OneMoreLastCast

Good point Rick. Not to mention. Unless you are catching Cutthroat or Bull Trout, you are catching stocked fish, or descendants of stocked fish here in Alberta. Although it is a little fun to poke at them a bit, don't ya think.... If I had pictures of myself holding a fish like that one, people could bash me all they want. It's like the old saying goes...."Look at the score board".

I thought some might be interested in seeing some pictures from a couple of the Oil Plants in the Fort McMurray area. These two plants are fairly new, so there aren't many pictures available of them. The plants like Suncor and Syncrude are easy to find pictures online of them. Also, these pictures were taken from inside the plant. Cameras aren't allowed on these sites, so I risked my job to bring these pictures to you...lol. The first pictures are from Albian Sands, it's North of Fort Mac and the second pictures are from Opti/Nexen at Long Lake, which is South of Town. Albian Sands is the Plant that blew up a few years ago, right at the end of the construction. It was before they even started producing product. Opti/Nexen is at about 85% complete and expect to be producing 6 months ago.....Maybe November if they are lucky. The pictures from Opti aren't as good because I was too lazy to climb up to take the pictures, sorry. You would have to put 10 of each of these plants together just to make one Suncor or Syncrude. Those two are Huge and CNRL Horizon is going to be bigger than both. This is where the money is coming from.... Albian Sands Opti/Nexen-Long Lake

It took a little longer than I said, but here is a picture of the fly I mentioned. Works well for steelhead and I've heard it works for Bones and other Salt water fish as well. I didn't have any tied, so I tied this one up using my travel tying kit and some survey tape I found yesterday.

I don't know, the last few I've caught that big put up pretty good fights. Then again, I was using a 5 wt..... Seriously, it couldn't have been in that bad a shape as I see it. It most likely got that big eating some sort of bait fish like shiners, so it would have to chase most of its food. It could also just scavenge off the bottome too I guess. Also, you can see a big spoon hanging out of its mouth in the pictures, so it would have had to be fairly fast to catch up to the spoon I imagine. I'd love to hear the story of the fight just the same. Does anyone else get the impression that those twin's parents were related before they married? You have to give them credit anyways. Apparently, these two consistently get into these Hawgs.

You're not kidding....I still can't figure out how your waders got so full of water that day. I don't remember seeing you in past your ankles I will throw in my two cents and it goes against the norm some would say. First off I'll start by saying that sometimes if a fish is going to run, it's going to run. A Rainbow can take 100 feet of line in the blink of an eye, so sometimes, there is nothing you can do....but pray. I agree that you want to keep tension on the fish as much as possible, but there are times when you can try something different. If the fish takes off, in a case like I mention above, rather than pray, remove as much tension as possible, fast, for a bit. I learned this from a Steelhead guide that uses it. Being that our Bow Rainbows are actually Steelhead, in case you didn't know that, it actually works I've found. You will most likely lose the fish anyway if it continues to run, so why not try it I always figure when in that position. More often than not, the fish either stops running, or turns back up stream. I think it confuses it. I've also seen where giving the fish this slack will cause it to "Jolt" into the hook when the line tightens up again. Again, I think this confuses it. Another technique I learned while Steelheading was to "Throw an S at the fish". Keeping the tension on the line, you bring the rod hard to the right and then quickly and hard to the left. It sets the fish off balance and allows you to "Catch" up to it. I've used it on the Bow with success, and I saw it work on a number of 20+ lb Steelies too. Remember that fish have a brain the size of a peanut. They are not above tearing their mouths apart to get free, just like an animal stuck in a trap and chewing its leg off.

If I was with the guy who just released the "New" world record, I'd wait and then hook it again immediately just to steal his thunder. Then he would only be the "Co-owner" of the World Record.... Then I would "Bonk" it and have a big barbecue to celebrate "My" new Celebrity.

I agree. That big Rainbow from Diefenbaker isn't the prettiest fish, but I wouldn't complain if I caught it. I think I would need a bigger net though...

I was just looking at that. Browns and Brookies. I also noticed that the two other lakes/res.,down by Bullshead, Cavan and Michel got stocked too, and got stocked in 05 and 06. Are they as good as the Bullshead? I've never heard anyone mention them. Maybe Bloom knows and is keeping it a secret....

I just thought I would let people know that the Alberta Stocking Report was updated on June 6th. Here's the link: http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fishwildlife/fish...shstocking.aspx Might open some options while the rivers are high.

I should have known better when I started, that something was up. I was telling Max how I got into guiding and he thought it was funny. I was "Tricked" into it. Long story short, I went into a particular shop I frequented and the owner asked me if I wanted to make an easy couple hundred bucks. Being a Fish/Ski bum, I jumped at it....All I had to do was take these two nice American Fellas and get them into some fish. To be honest, I really didn't even know I was "Guiding" at the time. I was just helping out some nice people that didn't know the area. It snowballed from there to where I was guiding on at least 5 different rivers/streams and hadn't picked up my own rod for so long I couldn't remember. I loved telling people that I was a "Guide" though at the time, but man was that a hard way to barely break the poverty line. Only took me a couple of seasons to decide it wasn't for me, oh and my wife telling me she was pregnant helped too. Don't get me wrong, I had some great times doing it and met some great people as well. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Actually, Pronger told Lowe when he arrived at the start of the season that he would give the Oilers one season and would then like to move onto somewhere else. So Lowe had the entire year to do something about it, but left it to the last minute....Kind of like he did with Smyth. You can hate him, but you have to respect his game. Hell, I know a lot of "Regular" people that want to move out of Edmonton too, but you don't see that in the paper.....lol. I would respect Selanne a lot if he did retire, but it would be a shame to see a guy that just scored 48 goals last season leave the game. Not many leave while they are at the top of their game, so good on him if he does. The Ducks proved that they are a great team. They lost arguably their best D Man two times in the playoffs and won both games. You could take out any one player from the line up, Niedermeyer's, Pronger, Selanne, Macdonald, etc. and the team is still good enough to beat most teams. You take out just about any other teams one top player and they are in trouble. It's been a long time that I agreed 100% with the Conn Smythe winner, but this year I think they got it right. No question he deserved it IMO. BTW, all of their Marque players are under contract for next year, so being that they can ice the same team and have a chance at back to back....I can't see any of their players leaving. Like I said, they've raised the bar for all the other teams in the league.

How true is this. I forgot more about fishing while guiding than I learned personally. I have a lot of respect for someone that guides, don't get me wrong, It's a Hard way to make a Living. I stopped guiding because I enjoy fishing too much and wanted to do so. I was tired of telling stories, while rowing the boat, while untangling knots, while answering strange questions about non-relevant things, while constantly proving I'm qualified to these people, while DUCKING to avoid losing my teeth or eyes, while......well you get the picture. I basically turned from a Fisherman, to an oarsman. I think this has something to do with all the guides using the same methods. After awhile, you are forced to lose your creativity and resort to "What-ever-works" to get people into fish. I have a lot of respect for someone like Max that still takes a lot of time for himself on the river. I hope He can continue to do so. Don't let the greed or more likely, bills, force you to give up fishing for yourself, to resign to rowing a boat for others every day. I don't mean to offend anyone with this, just saying what I found from my own experience......wait, there's no Karma points on the new board, what do I care.

Wow. I'm speechless.....and that doesn't happen too often.

I'm glad I lifted my ban on watching the playoffs because of the officiating, to see this series. It was great hockey regardless of who you were cheering for. I'm pretty sure there were more roughing, elbowing, boarding, etc. calls, than Hooking and Tripping calls, which is how it should be IMO. As far as the American teams winning the cup, it's simple math. 30 teams - 6 Canadian & 24 American means a 4 to 1 chance an American team is going to win. We're only two years into the new CBA and everything will even out eventually. The way I see it, the Flames should have a good chance to win the Cup every 4 to 6 years. Also, you can thank Mr. Lowe for the helping the Ducks win it. Trading Pronger to a Conference Rival that was already on the brink of winning the Cup was unbelievable. I'm still surprised he didn't move Smyth there at the deadline as well. He must have figured they had it wrapped up as they were. It's scary to think that the Ducks might ice the same team for a couple more years too. Raising the bar I'd say... Congrats Doc Now you can put the "Quack Pipe" down and get back to catching some fish!

You are exactly the type of person that should be sharing their knowledge. Your statement backs up my Journeyman learning from the Apprentice theory. The apprentice can show the wise old journeyman some of the "New" ways of doing things, etc., but the Journeyman has the wisdom and experience that the apprentice can only learn "On the job". I, like you, basically stopped trying to keep up with technology awhile back and figured out long ago that it is the fisherman that "catches" the fish, not necessarily the hi-tech equipment they are using. I look forward to adding some of your knowledge to my Bank.

Hey Rick, hopefully we get another day on the river together to work on your problem soon. Fighting fish is something you can read about, have people write on a forum what to do or even discuss in person what to do, but in reality, the best way to learn is to have someone beside you "Shouting" out what to do. Also, as we discovered that day on the Bow a couple of weeks ago, fish can change their feeding habits over night. One day they are taking the fly hard and the next, they are gently "lipping" the fly, making the take more subtle. With the water visibility getting lower and lower, good hooks sets will follow proportionally. The basic advice given above is great and should be followed, but nothing compares to having someone right there to give the advice during an actual "Fight". Not to mention, every fish species fights differently. Wait until you hook into a big Bull Trout that swims back into the "School" on the bottom and just sits there, as if to say "is that all you've got?", only to finally decide he's done playing with you and turns his head to spit your hook. Sometimes you just have to accept that you can't catch them all and enjoy the fight while it lasts, frustrating or not.

I agree that the "Pros" are the people that can answer the particular question being asked. This might be someone that just picked up a fly rod last week, but either knows the answer, or has their own opinion to express. It could also be someone that has been Fly Fishing for 60 years. While fishing with Toolman last week, (who BTW is very qualified to be called a "Pro"), I told him that I learn a lot from someone that is new to the sport sometimes because they are at the "Learning" stage and are constantly researching, where someone that has been around the sport as long as I have might get complacent. It's like the Journeyman learning from the apprentice that just finished school. As for credentials for the veterans on this site. From the ones I know, they are more than qualified to answer most questions thrown out there. I personally enjoy helping people new to this great sport. I have 30+ years of experience with a fly rod in hand, and information was hard to come by in the time I was learning. So, if I can contribute what I've learned from others over the years, or from trial and error, I'm more than happy to do so. I wouldn't consider myself a "Pro", but with the amount of time I have invested in this, I have gained a vast amount of knowledge that I am more than happy to pass on. I've been lucky enough to have fished with some unbelievable people in my lifetime and gone on some amazing trips. I've caught just about every type of fish in Western North America on a fly rod and hope that everyone out there gets a chance to do the same. I think it is great that there are places like this, with sections like "Ask the Pros" around for the new and Experienced to share what they know. For example; Rickr is new to the sport and got the chance to catch his first "Red" on a fly rod. This is something I may never do, but I can live vicariously through his stories. Also, if I ever do get a chance to do it, I can use his experience to aid me in catching some myself. Rick has less than a year of fly fishing under his belt, but already has an experience to share that most of us don't. So, who are the "Pros"? I'd say it might be everyone here depending on the question or topic.

Very nice. How many "Sessions" does each fly take you to tie? Do you have any Stone Flies by chance. I'd love to see them if you do.

That was me with a bunch of Newbie Fly Fishermen. I was pointing out Toolman's secret spots.... I do it in groups of 10, 3 times a day.

I hear you. Once you get back to town, You don't feel like fighting the 24 hour a day traffic to get back to the water. I would most likely hit the creeks between Long lake and Conoco Sumount on my drive to and from sites. I always intend to hit a creek or two, but never do. Maybe this time. So I take it you're on the Nexen side of things at Long Lake? I am working with Opti on the Commissioning and Start up as of this week. Not a big fan of the way they run things, but I'm a money pig.

Congrats Doc. I will say that you have supported them from the beginning, so a little gloating will be in order. Hopefully you at least made a little cash out of the deal. Do you think the Ducks are hoping Pronger keeps the Elbows flying? They're 2 - 0 in the games he's had to sit out due to suspensions. Enjoy it while you can....I see a lot of Grey hair in those Playoff Beards on the Ducks.

If I do get out, I'll let you know how I did. I'll be fishing somewhere along the 881 and have done alright in the past. I just don't get much out of catching Grayling. Been there, done that. It's a toss up between fishing to feed the addiction, or tying flies in my hotel room for when I get down south. Where you working? I'll be at Opti on Thursday morning for a few days and then off to a few other plants unless I can send someone else in my place so I can go fishing. I'm leaning towards option B....

Fished both a number of times, but it's been a few years. Both were a lot of fun and they pretty much fished like the Bow as far as Patterns and Techniques. A little more crowded than our rivers, but it was still a great experience each time. I love new water. Looking forward to the reports.

Well I might just have to take a shot at some Grayling while up in Fort Mac for the next 2 weeks. I'm hoping to cut my stay short and get back down south, but if I can get into some fish, My stay might not be so bad. How have the other streams been barnes?

You can never go wrong with Caddis Pupa of course. I tie mine with tan bodies and Claret heads instead of the standard Greens and they seem to work. Spent Caddis and various Cripple Mayflies are very effective as well. They also allow some variance in your tying. A simple, but deadly fly in the past on the Bow and the other rivers in Southern Alberta is the "Bird's Nest". I tie these in Tan, Brown, Green and Black of various sizes. Some with bead heads, some without. Very easy and effective pattern. As some that have fished with me will attest, I like my Stones. I believe it is never wasted time at the bench if you are tying, or experimenting with Stone Fly patterns....Nymphs, Emerging or Adult Stones.