BBBrownie

It may surprise you, but there is no statistical difference in release mortality between fish cought on barbed or barbless hooks. Many scientific studies have been completed on this subject, and support this conclusion. The real kicker in release mortality is baited vs unbaited. Fish tend to take baited hooks much deeper, resulting in stomache, throat, gill damage. Where the fish takes the hook is of the greatest concern. If you google "barbed hook release mortality" you will find some papers which back this with science. Just so you know though, I prefer barbless regardless of this stat. Quicker release times, much easier removal when I hook myself (yes, occasoinally this happens to me), and it forces you to be a better angler.

That looks like a hell of a saw. Have you seen them anywhere around Calgary for sale?

dynamite and a lab.

Yeah, with a name like iceman...

Whitefish biomass is something like 5x that of bows in the Bow, even if you don't catch many. I generally try not to catch rockies, although they can be a blessing on a slow day. Big brownies are where it is at because of the stealth involved in targeting them, and the way they bulldog straight to the bottom and hang in the current.

Im not sure of when you are planning on fishing the FTR, but just so you know. nothing around there is open until June 16, I believe.

Respect?

There a bunch of "primitive" sites around the area, along with a few provincial campgrounds. As the last post said, Ram Falls is beautiful, great fishin, I usually spend my time on the North Ram, there is a provincial campground right where the trunk road meets the n.ram around 20-30km east of Nordegg. You can camp there, or take the North fork in the road and head up a few km's to one of the few scattered primitive sites. On a good day the North Ram is unreal, on a slow day you may only see a few. Scenery is beautiful, except for the grazing cattle that often leave camp a mine field. Had some of my best cutty days ever on the N.Ram though.

I can't vouch for anyone elses intentions, but I feel that April is doing a great service. She is using her obvious assets to benefit steelhead conservation efforts. She is an outspoken advocate, whether you agree with her tactics or not, the steelies need all the attention and help they can get right now because the situation is critical. Have you heard about her flies for fins program through the steelhead society? If not, look it up, you may be impressed. I agree that it is a shame that she was only at Bass Pro, but I would be the magazines decision to send her there not April's.

You got er man! If the bear is gonna eat me, I might as well taste good. Pepper steak.

Bearspray. Although definately not fool proof, it is the best bet. Bear bangers don't work. I know that this will be unpopular with some members but - Shotguns are unnecessary. As a field worker who works mainly in remote heli-access areas, often with many bears around, I have never worked armed with anything other than a big knife and a can of bear spray. Guns can cause you to approach bears in the wrong ways, with agressive intention. Although obviously a gun has the most effective stopping power, they are not necessary. If you shoot a bear- especially a griz, you had better be a damn good shot. Wounded grizzlies have a way of coming straight back at you. You rarely encounter aggresive grizzlies in open areas where you have time to make a second shot. Historically, a large proportion of casualties of grizzly attacks were hunters who shot grizzlies in defense only to have the griz come back at em and tear them to peices. A gun can lead you to act before it is necessary as you feel you've got the power, this can create a situation where there may not otherwise have been. 95% of charges are bluffs. If you have a gun you are likely to take a shot, even when it is only a bluff. If it is a bluff and you play it out, the bear will generally leave you. If it is a bluff but you shoot and injure the bear, you may be toast. Just a thought... -Also, even if a can of bear spray says good for three years, we use new spray annually as it has a tendancy to gel up after a year unfortunately.

There are sections you could ride, unfortunately much of the trail is washed out, and there are many short but fairly steep sections. Although there would be a lot of carrying your bike involved, you could probably save a fair bit of time by riding. Once you reach the Job Creek junction you would have to ditch your ride and hike the remain 7km or so up as it gets much sketchier. if you are taking a bike in there you would probably want to be careful as we encountered quite a few hunters, outfitters on horseback. The ride out would be amazing as it is fairly low gradient for the most part and rolling thorough the valley.

It isn't very steep until the last 7km from junction of Job Creek, it is more of a horse trail. The main issue with the trial is that you cross Corral Creek 12 times or something and it is fast current and 2-3 feet deep. Not much of an issue on a warm day, but the Lake is only open in August and the weather is real unpredictable up there for August. I would definately recommend it though for anyone looking for an easier long distance hike. The lake is gorgeous as is the valley you follow in. Only issue is that upon arrival we found 3 drunk, out of shape middle aged men with 2 flats of beer left. They had been dropped off for a couple days of fishin and camping and had been fishing the upper lake for a day or two without catching anything. They were bummed when we let them know that we heard the upper lake is devoid of fish...I suppose that was their karma for throwing empty beer cans all over the place. Also, last year I returned to Rainy Ridge Lake and made it in. If you follow the correct trail (which is very hard to find) it is a steep, but very short hike. We made it in a couple hours. Unfortunately the average fish seemed about 10 inches in length. Scenic though.

I had GPS coordinates and sketchy directions a few years back to get into Rainy Ridge Lake for Goldens. Myself and a couple buds decided to walk into what was supposed to be a few hour hike for an overnighter. Our directions ended up being completely wrong, although we did have a coordinate to follow. After hiking 6 hours of what was supposed to be 3, we set up camp at a fishless lake along the divide. We determined that although the lake was only 4 km's horizontal, the trail we followed was basically circling the lake without getting closer. We decided at first light we would use the GPS and bushwack through a couple valleys and a saddle of a mountain directly to the lake. That was a mistake. The slopes were steep -50 degrees or so much of the time, heavy timber. It was a strenuos but fun stroll then finally I could see a nice "pass" ahead that seemed to lead straight toward the lake. I pushed ahead of the guys, determined to wet the first fly. Up the saddle I pushed, climbing toward the top of the realtively low (relative to the divide that is) pass. As I crested the top- I beheld two lakes two hundred feet down a sheer slope in all directions except opposite our approach, km's away along a treacherous divide. About the time I was contemplating ways of using my minor climbing experience to scale down the wall, the fishermen in me and the boys perked up. Why not just hike our asses down the somewhat mellow, forested slope to the east toward the west castle and do some proper fishing instead of sitting up high watching the rise forms and risking life and limb for waht we hoped we probably just small goldens anyhow... 7 hours later and many scrapes, bruises(including ego's) we were at my truck, and headed out for an epic day on the west castle. One month later, still feeling the pain of defeat, I decided to invite my girlfriend to hike into Corral Lake with me in hopes of finally taking a peek at a golden trout. I convinced her to join me with promises of an easy 25km each way. I didn't bother telling her that I heard the hike described as "monumental", but everyone has different ideas of what is doable. Six inches of snow, a few inches of rain, 8 degrees cold and three days later I was standing on the bank of corral with a fat 17 inch golden trout. As the clouds built up over the alpine lake we hurried our tired and famished bodies down 7km to our gear stash near an outfitters camp in hopes of beating what looked like more snow. A man and his 16 year old son were camped out near our tent and young son had shot his first bighorn that day, so they invited us to join them in eating a whisky marinated sheep tenderloin for dinner that evening- never before has anything tasted so good. I have no idea how- perhaps it was our excellent dinner- bighorn power- but I we have never moved at the spped we ran down that trail the following day. In 8 hours we were back at my truck. At the trial head we spoke to an outfitter who has a temporary camp set up on the trail. Turned out the hike to the lake is 37km one way. That would be longest hike for a fish so far, although I have a many years to go, so we'll see...

I've used this for steelies on the dry on the Bulkley and Babine, i'd be interested in seeing effectiveness for 'bows. Has anyone tried riffile hitchin and swinging skaters or wakers on the bow? I found that while fishin in BC during steelie runs, swinging hitched flies I only really hooked into steelie adults and parr, no resident bows, the resident bows and bulls were only really hooked while swinging streamers and occasionally skunks. Anyone have much experience applying Atlantic/steelie techniques on the bow?