Taco

Na, better idear, build a fence 3 k on either side of # 3, across the valley @ Lundbreck and again across @ the summit. Keep all them born again Crowsnesters under control, oncet ya step inside the zone ya can't come out.

Thought I found a good down sleeping bag on a big flat rock in the middle of the Spray river one time but when I got closer I realized there was something stacked 2 deep in the bag and doin' an enthusiastic impersonation of an inch worm.... caught 3 nice brookies off the lee side of that rock

because I have zero imagination

Yeah I need a place to sleep once silly season over and I get to go fishin'

Oh like the last four posts were dead on topic. Shrunk it, it was rather overwhelming, didn't wanna piss off the bamboo guys too much

That's what I are, the old fart edition Mike Rowe of the rural Albertans undereducated set

you're correct about the VPS also the GFL RPL shares the same blank as the old RPL, someone correct if I'm wrong

not all line bred CSers just moved out from Ontario

nah we save that for friday nights down to the local 'tonk

I suppose for retaliation for all the alberta redneck cracks around this place but then again my Raph Kleinish attitude may have something to do with the fact I had 4 Calgary Housing Authority administered subsidized housing units across the street from me, partying, workin the system, dealin a little wacky and all the vehicles have or had Ontario plates

The stock for Ram fish came outta the Elk system I heard from a very reliable source, make you wonder how pure the Elk fish are. National Parks experimented quite a bit with Yellowstones @ one time. Yellowstone genetics in the Castle wouldn't surprise me but they have been testing pure higher up the system. I know of one little ck in the Porkies that look part Yellowstone to me because of spotting pattern. I directed a testing crew that way but haven't heard how they tested.

Why natives over introduced? Like Keith said, they evolved here under local conditions of sudden flood, extended drought and long brutal winters. They're tough bastards if they ain't being out competed. From rainbow competition it looks like the cutts can hide behind a temperature barrier, cutts typically like colder water than the rainbows but with brookies no such barrier exists and they aggressively breed with virtually no competition until the entire ecological niche is filled with stunted brook trout. Much the same as yellow perch when they have a decent feed source and no competition. You mentioned whitetailed deer, whitetails followed agriculture west and pretty much thrived but they still use eastern winter survival tactics. The winter of 2002-3 (I believe??) was a bad one in Southern Saskatchewan , long and cold. The area around Val Marie had a large population of deer, about 70/30% whitetail to mule deer. When it got bad the deer did what deer evolved to do to survive. The whitetails yarded up in sheltered area like they do in the east and the native muleys disappeared into the windswept areas. It was ugly, starving dying deer everywhere there was shelter, 3-400 hd dead right in the village of Val Marie itself. When it finally breaks in the spring SERM (Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management) does an assessment and they estimate that 96% of the whitetails and 60% of the mule deer died that brutal winter. Sorry guy but as much as I liked huntin' wiley whitey or fishin' for bows with their aerial displays I'll take native over introduced, they have evolved the tactics to survive out west

Spray it on with pump type spray bottle

I'll say this for them, they manned up.

The best reason in the world to start carrying one of these again

And so it starts..... unlimited brookie harvest and some Provincial enforcement would be nice too. Last time I caught a cutt in the upper reaches of Cataract was in 2000.

coffee grinder

Only 2 things in the world that farmers and ranchers swerve to hit... gophers and lawyers, lawyers they'll chase down into the ditch.... OH!! and maybe real estate agents

Yeah I caught that but there other Alberta anomalies. In Trout and Salmon he writes that the classic spotting pattern on the westslope cutts is consistent throughout their traditional ranges and can be used as a identity marker but now it seems that maybe not quite true, at least in Alberta. Some recent and ongoing DNA studies on Alberta cutts have found that the heavily spotted cutts that most of us assumed to be not 100% westslope are if fact genetically pure. We have some unique native fish in Alberta worthy of special protection

Yep, good stuff So Big Boy, do you actually have a job? One would think in these tough economic times it would be nose to the grindstone keep below the radar time......

unique yes but Behnke also groups them with the Fraser river red bands which are Columbia river basin red band

Well well well, white trash ontario maroons

Beauty

Beg to differ a bit Maxxer, Athabow is a strain of columbia river basin red band. Edit; I wished McNeilly had made the transition from the old FFA to here. He's the true authority on Alberta's cold water fish. I on the other hand, only know enough to be effin' dangerous