reevesr1

But how can you achieve increased line speed, accuracy, and hook setting power?

Happy birthday buddy. 50 is no big deal!

Must be made by Simms.

I have a William Joseph as well. Don't know how much it cost because my wife got it for me for xmas. But I can't see her spending over $150 for a rain jacket. Anyway, I've worn it for 2 yrs and really like it.

Agreed. Catch and release allows us to catch more fish per fish killed. We delude ourselves into thinking that we are doing it for the fish. We are doing it for us. But I think of it this way. Lets say my mortality rate is 2% (and I have no idea what it truly is, just using an example). So for 100 fish I catch, 2 die. Let's say on the Bow I average 5 fish per trip. It would take me 20 trips to kill two fish. But if we still all kept our limits, in 20 trips I would have killed 20 fish, assuming I stopped as soon as I kept my one. More if I kept fishing and did catch and release afterwards. So there are benefits to the fish as well, or at least to fish populations. Which of course is better for the fisherman as well.

Good lord am I dense I cannot tell my hy'q From the true haiku

I've never thought of that. In fact, if practiced correctly, I bet that the mortality rate of "shoot and release" hunting would be even less than for catch and release fishing. Shoot your game, take a hero shot, animal recovers and walks on. PETA folk would cry "animal cruelty", but better than animal mortality. (I should interject here that I have nothing against hunting as long as you are eating what you shoot). Now if someone could only get darts to go the same distance at the same velocity as a bullet, we'd be onto something. Would be very interesting if they could. Think of what it was like 30 or whatever yrs ago when catch and release fishing first started taking off. Many people claimed that fishing would have no point. Most of us learned, however, that the keeping of the fish had nothing to do with our enjoyment, much to our amazement. I would suppose that the same would hold true for hunting. Though I don't imagine many hunters currently share that sentiment.

I don't have the faintest clue what you are talking about, except that Back in Black is an AC-DC song.

Yeah, pretty sure it is unfishable where we were by now. The ice sheet is huge, but deteriorating quickly. Fish were pretty indiscriminate in what they were eating. SJW, midge, pt's, etc.

Here are a couple from this weekend. Two gorgeous fish caught on a gorgeous day, way out on a massive ice sheet.

I fish, I golf, I bowl (I'm American, sue me.) Don't know if they are sports or activities. They are surely all fun.

Boy, a little crowded up on that perch.

But can your reel handle 7x tippet, and yet have a sealed drag system capable of stopping a small truck at 20 mph? I think not.

Holy crap was that funny. I liked the reel one better, particularly this exchange: "I think you have lost your mind" "Up your you cheap bass fisher of junk store tackle and take the clattering of you Pflueger Medalist and the ratchety cackle of you imitation Hardy's and other offshore junk and stuff them in the closet where the rest of your sorry ass cheap tackle should be gathering dust." Oh, that made my day. I think tomorrow I will dust off some of my cheap ass junk and fish for picky trout. Always remember: "Money is irrelevant when you are chasing a dream!" spend up boys.

Sounded like Steven Wright.

I subscribed to Netflix when I lived in the states. I don't know about the on line version, but their DVD selection was fantastic. I don't think the lack of selection in Canada has anything to do with number of subscribers in Canada, I think it is a rights thing (though that is total speculation). Much like on my kindle, where there is more selection for first run books in the US than there is in Canada. Could it be a Canadian content thing? Don't know. I do know that the Netflix selection is presently too weak for me to subscribe. That said, I have been a shareholder in Netflix since 2003. Made a pretty small buy that has gone up 17-20X since then. So everyone subscribe please!!

Thanks for the line Jigsaw, that was the song.

My 13 (and very soon to be 14) yr old daughter and I spent the day skiing in Louise today, along with a very good buddy and his son. Thanks to the wonders of temperature inversion, the temps were right around freezing, and probably peaked at +1 or so. Couple that with a big dump of snow the last few days made for one of the best skiing days I have ever had. Add to that a full day with my daughter enjoying the wonderful snow made it even more memorable. The only downside is now all of my kids can beat me down the hill. Oh well, small price to pay. Last night I had a chance to spend an evening listening to John Wort Hannam, John Mann (Spirit of the West) and Carla Luft. You might wonder how this fits in? Well, Carla is from here in Calgary (and can she flat ass play guitar) and talked about growing up around here. John Mann was fantastic solo. Great stories and great songs. But the reason this all fits is John Wort Hannan. He is from Ft. McLeod, and sings songs about small town life in Southern Alberta. One of his songs was about what he calls his "cathedral", which is located on some land just past "Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump." It really got me thinking about how much I love the country around Ft. McLeod, all the rivers in the area, be they pristine headwaters or some of the excellent tailwater fisheries. While I was on one of the chair lifts today I was thinking about how lucky I am to live somewhere that I can enjoy the outdoors with all my kids in all seasons. Periodically, at work (I work for a very large multinational company), I am asked by expats from different countries what I think of living here. My answer is always the same "It the winters were shorter, everyone would want to live here." I've met more than a few people who did not like it here that much (though they are certainly in the small minority, we have more problems with people not wanting to leave). I am frankly amazed every time I talk to someone who doesn't like it here. I truly don't understand it, what is not to love? I know that there will be someone to tell me how great it was back in the day and how much worse it is now. I really couldn't care less. It is great here now. You guys don't know how lucky you are to be from here. They'll only drag me out of here kicking and screaming.

In a related story, All Queen's music has been banned as well. I had always thought Sting wrote the song, and Dire Straits recorded it. Guess not, Sting just sang on it, and contributed the "I want my MTV line". "The lead character in "Money for Nothing" is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He's singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real...." quote from Mark Knopfler. Anyway, seems rather silly to ban it after all these years.

Not only that, did you look at the temps? Way warmer than here. -12 at Louise, -8 at Pano. Castle got 17 cm, but is a brisk -19. My sister in law is on her way to Pano now. 20 cm so far last 24 hrs, more to come. Oh well, have to satisfy myself with a Louise trip on Saturday. Sure wish I could go tomorrow.........

You say something? Darrin, Ridgeline was great.

Well there you go, learned something new today. I saw the tape, but did not think of them actually raising the wipers. I just figured with the snow as deep as it was it pulled the wipers up as the cars were engulfed in snow.

While the fence certainly guarantees major car damage if you hit it, I personally like it. It keeps people from coming into my lane from the other side of the highway. These fences go a long way toward eliminating head on collisions on the highway, which are quite likely to be fatal. If someone damages their car hitting the fence (or even if I damage my car hitting the fence), so be it. I think it is an acceptable price to pay for avoiding potentially deadly accidents.

Due to the quality of the roads, my wife and I decided to not let my son drive back to U of A yesterday. While they were marginally better today, we decided the best thing to do was for me to lead him up convoy style. While he is a pretty good driver, he is 17, and mom was just too worried about him. There was evidence everywhere of the carnage of Sunday. Still plenty of cars in the ditches, up on the cables on the median, and you could see many, many places where cars had been drug out. Once you got to just before Leduc, the real fun started. Roads there were still pretty crappy, and I have no way to guess how many cars had gone off the road. And the snow was deep! Every car that was still in the ditch had it's windshield wipers sticking up where the snow must have come up over the hood and pulled them up or ripped them off. That and many cars had obvious axle issues, with tires sticking in odd directions. Scary stuff, but we made it no issue. Just kept the speed down, gave everyone lots of room and no issues at all. Really, other than the Leduc to Edmonton corridor, around Lacombe, and between Airdrie and Crossfield, the roads were ok. So with all this carnage evident, you would think everyone would take the hint and slow down, particularly in the icy/snowy sections. Well, in fairness, many, or maybe even most, did. But I was absolutely amazed at the number of people just flying down the highway. One memorable time is when a 18 wheeler flew into a 50 KM/hr zone, established due to the 5 or 6 emergency vehicles pulling another 18 wheeler out of a ditch. And I don't want to just blame the big trucks. The pickup truck crowd seems to ignore bad roads as well. I used to have a big pickup. I didn't really notice that they were all that super stable on ice. But I guess I was wrong judging by the speed. One of the things I've always heard about is how southerners can't drive on ice. Well, that's true. We don't have any practice, and are not experienced enough to drive to conditions. But here? What is the excuse? Everyone knows what ice is like. Slippery! I guess many think it just doesn't apply to them. A couple of hundred cars and trucks in the ditch on the QEII this yesterday would tend to disprove that. Amazing.

Firefrog: I just noticed you sig: "David Byrne once said 'There is water at the bottom of the ocean'. And he was absolutely right!" Couldn't help myself, but had to look up "Once in a Lifetime" on YouTube. Forgot how much I loved the Talking Heads back in the day. Ridiculous video. Sorry for the total hijack. I think the birds just got tired from killing all the fish. Google is mapping it: Google Animal Deaths In Texas, every couple of years there would be a big fish kill in the middle of the summer when water in low flow areas would go hypoxic. Looked awful, but it was totally natural. I have no idea what is going on with the fish and birds, but it certainly could just be a case of media attention being paid to every natural event, and the sum makes everything look ominous. At least I hope it is natural. Same as it ever was.