Castuserraticus

"cross the river to fish a run you're approaching" So what? Just because you're following a guide certainly does not mean they are going to clean a run out. Their clients could be complete newbs on a corporate junket. It's highly unlikely you will hit exactly the same lie, fish exactly the same pattern, or present it the same way. I've hit fish in runs that were just fished by someone else and I've had boats/waders pick up fish in water I just fished. Many of the sweet spots are large. Ask the guide/other boat if there's room for you too. A friendly attitude might result in some valuable shared information. To paraphrase Henry Ford, "Whether you believe the other person is a friend or an ass, you will be right." Now someone stepping within casting distance to fish the exact water you are - they're asses. But this has only happened once or twice to me.

Last year on a float trip a green CJ with white prince style biots I'd tied was the killer fly. That does look like a stone - the hot fly of '08.

The cycle in is few hours. I went on a guided trip with the young guy who works for Dave and Amelia. It took him just over 3 hours to cycle in. According to him, the fish move to different areas in the lake through the season. Fishing at the campsite is not as good as other areas of the lake - I think he said the far end was better. There may be some fishing in the outlet stream but Dave et al concentrate on the lake.

Clarity was excellent and wading was not a problem for the sections we were on. The young guy tended to attack faster moving water than us older guys but we had no trouble. That drainage was outside the storm affected area. Everything south of there was higher and muddy.

I believe the ability to cast some distance is important. In many sports the principal of over speed/strength training is used to increase speed, control, and power at game speeds. You have to have a technically solid cast to reach distances. This technical ability will make you a better all around caster at every distance. You will very rarely have to bomb a 60+ ft. cast. Also, rods are designed to perform at their best with a certain amount of line out. The performance changes with shorter or longer casts. It takes practice and skill to work the rod to it's best under the varying on water conditions.

Double haul. False casting alone doesn't develop line speed. Double haul = less false casting = fly on the water more and easier on shoulder on a long day

Knots in your leader come from tailing loops (that is - you're line is getting tangled in mid air because the loop is collapsing). There are many causes of this (too much rod arc, not enough power, power at the wrong time, wind,...) and many ways of correcting it. Practicing enough that you learn to control the line path (back and forward cast), and get the feel of how the rod loads is important to aid success and enjoyment. On the water can be a frustrating place to learn. If you're a visual learner look up some of the many videos on YouTube on casting instruction or rent some from a fly shop. Lefty Kreh's book on Presenting The Fly has some excellent descriptions of many different types of casts. All of them are useful in different situations.

What's your tolerance for cold water? I find it uncomfortable to wet wade when others seem to be fine. The university rentals are good quality and inexpensive. Relying on shore fishing is limiting on a river the size of the Bow if only to have additional back cast room. Since this is your first time fly fishing, use waders and you'll be less frustrated with picking flies out of trees and grass behind you as tbone indicates.

Send them a tracing of your foot or measurements of it - puts proper sizing requirement on them. I have a vague memory of some mail order outfit asking for this to ensure sizing.

Pretty well anything in the Oldman River drainage basin. The cuts in the Bow system outside of Banff have been largely displaced by rainbows and/or brookies. Tribs into the Livingston, Oldman, and Crowsnest all have cutties.

That's the Kananaskis above Canoe meadows - spent a lot of time playing in there. There isn't much water there when the Barrier dam is turned off. There's probably a few finned creatures in the deep pools.

The psychological term is "confirmational bias". Social, intellectual, and financial behaviour is ruled by this. People are attracted to people who agree with their existing belief system. We think that person is smarter because they confirm our beliefs. It's nearly impossible to get an unbiased opinion. I've read scientific papers with strong positions on either side of the global warming issue. I think both extremes are wrong - doing no harm vs the world is ending. Humans have an impact but nature has absorbed much bigger hits in the geologic past and life has found a way.

Did a float from High River downstream several years ago with Bow Waters Canoe Club. The river meanders through a lovely canyon with abundant bird life. Even though it's through farmland it doesn't feel like it at river level. I can't remember where we got out - a bridge crossing. We spent about 6 hours or so including a lunch stop. I didn't see any fish rise that day.

Those are some impressive looking grayling. Nice pics.

Unfortunately, Birchy's program didn't recover anything useable. The data is there but needs more work to recover. Looks like a hardware issue. Had a data recovery specialist in to take the old drive. The computer locked up after taking out the old drive so had to start at 0 again with a system recovery (third time since January). What I've learned: Stand alone for a corporate computer is Russian roullette. Back everything up regularly - one short term and one long term. Don't trust the back-up program - check it. A third redundancy wouldn't hurt. Techies strongly disagree on which hardware is the best. The only way to find out which component is failing is to use the computer again.

40 minutes so far and 20,500 files so far. It's a hard world to be a tech luddite in.

I need a new tech service with people who's first response is not to wipe the hard drive with a system recovery. :$*%&: For the fourth time in the past year my computer locked. This time I felt confident my data would be intact because I'd installed a removeable hard drive and had set it up for automatic back-ups twice a week. After several conversations with the ESL tech, I requested they install a new hard drive and leave the old one in so I could access all my files. I just got it back and it looks like they wiped the old one because all it has is the basic windows folders. They claim they did not touch the old drive but there are about 40GB of files missing. The auto back-up failed in early May and the back-up file can not be read by the program. I had done a manual back-up in January when I first installed the drive so it looks like I'm missing about 6 months of files. This coincides with a really busy time for my company and I'm missing some really important files. If the techs are telling the truth then the data should be on the old drive. Can it be found? There's a free float trip for anyone who can help me recover the data.

I spray the outside and under the brim of my hat with deep woods off. That keeps them away from the head pretty much. I have a fedora style so get protection all around.

I've had good success with a streamer like a clouser or bugger to keep the smaller grayling from hooking themselves. The dry fly is fun because the fish can be so kamikaze. There's no such thing as a bad cast with the wild ones.

Any blonde duck jokes out there?

Ole's Lake had decent fishing when I lived near there. You could try Charlie Lake or Swan Lake for sharks. One Island Lake is famous for huge hard to catch rainbows. I've heard the chironomid fishing can be good there. I remember as a kid seeing huge 'bows cruise the shoreline in the evening after spending the day on the water and getting skunked.

Just switched my wife and kids to Virgin mobile - no system fees or other add-ons. Just $0.32 per minute. You have 45 days to use the minutes. Automaitc top-up means minutes are always there. Virgin to virgin texts are only $0.05.

There's a day use area at Canyon Creek. It's the little valley west of Paddy Flats.

Take lessons thru a flyshop - saves aggravation and time. You'll learn some basic patterns and techniques. They'll often supply a starter kit - think of it like drug dealers providing free samples. It's more expensive and when you're starting out the quality of your flies will suck. It takes a lot of volume to make hand ties cost effective. One way may be to stick to a small variety of proven patterns to limit material purchases but what's the fun in that. There is no 12 step program or support group to help you stop once you get started.

Protective pants over the waders for bushwhacking is an interesting idea. My original neoprene waders were shredded when I walked into a tangle of partially overgrown barbed wire along the Highwood. I always wear wool socks over the boot foot of my wader to prevent wear from chaffing and to prevent grit that inevitably gets in from wearing a hole - a lesson from wet feet. My net is attached to a plastic clip that's attached to a D ring on back of my vest - out of the way and easy to access. The handle hangs down. I just reach back, a quick pull and it's ready to go. Haven't had any problem with it snagging bushes.