clarki

if your sturgeon was 45-50 inches then you are defintitely looking at a 30 pound fish probably more like 35 would be my educated guess. my biggest so far this year is a 52 incher! got totally dominated by a couple others too that would have pushed the 55-60 inch club which would put it at or near 40-50 pounds. sturgeon, what a fish!!! M

"The bait in Carseland has no realistic 'other' purpose being sold there, since the only water around is the Bow" so what if a carseland resident wants to head out to travers or macgregor or crawling valley to jig some eyes using minnows? where does he go to get bait. i find your statement to be very narrow minded, there's more to fishing than the bow river and its trout and bait has a place in fishing, just not on the bow. carseland has other fishing opportunities near by other than your almighty bow river. "Sure, its the ignorant, almost illiterate, person who can barely speak English, who's to blame for his bait using" WTF?? M M

i know we have black capped terns as well as black terns and those gulls are ring billed and if they have a little red on their bills they would be california gulls. @ inglewood you can often see many varieties of gulls on the gravel bars in the middle of the river. bonaparte gulls and franklins gulls etc.... M

wow that was awesome while it lasted. really a volatile situation there. glad i got to see it before it was removed. LOL hilarious pic but in brutal taste and poor judgment. well said hawgstoppah!! M

"TEC": Trendy Equipment Cult. what I like to call it even though i shop there. M

i think you answered your own question. mostly fall spawning species up there, brookies, browns, bulls, rockies. M

lmao thats awesome clive!!!

my story sounds like dryflys, born in Wales, moved to calgary when i was 8. lived there till i was 30 then moved to lethbridge. this is where i feel i belong. i absolutley love southern alberta and the prairies. lethbridge is the fishing capital of alberta, surrounded by great reservoirs full of many species of gamefish as well as only an hour from the pass and even closer to some other great streams. Lethbridge is the place for me. M

Ha Ha you guys believe in sasquatch!! LMAO! M

"Black horse in a snowstorm = a "WTF is that" man are you sure it wasnt sasquatch? M

another thing to keep in mind is the time of year you are fishing these streams. earlier in the season bigger fish will be farther upstream closer to spawning areas or tribs and then will drop back as the season progresses. also it is said that over time as fish grow bigger they usually move downstream to bigger, more nutrient rich waters. trailhead: if you release all the 6 inch fish then they are competeing wiht each other for resources and therefore wont grow at the same rate as they would if there was less competition, if you remove a few then there will be more resources for the fish that are still there and not in the fry pan, which should lead to fewer but larger fish. i like this thread, makes a guy think about stuff a bit eh?? M

ha jeffro youre so right on about the doctor comment. he was visibly pissed at me after i told him i went hunting. anyway i am planning on heading to you know where starting mid february after settling in from moving into a new place next week. i'll drop you a pm when that time comes and we'll try for a limit and maybe get some 'eyes too! and thanks to everyone for their comments on my pike. later M

well after many months of not being able to go fishing due to back surgery, I got out on the ice for a couple of hours to see how my back would hold up and also to shake the cobwebs off and get back out doing the things I love to do... well after a couple of small pike came up the hole the 3rd hook up felt much heavier than the others and it started barfing out line, a few minutes later we had a huge head looking up the hole at us and after gently getting a good hold of the toothy critter, out she came!! what a hog! my biggest pike so far!! enjoy! later M

that truck has been in the driveway across the street 3 times over the last week but I know the driver does not live there. that thing is hilarious. later M

my season was shortened due to major back surgery but this calender year was still very productive.... only rivers fished were the crow and the oldman. lakes included travers, sherburne, jensens, nicholas sheran and police species landed: perch sturgeon pike walleye rainbows browns cutts brookies shorthead redhorse burbot lake whitefish rocky mtn whitefish white sucker bull trout best day would have been jigging 'eyes at travers or through the ice at sherburne for perch and 'eyes had a 5 species afternoon at a lake biggest fish was a 54 inch sturgeon also a 27 inch brown 22 inch brookie 26 inch walleye 23 inch bull most memorable moment would be hooking, battling and landing the 54 inch sturgeon by myself! for me it was a shortened season but still very productive. my back is recovering and i will be out with a vengeance come march on the crow which will be followed by april on the oldman an then may to mid-june will be sturgeon which is immediately followed by june and july spent at travers and then back to the streams in august through september and october which brings me to hunting season followed by the hardwater season for perch and walleyes!! M

thanks for the offer Bloom but im actually in Lethbridge. i was referred to a surgeon in the hat rather than wait longer for one in calgary. no spine surgeons in Lethbridge.... later M

hey guys and gals. I recently had back surgery involving the removal of the disc between my L3 and L4 vertebrae, which was replaced by a bone graft and then had 4 screws inserted to hold it all together so the bones can fuse together. i also had 2 fractures on my L5 fixed with a type of bone cement.... so my question is... has anybody on the site had this fusion surgery and how is the quality of life for you now?? are you fishing again with no worries or is there lingering stuff that I can expect to always have bothering me etc.?? anybody hunting after this type of procedure? I havent fished for over 7 weeks now and i am going crazy (naturally). as well, i am going to miss the entire hunting season and i still have a couple more months before the bones fuse and i can start doing normal activities. ive sworn off ice fishing for the season and plan on fishing again in march (crow) or april (oldman). so anybody with any info regarding this i would appreciate some insight. as a side note i feel compelled to inform everyone of the incredible care i received while at the medicine hat hospital. everyone was so professional and compassionate. a huge thank you to them all and especially to Dr. Riaz. i even had a nurse show me vids of a big pronghorn buck he video'd one evening on his way home after we had chatted about hunting and fishing etc. talk about your bedside care and attention!! later M ps. i am fishing vicariously through the members of this forum for the next few months. keep up the good reports all of you! later

is it unlawful to cross a river in your vehicle? just wondering. later M

i wonder if the frost and all the condensation on the veg this morning does anything to lessen the risk of fires?? im not even concerned about the fishing, im worried our bow hunt for elk may not happen if we cant get in there. Clive you hear any bulls bugling yet??? i cant wait!!! later M

i have the river tamer and i love it. I cant compare it to anything else though as ive never tried another. so far mine seems pretty bomb proof (knock on wood). been on the bow with no worries whatsoever and usually have it on stillwaters and it gets around great. the seat is really comfortable and offers good lumbar support as i too have a bad back and can sit in this boat for up to 11 hours (so far) with no sore ass or numbnutz or anything like that. I like the anchor pully system, works well. what i dont like is the small size of the storage bags and there seems to be a lot of wasted space that could be used for storage behind the seat. have tried it with a motor too and its awesome. i won mine so not too sure on cost but i think around $800-900. . hope this helps. later M

here's a similar pic... M

I first used a fly rod at beauvais and phyllis lake when i was 9 years old (shortly after moving here to Canada) but it was just trolling flies so i dont count that since there was no casting involved. so I guess i'm at about the 16 year mark now. later M

there was a 40% chance of showers forecasted for here (Lethbridge) for this morning but it never happened and we're headed back into the 30's by the weekend so its not looking too good for fishing any eastern slopes any time in the next week for sure. later M

are you kidding? hasnt rained down here except for a thundershower the other night that lasted an hour. must not have had any west of here coz with all the lightning there would/should have been a fire started that night. there was a big grass/crop fire near Raymond 2 days ago. still incredibly dry. IMO they should leave it closed, although a good burn is just what the forest in that area needs. later M

best of luck Birchy!! and a speedy recovery. my date with the scalpel and some screws is 6 weeks away. if you dont mind me asking, what kind of surgery are you having?? later M