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And that, my friends, is as good as it gets. Kritofr, congrats on many levels, sounds like a year to relish, to say the least.

Only if I can get a cool FFC logo on it.

Don't know, she didn't make me any. They were individual cakes, and I wasn't supposed to be home. So, in short, no sympathy, no easing of my not insignificant pain, no cake. Coming up on 20 yrs of wedded bliss. She did ask me if I'd go get her some coffee though. OK, I made that last part up.

So I came home from a quick trip to a buddies house with a lake in his back yard. I had a bit of a headache and I asked my wife if we had any tylenol. She said it might help, but it may help more if YOU TAKE THE BIG STREAMER OUT OF YOUR HEAD. It was about a #4. It hurt a bit. So I guess one should wear a hat when casting big streamers in the wind. After I impaled in my head, I tried to pull it out, but it seemed a bit sticky. Oh please, I think, let the barb be all the way down. I pull a bit harder, no go. So I cut off the line, drive home and ask my wife to pull it out. She looks, shrugs, and says "I'm going to finish my lava cake". Now that's love baby! She said if you can drive home, it can't be very bad. By the way, she used to be an ICU nurse. Says she knows a real emergency when she sees one. So I call down to my son who comes upstairs and says "don't make me pull the hook out of your head." We have a history as he tried, and failed, to pull one out of my lip earlier this year. So I make him. I give him my hemo's, say give it a yank. If I scream, stop. So he pulls, out comes the hook sans barb. So in 40 years of fishing before fly fishing, no hooks in me ever. 1 yr of fly fishing, I've hooked myself twice. Sweet. And ouch.

I haven't read the entire article yet, but saw this on ESPN. Makes you realize how resilient we can really be... http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/news/st...mp;lid=tab6pos1

Sorta like a birdie on the 18th after a POS day golfing. Keeps ya coming back for more!

Sweet rocknbugs. Wish I could have made it!!

Wasn't me, I stole FH's 24K jet boat and was blowing through peoples runs south of Carseland looking for giant rainbows. He must have been one good lookin' dude! Did he have a pretty yellow rod? Actually I was down south in a tiny creek. Didn't see a soul, it was great.

Which Home Depot was that??

Brndawg, Not often you get the words "milquetoasts" and " 'fraidy cat" in the same post. I got a seriously good laugh out of that. Thanks!! As an American, I can easily say the chances of anyone getting sued over a negative comment on a fishing board is essentially zero. That being said, if the moderators don't want the name posted, shouldn't this argument be over? It's their board, they give their time for free, therefore their rules. Pretty easy, yes? Sorry if some now view me as a recreant, or even a namby-pamby.

Don't know about the bad breath, but makes sense for the hair. Also explains how I got to my lofty position in my company!

Can't believe I didn't look at your ass! I've switched your accent to Billy Connolly, drunk. I've been to Aberdeen a few times, and drunk was the only way we could understand each other. Hopefully we get a chance to test that out one day.

You should hear the accent I have given you in my head. Very upper crust British. (if you are Irish, Scottish or Welsh, I most humbly apologize). For my accent, please use the worst Texan drawl you can imagine. That oughta do it. Ya'll.

Welcome aboard guys! Looking forward to your input and I'm sure there is tons we can learn from each other. A quick etiquette question: Is cross ocean sarcasm allowed? From what I've been told, and experienced, UK humour (notice the English spelling? Not bad for an American!) can be pretty dry. Not sure that I could keep up, but I wouldn't mind giving it a roll...

7 wood? What are you, 60? (no offense to any 60 yr old, 7 wood users!)

Same from me. Great to put faces to the names. Especially nice meeting BobLoblaw and Osprey, thanks guys for helping cleaning my little section of the river, though I'm sure Troutlover is out there right now dropping leader all over the place. Much thanks to Wongrs and Pipestonefly guy for putting this all together, as well as LK, Glenbow, Toolman, Speyghillie, and whoever else I am missing for donating their time and/or prizes. The river is a cleaner place today. Good on you guys! As an added kicker, I won the $50 from Hanson's. BEYYAAAHHHH!!! Just as an aside, why are there so few opportunities for guys to hang out with 30 girls? Just askin. But if I ever have the chance, I sure hope they are better looking than we are!!

I could deal with that. What brand, and where?

Are you now helping BC with their regulations? If so, you need to add: More than one fly, cheatin' External weight, cheatin' Fishin' more than one classified water per day (without paying for each one), cheatin'

Fisher26, Any attack will be verbal only! I'm sure I read way more into your post than you intended, and for some reason it hit me wrong(and the fact I'd just finished an argument with my 14 yr old didn't help my frame of mind). But whatever the case, I should never make any response personal. You are certainly entitled to your opinion and should feel free to express it without any fear of someone (me in this case) attacking you instead of the idea. I made it personal. For that I apologize. But I do reserve the right to argue the idea!! Hope to meet you at the cleanup. I'd love to banter this around in person with beer and burgers.

He shoots, he scores! (esleech I mean, not Brent!)

I had a pair of Maui Jim's, of the prescription variety. Cost almost $600.00. Lost 'em after a year, which is about right for me for a pair of sunglasses. Loved them, can't afford them. I'll be getting clips for my regular glasses for in town and sunglasses that go over my regular glasses for fishing. Not as good quality, but much more affordable.

Thanks SilverDoctor. A very fine read as always. Now I have one more thing on my list of things I must do!

I can't remember many arguments that made me want to attack the person making it, but this makes me want to change that policy. However, I will try to hold my tongue other than to say BORING!! I am not from here, but I have worked in Alberta for 10 years, in two stints, in the O&G industry. I raise my family here, go to church here, revel in what this province has to offer. I pay triple the taxes I did in the states for the privilege (and I think of it as a privilege) of doing so. You better pray that the thousands and thousands like me keep coming here to "rape" your province. By the way, I also bristle a bit when someone calls a province "theirs" when their intent is to exclude others. I have no idea exactly what the fair amount of royalties are. But to say that the O&G industry, and by extension, those of us who work in it, haven't given anything to this province is, in a word, idiotic. Has it or us given enough? I have no idea. In the end, the market and the people of Alberta will decide. But to say nothing?? Please. As I said above. Boring.

If I don't back off on the fishing, I might be in the same situation!

I didn't chase as there was nothing to chase! Didn't want too man facts to ruin a good story, but here was the scenario: Fishing a very slow flat section, swinging big hopper (some october caddis coming off) downstream. Fish hit close to shore as I was lifting the rod. Very good hookset (by accident), almost no way he was foul hooked. He stays within 50 feet of me for a couple of minutes I would guess. I worked him aggressively at times, but he would pull back so hard I would back off. Once he decides to vacate, it looked like he went directly across the river, through a deep, fast section toward cliffs on the opposite shoreline. I don't know what is over there as I've never fished it, but I would think it is fairly deep. Now I am faced with line that appears to be heading straight into the river (remember that I can't see squat) perpendicular to me. I assume the fish must be heading upstream since I know I have to have a big bow of line going down river and if is seems that the line is going straight out, so he must be heading upstream. And also remember he NEVER stopped pulling drag. So my dilemma is what to do? I considered throwing pulling line and throwing a downstream mend, but what good would that do? All I would be doing was mending into very slow water and couldn't see how that would change any angle of pull on the fish. I worked the rod from side to side, but with the bow in the line/distance to fish, again, what good did that do? The only thing I could think of was big pressure. Didn't work as he just pulled until I was out of line. I've hooked enough big fish to realize that sometimes, unless you are very lucky or very skilled, there will be times when you are under geared for the fish you have hooked. I once caught a 40ish pound redfish on 12 lb test line in the surf once, at night with 125 yds of line on my reel. He almost spooled me three times, but I caught him. Took an hour, and I was very lucky (and moderately skilled) that I got him to turn each time he got towards the end of my spool. However she was way easier to deal with than whatever I hooked Monday night. I'm not doubting for a second that there are lots of people who could have caught that fish. I will say that I also know that he would have won a good percentage of battles, no matter who was on the rod. All that being said, Brett, I truly hope you get the chance to show me what to do next time I hook one that big!! In my head (and that's all that counts, isn't it), he's already pushing 3 feet!!