reevesr1

Perfect. I'll never forget my first fish on a fly rod, and how much I loved it (I told the guide "this fish is going to cost me a lot of money!") This is after a lifetime of catching fish using more traditional techniques. If I can pass that feeling on to others, I'll do it in a heartbeat.

I have absolutely no problem showing what I am using. And I personally reject (and this is my personal opinion) the notion of that telling them may help them learn the river and pick up the sport is a negative. I think one of our goals should be to introduce other fishermen to the sport and help them to love it as we do. If that means more fishermen, so be it. Nothing would make me happier to know I helped create a few myself. The satisfaction one would receive from that knowledge far outweighs any increase in the number of fishermen. All that said, I'm not as free with the places I fish. Probably makes me a bit of a hypocrite.

Ok, I am almost certainly not the best person to ask this because my sucking at dry fly fishing is well documented. But I am improving, and here is what I think I know: When this fish came up, he didn't come up from behind the fly, he came up from in front. So the fish was facing Ben when he took. He needed to give the fish time to take, go back down and turn so that he was setting the hook against the fish as opposed to fish facing to improve the chance of a hookup. I've heard people say to say "God Save the Queen" before setting. While I agree with this in slow water on the nice slow rises. But when the rise is sudden, or in faster water, I don't give them as much time. I do try to delay a bit, but mostly I use the slow lift of the rod to be the delay, if that makes sense. What I do find is while I still miss fish, I don't miss as many nice fish using these methods. I think it is because I "see" the rise of the nice fish better and am less surprised by them, and can more often give that little pause. I hope that helps. Others are far better at it than I.

My oldest son starts University in a couple of weeks. We decided we needed to do an all day fishing trip before he left. I spent a lot of time figuring out where we should go. We wanted to try some new water to us, to make it a bit of an adventure. After a bit of research, I decided I had the perfect place. It was going to be a long drive south, drive until the road was supposed to end, and mountain bike up to the fishing. Turns out the road was way better than we thought. I was led to believe you needed a good 4wd (and I don't, hence the mountain bike idea). Obviously they do not understand the power of the 2000 Grand Caravan. After a pretty easy creek crossing we drove right to the creek. And in the first pool our dreams seemed like they were answered. Big cutts hanging out, and better yet 3 big bulls. After several different streamer changes we decided the Bulls were not interested. Really, neither were the cutties (it was about 11 am and nothing really seemed interested yet). Ben did get a couple of refusals, made a fly change, then the biggest cutt in the pool comes up from bottom in a leisurely fashion, stops below the fly (a VERY slow pool) then rises the last few inches and sucks the fly in. Ben sets the hook instantly, which results in missed fish. I told him he needed to wait and he said "I know, I couldn't." The rest of the day goes pretty much the same for him. Some really good opportunities and nothing landed. We did find the fish very, very picky. Both of us fished 7X for a bit, and both broke off big fish. I landed a couple of really nice fish, and I will probably post some pics later. But the fishing wasn't as good as I had hoped, though I will absolutely be back at some point. Perfect water and big cutties. But I'll never forget the day. Though my son struggled, he never stopped fishing and was great company all day. I felt really bad that I had not put him on more fish. He said "meh, I've caught 'em before and I'll catch 'em again." We walked about 11 KM (I LOVE my GPS) without a word of complaint from him, but I will say I wore him out. It would be nice to be 17 again and be able to sleep all the way home. But the real take away for me from this day is my son is a great fishing partner. I couldn't ask for more (except maybe for more university scholarships).

Your foul hooking ratio will go down the longer you fish, I think. And I gotta admit that I don't have 16-18" btwn flies. More like 8". Just an ease thing, I don't really know if it makes my foul hook rate go up or not. Possibly, but I think it keeps my tanglings to a minimum. And I learned from Hawg second hand. Nymphing hooksets via Maxwell, with an assist from years on the gulf coast. You should have seen my 15 yr old's hooksets with dry flies this weekend. He said, "it's not like saltwater fishing". No kidding. I do remember fishing with Maxwell on the Liv one day. I was having a rough go, hooking many fish and loosing most of them. Max climbs up on a cliff to watch. A cuttie comes up and I set the hook, fight the fish for 2 seconds and it is off. Max says "I think I see the problem. Did you see how after you hooked him he came right to the surface? Yeah, he didn't want to do that. You need to cool it on the saltwater hooksets dude."

Is the coolest thing ever. Planning a fishing trip with it. Awesome.

Dates, and maybe some bull trout, available in September. I'm just sayin. And to stay topical, very few mosquitoes. There are some sheep though......

to add more confusion... I replaced my broken (my son's fault, not Olympus) 1050SW with a Canon D10. Like the Canon way more. A much bigger camera, but takes far better pictures in a non-fishing environment that the other water proof cameras I have used.

Nice pictures buddy, as always. And as always too many damn flower shots, but I understand you didn't really have that many fish to take pictures of.

While I know that some people fish the Bayou system through Houston, I've never done it. All my fishing is on the coast. Depending on where you are, anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hrs from Houston. Mornings tend to be better. So you could go early in the morning, finish by 11 or so, then back downtown. If you wanted to go during the week, you could hire a guide. If during the weekend, I can probably hook you up.

Ryan, Never said it doesn't happen, it just happens FAR less than people think. If what Sun (the person) says is correct, the Sun (paper) did something pretty rare, they printed a clarification of the story. But the reality is a whole bunch of people now think Calgarians routinely drive past dying people and don't stop. Another urban legend begins. And to take this in another direction, I have a question: In the US every year now there are malls all over the country that sponsor Halloween events to keep people off the streets and safe from people giving out poisoned candy and apples with razor blades. Every major city will have several places where people can tick or treat safely. So my question is: How many cases of poisoned or tampered candy have there been in the US, where the victim was not a family member of the perpetrator? The answer? 0. It has never happened. There have been stories about poisoned candy, but they have all turned out to either be hoaxes by the child or a family member who did the poisoning. But it is almost common knowledge that children have been poisoned. Problem is that the common knowledge is based on total crap. The myth of the apathetic bystander is very close to the same thing. Far more myth than reality. My bet is, if there was a way to measure which there probably isn't, people really haven't changed in the last few decades as those of us living in these decades think they have. We all like to think our generation (or the ones just behind us) is somehow different, for good or bad. Pretty myopic when you think about it. We've been around for a long time. I'd imagine true changes in the morality of a society take quite a long time to take place. That's speaking as the hick Texan that I am.

Buck, If they broke at the seams like mine did, you can get a big ass needle and leather repair thread from Michaels or similar and sew them up. I did mine, took about an hour. They will get me through this season for sure (2nd one). I really do love them, but I don't know what I'm going to do for the next pair. For the money, I too would have expected more life. I think Santa could be bringing me some Simms (and I know someone reading this now who is chuckling to themselves, to him I say blah, blah, and when you gonna take me dry fly fishing the Bow youngster?)

Before everyone goes off the deep end, the most celebrated case of bystander apathy was in New York 30 or 40 yrs ago. An entire neighborhood heard a woman getting raped and did nothing. Books were written and everything. Cept it turned out to be pretty much total BS. Made for a great story, only problem was it wasn't true. Not saying the Calgary Sun isn't a totally credible source of information, but I think I'll wait for a bit more information before I'm ready to declare the end of western civilization. But what do I know, I'm from a big city and apparently we step over dying people all the time on our way to our important appointments. Please.

That's why we fish from 5 AM to about 10 or so. Summer fishing can be good, but you gotta want it. Next time you are down, let me know. My brother and cousin fish a lot and would love to show someone from up North around.

Now that made my day. Taco, I always knew you exaggerated how much you walked. The proof is in the fact you don't wear out your boots fast enough. I guess that day we fished together and walked, and walked, and walked must have been an aberration. Maybe if you manned up and fished the pussyass bow more often you would wear out your boots faster like a real man.

Thanks for the report. From all the trips I've taken in my life, fishing and otherwise, no memorable trip does not have problems. ALL the good stories have some sort of problem/conflict involved. Without getting dropped in the wrong place, years from now this would just be the nice heli trip to catch goldens. Now it is a story you can tell for the rest of your life and people will remember it. Perfect.

I need to replace one of my "laces" as well. Starting to fray after 1.5 yrs (and lord knows how many trips). I also did some at home shoe repair on a couple of the seams using a leather repair thread and a big ass needle. Figure I can milk them for another season or two.

I see some water in the background. How come you weren't fishing? Kidding Mike, glad you are ok!

I love this quote. Wish I could have put it so succinctly: "Fishing is an act of predation, no matter how pure your intentions, no matter how cosseted by clichés like “noble battle” and “worthy opponent.” A fish counts its tender release not as a gesture of interspecies solidarity but as a lucky escape from a terrifying and painful death."

I knew it wasn't out of the Bow, it was just mentioned to let people know what could be out there. Every time I see that fish it takes my breath away.

Bringing attention to the river is a good thing. I don't think that some 80 cm lit balls are going to do any damage. A short analogy: In Texas, the biggest saltwater conservation association is called the CCA (Coastal Conservation Organization). Every year they hold a huge tournament as their fundraiser. It is a kill tournament (remember that saltwater species can maintain numbers without full c&r). Many, many people complain that a conservation association should not use a kill tournament as their fundraiser. CCA's reply is that as long as fish are kept within legal limits, the huge sums of money that come in via this tournament and the good it does to fund operations and raise awareness far offset a few extra fish that go into freezers. I totally agree with their stance. This seems like a similar thing to me. A few balls on the water are not going to do anything. People paying attention to this special waterway can only help. Pretty good trade.

As I stated above, I've now caught 4 fish over 26" in my 4 short years of fly fishing. It is impossible for me to believe that there are not fish 10% bigger than that in the Bow, even if you discount Bulls. It doesn't make sense, I would go so far as to say it is statistically impossible. There is one fish I have hooked twice in the last couple of years in the same spot. I don't know how big he is, but his tail is freaking immense and was way too much fish for my 6 wt and 2x to stop on both occasions. A fisherman who used to frequent this board, whose word I take as gold, has caught a 36" rainbow on the Bow (albeit a LONG time ago). Just because there are no pictures does not mean anything. The longer I fish this river, the less I take my camera. If my buddy had not been with me last week, there would have been no pic of the 27.5" fish. Doesn't make him any less real. Anyway, doesn't matter I guess. I have no trouble believing there are massive trout on the Bow. Anyone seen the picture of the Bull Humble caught this year? There are some true beasts around. Just cuz people haven't seen pictures does not make them so.

BBQ is one thing. But yesterday I saw a picture of some relatives in Louisiana eating Jambalaya. That was sheer torture. I like the fact you said "flush". When a trout or red hits a topwater lure, the 3 main terms are "slapped at it", for a quiet strike, "blow up" for a regular strike, and a really big one is a "toilet flush." Topwater fishing is about as good as it gets to me. I wouldn't say better than fly fishing, but it is damn close!

Sorry about the whole North Texas thing, but it could be worse, you could be in Oklahoma! Just kidding of course, great people up there. Maybe not the most liberal spot on the planet. And it's been fun becoming a fly fishing convert! You get any bass fishing in up there?

Second time this has happened isn't it? Same thing happened to that lady from overseas last year if memory serves? That's brutal Clinton. Where do you live in Texas? If it's near the coast, maybe I can put you on some salt water trout next time I'm in town. Not worth $300 in flies, but better than nothing!