reevesr1

Brian, I went back when I was 28. It was WAY easier the second time around for a couple of reasons: 1. Much less drinking/gambling/chasing 2. Much better idea of what to study and when to stop I was a pretty average student the first time around (it's hard to get top marks when you rarely go to class and live hungover) and was near the top of my class second time. Still had plenty of time for the part time job and recreation activities.

You sound like an old girlfriend of mine.

The pond at Spruce Meadows is nice if they've stocked it yet. I think it may have winter killed last year, but it's small, usually lots of rainbows, and there are horsies nearby. Catch and release only, but I'm not sure if you can use bait, though I think you can.

Agree with everything else, but I would actually disagree a bit with this. If you are not breaking them off, then I would say that there is little chance you are not playing them fast enough. Want more fish to the net? Get on them HARD. It sounds counter-intuitive, but the more aggressive you are, the higher your laniding percentage will be. It's hard to do, particularly when you are loosing a lot of fish, but at this point, what do you have to loose. Give it a shot. And don't be afraid to break the odd fish off. That's the only way you will learn how much pressure you can put on for a given tippet size. Good luck!

It was 30 in Crawford Bay on Wed, which I think is significantly above normal. Just as much proof of the validity of Global Warming as cold and snow today in Calgary invalidates.

I am a member of a Saltwater fishing website in Texas. They have recently disallowed any replies, except for the author, of any fishing report thread to stop all the bitching about pictures, or methodologies, or catch and release, or whatever. And while it had the desired effect of stopping the bitching, it makes the site a bit useless. This site is on the way to that. I'm with Taco on this. The complaining about every non-pristine fish pic is getting on my nerves, as is the deletion policy. We continue and continue to pander to the most sensitive with the outcome being people are afraid to post pictures. Too bad, it makes the site less than what it was.

A friend of mine is a rod "assembler." We just bought two blanks from Amundson, a 10 ft 6 wt for him and a 10 ft 5 wt for me. I don't really need it, but I am very excited about getting it built! Will post an opinion later this summer.

Headscan, Morals are relative. Whatever we do is fine, but someone else? That's another matter entirely, they need to be stopped damnit! I hope the sarcasm dripping through my post comes through. Anyone who has ever had an aquarium has had this problem with one fish species or another. Just seems like a bigger deal cuz it's a rainbow. If it was a sucker, or a guppy for that matter, would anyone complain? That said, they do need to do something about the issue, because if nothing else it's bad advertising. And that said, take a look at this pic from my brown this morning. Someone needs to shoot that bird, or whatever did this. Claw marks on both sides of the fish. Bastard.

Agree with Marc above. Be very careful about the wading, lots of big stuff out there. When the river really starts to get up, I won't get off the bank.

Yawn.

Rob, Nice fish! Patty will be spoiled. You suck by the way.

Tried to get her out today, but she couldn't make it. Went by myself and I was anchored up and fishing back toward some docks, one of the mom's called out:"do you ever catch anything here?" I told her that I did, and better yet her pier was pretty much in the middle of rainbow central (troutlover-her's is the dock with the boats). She said that her son's fished, but never caught anything. Her son's were like 9, 7, and 5, all boys and very English! Could I show them how? I said sure, and they ran in and got the rod and reel. It was a 5 ft too stiff spinning rod and a reel with about 50 yds, maybe, of line. But certainly capable of catching fish on the lake. The lure of choice was a small 5 of diamonds. Again, certainly ok for the lake. But it was connected to a wire leader and a bobber above the leader. She said "some man" showed them how to rig up. I thought "not a fisher-man!" Anyway straightened out the gear, taught the 9 yr old how to tie a fisherman's knot, went through their box and showed them what I would use and gave them some pointers on how to fish the lake. Also gave the mom some suggestions on some better gear. As I was leaving the oldest boy said "one just chased my spinner!" Man, I love watching kids fish!

I heard. We need to stock bigger fish apparently.

I rowed my wife around Chaparral for just over an hour to try to get her a trout on the fly rod. She hooked a nice fish right off the bat, but lost him. A few minutes later she hooks another and gets it all the way to the boat, struggling to keep up as it was running right at her. She thought she had lost it, but I assured her she hadn't. She catches up to the fish, but looses it right at the boat when she gave it some slack worrying about reeling the loop knot thru the tip top. We row around a while longer, get a couple of hits without hookups then she hits another. This guy wanted to play on surface a bit with lots of jumps and direction changes. It made a big surface move right at us, Jackie's line goes slack "darn, it came off!" while the fish is still jumping. I assured her it was still on. She gets it to the boat and it made a couple of deep sounding runs. Finally we get it to the net and below is the result. This was Jackie's first rainbow on a fly rod. Her exact words "I can see why you like this so much!" I said "next time you're rowing." We'll work on handling skills. Fish was released, but a bit traumatized from the choke hold.

Whatever he decides, just stay out of the southeast. Crappy lake communities and The Bow is just too close as it attracts all thoe unsavory fishing characters. Its also closer to the southern streams, and who wants that? NW is way nicer. Less traffic, easier commute and best of all, farthest from the water! What more could anyone want?

The post about "What sunscreen do you wear" reminded me of a story. My dad had 2 friends that he fished with his whole life, starting in elementary school. Basically, their lives were sports, fishing, and hunting. All three played football, baseball, and basketball on their High School teams, but my dad's friend Ken was the star athlete (he would tell you he was the star fisherman as well, but would get major arguments on that one). After HS, Ken went on to college and played football. After college, he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers as a wide receiver. He was the last cut during training camp. The guy the Packers kept was a receiver named Max McGee, who went on to become famous as the star of Super Bowl I. Ken went to Edmonton and played with the Eskies, I think for a couple of seasons. He came back to Texas and became a very successful businessman, who retired early and basically traveled the world hunting and fishing. Still at it today, well into his 70s. But what the hell does all that have to do with sunscreen? Well, I'll tell you. In his early 20s, Ken started to put on sun protection. Remember, this was back in the early 60s, and NOBODY, certainly not a professional football playing man, wore any type of sun protection. My father rode him about this mercilessly. I can still here the mock derision in his voice when he talked about Ken and his "salves." Dad said it would take him a few minutes every morning to put it on, and the whole time Dad and Bill (the other friend) would be on him about it. Well, all three men spent a lifetime in the sun, particularly my father and Ken. When dad was in his 60s, he still had youthful vigor, but you could tell he had spent a lifetime in the sun. Never any type of melanoma thankfully, but the old boy was certainly weather beaten. He would have said it gave him character. Ken on the other hand literally looked like a man at least 10 to 15 yrs younger. When I saw him just before my father died, it was frankly amazing. I said "they don't tease you much about your salves any more do they?" He said, "Are you kidding? Of course they do!" Anyway, if you want to stay better looking, or at least younger looking, than your friends you should wear your salves. If not for health reasons, do it for vanity!

So I know I grew up in a different place. But what did I learn from keeping fish? That they were tasty. That I could fend for myself. Pride in helping feed my family. To LOVE fishing. Much later I learned that I loved to fish whether I kept them or not. I wouldn't trade my killing past for anything. To say keeping fish is carnage? From put and take lakes? Ain't buying it. I have never fished Allen Bill. I would love to have a C&R Lake nearby. But, I truly think there is a place for Put and Take fisheries as well. Sun, this is a noble effort. But everyone, let's not get confused that C&R lakes are the only way to go. It isn't. Don't ever think that people who take fish home love this sport any less than you do. Some may, most don't.

As one who has spent far too long in the sun as well, I should probably follow your lead. But I can't bring myself to do so, though I do wear long sleeves sometimes. Funny you should mention an "inexpensive" version on a Fly Fishing website. If many of these guys could find a highly overpriced version from Patagonia or Simms, it would outsell the Safeway version 10 to 1.

I should start dropping smiley faces or winky faces in my posts so people won't take me seriously. Or maybe a disclaimer that if I seem mad or offended, I'm almost certainly not. If I'm mad or offended, you won't have to guess. My wife cautions me on this all the time. She says I just assume everyone knows I'm not serious. But I rarely am mad, or offended. I just like to argue.

Wait a minute, does hair have UPF? If not, then all you hairy bastages need to lather up.

Mike, Hmm. As I consider myself to be a hard working Albertan (ok, maybe Alberta transplant) as well, not sure what I think of poor Joe and Martha (not poking any fun at any Joe's or Martha's) not being able to get the days off. But who said I took any days off? Once when I did the early set up, I left just after work, drove down and set up, drove back home, and went to work the next day(by the way, I've only done this twice. The second time I left after work, drove to the campsite on the FTR, set up, and continued on to Montana to pick up a trailer which I brought back the next day, sans sleep, to the camping site) Now since I only live 2 hrs from my campground of choice, I have that option. Maybe not so Joe and Martha. Maybe they could pay me to do it for them? Do I have to give MikeG a royalty for thinking of this first? All kidding aside, if the province goes to internet booking, great. I'll still get the campground I want and not have to waste as many hours out of my time. My experience has shown that people willing to work to get what they want usually achieve it, and I don't mind working to get a campsite, be it internet, phone, or doing it physically. But I can almost hear the complaints now "the entire campground was full with people who booked early on the internet! Jerks!"

You might be a crazy old senile bastard, but you take nice pictures!

Happy birthday Max!

vhawk, Wasn't accusing you of accusing me of being a jerk. Just continuing the theme of the first post. I have no problem with your position. What gets lost in this a bit is the time and effort it takes to get out to the campsite early. It's not like my tent gets out there by magic. I take time that not a lot are willing to commit to make sure I get a spot when I feel I need to. And I'm also not talking about a spur of the moment "hey lets go camping" event. I go with my wife and 3 kids. Significant planning and organizing goes into this. So if a campsite gives me the option of ensuring I get a spot, I will use whatever method available for me to do that. If there is a chance I won't get a spot, I won't go there. To much work to get there and be disappointed. I do understand how this can be frustrating for someone who gets there and doesn't find anyplace available. While I sympathize, my response would be to plan better. I know this analogy has holes, but I do liken this somewhat to the "someone is in my hole" debate that pops up from time to time. While this happens to me occasionally, I must say it doesn't happen often. That's because if it is a spot I really want to fish, I can almost promise I will be there before anyone else. Or I'll walk farther to get to a spot than most (certainly not further than all). If someone happens to be there, all I can do is tip my hat to their commitment and move on. Doesn't happen often though. About as often as not getting a campsite I want.

Congrats Hydro, you water poacher you!