rusty

A 5 and 6 would be fine. I'll be bringing a #3 as well in case the wind dies off a bit here and there (which, to call a spade a spade, is unlikely at best). The SA express is probably not going to be much help unless you can rip flies back to the boat. It just gets down waaay to quick. Police isn't a very deep lake.

I agree with Jim - the only difference will be once you pass the rear taper of the WF out of the tiptop guide. With a 9' rod, 9' leader, and a 30' front taper, you're looking at 48' to see any difference. Can't imagine that many if any of us are doing much fishing beyond that distance around AB here. Maybe on the odd lake, but can't see it on the Bow, Crow, or any other stream around.

Put me down for a hundy.

I own two Deep Wading Jackets and would never wear anything else. I owned a Bare Kodiak or Chinook or whatever (the big green one) and got rid of it because it was too heavy. I bought a medium about 6 years ago and got an unrefusable deal on a large last year. The DWJ is super light, fits easily in the back of my vest, has enough room for a lot of gear on its own, has a net ring on the back, is incredibly waterproof, dries so fast it's ridiculous, and is very reasonably priced. You just can't beat them.

I will be there and will be bringing two rods on the boat. One with a floating line and a 14' leader, for fishing under indies or hopefully without them - you can always move an indy down if you have to. One rigged up for a slime line (clear int sink) or a type III fullsink with a 12" long leader. Flieswise: Chronies in different colors from 12-16 Leeches from 8-16 in black, brown, olive, claret, plus a few #2 or #4 for trolling the shallows at night Weevils or pheasant tails, size 14-18 Bloodworms, size 14-18 Scuds, 12-16 in olive, tan, and maybe a few orange for the preggies With any luck we'll hit the heart of the chronie hatches, but you never know what you're going to run into. Odds are that it'll be chronies under indicators, but sometimes you gotta switch it up to find the big boys. Haven't fished there in over 10 years. I'm pumped - Police is an unreal lake with massive potential.

Happy birthday Brett.

IF you're using XP, head over to microsoft.com and search for the Picture Resizer powertoy. You can resize by just right clicking on the photo in explorer and choosing Resize.

pseudo, Guiding is like any other profession - it's a few bad apples wrecking it for most. Most guides I've run into on the river have been gracious, courteous, and respectful of the fact that they are making a living from something that belongs to everyone. Some guides I've run into will cut you off, talk down to you, and generally come across as if you're interfering with their livelihood. I think that your comment about the attitudes on this board is not particularly fair. I've heard good things about a lot of guides on here, and sentiment regarding Max and Brian on here is a direct reflection of the time they spend giving pointers and sharing info. Some guides have the exact opposite attitude - they're condescending and feel that because they spend 100 days a year collecting money from public property, they have more of a right to be there than those of us who don't. Myself and a lot of other people on here log as many days on the river, and I don't think this is something I'm making up. I'm all for the licensing of guides, if for no other reason than there should be a minimum standard we hold people to for safety. I think it's a good idea to have a handle on how many guides there are out there, and I think that the majority of well-established guides in Calgary would be for it.

Use heavy wire Tiemcos and you'll have no issue.

My thoughts are pretty simple: if you don't like fishing for them, don't. But anyone who thinks that the only pre-spawn fish in the Bow are at the HW mouth needs to give their head a shake.

Just say hi and ask if someone minds if you jump in...but obviously, that only works if there's room. You don't want to crowd that badly. Last I was there I fished around for a few hours and jumped in when someone left. There are fish all over there - you don't have to fish the mouth.

To be honest, I'd try to get a discontinued Sage like a VPS on Ebay. In my opinion the TFO fishes better than the other rods in the price range but I'll bet you could pick something up on Ebay that used to be in the $500 range. You might even be able to score a VT2 or an old RPL+. Just be careful that you don't buy a custom rod (unless that's your thing).

I love Outcast. I bought a PAC 900 7 years ago, a FishCat 8 for the wife in 2003, and my brother in law bought a PAC 8 three years back. This past spring, I threw all three boats in a snowmobile trailer and drove out to the Quesnel area. The repeated bouncing of the frames on the pontoons created a leak in one pontoon of every boat. I've tried patching them, but the adhesive in the patch kit I had dried up as it only has a shelf life of two years. I tried other things (aquaseal, marine epoxy, adhesive tape) but just made a mess. Last Thursday, I threw all three pontoons in an old stroller box and sent them down to Outcast. They left a message on my phone today saying that two of the boats could not be fixed and required complete replacement of the air bladder. Guess what they charged me? Nothing. Nadda. Zero. Covered under warranty, despite the fact that the leaks were caused by my stupidity. All I had to pay was the shipping. They're even sending me some new patches that work without adhesive in case I get a leak again. Now that's a company that knows how to take care of customers. I worked with them a bit when I worked at a shop here in town and found the same thing. Do yourself a favor - buy Outcast.

If you're in Calgary, Wholesale sells bulk tips. Get yourself a 10' or 12' length of T-11 and off you go. It may not cast well because of the taper situation, but it will serve the purpose just fine.

Action Optics are great. They're made by Smith and are really comfy.

Happy birthday Clive!

Hope you have a great day Brian. Happy Birthday!

TL, let us know about Police please - it might be on the books for next weekend if she's open.

Agree Brian - the reffing has been BRUTAL the last week or so. How does Gaborik slash and break Vandermeer's stick and VM gets a penalty? Gotta start calling some of the diving too.

Are you guys stocking women's stuff too Brent?

Have had that problem with nearly every SA line I've owned. Went to the Airflo Freshwater Tacticals and have never looked back. The polyurethane coating smokes the PVC.

Water's really low right now, so I'm using a full floating line and a longish (say 10') leader with a weighted fly and a big split right at the head of the fly. The floating line is way easier to mend with and is easy to cast. Technique-wise, don't worry so much about it. Get the fly out there, get a good upstream mend in there, and then mix it up until you find what works. You'll know you're getting down by watching the end of the line and feeling the line. Sometimes you can strip the whole time, sometimes you can slowly take long strips, and sometimes you can just throw a bunch of line behind the fly and mend as you swing the fly across the current. Whatever you do, let the fly come to a full stop below you and then strip it a bit. I often retrieve until I can see the fly - you would be amazed how often a fish will track the fly all the way in and follow it right to your feet before inhaling the fly. One key thing to learn is to avoid the instinct to raise the rod when you get a hit. I like to pull with my line hand - that way if a fish misses the fly, it's only 12" away and they'll usually come back for it. Once the fish is hooked, you can lift the rod - but doing it on the hit will pull the fly away from a lot of fish (especially on a tight line). I find streamers work well when it's cloudy or cold and often both. If you want to learn to streamer fish and gain some confidence in it, make the committment. Leave the nymph box at the car or check your watch and give yourself 3 hours to fish them. It's a very rare day on the Bow when you can't pick up a fish or two on a monster Bow River Bugger or a well-placed Clouser. Experiment with retrieves and different water types. This fish below chased the fly right to the bank before taking it - when he finally hit the fly, he was in water barely as deep as he was.

I fish a 8' #2 T&T Horizon on all the rivers you mentioned. A #3 is a better choice for the lakes because of the potential requirement for long casts with side wind. You should think about building (assembling ) a rod in that line class. It's a fun and easy project and I think it's a lot of fun fishing a small light rod that you've built yourself. You can put really light wire singlefoots on it and it'll cast like a dream.

Wicked pics as usual Max. See you're wearing the Korker cleat soles - I will never winter fish again without them. Soooo nice for walking on the ice. What a river the Bow is.

Good call Rich. I have a MEC backpack from 1987 and a jacket from 1991. They still work and hold up just like good gear should. It may sound silly, but if you read Naomi Klein's "No Logo" and do a bit of digging on some of the companies out there, you get a good feeling buying and wearing something made responsibly. Go have a look in there - you won't believe how much stuff is made in Canada, and a lot of the made in Vietnam or made in India stuff is done in shops that are audited by third parties on a regular basis to ensure fair treatment. It makes you wonder - if MEC can be very successful and sell great gear at a good price while paying and treating people fairly, why can't most other companies?