When you go fishing, it’s always about more than just the fish. Mix it up with memorable golfing in the Canadian Rockies. You can make fins and pins the perfect summer getaway by simply choosing an Alberta holiday package.
Banff Flyfishing specializes in fly fishing Banff to Calgary on the upper and lower Bow River. This outfit’s been in the business for more than 20 years, guiding anglers on this blue ribbon trout river that connects the wilderness of Banff National Park with the urban amenities of a city of more than one million residents.
Pins & Fins is an Alberta getaway offered in the packages available on FishCanadianRockies.com, and Banff Flyfishing will be your guide on a full day float and wade trip on the Bow River. You can find other fishing travel packages in the province as well, but for more on rockin’ the Canadian Rockies with the five-day Pins & Fins holiday, read on.
Play World Class Golf
Before we take a closer look at fly fishing the Bow River, let’s see what golf courses you can play with Pins & Fins.
You’ll play the Stanley Thompson-designed Banff Springs Golf Course aside the ‘Castle in the Rockies’ – The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. The 27-hole golf course is in Banff National Park, a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Wherever you look, you see wilderness and majestic mountains. Whether you’re a novice or expert, this course provides once-in-a-lifetime challenges.
Stanley Thompson was Canada’s premiere golf architect. He designed the original 18 holes more than 80 years ago. The course hugs the Bow River in the national park and continues at the feet of Sulphur Mountain and Mount Rundle, providing an awesome landscape for sight seeing as well as playing golf. An additional nine holes were added less than 20 years ago to complete the course you’ll play today.
If you want, you can use the course golf academy and practice facility before hitting the links. You can take a hole-by-hole tour of the Banff Springs Golf Course to get the lay of the land. Club and shoes rentals are available, too.
Play SilverTip or Stewart Creek
The ‘Pins’ part of the getaway also allows you to play one of two other great golf courses. SilverTip is a 7,200-yard championship course in Canmore, Alberta. The town of Canmore sits at the edge of Banff National Park and is just an hour’s drive west of Calgary. This recreational town draws international residents and offers an outdoors lifestyle with big city services.
When you play at SilverTip Golf Course, you’re facing 18 holes of Les Furber-designed splendor in rugged wilderness within the Bow Valley corridor. The course is located high on a mountainside on the sunny side of the Trans-Canada Highway at an elevation of 4,300 ft. (1,310 metres). Here is a hole-by-hole tour.
You can choose to play at the Stewart Creek Golf & Country Club instead of SilverTip. This 18-hole course is flanked by the Three Sisters Mountain Village in Canmore and offers 7,195 years of golfing challenges and pleasure. Again, you are playing on naturally sculpted fairways in spectacular wilderness with mountains all around.
Fins & Pins puts you in Falcon Crest Lodge in Canmore for your five-day trip. Day two takes you to the Banff Springs Golf Course, day three is the Float and Wade on the Bow River, and day four is when you can choose to play SilverTip for Stewart Creek.
The Float and Wade Trip
Back to the float and wade portion of the journey through the Rockies. The Bow River winds through the front ranges of the Rockies to the prairies where there are miles of catch and release fishing. No man made structures impede the river flow or alter the streambed along the stretch that you’ll fish.
Banff Flyfishing uses MacKenzie River drift boats, which are stable and easy to guide into tricky spaces, including productive holes favored by trout. All gear is provided, including fishing gear, waders and custom tied flies. If you need it, you’ll receive excellent instruction. It’s a great way for a novice to learn how to fly fish. But experts will also benefit from the seasoned guides’ knowledge of this river.
The seven to eight hour float and wade trip takes in about five miles (seven kilometers) of the river. If you’re a shutterbug, this stretch of water provides ample opportunities for taking memorable wilderness photos. While this is a catch and release river, some of the greatest trophies you can take on your return home will be captured in a digital camera or camcorder. Whether you’re golfing or fishing, the scenery will reverberate with you for years.