DutchDryfly

I wish. On a more serious note, lately I have not been posting much. Not only on the Canadian boards but also on the Dutch boards. It seems that the last months there are more posts about trashing eachother then it is about fishing. As I stated on a Dutch board, get the hell away from the computer and go fishing. Then come back and post a report. If you want to spent all day behind a computer, subscribe to a computerboard. This board is about FISHING. I read the post what started all this and I did no liked what I saw. Why did I not agree, you ask? Well, a long time ago I made up my mind and decided not to fish for a species which is spawning. For example I will never fish for salmon. I even stop fishing for pike in february when the season is still open but reports are coming in that spawning fish are caught. So I could have reacted, but I can not make my opinions be the guidelines for everybody. As I have not met anyone yet on the board, except may be if one of you is a salesman at a Ford-dealer in Calgary, I have to get to know you by reading posts. As I read Glenbows posts over the years, I know he is not a newbie and also play by the rules. So I made the decision a lot of others should have made, namely to not react. Most people on this board know how to fish and what the rules are, they don't need comments from another member. Hopefully all calms down and you can expect yet another report from Austria. As it turns out a friend of mine has ended his relationship and to feel better he wants a week of fishing. So I will sacrifice a week and will be fishing and drinking together with him starting tommorow. Rob

WTF, all this time you had me believing I was a member of the "CORE" . Are you serious??????

I noticed you met Randy (Floon). Did he tell you about his 40 inch trout? Don't believe anything he tells you, he is part Dutch.

Thanks for explaining this, Taeke. First time I visited I was told that seeing a bear would not happen too often and my chance of seeing one when visiting three weeks would be zero. Well, I guess they never have dealt with a flyfisher, because on all my visits I encountered bears. At least four every visit, but I never got in trouble. I just leave the area when a bear shows up and make lots of noise when travelling in the woods.

Taeke, Could you explain to an ingnorant city-tourist why everybody talks about fighting off the bear, where every manual given to tourists in the NP's are stating that if being attacked by a bear the best option is play dead? Rob (no bears exists over here)

Danielsson all the way. I have the Original Midge, Original Dry Fly for the smaller lines and the FW for heavy lines and light speyduty .

Tako, This is by far the biggest BS I have ever read. For nymphing the best rod is the longest rod. Go ask anyone who has competed in a championship and you will see rods up to 12 feet are used, even on small creeks. Braking a rod is not that difficult, if you pull in the wrong manner every rod will brake including Sage, T&T and all other so called big league brands. So next time your fly is stuck, give the rod to your buddy and see how quickly he can brake a Sage. Rods do not catch fish, the flyfisher is. I have never seen a fish check out the label on my rod before hitting my fly. Birchy If you want a rod for dry flies, you will love the delicate presentation of the Finesse. As for distance, it will deliver the fly easily over 60 feet, if you want and are able to cast in a decent way. But I would not suggest to use it for high-sticking as the action of the rod is not designed for casting heavy nymphs. The best advice is already given, go check out as many rods as you can and do not look at brands but go with the feel.

As there are a lot of folks on this board who enjoy beautiful pictures, I feel I have to share this website. It is from a member on a Dutch flyfishing board, where once in a while he amazes everybody wit his pics. Enjoy : http://www.pbase.com/kiburg/ijsvogels

John, In terms of disturbing the riverbed I am actually not implying the flies are, but the feet of the angler. As you know, you fish a short line and after one or two drifts, you should take one step upstream and do another drift or two. This causes a lot of disturbance, much more then fishing longer lines where you present your flies at different lengths. With longlining you can fish up to 15 meters and then move on. So this will have less impact. As for the big hooks, I also fish with size 8 and 6 for te CN, but will move on after catching two "normal" sized fish. I have had to many small fish that were damaged to completely fish a spot empty. Note that this not only occuring during CN, I also noticed that this occured when fishing last summer in Norway with a light spey for trout. I could not get the small trout to leave my speyflies (size 6) alone, which resulted in a few trout having to be put out of their misery. I changed to a size 10 and the problem was solved. I hope your clinic goes well, as CN, SN and PN are great tools when you are in desperate need of catching fish. Needless to say I can not attend, unless you want to give your clinic in Europe.

John, I think it is great for flyfishermen to learn new skills. So please understand this is not directed against you personally. As I said before, I use those methods myself, but am also aware of the negative impact it can have. That is why I asked if you also plan on explaining those, because if someone is aware of the damage they can do, they can take measures to have the littlest impact and still enjoy the fishing. One of the major impacts is the disturbance of the riverbed. As CN is all about systematicaly fishing every inch of the river, an angler will have a huge impact on the riverbed. Which is why those methods are more and more forbidden to use on streams across Europe. This can be solved to fish only small stretches. Another issue is that you catch every fish that is holding in that particular spot. I agree barbless is the way to fish, but to get deep the hooks used are often big to hold enough lead. This in turn will damage small fish, as the hooks will penetrate eyes and even skulls of the small fish. This can be prevented by using smaller hooks and using tungsten instead of lead as weight and stop fishing that particular spot when you start catching smaller fish. So please take the time in your clinic to point out that CN, PN and SN can be very effective, but they can also have a negative impact. Rob

Greg, I will, but later this week. Just got a call that my uncle past away today. Rob

Are you also planning to go into the negative impact this type of fishing has on the river and the fishstock? Don't get me wrong, I also use those methods but I am wondering why you need those in Alberta? It works fine when fishing a river where the fish are educated, like Belgium and French waters, but I do not see why you need it in Alberta.

If fishing dry flies grease your leader completely. You want your leader to float in the same currents as the fly, if you do not grease te last portion of the leader this will affect the behavior of the fly. If fishing nymphs you do not need a leader, just a piece of mono or fluo. You can grease depending on how deep you want to fish the nymphs. Indicator should always be on the downstream side of the nymphs, oterwise there is to much slack between nymphs and indicator and you are missing a lot of takes. I always make sure the knot is in front of the fly so the fly will drift naturally. I cast the flies to the spot I want them to be and then mend the line so the indicator is downstream of the flies. I fish the flies and not the indicator, the indicator is just there for help.

The shirt is definetly better than his tying skills.

No picture but how about a 2 inch brown on a size 10 dry? Happened in Norway and had to look twice to find the little guy. Thought I had hooked some weed when retrieving to start casting upstream again.

Thanks guys, I will forward your recommendations. I also got a reply from TFO and they said use the Outbound #10 for overhead or any speyline between 425 up to 500 grains. An AFS 7/8 comes in at 460 grains so that should work. Max, I know this extension was made for Surf Casting but it is possible, actually it is quite easy, to use it with a Scandi line. And before spending too much on something he does not like, the conversion will work. I tried it with my Elixir, I totally agree with you that this is one fine line, but at 295 grains it was too light. I can get it out and at reasonable distances but there is no feel of loading. Rob PS: For the next 4 weeks you will not hear me, as I am off to Norway and Sweden to do some fishing. And yes, I will use the Gary Anderson 1193-5 and post a tripreport when I am back.

Well after seeing me use the DH rod in Austria, a friend wants to try this DH stuff also. Before investing in a new rod, he bought the conversion kit for the TFO TICRX 7-weight he already owns. Only problem now is that we have no clue what scandi line this rod would handle. I am guessing something in the 400 grains but am not sure. So if you have an idea of grain weight or recommendation for a line please feel free to post. And yes, I tried search google first but no luck for Scandi lines. All that is talked about for this rod are Skagit lines. Rob

For on top big klinkhammers all the way up to size 6 and if they are fussy use small #22-24 black cdc flies. Try when you are there also some muddlers and clouser minnows. You will be surprised how big of a fly a grayling will take.

Unfortunately I am in Scandinavia at that time, otherwise I would have be willing to help if you sent the ticket. But if you can get the plane-ticket to me before July 5, I will cancel my trip and lent you a hand. In order to not let the costs go out of control, I will catch my own food.

Hallo Hafi, Ik zie dat je niet alleen op het prikbord zit en een mooie reis tegemoet kan zien. Rob

Most anglers, including myself, suddenly develop this behavior when fishing in Germany. Don't know why, but for some reason I seem to loose all my fish right in front of my feet.

The first and, until now, only country where you have to kill your catch is Germany. Not on all waters but on most waters. As for the Swiss, they have very limited access to fishable water in their own country. Most Swiss will fish fish in Austria, Slovenia Croatia and the Czech Republic. As for sustaining a kill only fishery, almost every month trout are stocked in those rivers. As for catching your limit, this is implemented on most European waters. Stop when you caught and killed your limit. But you can fish C&R all day long without having to count the fish.

Just one, OPEN loops!

That is also the only BWO I carry with one adjustment. I use natural colored biot with a layer of olive tying thread beneath. Once the biot gets wet it will get translucent. Rob

Well I got the rod yesterday and gave it a try. After looking at lots of different DVD's (Rio, Henrik Mortenson and Spey to Z) the transition to DH was not that difficult, just had to slow it down a lot. I have the Switch cast pretty much under control, placing the anchor where I want and getting the line out to 75 feet. So the next step will be the single spey, then the double. After that it will be the weak side that needs a lot of attention, as I am not used to use the left hand on my SH other then for double hauling. Fortunately I ran into a bargain for the right reel with spare spool on a clubday that matches the rod perfectly. Got a hold of the Vision Extreme 7/9 which not only has the perfect weight but also the color as the reelseat.