In Alberta, it is getting harder to find special, less pressured waters to fish. When such an opportunity arises, you jump.
In mid September of 2016, we embarked on a trip to the Oldman River tailwater hosted by Fish Tales Fly shop
together with members of the Blackfoot nation. The opportunity was special, a chance to fly fish the less harassed section of the Oldman River, where it crosses the Peigan (Piikani) First Nation and spend an overnight at a tipi camp on river.
The Oldman river arises in the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains and flows east through the drought prone foothills, the Peigan reserve, Lethbridge and ultimately unites with the Bow River to become the South Saskatchewan River. It can be characterized as a hybrid of Alberta's Bow and Montana's Bighorn rivers. The upper one-third incises valleys, nourishing bankside vegetation and wildlife. The tailwater follows a more serpentine course through open meadow and grassy plain and holds good populations of rainbow, cutthroat and brown trout.
The Oldman’s history is like its meandering course; interwoven with twists and turns. To the Blackfoot people, the river was sacred; sustaining and nourishing their lives. They lived in an interdependent relationship with the river, through unimpeded access. Yet with time, and a developing agricultural economy in Southern Alberta, pressure on the Oldman grew. Seasonal variable water levels and farmers’ demands for irrigation necessitated construction of the Oldman dam, spawning years of disagreement between environmentalists, the Blackfoot people and government. The bitter residue of this conflict remains today.