Glenbow

Cool stuff. I remember buying fishing stuff at Woodwards when I was young & salmon fishing in Vancouver. Kinda miss that store.

All this time I thought it was a Squasnatch. Guess I was wrong on the spelling. Same description as a Sasquatch though.

Glen Ord & Oban are good.

You might also start finally catching 3 eyed fish. Good on ya Birchy, life's too short to deal with knobs.

Wicked rainbow, way to go man!

Happy B-day Dave.

I have to add that I am pleased & grateful for each time I got to fish with a board member. For me, I was lucky enough to fish with: Lone Fisher GGP Bobloblaw Missinthebow Hawgstoppah Max LK2 McLennan Beadhead Toolman Mditel Hydropsyche Rickr Rocknbugs Troutlover Brownstone Ladystrange Zuggbugg and I'm sure that my memory has failed me in a few others, and if I have forgotten, please forgive me - the privilege is mine.

Gary, Terribly sorry for your loss - what a great memoir you have of your time together. Without doubt, 2007 will be for me the year I got to live a dream - to get to New Zealand and fly fish 1/2 way across the world for huge brown trout............and then to land some. I'll never forget this big boy. And, the best birthday I ever had, in the best company I could ask for. A dozen fish just like this, with a great fishing buddy/friend to boot

Great news Don, thank-you for your efforts and hard work in furthering the fishery here in Alberta. It is much appreciated.

I personally think that we all have our own views on the subject, and we are all correct for ourselves. I don't mind sharing info or taking someone along to some new water for them to give them a fast-track in fishing some new water. That being said, I don't share everything either. I feel that it's my own personal preference to 'give back' as others have helped me & shared with me. Toolman makes a good point in suggesting the 'Get Togethers' section as a lot can be learned and new friends made through that. I'm glad to see the views expressed in this thread and that it has remained a friendly thread. This is a helluva community, this board. I am grateful that it is here for us all to enjoy and hopefully contribute to.

Sweet display, very original and personal. Love it.

Don, I can hook you up with some amazing Devlin specials that'll seem like a bargain compared to that!

Holy Smokes, there's a lot of amazing photos on here - you guys take amazing pics & catch some awesome fish! Some day I'll catch some fish like those.......some day.

Haaaawwwwgg. Nice Pike.

I understand it's good for snapper.

I suppose it might be 'how' & 'when' you use it, more than the size?

Good to hear Bhurt, congrats. It is a fun new dimension to flyfishing and I cannot say enough good about it. I'm stoked you dig your new stick. For a really good reel for not too much $$ I'd highly recommend the Pfleuger Summit or Trion in the 9-10 size. Very afforddable and not expensive ($80-$120). I have both & love both. The Trion is a mid-arbor and the Summit is a large-arbor.

Hey Pipes, Good to hear from you. Happy New Year to one and all, and may this be the best year of fishing for everyone yet. Hang in there Pipes, spring and happy times are coming! Thanks for the cautionary advice & for checking in. Take care.

Here's a pattern I stumbled across while in New Zealand - it's said to work like nothing else. I'm curious to see if it works as well here......

Go for Golden's, and do a heli-trip.

I had a chance to head into Australia's Great Dividing Range of mountains and fished the Oven's river and the West Kiewa river. The scenery is amazing and the cicadas in the trees are absolutely deafening! I was very cautious of snakes as they are deadly poisonous and also live in the tall grass and near the river's edge (which is exactly where I was) and I was scared silly of these things. The Tiger snake is supposed to be a very aggressive snake and is fairly common in the area. I was lucky to never have spotted any snakes at all. Here's the Oven's river. I saw 2 trout, landed one This is the West Kiewa river, upstream of Mount Beauty. It had lots of little, colourful rainbows in it that readily took nymphs.

Wanna get some gold in them thar hills...........

Here's a few more shots from Tasmania - some cool things to see there & I'd definitely go back. The first couple of pics are from the 19 Lagoons area in the western highlands - I went but could not fish it without waders that day, and the wind & rain were too much. It was Crowsnest windy straight in the face there, & it is a sight-fishing place so the day I went was a bust, but here are a few pics of some of the area. A picture of Great Lake from the hotel bar Some big boys on the wall in the bar: Some of the Tassie Locals:

I managed to squeeze in a couple of days of fishing in Tasmania before coming home. It was a bit daunting with not much direction, but a few magazine articles helped. I headed off from Hobart into the Central Highlands area for some Tassie lake fishing. I scoped out a couple of lakes and decided to try my luck at Arthur Lake. I rigged-up a 3 fly combo and went to work. After a bit of time & very little action I started turning over rocks to see what was on the menu. I noticed a large amount of small green scuds under the rocks, so I immediately tied on a green scud on the bottom of the rig (3rd fly) and started working the weed bed around 10ft down. As luck would have it, I got into a few browns almost right away! I had only about 1.5 hours of fishing before the torrential rain & howling wind took over & I left with 3 browns to hand, and a complete soaker. After stopping in at the local gas station/convenience store (that's all there is out there), I was asking about the fishing of late in the area to which the guy replied 'terrible - nobody's been catching more than 1 for the last week'. I could hardly believe it! I somehow managed to out-fish damn near everyone that had stopped in to that store in the last week in only an hour and 1/2! I felt really good about that, that I managed to find my way up to some water & get into a few fish and actually end up doing quite well all things considered. I have no doubt that it was mostly dumb luck, I just felt lucky to have both the dumb & the luck with me that day. The place I am fishing I saw a platypus swim by and my jaw almost fell off, it is such a rare thing to see. Too bad we hadn't got the camera ready in time as he dived away when he saw us but I guess I got the memory of it. There are some monster fish in Tassie as you will see from some pics that I saw at the local hotel bar.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a tight line. Great to meet so many of you this year & I look forward to meeting more of you. Looking forward to fishing with many of my friends from this board in the new year. Happy Holidays! Glen