reevesr1

Happy Birthday Dave!

Catch a big BC lake rainbow instead of watching others do it More dry fly fishing More remote fishing Teach a whole bunch of my relatives to fly fish during a 1 week family reunion in the Kootenay's. Look out, the Texan's are coming.

Thought better of it.

We had a family business when I was 15-17, a marina. I worked the store from 5 am till 9 or 10, then ran the shrimp boat until late afternoon. My wife has owned a couple of Antique stores/booths, and I've certainly helped with that. In the first store we bought a 40 foot container of furniture from France that took up all our savings. We had no idea if we would actually sell it all, but we did. Lots of haggling was involved in that! I also work in sales for a service company. Other than that, not much experience. It's not a game. It can be fun. I try to treat everyone the same, and hope I succeeded. But as the seller, it is up to me to decide whether I can afford to sell at the price being offered. If I decide I can, then it is a bit disingenuous to blame the buyer for being "cheap". And while I'm on the subject, why is it only the affluent who are tight asses? I don't know about you, but I've met tons of non-affluent tight asses as well. Is it just somehow more offensive if the tight ass has money? Is that fair?

Because everyone knows that prices are set at the chain stores, and none of the staff have the authority to haggle. But that is not the case in the small, owner operated store. There is an assumption (and not always wrong), that prices in the smaller shops are softer. If your shop will not haggle over price, that's fine. State it, and either the person will buy or they will not. But to compare selling practices of Walmart to a small owner operated shop is a bit apples to watermelons. I have a condo I rent. People always haggle price. Sometimes I will haggle, sometimes not. But I don't resent the person for trying.

I think you will find that a person's attitudes towards "deals" has almost nothing to do with his income level. I've never really haggled over price when I was a starving student or young enlisted military guy, nor do I today. My wife haggles over most everything, and has since I've known her, from a very young nursing student up to the successful woman she is today. Some people just want to think they are getting the best bargain, regardless of income level. Also, my suspicion is as people age, they become less apprehensive about trying to haggle, and there is certainly correlation between age and affluence. But my personal experience is that as our income levels or professional status climb, our predisposition to haggle does not change at all. I think that any assignment of motives or airs of superiority on the part of the haggler based on apparent "affluence" says more about the hagglee (hey, new word!) than the haggler.

How does this work? Once you make over a certain amount you are not supposed to try to get deals? Good luck with that!

A fly fishing site with no fishing reports for over a week.

I got a call from a very good friend who knows I'm in my 50s as well and fish in Mackenzie fairly often. He called to check in after he heard the story. Prayers to the fellow's family. Very sad.

Nice job Murray!

Newton was a bit of an ass. I've always been a Lebniz guy myself.

Pretty good year overall. Some really fun cuttie fishing this year in some remote locations, with bigger, pickier fish. Got my first Pike on the Bow in the spring. Some unreal dry fly fishing, particularly early season caddis fishing for big browns and a memorable day down south for big, super picky late season rainbows. I didn't spend nearly as much time on the Bow this year, but I did get my biggest brown to date, just over 27", in dirty water. Hell, looking back I guess it was a great year overall!

Only fair. I buy shitty vehicles from your city!

That first one is a bit on the scrawny side isn't it? Awesome fish!!

I dislike pet peeve lists. And many fly fishermen.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! Looks like the weather will allow many of us to enjoy whatever outdoor activity we choose. Everyone be safe, particularly if traveling the autobahn between Edmonton and Calgary! And thanks to all the mods, except BBT of course.

Signed.

Sure is nicer in the city though, where 95% of my driving is done. Thanks for the tip Don. Don't plan on taking it anywhere too rough. And yeah BBT, same rocket. Man up a little, I didn't kill anyone.

I will say that I am not one prone to panic in truly high stress situations. I used to work on nuclear reactors on submarines, and I was the guy who operated the plant during emergencies. But being stuck on the Deerfoot, in the middle of the only freely moving lane during rush hour was the highest stress situation I have ever been under (this includes thinking I was going to die a couple of times on the sub and in the oilpatch). A little bit of panic, and quite a bit of stress induced swearing was taking place. The truck is AWESOME. We'll plan a trip to break it in properly. I know this road in the deep south of Alberta.......

Oui, un petit peu

Around 2 years ago I bought a Dodge Ram 1500. This freed up my old 2000 saturn to give to my son. He got the car in October I think, and by November he had totalled it sliding down an icy hill into an unsuspecting Highlander. And that began the great car odyssey of 2009-2010. A couple of months after he totalled the Saturn, we found Ben a 1997 Intrepid with 120K km on it for $1200. It was a trade in at my Brother in Laws lot in Edmonton. Car ran great. Drove it back to Calgary, and all was good. <2 wks later I get a call from my son that it is making lots of noise on his trip back from skiing in Sunshine. I was at a party and in no condition to go get him, so I said to check the oil and get it home if it will make it. It does make it home and it was making horrendous noise. Take it to my mechanic the next day, and get the "she's done" call. Can remember exactly what, but one of the bearings had let go and the engine was a very large paper weight. Fortunately, my B-I-L gets one of his buddies to change to a rebuilt engine at cost (which was just about as much as the car cost originally). Unfortunately, that took 2 solid months before they found an engine. But in the end, it worked out ok, and he's driving the car today. In the spring of 2010, I decided the Ram didn't make any sense. While it was great offroad, I decided I didn't go back country enough to justify it's inability to ever get past a gas station without stopping. So I decided that we would sell the truck, buy my wife a new van (or at least a newer one), and I would drive the 2002 Chrysler Grand Caravan for one year, then buy something new. It took a couple of months to sell the truck, for less money than I'd hoped (not the best truck market out there right now). But we did buy the wife a 2007 Minivan, and I took over the old minivan. To this point, this vehicle had around 220K on it, and had been very reliable. Since selling it in like July, between then and 2 weeks ago I estimate I poured $3500 in repairs into it. If it could break, it did. So my plan to save money by putting myself in the ultimate emasculating vehicle didn't work out quite as planned. I was emasculated and broke. Not a great combination. So several weeks ago I decided that I had to buy another vehicle and pawn the van off on some unsuspecting thrifty car buyer. I looked at a new Ridgeline (with FNG over at Honda West-shameless plug here, but if you want a Honda go see Darrin. I was very impressed with him and Honda West both), but ended up buying a 2008 Ridgeline from the B-I-L. This one is a top of the line truck, leather, power everything, nav, etc. Gets far better mileage than the Ram (though not as good as I had hoped), drives like a dream, and will be able to handle the type of off road I do in the summer. So the car gets driven down from Edmonton by one of the employees of the car dealership. We trade vehicles (I had decided to trade in the van), and off we go. Next morning I get a call from the B-I-L to tell me the brakes had failed on the van in Red Deer at a red light. Fortunately he went through the light without hitting anything. The brakes stated working again shortly thereafter and they have been unable to replicate the problem. So if you see a green 2002 Grande Caravan in Edmonton, I'd probably steer clear. 3 days after I bought the Honda, I was coming to work on the deerfoot. There was a wreck in the left hand lane, with two lanes closed. No problem as I was encased in the luxury of my new vehicle. I eased into the right lane and after a few seconds the traffic stopped. When I stopped, about half the status lights turn on. I thought the car had stalled, but no, it was still running. "Must be the computer" I think, so I decide to reset it. So I turn off the truck and turn it back on. Status lights clear. So far so good. Go to put it in gear and it won't shift out of park. So here I am stuck in the only moving lane, on the Deerfoot, in rush hour. People are LOVING me. Honking, waving, all the friendliness one would expect at 7:30 in the morning. I remembered reading in the manual that there was a manual override for the gear shifter. I open the glove box for the manual and discover the manual was still at home. Sweet. Call my wife and she can't find the part in the manual that tells me what to do (though I could feel the encouragement from my fellow drivers). Call my mechanic and he gives me some places to look. So after about 10 total minutes stuck, I find the override, put the beast in gear, and continue on my merry way straight to the mechanic. Turns out one of the after market tow package wires had come out of a harness, rubbed against the chassis, and shorted out the taillights among other things. The security system interpreted the lack of taillights and putting the car in gear as a security threat and would not let the car go into gear. $200.00 later, problem fixed. My mechanic did say "nice truck", but I think he just sees his potential future revenue. I'm not planning on selling anything in the next several months, but will be sure to let everyone here know when I do. Once I'm done with them, everything that can break will have already broken and you can be sure you will be getting a quality vehicle at a quality price. Trust me.

They did my neighborhood. One pass, but one is better than none. I can't imagine the layout of the streets in the subdivisions around here make plowing all that simple The land of 10,000 cul-de-sacs.

I know that there is conditional support for shale gas from some environmental groups, I think due to lowering of carbon footprint if the economy begins to convert to natural gas. The condition is of course the method of extraction-the huge amounts of water used in frac'ing shale gas formations and assurances that ground water is protected. Not to get into a philosophical discussion (which in most cases here means name calling), the prize is truly game changing in North America-making the assumption that we could actually change to a nat gas economy. Easier said than done I think. Personally, I think natural gas prices are going to be low for the foreseeable future, though I fully admit predicting these things is a fools game (which I am foolishly participating in). The amount of shale gas in North America is astounding. If you look at a map, it seems to be in every state and province. Until there is a massive shift in demand, which is many years away, the potential supply will far exceed demand, keeping prices low. As has been the case in the past, some will be against this energy source because they are against all energy sources. Some will be for it because they are for all energy sources. Most of us are in the middle trying to figure out how to weigh "cheap" energy in our own back yard (and lowering dependence on energy from some unsavory sources) vs the environmental impact of extraction.

Ok, I'll put this back on track..... Several years ago I decided to make the long drive to the Hat to fish Bullshead for the first time. I was still pretty new to the fly fishing game, so it was not hard to determine which rod to bring (I had one), which reel (I had one), and which fly box (I had one). So with everything packed up, I take off. About 1/2 way there my phone rings, and my wife asks "did you mean to bring your vest". Well, since my only fly box was in that vest, my heart sank and all I could utter was "uh, yeah." So I 411'd Medicine Hat and find a fishing store that sells fly gear. Not very much of it as it turns out, but I was able to buy a couple of leach patterns (actually a couple of them were really jigs, but close enough I figured) and some nymphs. I ended up catching 6 or so, which for me back then was really good, so the trip wasn't a total bust. I check my packing very carefully now!

Nice pics Rev, even if you were using bait.