Fishing enthusiasts and outdoorsy water-lovers in the Rockies will soon be able to buy an updated guide for their fishing trips and explorations.
The second edition of ‘Fishing the Canadian Rockies’ is soon set to hit the shelves of local bookstores and fishing shops, according to the author and longtime Crowsnest Pass resident, Joey Ambrosi.
Published by the Surrey-based Hancock House, the new edition has 248 pages, over 1,100 indexed waters, over 100 maps, and over 690 colour pictures, with information about fishing spots all across the Rockies in B.C. and Alberta, including the Fernie region’s Elk River.
“The Elk River is world class,” Ambrosi said.
“That’s a great place to get to and get some fish once in a while. And put them back in the water.”
Ambrosi, who was born and raised in Invermere and earned three degrees from the University of Calgary, published the first edition of ‘Fishing in the Canadian Rockies’ in 2001. He has also published several other works on similar outdoor topics.
The new version of his fishing guide was “ready to go” in 2020, but the pandemic put a temporary halt to its publication. In the two previous summers of 2018 and 2019, Ambrosi visited around 650 lakes for new pictures.
“There’s always new lakes, and there’s new information and there’s new things. So it’s updated all the time,” he said.
The new edition is fully colourized, includes Google-based maps (in the first version, they were hand-drawn based on paper maps), and includes the Hinton region in Alberta. Fernie fishing guide and photographer, Curtis Hall, who takes “fabulous pictures,” also contributed to the book, Ambrosi said.
The author has been making his rounds through the Rockies, letting local shops (like Polar Peek Books in Fernie) know that the book is all printed up and ready for ordering.
The work, which has the subtitle ‘an angler’s guide to every lake, river and stream’, is expected by Ambrosi to be available in shops that decide to order them by early to mid April.
“Definitely in time for fishing season,” he said.
“I’m really happy. And with COVID, I’ve noticed that so many more people are getting into the outdoors, which is wonderful.”
“I go to a lake where there used to be like one car and one guy fishing. Now there’s 25 cars, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I think it’s just great that people are out enjoying the outdoors. That’s what we have here in Canada and the Rockies. So I think that’s great.”
An avid fisherman himself, he said he’s a “big proponent” of people getting out and active.
“I’m happy to let people know, there’s no secret lakes left out of the book. And every stream and lake in the book is on a map, so you can find everything.”
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@fishynewswatch
josh.fischlin@thefreepress.ca
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