before crossing their property. Fortunately, there are enough bridges and other public areas that provide plenty of easy access. Once you're on the river, you may wade up and down the river as long as you stay below the high-water mark.

Prolific hatches of mayflies, caddis, stoneflies, and midges occur on the Crowsnest each summer, and some of the best dry-fly fishing Alberta has to offer can be found on this stream from April through October. A portion of the river remains open to fishing year-round, so it's possible to catch fish every month of the year.

Rainbow trout are the predominant species and are present throughout the entire river system. Westslope cutthroats are native to the streams of southwest Alberta, including the Crowsnest River. However, the introduction of rainbows many years ago has long since diluted the cutthroat gene pool. As a result, hybrids, or cuttbows, are common.

Rainbow trout are the primary gamefish in the Crowsnest but there are also cuttbows and below the falls, there are brown trout and bull trout.

Bull trout are native to the Crowsnest, too, but today are only found in the lower river, downstream of Lundbreck Falls which is an impassable barrier. Due to a number of factors including overfishing, bulls disappeared from the river upstream of the falls decades ago. Brook trout are present in the upper reaches and also in a number of tributaries. Brown trout were introduced below the falls in the 1960s. While the introduction of browns was successful, the present population is made of of a small number of often large browns. Mountain whitefish also inhabit the river in good numbers.