reevesr1

The media is not a thing. It has no collective will, opinion, or objective. It is a collection of people working for a bunch of different companies providing what they think the people want. As long as people clamor for this type of story, the media will supply it. But blaming the media is like blaming "them", ie, pointless.

Happening in Canada too! Check this link: http://flyfishcalgary.com/board/index.php?...c=7891&st=0

This certainly was not the sentiment I was looking for. I have absolutely no problem at all with Bass Pro. It's a fine store and certainly has it's place. It's just not really for me anymore. But I still hope they succeed. This is not meant to be a bash Bass Pro thread. It was meant to celebrate the small shop, not blast the big one.

After nearly 40 yrs of fishing in saltwater using standard equipment, I shudder to think how much gear I bought. The vast majority was bought at large sporting good shops. I can't think of any bad experiences, and had many fine conversations I'm sure. But I cannot remember a single personal relationship that I established. I started fly fishing about 3 yrs ago. In that time, I've gotten to know the owners and/or staff at Hanson's (who have become family friends), Fishtales, Country Pleasures, Southbow (even though they've only been open a short time. Really nice shop and nice guys-I kinda feel like I'm cheating on my girlfriend(s) when I go there!). This really hit home to me today when I was bringing a spare spool I bought for my Scierra from Gord (Speyghillie) in Scotland to Southbow (took troutlover to check out the new store and get some hot flies) to get some Loop line I bought from Brian at Whistler fly shop in BC transferred onto it. So in 40 yrs, I couldn't tell you the name of a single person I've ever shopped from buying standard gear. 3 yrs of fly fishing, I can probably name 15 people in 5 fly shops, including out of the province and one in a land they have a funny accent. I think that is partly because the small fly shop atmosphere encourages personal relationships. It could be that fly fishing lends itself to a more personal approach because of the myriad of ways it can be done. Whatever the case, it is a major part of the appeal of the activity for me. I've never been a shop rat before and I find myself becoming one now. If I could only find a way to hide my wallet. BassPro is having their grand opening tomorrow. It'll probably be very cool. I'd like to meet April Vokey. I'm probably not going and if I did, I'm in no danger of buying anything significant there. Nor are a very good percentage of fly fishermen in this city, I bet. We will continue to support our local shops. Sort of like drug addicts, we can't seem to get enough.

Having met and fished with the good rev several times myself, I had no choice but to type B.

Happy birthday Clive!

Those things real?

I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.

No, brownstone started it. I spent 3 yrs on a submarine. I have a highly sensitive gaydar (to avoid it you have to be able to recognize it). It reacted to the gayness of the sandwich pick and I had to comment on it.

Jay, Great video as always. Can't wait for summer! Oh, and a certain area is fishing very well right now. Quick raccoon story: We owned one when I was 15. We also owned a marina at the time (marina might be a bit of a stretch. Bait camp/boat launch more accurate) in Texas. One time Rascal jumped down from a table near the camp, ran to the pier, jumped in a boat, pulled a lunchbox (old fashioned kind with latches) from under the bow, opened it (they are just amazing creatures, can get into anything), pulled out a package of cinnamon buns, ripped in and started eating. This whole time I am trying to catch him and stop him but the guy said "let him have the cinnamon buns. That's the damndest thing I've ever seen."

Dr. Mr. Erraticus, I would like to kindly ask you to not be more thoughtful and lyrical than I when replying to my posts. I would greatly appreciate. Nice read, thanks!

We did! Sausage and egg mcmuffin for me. But the kids got 2 each. Didn't slow them down. Brent wisely abstained.

I went skiing with my 16 yr old son and his friend along with bcube yesterday. Heard Castle had been getting lots of powder and Ben had a day off from school, so it seemed a perfect opportunity. We got to the top of the hill to be greeted with some fresh pow and very, very flat light. We hit Drifter and started down. Boot top and deeper powder, but crappy underneath. Combine that with the total inability to see anything and a 49 yr old trying to keep up with 2 16 yr olds and a early 20 something and you get one exhausted ass old man by the time we got to the bottom (and I think if you ask Brent he would say keeping up to the 16 yr olds was no simple task for him either). To add insult to injury, it seems as I've gotten older I've become more susceptible to motion sickness (maybe I'll tell a couple of seasickness stories one day. My friends back home call me the human chum line). Flat light combined with bumpy skiing brings on a feeling very similar to seasickness. It started to hit me on the lift up for the second run. I thought a couple of runs on groomers would cure me, but it turned out that I was too dizzy and nauseated to continue. In fact, it took me around 1/2 an hour to make my way down on the groomers from the top of the 1st chair. I was one sick puppy. I did manage to fight off the urge to puke, but probably should have just went with it. By the time I got back to the lodge I was drenched in sweat. Took 4 hrs to recover and ski a bit in the afternoon(following my nap from 12 to 1). I had never felt so old. As I sat in the lodge by myself, I actually started to wonder if my best years truly were behind me. I mean I can't ski flat light without getting sick for *&^% sake. All these feelings had dissipated as I slid my hand under my first trout this morning (you were wondering what this had to do with fishing weren't you?) All feelings of "the best in behind me" had faded away to be replaced with feelings of absolute contentment with my place in life. I've started to wonder if fishing is my mid-life crisis obsession? But I don't think so as I've never really been in crisis. Life for me has always been pretty damn good. I've fished my whole life. I lived for it when I was a kid. I did other things, played lots of sports and loved to play golf, but fishing was #1 with a bullet. But through my late teens and into my 20s (girls, golf, various team sports, job) and 30s (family, golf, various team sports, job) I didn't fish much. As I aged and my skill level in team sports dipped below a level I could accept, fishing started to take a more prominent role. As my oldest son became interested in fishing (and I picked up a fly rod one day) fishing supplanted golf as my favorite past-time. But fly rods and kis aside, I think for me this would have happened anyway (and I doubt I am unique in this). I believe this is because I came to realize I am better fisherman now than I was at any point in my life in the past. My waning physical skills have not detracted one drop from the skills necessary to drag those poor defenseless creatures from the depths. Never again will I dive to catch a baseball or football. I hit a 350 yd, non wind aided drive just after a thunderstorm when I was 24 (1984-Persimmon driver, balata ball, very little roll). Pretty sure I will never duplicate that feat. I can't possibly hang with the young flat bellies on the ski hill. I may one day puke because I can't see the freakin' moguls. But I can still hike down a hill (though the trip back up gets slower) slip quietly into the water, and feel the thrill of my line tightening and laugh out loud when a trout makes a wild jump. And I have no doubt I'll be better at 60, or 70, and if I am completely blessed 80 than I am now. And that is a comforting thought.

Two sons, 16 and 13, and a 12 yr old daughter. Daughter has pierced ears. That is it. Don't think I would have an issue if my sons wanted pierced ear, and I guess a nose one for the daughter when the time comes---but that is that. I DEFINE uncool parent. One of the most often repeated lines around my house is: "Why do you even bother telling me what your friends parents let them do?" So far, none of this has been an issue. I'm quite sure it will and I'm quite sure I'll be unpopular around the house when it does.

One can always hope.

Brownstone, Are you by any chance gay? The fruit on a sandwich gave it away. The others are just confirmation.

I got #4 locked up. Trumps all the rest. I'm in.

Come on rehsfylf. Of course you can find a game where the defence sucks, but the team wins. Particularly when the team in question has arguably the best goaltender in the world behind them, and he's on a hell of a roll. That's sorta like finding one cold winter and saying, see, no global warming. Hey, that was fun.

DrBullet, I enjoyed that story greatly. Thanks.

I'm skiing Castle on Friday! 85cm so far this week, more on the way!

Darren-May 5-Boy Dave-April 30, girl (I can't imagine Dave has enough testosterone to conceive a male child)

After you upload to imageshack, it goes to a page with different links to the image. The top one is called "direct link". Cut that whole thing out and paste it into the insert link to image dialog box. That should do it.

Mike, Go to the ImageShack site and sign up. Once signed up, I think you get directed to the upload image page. Hit the browse button and find your image. Once selected, hit the resize button. I resize to 15" monitor. Don't know if that is right, but it works. Then hit upload. Once uploaded, hit the Insert Image button in your post. A dialog box will pop up. Paste the location of your image into the dialog box and click ok. That should do it. It took me a few tries to figure it out, but once you get the hang it is pretty simple.

I agree that everything aside, quality scoring chances would follow a normal dist. But that assumes you are taking a random sampling of games, not taking games where they are winning vs games they are loosing and trying to draw gaa and save percentage statistical assumptions from them. If, as I contend, that quality chances against go up when a team is playing from behind-then the trend you site could be skewed by picking games they lost. So, lets put all the numbers together over the last 20 games or so (I'll just use your old numbers cuz I'm too lazy to compile new ones, and I just averaged even though one data set is 10 games and one is 11, so I'm probably +/- 1% on save percentage and .05 on GAA or so off). If my math is correct, over all the games you sited: Shots Flames: 662, shots opponents 647. GAA Flames: around 3.4, save percentage 89% GAA Opponents around 3.4, save percentage 89% Record 11-8-2 Seems reasonable? For the season, Kipper is 43-20-5 with a save percentage of 90% (vs. 89% in the latest sample, fairly insignificant) and GAA of 2.9 (so 3.4 is singificantly higher. This must mean significantly more shots-and consequently a fairly mediocre record over that time. What's it all mean? It's the defenses fault for giving up more shots. Or maybe not.

Hmmm... Big Crowsnest Rainbow, below a cliff face. I think I remember crawling on my belly on a Crowsnest cliff face this summer trying for a big rainbow. Unsuccessfully I should add. Nice pics Max. Funny, doesn't really look like Ft. Mac to me......