dryfly

I rec'd a suspicious email from "Susan" and she confirmed it is not from her. See attached. She asked me if I would tell people. She is working on sorting it out. Perhaps one of you techy types could give her a call with suggestions. Clive Coaldale

Go here to check historic flows on the Bow. https://wateroffice.ec.gc.ca/report/historical_e.html?stn=05BH004 Years going back to well before TerryH was even a twinkle in his dad's eye. Current flow data is here. http://www.environment.alberta.ca/apps/basins/DisplayData.aspx?Type=Table&BasinID=8&DataType=1&StationID=RBOWCALG You can get lost in this data stuff very easily. Too bad more people don't pay attention to the past...most things we read about being "unprecedented" rarely are. Clive

The wide area where it has been confirmed proves that it has been here for years and years. And THAT is good news because it means the incidence and severity are limited. (This does not mean all of the posted precautions etc etc should not be taken. i.e. we can't be flippant.) For those who think it is "new," it takes little logic to know that it did not get from the upper Bow system to the OM system in a few months. As many others have noted, I saw the first (highly probable) case between 1995 and 2000...,was unable to net it although I "reported" it. As for jailing the perps. Good luck with that. These are as likely as anglers. By 2006, the disease was <100 km from the Crowsnest. About a 90-minute flight by geese. Hypothetical scenario: goose waddles about the muddy banks/waters of a MT stream. Is sick of Bush or especially Obama and decides to cross the border. It lands on the stream bank in Canadia one or two hours later with the mud still on its feet. Probability? Pretty low, but with time..... Bet that has happened given the widespread distribution of geese. Wait there is more. Canada geese were not common along the Eastern Slopes 40 years ago. Their population and range have spread far and wide in the past few decades.

He was one of the good ones.

Taco Was dry in 2015. Water comes from Chain Lakes via Willow Creek??? Gonna be runoff this spring. Maybe letting flows run downstream to protect the 13-spine-spotted-dace-darter which someone had decided is a "species of concern...so I can get a job studying it for 30 years." Such a cynical ***hole I am. Clive

In 2016, Pine Coulee wx station rec'd same rain as YYC and both a titch above average. http://agriculture.alberta.ca/acis/weather-data-viewer/graph.jsp?stations=2049,11715&elements=PRA,PRL&startdate=20160401&enddate=20161031&interval=DAILY&precipunit=mm PC drier in 2015. http://agriculture.alberta.ca/acis/weather-data-viewer/graph.jsp?stations=2049,11715&elements=PRA,PRL&startdate=20150401&enddate=20151031&interval=DAILY&precipunit=mm Some mgt thing going with the the levels.

The current low water levels do not bode well for a sustaining trout fishery. Neighbour said they dropped very low last year after going down a bit the years before. The reasons and long-term status are unknown. http://www.environment.alberta.ca/apps/basins/DisplayData.aspx?Type=Figure&BasinID=10&DataType=3&StationID=RPINERES

Here is what my neighbour wrote this morning. He makes great points. Seems hard to believe the walleye fishery isn't working? During the summer the walleye catch is phenomenal, catch and release, which makes it difficult to understand. The walleye caught are all about 14 to 18 inches long. Perhaps that is an indication of something I am unaware of. It's been a great place or hot spot to go to have some fun and to take kids or adults that have not fished, as one was almost guaranteed to catch. Have never experienced trout fishing with such 'frenzy'. Not sure what is involved in letting a walleye fishery go, or how long a trout fishery would take to mature to the point of allowing any angling. Over the last couple of years the water level in the reservoir has become very low. It is reported to be about 20-feet down from it's usual level at around 50% capacity. If there isn't more run off and rain, and possibly less demand on the reservoir water, a fishery of any type might be difficult.

Neighbour wrote: We have caught a few pike over the years at PC but have mostly caught walleyes and a few burbot.

Good point. Wonder how many pike are there. Hard to get rid of them all. If a few remained and ate a few hundred trout annually, there'd be a few monster pike in there. Not a bad thing. I recall John next door using pike lures in there and the never caught any or one or two. I'll ask him.

My comments. Hard for a mouthy bugger like me to stick to 255 characters. This is a HUGE opportunity and must NOT be lost! As there is no "trout" history here (with locals to complain about their right to kill trout), MAKE THIS A QSF FISHERY with regs similar to Bullshead and Police Outpost. We have few opportunities. Use it!! One of THE huge issues with creating QSFs is their "history." The old farts who have killed trout in XYZ Pond since the last ice age, feel it is their god-given right. If the walleye are not working out, then trout are a great option to at least attempt. With no walleye stocking and appropriate trout stocking, trout would be the only species within 3 to 5 years. Our neighbours camp there 2 or 3 times every summer. They like to take younger kids and their "grandkids" because they could always catch a lot of fish and they did not care about size and let 'em all go anyway. They really would not care whether they were walleyes or trout. They whack a few trout every summer, but they also love to catch big fish. This is such a huge opportunity. Clive

Well that previous attempt did not work too well. “USA stops importing Canadian oil and gas” http://www.fortstjohn.ca/node/18711 Clive

The white silica pellets work great for big dryflies. POUND the pellets w a hammer on a hard surface outside...the fine dust should not be inhaled. A coffee grinder makes it too fine. Clive

A very good read. The mayor of Fort St. John posted this letter in a Vancouver newspaper...addressed to BC residents. ALL Canadians should read this. http://www.fortstjohn.ca/sites/default/files/public_notice/Mayors%20letter%20VancouverSun.pdf Clive

Taco said that WD has been here for a while and I agreed. Seems so incredibly improbable that it would not be here given the links between our waters and those in Montana. Those links being anglers and birds. Way back in 1999, I wrote an article about WD on FOAL, here: http://flyanglersonline.com/features/canada/can42.php In that I wrote Whirling disease thrives in streams just hours away in southern Montana. I could fish in southern Montana in the morning, and wade into the Crowsnest River in southern Alberta for the evening rise. If I had been fishing in a Montana stream infested with whirling disease I would almost certainly infect the Crowsnest with this dreaded pest that was carried in the mud on my waders! It's that simple folks. At least it's reportedly that simple, but some argue that it is not spread so easily. They claim that it should have spread to our rivers by Canada Geese or other birds that are common inhabitants of both sides of the USA-Canada border. Perhaps. Can geese (that wade the shores of southern Montana streams) fly non-stop to southern Alberta? Surely they would rarely do this without resting along the way and presumably rinsing mud off in ponds and sloughs. The majority of southern birds (that could carry the disease) would end up on the Great Plains of Alberta where there are few trout. But I admit there are a lot of geese and other birds, and this has to be a real possibility, if not highly probable. Perhaps spread by birds was/is not highly probable but still a possibility and with time the probability simply increased. Just read that birds like gulls readily spread the disease as they eat dead fish on shore. If it flares up, then it might be new. If it remains at low levels in the next few years, then perhaps it has been here a while. Who knows? Clive