BBBrownie

Babine river.

I second the royal coachmen. Grayling are attracted to red, so fish dries with red on them, royal humpies can also be productive.

Love your first pic of the boat and the foggy lake, great shot. Those are some chunky brookies, looks like a stellar weekend!

Early July was amazing on the dry for me, then things got downright terrible from mid july until late august. In my mind, dry fly or occasional streamers are the only way I enjoy cutties, by last week I was begining to wonder if I should be changing my ways. Then yesterday happened and the dry action was amazing on my favorite little secret cutt stream. Fish taking asolutely everything that floated over them in the middle of a great BWO hatch, and a minor green drake hatch. Reaffirmed my faith in cutties!

Mark O Meara (sp?) was in Smithers steelheading last september. He was in the same motel/lodge I was, although only his "security" came down to the fire for drinks, hilariously enough I had no idea who he was, I figured he was a race car driver, his heavy found that hilarious.

Well, for the price range you are talking about the Loops would be a great choice, but, for a bit more money I really dig my Loomis GLX, so there. Max I will step up and say that although I have casted some great Loops, that I would be fully behind, I fish with an XP for my main Bow stick and love it. As far as a heavier rod goes, there is nothing i'd rather cast than an 8 weight 10 foot 2 peice Loomis GLX. She's a beaut. I suppose this is a bit outside of the range of what Tungsten is looking for, but if we're looking for someone to vouch for Sage and Loomis, I will. I think these are rods that can speak for themselves...

I think you hit it Headscan. There is an abundance of evidence to attribute the sea lice infestation to salmon farms - this has been long established. There is just so much spin doctoring and infiltration of public opinion that surrounds the salmon farming industry. It is nuts because I was looking at a fishing forum for BC that had a salmon farming discussion. There was suddenly a swamp of intense salmon farming proponents that the moderator discovered were coming from 2 IP addresses -2 people with multiple accounts trying to spread salmon farming rhetoric. Ridiculous. Even the BC government is way in on it. This is how the farms get around the idea of closed containment- it is much more expensive, the companies say it isn't cost effective, threaten to pull out, the governemnt caves in order to keep the industry and the money, even though the farms are mostly Norweigan, along with many of the workers. Kind of reminds me of the tar sands in Alberta..

I've been dropping into Southbow lately, I think they'd be on my side and besides, they're better at BS'n fish talk than the boxes are.

Beauty shots! This makes me want to ditch the office and catch me some cutts!

No, it is unfortunately a bit of blood.

and a nice little broonie for good measure...

and another, although slightly smaller.

Another nice 'bow...

I just figured i'd post pics of a couple of 'bows from the past few days. Everyones fish porn posted on here helps me through the dull office days, so I figure that occasionally I should try and give back...Now I just need to start taking my camera out with me more often.

My experience this year has also been that the cutties have definately been feeding differently with the odd conditions. Most years I don't bother fishing much more than hoppers, ants, stimmies, and maybe a caddis for cutts in August as I've always done well and never needed to think much further into it. This year, I really haven't even seen much activity on the surface of cutt streams, and when I have, in streams like the 'wood, I have been ending up with bows nearly every time, cutts seem to be laying low. I fished the Elk August long and never even saw a cutt longer than 13 ", even though I was landing 24" bulls on the dry. I fished livingstone one day in late July and only caught on buggers, not a single look at any dries, didn't even see a rise! I realize that the obvious solution is nymphs, streamers in some situations, but that is not the experience I am looking for in August so I can't be bothered. Call me stubborn but nymphing is something I do to warm up pre-run off. The fish are there, they are just feeding slightly differently than is usually the case at this time of year. On another note, I have had some outstanding days fishing dries on the bow the past week...

Those look like great ties, should be some effective steel patterns. Only thing is I don't know that they resemble butt skunks, blue charm, or thunder and lightning other than in color. These patterns are general not weighted, although they may have lead around the shank. These are all more intruder style flies, but again, they look great, regardless of what they are called they will catch fish! I've been tying a bunch of my own intruders lately, they're fun and you can get creative with em. I don't recall what you called it, but the blue and black with silver mylar looks like it would be a hot pattern this fall (Blue Bug?).

I don't know if there is any real answer yet- the odd thing is that sockeye have well developed scales by the time they enter the ocean because they spend up to two years in fresh water, so it is thought that they are less susceptible than something like pinkies that go straight to the ocean. Very sad, but Alexandra Morton captured like 350 of the smolts from this run in the discovery passage in 2007 and she found up to 22 lice on individual smolts, then predicted that the run may collapse judging by the load of lice. She also predicted the pink collapse in the broughton archipelago, so listen to Alex, she knows.

On the SKeena right now there is a great steelhead run (40% increase over the 2000's) likely at least in part attributable to the sockeye gill net fishery being closed for the season so far. There are still a certain number of casualties that occur with the pink siening, but it is minor as the daily returns haven't decreased significantly.

Terrible. This is being repeated up the coast and the frequency seems to be increasing. Skeena sockeye were projected at 2 million this year, and now the numbers are looking more like 800 000. Although the Skeena has no fish farms, there are farms immediately north and south that they still pass. Steelhead runs over BC are in the same predicament. Everyone is raving about the huge returns to the Skeena this year, yet it is still looking like about half of what the 80s and earlier saw. Cumulative effects are hammering away at the anadromous runs in BC. Logging and mining head waters is decreasing available spawning habitat, introducing toxins and heavy metals. The juveniles that are recruited head to the ocean where they run a gauntlet through fish farms teeming with sea lice and pathogens such as furunculosis. Then, when returning many runs hit nets. Nothing short of sweeping reforms in industrial practices (larger riparian buffers for logging, no mining headwaters on salmon streams and tribs, closed containment fish farms placed away from migratory routes, seining instead of gill netting) happen NOW then I believe fully that many salmon/steelhead runs will seize to exist very soon. Although I do realize that some runs, such as chinook, seem to be doing well on the frasier for example, I believe this is still a fraction of historical returns. Here is a good read: http://www.wildsteelheadcoalition.org/Repo...layout_1pp_.pdf Alexandra Morton is leading a charge for reforms to helo salmon, and she has been calling the collapses with surprising accuracy. I believe her group is called raincoast research, she is doing mnay good things so look into it if you are interested. Riley

Part of the beauty of fishing is the individual variations between fish and not knowing exactly what you will get. Even ignoring Alberta's cluster fak of hatchery transplants of various origins, the variety of expressions found within isolated pure strains can be amazing.

There were Yellowstone cutts stocked in many Alberta streams in the past. I've caught yellowstone or yellowstone/westslope hybrids in a few systems including Castle, North/South Ram...

It was a few years ago, but I believe I paid around $450 for the XP. That isn't my point though, If I had paid $800 for it, I would still be every bit as happy, warranty is a past of it all, but the performance is outstanding. I also have a couple of steel/salmon sticks. One is an Echo that cost around $300, it is alright for chucking heavy weighted flies and has reeled in some pig Chinooks and a few nice steelies, but I picked up a new GLX 8 weight 10' last year that has turned the echo into a backup. There is no comparison in the action, the accuracy. I realize these are both higher priced rods I am fishing, but their performance has spoken to me and believe me, I've fished lower priced rods. My more moderate price rods do certainly catch fish still, my enjoyment just increases with fast action and a nice cast. Think cadillacs and tempos.

I believe someone said in this topic that a good rod won't make your day better because fishing is about catching fish, not about standing in the water playing with your rod? I suppose we all look for different experiences, all have different reasons and connections, but I sure would have to say that my idea of fishing is MUCH different from yours! Of course I enjoy playing, landing, and admiring beautiful fish, big or small, but I equally enjoy the surrounding landscape and interaction with it, the solitude(depending where I am although I can ignore a lot when Im on the water) and the rhythm of the casts. My go-to rod for most trout fishing these days on rivers is a Sage XP. It casts like a dream. If I had a cheaper rod that felt that way to me, it would be my go to, but I haven't found that. I have a cheaper sage, I have a TFO and another rod I can't even recall the name of becuase it is that underwhelming. The XP puts my fly within inches everytime and throws buggers like you wouldn't believe. I know what the rod will do, just as im sure many of your favorite rods do as well, regardless of brand, they work for you. I CERTAINLY get less enjoyment out of fishing with a rod that i'm not feeling, as one part of my equation is lacking. Nice casts=happy place. Sure, short casts on small streams with stimmies for cutts doesn't warrant throwing with the XP, but man does it hum on the Bow, even the 'wood. So, to make a very long story short, we all look for a different experience, for a day to reach epic for me - the days I dream of all winter, and even pursue in BC in the winter- I need fish, tight casts, solitude, scenery. Was that ever convoluted!

I'd love to fish Russia. Kamchatka is a dream-6 species of salmon and large steelhead returns. Very few anglers.

definately a coyote, many of them in Elk Island. Tail=definately not lynx. Cougars are mostly nocturnal, so unlikely, tail isn't long enough for cougar. I don't think there has ever even been a lynx recorded in Elk Island.