rusty

H20, Gokaroach and I spent three days with Courtney (Islandguy) on the island this weekend. Had a wonderful trip - got blanked fishing except for a few pulls, but that's pretty much expected for our first trip winter steelheading. Saw some spectacular country and learned a ton about fishing with the twohander. Courtney's skill with the speyrod is humbling. We even got to see some huge steelies in crystal clear water, but they were either too deep to get a fly to or more skittish than any rainbows I've ever seen.

Your problem is probably reading water. Most of the water in the river doesn't hold fish, and that's never more true than in the winter. Focus on the slower seams or the end of the long runs. I've seen so many guys out there fishing where there are no fish - that's never going to work. On the warm afternoons you may find some fish moving into the faster chop to eat nymphs or midges. Also, many of the rainbows in the river will start moving to stage for spawning soon. Don't be so hellbent on fishing tons of weight either - we got out a few times last week and had excellent nymph fishing using longer light leaders and very little weight. That low water will move the fish around and if you don't adapt accordingly it can seem like they've shut right off. Fishing heavy gear in slow water will make the flies drift unnaturally and will get you on the bottom before you can get a nice long drag-free drift. Don't spend time changing the leader length so much either - all that time that you're messing with the rig, the flies aren't in front of the fish. Good nymph fishermen maximize the amount of time the flies are in the zone. I'm a firm believer that the flies under that indicator are far less important than the way you're presenting them. Also, don't be afraid to try a streamer, especially if there's cloud cover or it's early and late in the day. Rig up a nice big bugger with a good size split shot right at the head and tie it to a 9 or 10 foot leader. Cast, mend upstream, give the fly some time to sink, and slowly retrieve it. Bring the fly in until you can see it and repeat. Streamers let you cover a lot of water and as it warms up a bit more the fish will move a good ways to pick them up. Keep the faith - it took me over a year to catch my first fish on the Bow.

If you decide to stay with PC, get a Dell - I love mine and the service has been second to none.

Turn the waders inside out. Mine have been dry when I did it. Just lightly spray the alcohol on and the leaks will darken right up. A bit of Aquaseal and you're off to the races. Easy peasy.

Yep - worked perfect on my Simms. Use a spray bottle set to fine mist.

Half of the anti-conservative ads out there didn't even identify who they'd rather you vote for. The whole "Albertans for Change" thing didn't even list a candidate. When a party can screw around and contemplate their own incompetence and lack of vision for four years and still win all but 10 seats, it really says something about the opposition and the attitude of the people. I think it boiled down to not trusting a guy like Taft or Mason with the oilsands.

Fresh fish is delicious and I kill plenty over the course of the year. I always C&R wild trout and never break the rules. Stocked trout, pike, lake whites, walleye and perch are all outstanding table fare. I haven't tried burbot yet but I intend to soon. We ate some high-elevation lake stocked cutts cooked over embers a couple of years ago and they were divine.

I have the Mustang Airforce and I think it's the only way to fly. You can get them at Cambodian Tire, Russell's, or Wholesale (and probably other places).

Rob, I agree wholeheartedly that heavy fishing doesn't require light tippets. However, I've found in the last few weeks that sometimes a lighter (4X) leader with a long tippet lets me fish that winter water with very little weight (a #12 wire SJW and two unweighted flies). The lighter leaders slice through the water a lot easier than the heavy mono does, and I can fish a 10' or 11' leader without hanging bottom all the time in that slack water. I've just been casting at the top and walking the drift all the way down the long runs.

I run Office 2007 on a machine with 2GB of RAM and a semi-decent dual core and have no complaints. The new ribbon setup (vs the old toolbars) is great once you get the hang of it. Many new features are the direct result of input from the user community. There has been a lot more cross-product integration. The new graphs and cell formats in Excel are pretty freakin' sweet. The new file formats will open up the third party development market. If you've got the system space, just install them both and you can see the difference. 2k7 might seem like more hassle than it's worth for the average user, but I hope it catches on.

I'd be interested too.

I tie because there are tons of great patterns that you can't buy, and because you can't buy flies with the right amount of weight. Besides that though, it keeps me close to the sport when it's too cold to fish. I think tying is almost as fun as fishing, and it can be a really social thing too.

Clive, What lens did you use for that shot? Tripod?

Worst part is that he'd have cooked one of those muddy boots and thrown the rest in the garbage.

Should be a great day...just be damn careful of that ice, esp if you're anywhere downstream. I've had three or four close calls in the last week.

What's that wallet worth? You guys have it at TF?

Just wondering what sort of rigs people here are using to fish streamers on the Bow. I started with the fast sinking polyleader and just found that it wasn't doing it for me. I've switched to half of a T-300 tip, which makes it a 12' 150gr. head. This seems to do slightly better and I've picked up quite a few fish on the new rig with it, but it still doesn't feel like it's getting right down to where I'd like to be in some spots. I'm using a slightly weighted fly and a 12" 1X leader. Do I need to mend more before swinging? Is anyone fishing splits with their streamers? Do I need a longer tip?

You'll have to have your grandkids do it through my feeding tube when I'm 95 and incapable of chewing anymore.

Yeah...not even a Canucks fan would try to go incognito as a Laffs fan.

Great post Brian - thank you.

When FFA was still around and I had more time on my hands, I used to run fly swaps. Swaps are a neat way to see other people's patterns and techniques. I collected every set from all the swaps and would like to add them to the auction. There are roughly 110 flies here - lots of different streamers, dries, nymphs, etc. There are lots of foam dries, some great chironomid patterns, and some really nice stonefly nymphs. A lot of folks on the board here will recognize their flies. I'll let Greg decide what the starting bid should be.

Are you still accepting new items Greg?

Fortress is the nicest place I've ever been. I would be careful listening to people who say the hike is "easy" - esp those who haven't actually done it. The hike is easy as far as 20km+ hikes go - but you will be in the middle of nowhere and you'll have to do the kind of things that you don't see dayhiking into your average K-Country lake. There are small log bridges that get awful slick when wet, and you have to ford the Chaba - an easy feat if the flows are right, and a real pain in the butt if they aren't. Plus, you'll have to do it all with a sizeable pack on. If you've done a fair amount of backpacking before and you're in decent shape, you'll have no problem. If you've only done dayhikes before and you're expecting a cakewalk, you'll be in for a surprise. The hike out is worse than the way in. The lake is a veritable ocean - 11km long and fairly wide too. The new owner (Dave J) wasn't renting motorboats to hikers when I was up. I would get a hold of him and see if you can work something out. A float tube won't get you to where you need to be if the fish aren't in the east end of the lake. Furthermore, the wind can create 3' waves on there in a hurry. If you camp, it's probably worth pushing through to the Fortress Creek campsite. Dave takes excellent care of the campgrounds and they are easily the nicest backcountry camps I've seen. PMD is bang on about the rodents. They'll chew float tubes, rod handles, and anything else you let them get into. Tube your rods at night. We went on the August long weekend and we were too late. I ran into some folks who were also there on the July long weekend and they did much better. For what it's worth, plan for the July long and watch the flows on the Athabasca. I *think* Dave said that the Chaba becomes fordable when the upper flows are below 400m3/s, but it's worth double-checking with him. I'd let him know when you're coming and where you're planning on staying.

Brent - are you thinking of a shuttle service? I own three 'toons and use shuttles lots.