reevesr1

Simple for me. It's the fight. While I remember many of the big fish I've caught, the ones that always leave an impression are the ones who put on a show. The "hot" fish that feels like a 30"er but turns out to be 18". The big brown that rolls on surface again and again so you can see all her colors. The rainbow that jumps 3' out of the water, then greyhounds upstream across the surface like someone shot it out of a gun. The Spanish Mackerel that pulls line off so fast it burns your fingers. The best is that feeling when you think you have a routine fish, then it jumps out of the water, your heart skips a beat, then it makes a blistering reel screaming run. I like every aspect of getting out and enjoying the day, the setting, the camaraderie. But without those moments of total excitement, I'd just as soon go hiking!

I left Canada in 1997. While I did not work for a producing oil and gas company, I do know that I had logged wells that did 40 million a day. Lots of them that did over 20. Finding gas around GP was not a very difficult thing, it seemed to me. I came back to Canada in 2005, less than 10 years later. Companies would kill for a 40 million a day well. 10 million is a HUGE well now. I have no data to back me up, but my SWAG is avg initial production has dropped 50%? And again, I don't work for an oil company, but the other difference is decline rate, which is much greater than it was 10 yrs ago. So we are drilling wells in a higher cost environment, for less initial production and a shorter life span. I don't have the slightest idea what the expected payout date range is for a well today. But if it was one year 10 or more years ago, there is almost no chance it is one year today. Again, I'm just speculating as I have no direct information. But if my speculation is correct, it is not difficult to understand why royalty rates may be lower now than 10 or more years ago.

Nice rainbow. But your hat sucks. Welcome!

I would have read this earlier, but I was out catching big ass trout on that stinky Bow River! But I was nymphing, or should I say leaching, so it probably doesn't count. Oh, and pie all the way!!

See, that's the problem these days. You guys have too many ways to access the outside world. In my day, all I had was an XJ phone. Get your ass back to work!!

Helps that the story is all true! I think it comes down to why a person fishes. I have always fished because of the feel of the fish on the end of my line, or at least primarily. Because of that, the method used tends to mean less to me. I like the fly rod because I like the feel better while fighting a fish. I do like the visual of a fish rising to a dry fly, who doesn't? But how I "fool" the fish is essentially meaningless to me. The fight trumps all. But as it should be in this game, that's just me. Starting in a few weeks, you can dry fly for about what, 8 months or so? No need to go under water if you don't want to!

Lamponius, A very good friend of mine is from France (in fact, several good friends, but only one who I've fished with). The first time we fished together was one chilly, very windy spring day on the crow. He was fishing hopper dropper (a big ass stimmy) and I was using an indicator and a couple of nymphs. He would say "what is this indicator bullsheet? It is not fly fishing?" I asked him if he expected anything to hit that big stimulator in March. He said no, but there was a chance! He caught all his fish on the nymph, which was somehow better than the ones I caught on the nymph. A month or so later, we are fishing the Bow. He saw may SJW and called it bullshit and not fly fishing again (and there was nothing mean in how he said it, I thought it was funny). He caught a few, I caught more. A couple of weeks after that we are supposed to meet at McKinnons for an afternoon fish. I had to call and cancel for an unexpected meeting. But then the meeting canceled and I tried to call my friend. His phone did not work since he was already on the river. So I drive down and see him fishing a run. I asked "hey, there is some big orange thing stuck to your line! Is that a new style of stimulator?" He says "if you think the indicator is funny, look at this" and he pulls up the indie, followed by 2 SJW's and a big honkin' stone fly nymph. I said "when you come to the dark side you don't *&*% around." He said "this may not be fly fishing, but it is very effective." Later that year him and I meet up on a small stream. We started about 2 km of river apart, me with my son and him fishing alone. My son and I worked downstream and he worked upstream and we met in the middle, around 2 pm. My son and I had switched to dries at around 10am and were having an excellent day. We met my friend, who was still nymphing, with an indie, and having a better day. He said he had fished dries for a bit but "I am catching bigger fish deep". Seems cultures are adaptable. He now lives in Hungary and fishes all over eastern Europe. I'm sure with mostly dries, which he is utterly outstanding at, and nymphs when "the big ones are deep," and when nobody else is around! There is no moral, other than to say that I think (and I could be full of *hit, again) that the dry culture in Europe is as much due to peer pressure than anything else. Remove the peer pressure, and the morals change. Nothing wrong with that, just like there is nothing wrong with the majority in Europe fishing dries. There is no "right" way. And I didn't think you sounded elitist at all!

I've worked in the Military, as a Field Engineer for an Oilfield service company, sales in the same company, and managed a assembly/testing lab in a manufacturing area of an oilfield service company. Military: Best training. By FAR the lowest paid, both officers and enlisted (I was an enlisted technician). But the benefits package was really good, and if you stayed in for 20 yrs, really, really good. Work hours could be long, but were generally reasonable. Great people, still think of many of my crewmates as brothers. Field: I used to tell people the hours I worked, but I stopped because people don't believe it. I can come up with multiple instances of working over 48 hrs at a stretch, and one over 60. After these I would crawl in the sleeper and my crew would sometimes drive me home or to a hotel, and often just drive me to the next location where they would wake me up and do it all over again. I never made anywhere near 220K per year, but I did make good money. If you figured it out per hour, it sucked though. Usually 2 weeks on, 1 week off, which really equated to 16 on, 5 off. I don't begrudge anyone the amount of money they made in the field. I had a university degree, but there were guys without who made more than me. I couldn't have cared less. To quote an old song, we worked hard for the money. However, for many of us that were married, it did not take long before we had to choose between the money and our marriages. My wife got tired of raising our kids by herself. Manufacturing: Way better hours, way less pay. I took a manufacturing job to get out of the field. Significantly less pay (like 30-40% less) was worth it to me to see my kids grow up. Oh, and the most important people in the manufacturing world are the technicians, either trade school or HS educated. A good tech is way more important than a good engineer, at least to me. Unfortunately, pay wise they are treated like a commodity. After doing all three different jobs, I can easily state that to me the field person is not overpaid. The amount he or she gives up in their personal life, from my experience, demands the higher compensation. If the pay was not higher, it would be impossible to fill many of those jobs. And also remember that even though many of them only have HS education, many of those HS guys will be the smartest people you'll ever meet. I've never been a teacher. I've taught before, but to peers, not really to students. I have several friends who are. I think they are drastically underpaid. But the fact they are underpaid doesn't mean there is anything wrong with someone in a field job being well paid. The goal should be to raise the pay of the teacher, regardless of what someone in another occupation is making.

Not really Canadian based or focused companies. It would be interesting to know what Husky, Shell Canada, Imperial, Talisman, Arc, etc. execs got this year. Pretty tough year for companies focused on North America. Maybe they got big raises as well. I doubt it though. I can't claim to be any sort of an expert of who took ownership of what when it comes to the Canadian oil patch. I'm a late comer to it. But I don't think nationalizing it is, or ever was, the best answer.

The production rates in Norway are a trifle more than the rates here!

I'll add to the fodder. Alberta already has some of the highest operating costs of anywhere in the world. Margins here are ridiculously low compared to many other places in the world. It does have the advantage of being politically stable, which makes that low, but usually consistent, margins palatable. Screw around with that already low margin by playing with royalty rates (and add on a big drop in gas prices), and you get 2009. Not much of a drilling season, to put it mildly. Interestingly, Sask and BC did not see the same drop as Alberta. Wonder why? And I don't know which executives were getting the fat bonuses this year. None in my company, I can assure you.

I was going to recommend a diet, but looks like you dodged a bullet!

Calgary uses Calcium Chloride. There is a spreadsheet on this site which goes over the pros and cons Salts

Guess I have nothing to worry about. The sane people always get there way.

I have faith in the professionals as well. Though most of the changes on the gulf coast commercial fisheries were spearheaded by highly organized rec fishing groups. These groups bring about changes using the political process more than anything else. So I've seen the political process in action. If highly organized fishing groups can force changes, why would I doubt that highly organized, politically hooked up environmental groups can't do the same thing?

Loved the Onion piece. So when I read the ESPN piece, I in no way considered anyone banning fishing outright. It would be political suicide if nothing else. And the article is almost certainly fatalistic. But there has been talk of Fishing Exclusion Zones and Marine Management in the coastal regions for years. In my myopic view, this always mean limited access to the areas I grew up fishing-which are almost always shallow bays and marsh/estuary systems. Exactly the areas, along with fertile reef systems, that would end up getting "managed". In other words, manage the places where the fish are and leave the rest open for the fishermen. That is probably over fatalistic as well, but there is legitimate fear certain areas being closed. Where I grew up, commercial fishermen have been banned from these shallow water systems for years. There is no commercial harvest of the game fish I grew up fishing, and the fishing is much better (and still getting better) because of it. Any new "management" would be totally on the recreational angler. (and again, I am only talking about coastal Texas and Louisiana) Maybe nothing will happen to the rec angler. That would be great. But to say there are not groups involved in this process that are looking to totally get rid of fishing in all forms in totally Pollyannish. I do not think there is any chance of that happening. But anyone who thinks they do not have some political clout is sadly mistaken. And anyone who thinks that this is a science based process is also mistaken. It is political, being carried out in a political arena. And my fear is that any bone thrown to the extremist side would be in the form of exclusion or management zones. I did read the article Marc posted. Appears nice and balanced. But I think the author is burying his head in the sand a bit. He has been fighting the commercials so long (judging by his article) that he cannot see a scenario where what is good for the commercial may be good for him. It clouds his judgment, IMHO, and makes him want to believe that anything bad for the commercial fisherman is good for him. Maybe, but maybe not. Again, I think that there are groups in this fight that see comms and recs as the same thing. The enemy of my enemy and all that. My judgment is probably clouded as well by a fear of loosing my rights. This fear could be unfounded, though I doubt it. I also think "facts" will play a minuscule role in all this.

OK, I didn't really vote for him, because I didn't vote in last years Presidential Election because a vote for a democrat in Texas is somewhat a waste of time. But I would have. And I don't like this! Obama Considering Fishing Ban? Link fixed, thanks Flytyer and headscan!

Damn. Still no clique.

Only took me 30 yrs or so after high school to FINALLY get in a clique. And what did I pick? A Fly fishing website clique. Oh, the power! And I can get people banned? Awesome. Are we going to have meetings and everything? Are we the cool clique or the nerd clique?

Happy Birthday buddy!

I just finished a book called Outliers. One of the parts talked about the education systems in China vs. North America and how they came about. In the mid 1800's, educators thought that having kids spend too much time in class could lead to mental problems later on, and they needed time to play (and work the farms, though that wasn't really talked about). Not so in China. Work was seen as preferable over play. Hence Chinese (and this could be extended to any rice growing culture for reasons to detailed to go into here) schools went longer per day, more days per week, more weeks per year. The point is that every generation thinks that anything that the kids do differently than the previous generation is bad for them (in the 1870s the previous generations didn't spend a whole lot of time in school). Usually they are wrong. We have no idea what this generation will turn out to be. They'll probably turn out pretty much like we did, and the generation before, and the generation before, and the generation before............

You can also find some pretty awesome deals on line. Most are in the States, but shipping isn't an outrageous cost, genterally <$50. You would need to do a bit of research on what type of ski you want. I would recommend you look at reviews for 2006-2008 skis then shop the on line discount stores for the ones you like. You can almost always find brand new skis from a few model years ago.

No thanks on the 7 game series. I'll take one and done on this tournament, thank you very much.

I was the first to offer my congratulations. Just before my trip to the dentist. Oh, and buying Dutchie some cheap ass whiskey.

He actually ripped it up? Wow.