ogilvie

I figured Dan would be out there...Man' I hope the water will allow a few of us to cast and fish your waters during the Upcoming FlyFishing Show dates. AS the time draws nearer we could put together a gathering of sorts on the BOW...lets hope??!!

Man,the River is getting higher...was out today...landed my nicest Cuttie of the Year...reminds me of Our Late Jackie Gleason...huge belly...the fish was only about 4-5 lbs...these fish are rare on the Stamp River,everyone is a jewell! The river turned muddy about 1PM...so I went to the Upper Reaches above the High BAnks that spread forth their runof during the rains...hope we can get something done with these banks....like the Cowichan Hows the Bow?

For those in the area there will be a small Spey Gatheing on the Stamp River near Port ALberni , VAncouver Island on December 22...should the river blow out we will find a location close by.. C Bring your rods,waders and rain coats..although there will be plenty of rods therre all set-up

Oh...Oh...it's like Xmas...very soon C

you don't really want to cast that rod..I personally don't have One and will get CDone (if he will)build mine for me....my wife has One and rarely lets it out of sight incase I am about..Damnit!I have used those shooting head and others Ie: Loop,Air Flo and Hardy. If it's distance you want then that is a great way to go...the running lines can be very slick and offer little resistence through the eyes. On the Lower Dean River in BC I use Shooting heads a lot because the distance is about 140' and mending the line is of little concern...Unlike the Thompson where mending the line is a benefit..water clarity is really an issue between both those great Rivers. What I really like about the Shooting Heads you mentioned is that they come in gram weights corresponding to rod weights,for example a 20 gram(308.64 grains-divide grams by .0648) is rated or recommended for a 6/7 Two Handed rod. They go all the way up to an 11/12 or 48 gram line...wow;incredible versatility.However,these heads have distinct fron tapers for both single and two handed uses. Voila..keep it simple C

You fly fishers are very lucky in your area with fairly wide open rivers that are not super deep and fast. There are many great Spey lines on the Market that are seriously overlooked here in the Pacific North West and in fact ,especially in fact throughout our brothers range south of the 49th. Snowbee,Hardy,Carron,Partridge,Air Flo and a few other "european" line brands have lines specifically designed with various lengths of "Sink Tips" integrated into the line;making these lines very sweet good lines to cast and especially fish well. I can only imagine the degree of enjoyment in fishing a wide river like the Bow one of these lines that enable me to fish within the top 24" to 30" at will. The Rivers of Eastern Canada,UK and even the Great Lakes region have such rivers as well that could fish extremely well with these lines. In the next few years we will be seeing the"NA Line manufactures" bringing these on line. Cortland did introduce a few lines that crashed..next time C

Many companies have shooting heads that you can buy and attach to various running lines to your choosing. These head are typically sold in 45'-50' whereas you deside the length you need and cut that length.... The 1D(51'),2D (62'),3D (73') and the 4D a massive 84' are designed for more of the traditional casts but do have a shooting /running line combination. For example,with the 1D line it is designed for situations where you have little room behind you,the line allows you to create a short D/V loop behind you that loads the rod well and provides you with the ability to complete a forward stroke propelling your line out well into the running line.The running line creates less resistence when slideing through the eyes and consequently delivers greater distance. My favorites are the Scandanavian style shooting lines...45' heads...but there is a distinch disadvantage in these types of lines for a long distance mend,it can not happen...you can't mend running line. We are told it is not about distance??!! Then why are the fish always on the other side? C

Both Gordon and I agree on the use of the full sinking(Sunk for the Brits and Scots)lines. The down side of the Sunk Line technique is that you have to master the drift more diligently in slower and not so deep water. However,there are some very sound points in using dark coloured sunk lines..the visibility factor from above(Fish Eye View) and the way the line actually tracks the fly so naturally. But you must be careful to manage your line's drift so as to not wrap around underwater snags.I have also found that when mending the full Sunk line there is less irratic impact on the fly itself during the drift from a mend...thus sight to fish is more constant! BTW,the full sunk line we(?) are talking about is actually a shooting line...like the Hardy Mach 1 ,Snowbee Scandanavian Short Head Spey and others where the head is about 45' long with a lighter coloured running line .The Scandanavian's have been doing this for some time,what we are also calling "Scando Style". Loop has a great selection of shooting line set-ups for Scando and Underhand Styles. The Skagit system is entirely different...a large balloon body(27') that floats, having an attached tip of various densities. What the large body of the Skagit does is allow you to create short stroked casts with little effort,and at the same time pick-up big flies and heavy tips that are not too far down in the water column. So as you can imagine,with a 20' length of T14 off a 550 grain Skagit line on a 14' Two Hander,a simple and well timed Static pick-up will lift the entire line to the surface whereas you can then continue to complete the desired cast. Rod length is somewhat important, but I often will use a 10'6" Switch rod with a Skagit set-up,shortening the tip length and increaseing the timeing of the pick-up and forward stroke. But with the shorter rods you must be very clear about rod position and stop location..there is a tendency to bring the rod back to an almost vertical location off the shoulder resulting in the loop formation being directly behind body and ' Ouch"! on the forward stroke. Have fun C

The Metolius Trout Two Hander is a nice little rod...It would give you many years of service on the Water ways of Southern Alberta,BC,Idaho and Montana...as far as FASTER is TIGHTER and FURTHER is really not the case...all you have to do is understand that Alexander Grant (with a Greenheart rod) cast further than any modern day caster with modern day lines and rods simply by understanding what and how it had to happen. The fact that fast is good is a very complex statement. Fast lighter rods like Hardy's Angel are simply unbelievably comfortabe in hand,matched with the correct line casts 120' without without a whimper....but ask it to work overtime and it shutters. There are many light weight rods being manufactured that handle advanced casters well and are not too expensive. These same rods in the hands of New Casters are equally effective as learning and fishing tools...and that is what it is all about..Buy the Porsche after you have learned how to handle the Mustang. The greatest and most complex issue is line combinations..as you will see in Calgary at the Fly Fishing Show.....

My first post on this site and I must say it is good to be here ... we are getting bombarded with RAIN...200 mm of the stuff after a foot of snow...the Rivers are seriously blown out... Over the past 4 or 5 years we have very effectively used the casting pond(S) to demonstrate the spey casts at the shows. But Gordon did hit a nail on the head with several of his welcomed comments...first we perhaps could have a small Spey Gathering ,,,should the Bow be co-operative. Second,I will see what we can do at the building...itself.. Guess who??