MEET YOUR GUIDES

Click below to read a little bit more about the folks behind Bownafide Guides!

  • Owner + Lead Guide

    1) When did you start guiding? 2009 was my first season guiding on the bow river. My first two years were part time and since 2011 I have been doing 100 plus guide days on the river every season.

    2) What made you want to become a fishing guide? Since I was a kid I wanted to be involved/working in the fishing industry. I love fishing! Not just fly fishing. I used to want a show(when I was a kid) but after 2 seasons of guiding I realized that this(guiding) is what I want do and am still excited to go every day after 13 or 14 seasons.

    3) Any favourite fish your clients have caught or memories from your experience guiding?

    After 14 years of guiding there have been many fish caught by clients that I will never forget. I do tend to be a brown trout snob but our river does truly have some special rainbows in it. 2 specific fish, both caught by ladies are a 26.5 inch rainbow caught in September in 2017 and a 28 inch brown damn caught last year season(2022) in March.

    4) What do you love about the Bow River? I love the fish. We are truly spoiled by the size of the fish. I love that it is minutes from my house or really anywhere in Calgary. I love that there is all sorts of water to fish(big river, side channels). When the river is not raging high there is literally everything any fisherman would want in a river to go fish. Riffles, rock piles , ledges etc. when the river is high and raging the fish push to the bank and we have great banks right in Calgary to fish for browns and it is literally minutes of driving to get away from the city and have the river feel completely. We may not have the same numbers of fish as some other rivers but I promise the size of our fish make up for it.

    5) What can people expect while spending a day on the water with you? I know I am very hard working. I have been told many times I am very good with communication skills. Once I figure out what people want out of the day there is nothing Moore important to me than making sure that happens, every single time. I love doing of floats and fishing from the drift boat on the move but once again every day is about what my clients want and making that happen.

    6) What is your favourite fishing trip/destination? I have been lucky enough to fish many destinations from South America to North America and from the Caribbean to the South Pacific.

    Salt water destination I definitely have a soft spot for the Cook Islands. I love wade hunting big bonefish.

    My most memorable Fresh water destination would still have to be peacock bass in Brazil, it was such a cool, remote place that felt like you could catch fish how ever you please.

    Here at home in North America I love swinging my Spey rod for chinook salmon and steelhead in British Columbia.

    7) What your favourite techniques for fishing/guiding for trout? I love rowing my boat in skinny water throwing double dry sand making fish come up . Swinging flies in the winter time on the Bow is also a favorite of mine. When guiding I am willing to do everything to make my clients smile!


  • Guide

    1) When did you start guiding? I started guiding in 2006 in fernie Bc on the elk river.

    2) What made you want to become a fishing guide? Ive always loved fishing (spin fishing, deep sea, fly fishing ) as a child and as I got older I got more interested in the whole making money while doing something you love gig lol. But at the same time giving new fishermen and women the thrill and enjoyment of catching, learning how to fish and enjoying the outdoors. So with all that put into 1 job that made me want to be a guide .

    3) Any favourite fish your clients have caught or memories from your experience guiding? There are so many different and great fish I’ve seen over the years. Big browns on dry flys always gets me excited or a rocket rainbow crushing a streamer.

    4) What do you love about the Bow River? I love the fact you can float through a city of over 1 million people and catch world clash trout. And not to mention the fish are a huge asset ;)

    5) What can people expect while spending a day on the water with you? You can expect some great laughs , positive criticism, lessons all day on perfecting your casts and mends , knowledge of the fish structure on the river , bird identification, a great lunch and hopefully some fish in in the net!

    6) What is your favourite fishing trip/destination? I’m a big fan of chasing rooster fish on the beaches of Baja Mexico. It’s a rush that is hard to beat.

    7) What your favourite techniques for fishing/guiding for trout? It all depends on my clients experience, I will use all techniques nymphing, dryfly and streamers to get into fish but I do prefer to watch the visual eat on a dry fly .

  • Guide

    1) When did you start Guiding? 2019

    2) What made you want to become a fishing guide? Growing up fishing the bow and its tributaries with my old man definitely instilled a love for the watershed and and its incredible fish. I remembered cruising into fly shops at a young age and being in awe of the rough around the edges yet friendly guides that would give a young kid like me the time of day. Fast forward to my early twenties I scrounged up enough money to afford my own drift boat in 2015 and then eventually I was given the opportunity to guide for one of the best fly shops in town for the summer of 2019. Beyond some glorified view a young me had of fishing guides, I think I was motivated to become a guide from my love of teaching and instructing. As a ski racing coach for the Sunshine Ski Club from 2011 till present day, Guiding allowed me to fill my summer months with an opportunity to continue my pursuit of teaching and instructing to new, intermediate, or advanced fly anglers.

    3) Any Favorite Fish your clients have caught or memories from your experience guiding? Summer of 2022, late July I was lucky enough to guide an excellent angler from Utah. On our first day fishing together we put a 24.5 inches kyped up male brown trout in the bag and that was closely followed by the largest guided brown I have had the pleasure of putting in the bag. A 26.5 inch female bow river brown trout was fooled with a dry dropper set up shortly after the first one. The fairly stout hook was opened up by the incredibly fat fish during the fight, and we were super fortunate to get the fish to hand. This particular brown looked like it had been eating birthday cake all summer; just an incredibly proportioned brown with hardly a scale missing. One of the ones. That first day led to 3 more trips with that particular client. In our 4 days of fishing together last season we managed 3 browns over the 24 inch mark, and a half dozen browns in the 21- 23 inch category. It's an absolute privilege to be able to help anglers make incredible memories like these each season. Even more its incredible to build relationships with like minded people as sick with fishing as I am.

    4) What do you love about the Bow River? From the headwaters to the prairies, the Bow River watershed puts food on my table while providing the ultimate playground for my wife and I. We are both skiers in the winter and fly anglers in the summer. The snow or the water of this incredible drainage fuels the life that we want to live. The Bow River is like no other river in the world, an intact ecosystem that flows through a city of 1.7 million people. Unique in that this river is in no way damage or destroyed by its urban influence. Not many places where you can drive 30 minutes for some evening dry fly fishing or choose to drive an hour west to ski in some of the best mountains in the world.

    5)What can people expect while spending a day on the water with you Clients can expect a professional guide with 15 years of teaching experience. I always make a huge effort to teach beginner, intermediate, and advanced anglers a new technical skill or provide a perspective shift on the fishery. Once on the water the day is for my clients. Clients will have full autonomy to make it as long or as short as they please. I am a huge proponent of dry fly, dry dropper, or streamer fishing. That being said, if the conditions are tough, clients can trust me to make the adjustments that put a consistent bend in the rod. Expect a young eager guide who is not afraid of hard work while keeping things light.

    6) What is your favourite fishing trip or destination to fish? Beyond a day on the bow in July throwing stoneflys for large browns or rainbows, my favourite trip has got to be steelheading in North Western BC. Every year I make the pilgrimage with my jet boat and wall tent in hopes of fooling a large steelhead with a home tied dry fly.

    7) What are your favorite techniques for fishing/guiding trout? WORMZZZ, kidding. I would say my favourite way of guiding trout on the Bow is during early to mid august hunting heads and throwing small caddis or mayflies to fish doing push ups in the shallows. Fish at this time of year our trout are extra alert and spooky. I get immense satisfaction coaching my clients into large fish on tiny dries. It's a fun game and the trout always seem to get extra pissed off when fooled by eating tiny dries in shallow water. The eats and eruptions after being hooked are incredible. No better way to catch fish on the Bow in my opinion.