reevesr1

ESPN on both fish: http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/fishing...tory?id=4466614 As to keeping the fish.... I was with a friend a couple of years ago when he caught a fish of a lifetime. The fish was around 11 lb, and a BIG one is 8. Biggest speckled trout (saltwater fish) I'd ever seen, and I've seen lots and lots. He instantly struggled with whether he should keep the fish and asked me what I would do. I said, I thought I would release it and get a replica mount, but I wasn't the one holding the biggest speck I'd ever seen. He ended up keeping it, as a fish that big was way past it's spawning life so she wasn't contributing to the gene pool any longer. And he wanted the real thing mounted, not a plastic replica. I still don't think it's what I would have done, but I had, and still don't have, absolutely any problem with it. Both of those fish are the biggest of two of the most sought after fish in the world. Catching the biggest of either is a fantastic achievement. Neither of them (the bow was a trip and the brown I can only think was a little to old to still be capable of spawning-though I could be wrong) are contributing their genes to the pool, so what is the harm of keeping them? If there ever was a legitimate reason for a grip and grin photo op, I would think the biggest brown or rainbow ever caught may be it. I've never fished for record fish. I actually don't really ever fish for just big fish. It's never been why I do this. I also haven't kept a fresh water fish of any kind in many years. But I'm pretty sure that if I caught the biggest rainbow or brown ever caught, I'd probably keep it. Just like the Diefenbaker guys and the fella in Michigan. Good for them.

Made it out on an exploring trip with kunfool (kevin) and his friend Paul and Mr. Bobloblaw. We drove up to my condo in Panorama on Friday night, drank a little beer while planning out the trip, and went to sleep dreaming of new water and lonely fish. We woke up bright and early, or as early as you need to for mountain stream fishing, and made the drive to the creek. None of us had fished it before and had limited information on it. The day was spent doing a bunch of hiking, bushwacking, hill climbing, somewhat spooky (at least to me) descents and lots of "which way do you think we should go" questions mixed in with quite a bit of fishing. We found lots of fish, all on dries. Four species (cutties, cutbow, little bullies and lots of little rainbows). Biggest fish was 14", which was far less than we expected. We found fish in pools, runs, pocket water (I love pocket water!)-basically everywhere you would expect to find fish. Flies were typical mountain stream flies, humpies, madame x's, chew toys, ants, beetles, etc. Nothing really seemed to outperform anything else. By the end of the day my legs felt like they'd been through a meat grinder. A couple of falls at the end of the day, followed by significant swearing, confirmed the fact the legs were not working any more. The cramps that hit me at the gas pump (and I'm sure the patrons wondered why the crazy bald guy was running around shaking his legs) were the final confirmation that maybe I'd stretched myself at least to my limit, if not beyond it. But I'd do it again tomorrow (and probably will next week Anyway, that was my first trip to water that was new to everyone. Truly memorable day with lots of laughs, mostly at my expense (I really need to stop falling in the water!). Thanks Steve, Kevin, and Paul!! Here are a few shots: The creek: The sky and early afternoon moon The fish The Boys:

Hmm. I'm 50 yrs old. I probably have 20 yrs of solid fishing left where I can hike hills, fish back country, etc. 5 yr closure in 25% of my remaining fishing life. I'm not a fan of the idea, though I understand the sentiment. If you close that area, where are all the random folks going? They'll go somewhere. So if we close the south, whatever water there is north of Calgary will then get covered up, only moving the problem elsewhere. I have no idea what the answer here is. I would be in favor of severe limitations on # of random campers and a enforced time limit (isn't it 2 weeks in BC?). Also for significant no ATV zones, though they need someplace as well, imho. They could also limit rod days of guides and I wouldn't have a problem if they limited rod days for everyone. But not a complete closure.

I'll second the praise for Jack. Fantastic guy to deal with. Heard that bloom guy was OK too!

The funny part is that my best cuttie fishing this year was on the Livingstone. my other trips have been on creeks much less frequented. I certainly believe angling pressure has a part to play, but the drop in fishing and the variance in behavior this year has been dramatic. Fishing pressure has been on the rise for yrs. Why would it suddenly cause such a change? And why would the change be just as dramatic on waters with very little pressure? Hope that doesnt sound like a flame, because it certainly want meant to be one.

They fired up the laser and "reshaped" my eye yesterday. Eyes smell like burnt hair when getting reshaped by the way. Procedure is really quick and easy. Recovery was like 6 hrs of minor irritation. Howeve, i am very disappointed in the result....as I now wish I had done this years ago. Distance vision is already excellent and my near vision good enough to type this on my phone on the way to my post surgery checkup. So for anyone considering this, lasik MD gets two thumbs way up from me.

Those boys sure catch some amazing fish. I don't care what their methodology is, the results are pretty damn impressive. They just caught the biggest rainbow ever caught, period out of what I understand is a pretty big lake. A wonderful accomplishment.

Have a good one!

I haven't hit our lake in awhile. Might have to steal some of sun's special lake killer patterns. A buddy of mine has a house at Heritage Lakes. Caught a 22"er that he kept to eat. Weighed 4 lbs!

I have an account set up, so when I park all I have to do is call from my cell phone, give the zone number, and the meter starts running. When I'm done, I call and the meter stops. Very easy. Doing the same thing now at the c-train stops (I mostly train to work). The meters by my office used to be in an almost constant state of broken due to vandalism/theft. I have yet to see one of the new machines vandalized, though that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. The reason they claim more cars parked is no wasted space due to meter spacing. Just park where there is a spot and pay. I will say that from what I've seen, I'm not convinced there are more cars parked. Too many bad parallel parkers leaving too much space for theory to turn into practice. As to Calgary being a mess, I just don't see it. Sure there is litter, every city deals with that issue. But I was purposely looking this morning when walking to work and really didn't see any litter at all-which could be an aberration. In general, I find Calgary cleaner than most cities of it's size. It ain't San Diego (cleanest big city I've ever been to), but it ain't bad.

Don't know, as I never remember to bring a thermometer. But after all the warm weather, and lowish water levels, I did not expect to say "damn, that's cold!" Wish my answer was a bit more quantitative!

Fished my favorite little stream yesterday with my son. This time of year it is usually full of cutties, among other things. We fished for 5 hrs or so, and did not see a single fish rise. 2 cutties caught. There is no chance on this body of water that this is due to fishing pressure. As is always the case, we were the only one's there. Water level was reasonable for this time of year, and if anything clarity was better than normal. Temp was definately down from what i would expect. Waded wet, and it was pretty damn cold. Still great to get out with my son, but I sure wish I could have got him on more fish. Strange.

Kevin, They sure get big eating perch!! Monger wouldn't have fought as well, IMHO.

I wish. Saw an LPGA event many, many moons ago. If memory serves, Patty Sheehan won it in a playoff. I found it highly enjoyable. I remember chatting with Beth Daniel for like several minutes. She was a fresh faced rookie. This would have been early 80s in Orlando. Nobody in those days was hitting it 320. Hell, not many guys were.

There is a picture on the fridge at Hanson's River House of Henry Winkler (Heeeeyyyyyyy) fishing Policeman's Flats. There is also a reel there that Donald Trump originally sketched on the back of a napkin.

Lasik MD, downtown Calgary. And I'll certainly let everyone know, assuming I still have my sight afterward.

When you upload to one of the image servers (I use imageshack, but there are lots others), the 100k does not apply as the picture isn't being held at FFC. FFC is just linking (if that's the right word) to the picture server. I think the limit is 9 or 10 pictures. Imageshack can take up to 3 meg photos (I think), but if you picture a file that big, it can take a long time to render on the screen. Imageshack gives the option of choosing what size you want to upload, as I'm sure the others do. I pick the 17" monitor version, and those end up being around 250K in size I think. for example, this is over 100K (one is 53K, the other is 56K) Awesome shots by the way. PM me if you wish and I can talk you through it.

Boris, They can't do both. In fact, currently I can get by with just lifting my glasses to do up close stuff (a recent development, which I hate!). But once I get the wavefront, then I will probably need reading glasses. I can live with that. I saw Taco with some of those ones that clip on your hat. He was cool almost beyond belief. The difference, other than cost, of wavefront and traditional lasik is that with wavefront they can cut a flap with more surface area (and thinner I think). This cuts down on the percentage of people who have halos at night caused by the eyes dilating larger than where the cornea has been corrected. In essence, part of the eye is looking through the corrected part and part through the uncorrected part, causing a halo effect. (I'm sure it is more complicated, but that's how I understood it).

Several weeks ago I lost a pair of glasses when a gust of wind blew line in my face just as I was roll casting. I'm wearing my backup pair, but need new ones cuz I hate my backup pair. Combine that with the fact I need new sunglasses (only $600 or so) to go with my new glasses, which I need to combine with bifocals (yay!), led me to finally take the plunge and get lasik. I am doing wavefront surgery next Wed. Afterwards I will be able to see without glasses, and be better looking than ever! Particularly after I pick up my new, non prescription Maui Jim sunglasses.

But it can oh so much more fun to dance around the chase! Sorry for the headaches.

Awesome. Nice to see you still enjoying the time off!

But that's what an alter ego does. If he acts like his regular ego, then he's just the ego, not the alter-ego. If you are OO, that would be an ironic twist on the whole alter-ego paradigm. Most people who have alter-egos are mild mannered (like Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, or Clark Kent) and have a more aggressive, wrong righting alter ego. You on the other hand have a no punches pulled regular ego, but if you just happen to be OO, then your alter-ego is much less direct and uses sarcasm, analogies, and sometimes obtuse references to make his point. And I'm sure many different people interpret his points differently. Your points on the other hand are very hard to misinterpret. So if OO were your alter ego, it would be perfect!! But alas, very unlikely.

Taco??

Very nice. Thanks!

Mr. Orvis, Thanks for reminding me. I really don't like fly fishermen very much, so in order to limit any self loathing I guess I probably should refer to "them" as "they". Pretend women or pretend fly fishermen? I'm more of an intelligent design guy myself.