reevesr1

As many of you already know, Streamwatch is no longer a functioning entity. So we had to look for something new to do the charity auction for this year. We have chosen Project Healing Waters Canada as the charity for this year. Many of you are familiar with them, if not (and even if you are), go to their website to read about the incredibly good work these guys are doing. So what I am doing now is beginning the legwork (or is that fingerwork) in asking for donations. Many of the same people have donated time and again for the Streamwatch auctions (and I will be hitting you all up again!), but my true hope this year is we get some new blood in this. No donation is too small. You can donate items, a trip (you don't have to be a guide), whatever. Be creative. For those of you who read and rarely post, this is a great way to get involved. Anyone who knows people not involved with this forum who may want to donate, ask them. If you know people in a local fly shop, equipment rep, whatever, ask them too. I will run the auction over several weeks, and will try to keep auction items from competing with each other as much as possible. And remember when the bidding starts, the goal is not to get things as cheap as possible-the goal is to donate to a great cause. Anyway, I hope lots of people participate. This is a great way to give to a great cause! Anyone who wants to donate, please PM me instead of posting here. I will try my best to keep my mailbox as empty as I can. If anyone wants to help out in gathering donations, please have at it! I am working out the details over tax receipts with PWHFFC, and maybe should have waited until I had that detail sorted out before starting this. But I saw on their website that they are a registered charity, so I know we will be able to get the bugs worked out. Look for the auctions to start in late April, after I get back from Mexico! I'll be posting this on the General Fishing forum as well.

As many of you already know, Streamwatch is no longer a functioning entity. So we had to look for something new to do the charity auction for this year. We have chosen Project Healing Waters Canada as the charity for this year. Many of you are familiar with them, if not (and even if you are), go to their website to read about the incredibly good work these guys are doing. So what I am doing now is beginning the legwork (or is that fingerwork) in asking for donations. Many of the same people have donated time and again for the Streamwatch auctions (and I will be hitting you all up again!), but my true hope this year is we get some new blood in this. No donation is too small. You can donate items, a trip (you don't have to be a guide), whatever. Be creative. For those of you who read and rarely post, this is a great way to get involved. Anyone who knows people not involved with this forum who may want to donate, ask them. If you know people in a local fly shop, equipment rep, whatever, ask them too. I will run the auction over several weeks, and will try to keep auction items from competing with each other as much as possible. And remember when the bidding starts, the goal is not to get things as cheap as possible-the goal is to donate to a great cause. Anyway, I hope lots of people participate. This is a great way to give to a great cause! Anyone who wants to donate, please PM me instead of posting here. I will try my best to keep my mailbox as empty as I can. If anyone wants to help out in gathering donations, please have at it! I am working out the details over tax receipts with PWHFFC, and maybe should have waited until I had that detail sorted out before starting this. But I saw on their website that they are a registered charity, so I know we will be able to get the bugs worked out. Look for the auctions to start in late April, after I get back from Mexico! I'll be posting this on the auction forum as well.

Thanks guys! I'm waiting on some replies from PHW to get started. Dave, I think I would need to speak to that lodge owner in person. on a boat, somewhere near his lodge to get a true feel for the item!!

Really nice. Thanks for those.

Wish I could! Can't fish Saturday.

Maybe you could lend me some of that kinked up 20 lb tippet you use and maybe teach me how to plane trout across the water much like the bass fishermen do. That way I would never have to move!! I'm pretty old and chasing fish is getting harder and harder.

The problem with catching and landing zombie fish is that when no other members are around, what's to stop the fisherman from reaching down and putting one's, ahem, worm in the fishes mouth and pulling it, uh, in? So I think to truly qualify as a properly landed zombie fish, you have to have an unassailable witness. As there does not appear to be one in this case, I'm afraid your "catch" does not qualify. I know that sounds harsh, and I hope you don't think I'm questioning your character. Well, I'm totally questioning your character, but don't take it personally. Except that it is totally personal. Whatever, tough shiz, nobody saw it, doesn't count!

I would lean toward a 6 as well. I have a 10 ft, 5 wt that has sort of become my go to on the Bow. But really, it fishes more like a 6. When I'm not using it, I find myself using my 9 foot 6 wt. And when it is dry fly season, I seem to go to my 4 wt more than anything. But either way, you'll be good. Unless it is howling wind, or you are throwing big streamers, a 5 will get you by as well. Just find something you like to cast and go from there.

That's awesome Rob, thanks. I'll start on trying to get donations together in the next couple of weeks and start the auction when I get back from Mexico in April.

I have the same line. I've only used it twice now, but absolutely love it. Been casting mostly 3 heavy nymphs, and have had zero tangles. Roll casts really nice, and will bomb casts out as well.

Your pm is not working. It will not accept messages. I tried to reply to your pm but it bounces back.

All this comes down to the purpose of these boards. To me, the purpose is to share information and help people learn how to fish with a fly rod. If we are successful in sharing the information then more people who try the sport will stick to it, and in some cases it may mean more people on "your" river. Good, I say. I can't think of a better thing that could be said of someone than he introduced xx people to fishing. I hope I have a lot of xxx's in my life. Some will be people I took out personally, and I can only hope some will be because of something I said on this board.

Oh no. Now every person with a fly rod will be in Kenya. Stupid hotspotting.

Who is hotspotting really? Most people who fish the Bow say the Bow. Or maybe Fish Creek Park, or may say in the city or south of the city. Some will say where they floated (which is a shocker!). But not too many people say what creek they fished, other than the Liv, or Crow, or Oldman. When and if they do, they get shouted down pretty fast. I see no issue telling people flies either. For the most part, it is a generic "stone fly" or "worm" or "EHC". Not too often does someone say "a #16 flash back PT with the tail clipped fished in moderate water and fish were taking it on the swing." Sometimes people tell me that cutties are taking #12 green drakes in August and September. Really? I better go buy some. I fish some busy rivers, and I fish remote ones. The remote ones I have to myself. I'd never put them on a forum, nor have I ever even read of them. If I want to be alone, I know lots of places to go, including the heavily fished bow river. And I've been doing this for a grand total of 5 years now. It ain't that hard. I live 5 minutes from the Bow. I fish some of the most heavily fished water there is. I almost never have to change plans on my trips. But I don't leave my house at 1 PM, get to the river and say "holy crap, where did all the people come from?" I fish off times, learn the water like the back of my hand, and don't often leave disappointed. If I get to a spot where people are, I have never not been able to find fishable water near by with nobody there. Tempest, meet teapot. Edit: By the way, I'm keeping my dead burbot spot to myself!

I've been fishing a long time, and I've had the pleasure of spending time with some pretty impressive fishermen in my day. And while I by no means I had thought I had seen it all, I would never have expected that I would see this. All of us can catch fish when they are feeding actively. Many of us can catch fish when they are a bit lethargic. All of us know people who seem to be able to coerce even the most reluctant fish to bite. But ever met anyone who has hooked and landed a dead burbot? I have. Ladies and gentlemen, fisherman du mort, Troutlover and his dead burbot. And he was hooked very near the mouth. Damnedest thing Ive ever seen. I actually said when he was reeling in what looked like a stick "that thing fights like a Burbot." How right I was!

Anytime I see something like this, some form of the following conversation forms in my head: Dude #1, sitting around the house in the dead of winter somewhere inside the Arctic Circle, almost certainly after a few beers (all the stupicd stuff in the world happens after a few beers). "Man, I'm getting tired of caribou meat. Know what I could go for? Some fresh mussels. Too bad spring is 6 months away." Dude #2 (whos had a few more beers) "Dude, you know what we could do, after the tide goes out we can tunnel through the ice and pick some up off the seabed. It will be sweet! I bet we'd have 20-30 minutes to pick up all the mussels we could eat before the tide comes back and you know, kills us." Dude #1 "Thats stupid, why would we risk our lives for mussels. I like them, but not that much. Dude #1's pregnant wife: "For some reason, I'm really craving mussels right now. And I mean NOW! And if you come out alive, pick me up some damn ice cream at the store." May not have happened exactly like that, but close. I've often thought Clamato juice came about the same way ("Dude, we should totally put some clams in the tomato juice. That would be sweet!")

The river really isn't all that complicated Travis. There are literally hundreds of spots as good as this one. Honestly, from the weir in Calgary to the weir in Carseland, The Bow is loaded with fishable water. On this day, we started fishing in slow inside water (walking speed current, 3 to 4 feet of water). That was good through the early afternoon. As the day went on fish moved into slightly faster water than I would have thought as the day never got very warm. The brown was in what I would almost call summer water. No deeper than 2 feet, and pretty fast current.

I'm not arguing with the sentiment or the science, I'm arguing with the methodology. And I am not singling anyone out here by the way. I have no issue with people arguing their position, doing everything they can to change others behaviour, and proposing changes in regulations where appropriate. But attacking people for doing what is legal is not the way to go about it, in my probably could be humbler opinion. I just feel when we do that, we are on a slippery slope. I will say that to say 1/2 the people on this board are yanking bulls off their redds is maybe just a skosh of hyperbole. I have fished with lots of people on this board, and been on rivers where bulls were obviously paired up and on redds. I've never seen anyone fish for them. We have watched them though.

Thanks for the day Steve. And too bad Steve did not land his brown. It was certainly bigger than mine, and put on quite the aerial display for the first weekend in March.

My issue with these topics is always the same. I find it troubling when we criticize someone for fishing within the regulations. I am not a giant fan of the hands in the gills to say the least, and I think it is ok to say something about it as long as it is done with some form of tact (which I fully admit all of us lack from time to time). But these discussion always degenerate into discussions of whatever else the posters find offensive, be it fishing for bulls in September, or Rainbows at the Highwood, or whatever Steelhead methodology is not in favor at the time. While I don't think it is an issue to call attention to "ethical" practices the poster may want changed, and advocating regulations to bring about those changes, it is an issue to attack people who are fishing within current regulations, whether you like the way they do it or not. Remember, there is ALWAYS someone more "ethical" than you are that would like nothing better than to shut down fishing everywhere for all time. Discourse in no issue. Trying to change regulations is no issue either, as long as they are done with the health of the fishery in mind, not to satisfy someones view of what is "ethical" for the fish. In the end, the most ethical thing for the fish is no fishing.

I certainly wasn't calling you a closet ethicist (I still prefer it with the y). Be like saying Elton John was in the closet! It it is a profession, I bet they have to take a bunch of fly fishing courses!

I saw a card the other day that said: "Another year older, another year closer to making shiz up." Seems I've passed that threshold. Whatever the case, I did like the book! If I remember (and this thread has shown the likelihood of that happening), it was written as a series of press releases, news stories, etc. Unusually written, but a really fun read.

I certainly enjoyed the book. I'd like to read it again, but I think I gave it to BCube and never got it back. With my copy of the River Why as I recall.

Ah, the closet ethicysts (I just made up that word) are coming out to play. How fun.

So there, can we now stop calling folks out on fish size? Its shocking that perspective seems to matter when you take a picture. Uber, from now on just do what too many others do, just hold your arms way out. Then the fish will look massive and placate the fish sized challenged folks. Sorry for continuing the hijack Ray, good idea on the net!