reevesr1

Totally agree. I am often surprised by the number of problems people have on the river. Maybe because I tend to fish on what many would consider off peak times, I don't often have issues. I did get a bit disappointed when someone was in the spot I was heading to at 5:30 in the morning the other day, but I just went somewhere else and had a great morning. It would be interesting to see how many of the etiquette problems are in popular areas, mid afternoon to evening, on a weekend. Not condoning any bad behavior, but limited spots in popular areas on a busy day would tend to lead to problems.

I made two trips to the recycling depot during the trip. The number of wine bottles, beer bottles and cans, vodka bottles, etc. was impressive.

20 some odd members of my family just got into their rented cars and left Panorama bound for Lake Louise, Banff then to Calgary for the night then flying home to various locales in Texas. The reunion lasted 6 days, and it would be difficult for me to describe how fantastic it was. Most of them had never been up here, and to say they were impressed/awe-struck by the scenery and people here would be a colossal understatement. I wanted to thank several members of this board for their help with trying to find places to fish (which didn't work out in the end), lending me golf clubs, and general advice on what to do. I am also lucky enough to have a friend who owns a house on Grey Wolf who was gracious enough to let a dozen of my family members stay in it, and over 25 descend on it every night to hoot and holler. I've lived in Canada off and on for 15 years or so now. The generosity, hospitality, and graciousness of the people here never ceases to amaze me. This board in particular is a reflection of those traits. Add that to the drop dead scenery and I marvel at how lucky I am to be here. Thanks to all.

Happy Birthday Al!

I may never forget that damn fish.

Bad wording there, especially since I sure as hell ain't payin' ya! Nor is anyone paying me. We are just teaching fly fishing newby's how to fly fish. On some really nice water! I was planning on having my son carry my flyboxes (there are A LOT of them) and shout "NO PICTURES PLEASE!!!" if anyone tries to take a picture during a cast. Then I'll back away, swear, glare at the offending relative, spit, and go back into my pre-cast routine.

I don't know, there are like 6 or 7 boxes of them in my pack. And there are still more in the catch all box. I would guess more than 500? Too damn many, that's for sure. The funny thing is, just like in my flats fishing days, I have lots and lots of options, but really only a handful of go to flies. Everything else is really just extra weight!

Been at it 5+ yrs now. I was hoping for an asymptotic approach to some theoretical equipment maximum. I now realize that there is no maximum (unless you count infinity as a max), and the approach is exponential.

Fine bunch of co-dependents you guys are. Oh, I left out the lake box. Only one big double sided one for now......... So need streamers and more lake flies. Got it.

The last couple of days I've been getting gear together to take several members of my family fishing in BC next week. Between myself, my son, and BBT (thanks again Chris!), we are guiding 7 or 8 anglers in two trips over a couple of days. I have a lot of extra stuff (waders, old boots, extra rods) and had to borrow some extra waders and rods, but it looks like I have everything covered. But I did learn something about my inability to stop buying flies, particularly dry flies. I have this big plastic container that serves as a catch all for extra stuff. Anytime I dig through it I can generally find extra hemostats, tippet, leader, gloves, booties, reels, you name it. When getting ready for the trip, I went through the box pretty thoroughly. And kept coming up with fly containers. And more fly containers. And still more fly containers. (this after I bought 200 or so flies for the trip from Icky). Some from Hanson's, some Southbow, and some FishTales (my addiction is equal opportunity). So when all was said and done, I have filled 2 double side boxes, 2 boxes with a bunch of individual little containers, and a final box with foam on one side and individual containers on the other. Many, many flies. I have enough elk hair caddis, parachute adams, humpys, stimmies, various stoneflies, emergers I can only guess what they are, ants, beetles, and various big cuttie flies to start my own fly shop. A big percentage of the stuff I look and and think "what the hell is this?" And those are just the dries I'm talking about. My nymph collection is pretty impressive as well. Good thing I don't fish streamers that much or I'd need a second job. I literally have no reason to go to a fly shop at any point this year. . But I will. And I'll buy more. I'm thinking I need some streamers..........

On call all the time. Gotta bring it with me.

I forgot about this thread. So an IPhone drowning report: I took a full immersion with it several weeks ago (in March I think). Phone was complete toast. Brought it back to Apple and told them what happened. They replaced the phone free of charge. I had another one go down since (not drowned, but still my mistake), and they replaced it as well. I still think the BBerry is more tolerant to water than the IPhone, but Apples customer service has been impeccable.

I have done the eye to eye thing because of the theory that it is supposed to make the fly ride 'truer' in the water. I gotta say I've never noticed a difference in fishing one vs the other, and so since my eyes are getting old I avoid going through the eye as much as possible and just attach to the bend. I can't say I've ever noticed a difference in hookups on the top fly. I do have a theory that the middle fly (when I'm running 3) gets the least attention, but that could just be circumstantial. I don't think the hinging eye to eye vs. bend to eye would make any appreciable difference to tangles (but some real casting pros, which I am certainly not, may have a different/better theory on that). I actually think once you get the hang of opening your loop up a bit when casting heavy (and right now in the height of stone nymph season you will be casting heavy rigs) setups, the tangles seem to magically go away. I loop thingamabobbers. I go through a few leaders that way because of the kinks, but it allows me to change my depth easily. And I change my depth a lot.

I had an Olympus Stylus. Took great pictures overall, except in low light conditions. Indoors/nightime shots were not very good. But if you just want it for underwater, outside then it is a good camera. My son took mine diving however ("dad, I thought you said it was waterproof?") and that was the end of that. I currently have the D10. It is bigger, but I've not had any issues with that. I thought I would, but it still fits in my top pocket just fine. Since it is essentially a true point and shoot with a waterproof case, it takes much better indoors shot while still taking great outdoor and underwater shots.

Awesome!

Here are a few shots of my first float in a pontoon on the Bow, or any flowing water for that matter. Troutlover and I did Police to Mac and it was a blast. We were finished fishing this corner by probably 9 am. And if we had not caught another fish all day, we would have been happy. Or at least I think so. Fortunately, we did not have to test that theory. Lucky shot We caught all our fish wading. One thing I did learn was to not waste any time if a run is not productive, or petering out. The first half of the float was almost all fishing. The second half was almost all rowing! I'm tired, a bit sore. But that was one of my most enjoyable fishing days ever. Thanks Jared for not letting me stick to the tried and true. By the way, that was his first Police to Mac float as well. He will certainly do it again. All I need is my own boat!

KF, I think nothing would be better than growing the number of anglers. I'm pretty sure I can bring you around to my way of thinking on some small central Alberta river or Kootenay cuttie stream sometime this summer!

Exactly what I was going to say Marc. And my bet is nobody would say a word to you for going "off script". I would have no trouble showing them how to worm a hook and bonk a fish on a put and take lake. You need to get people interested in the sport first, and put and take lakes are a great resource for that. But I would also without a doubt spend much more time explaining the C&R ethic and why it is so important on our flowing waters and on many of our lakes as well. And telling fish stories. And generally just sharing a passion for the sport. I don't think I can volunteer for this, but if I can figure out a way to jiggle my schedule that weekend, I will. I think it is a fantastic teaching opportunity.

Pete, did you find him on the internet when searching for aquaseal removal techniques? I'd watch out about trying to help people around here, someone is sure to find fault with it!

Cool. My son is taking materials engineering in University, specializing in Nano. He can build me a fly rod now. Sweet!! Let us know how you like the rod.

A timmies? Wow. Wouldn't want to break your wallet there Richard.

PITA day today. I had a really slow leak in my rear tire yesterday afternoon. Made it to the truck Ok, changed out the tube, then spent way way too long trying to reinstall the tire with disc brakes. Totally kicked my ass. Anyway, got that figured out (trial and error with lots of error), and started to ride in this morning in the monsoon. Got about 3-4 KM in and had a flat. Turns out there was a rock shard thru my tread on my tire which caused both flats (but did not learn that until I took the tire to MEC at lunch). So had to make the long walk back to the car, bring the bike home and ride the train in. On a positive note, my rain gear works perfect. I figured anything that is called weatherproof that comes form the UK would be exactly that. Unfortunately, all the savings were eaten up by duty and "handling fees" by the shipping company. Oh well, I still figure I broke even on the deal.

Blah, blah. I've listened to the "soft European" rhetoricf or so long now. I got to see one reputation put where it belongs in basketball this year, but after he had to endure years of crap about being soft. I love redemption stories, so given the same set of circumstances, I'll pull for the same team again. Funny thing is I've really cheered for Boston all year. Same reason, Tim Thomas redemption. I'm really very happy for him. Just as happy as I'll be for the Swedes when they win one. But also cuz I think it will be funny to watch all the "tough" hockey fans commence the hand wringing. And really, who were the leaders of Boston? Aren't they fairly loaded with Euro's as well? I don't think Chara is from Saskatchewan is he? And you'll get your damn whiskey. Probably. And in closing, the riots have nothing to do with sports. LA has rioted, Detroit, Montreal, etc, etc. It's never the fans, really. Just a bunch of losers looking for an excuse to trash stuff.

Thanks Keith. Getting info was a problem that seems to be cleared up. I think everyone is pretty much all paid up. And thanks for the extra donation Lynn!!

Yes, the store in in Eau Claire (and my spelling is closer I think, but possibly still not correct). I have used it to do some work a few times now. Great idea, really nice people. Also, does anyone know if the trails around Douglasdale or Calf Robe are flooded? They get pretty close to the river, and she seemed way up to me again this weekend when I drove over.