BBBrownie

Completely disagree with you Don. Just because someone has a drift boat doesn't mean they are a guiding. We all have the right to purchase a drift boat and float the Bow when we see fit without being accused of illegal guiding. It is ludicrous to think that if you have a boat you are a guide. Not even a logical argument!? It is absolutely nothing like your analogy above- unless it was a cold winters day and there was a shooting range next door. Do you seriously think that I would be one of the only anglers on the Bow that has a drift boat but isn't guiding? I know many personally, so to me that is laughable! Another perspective would be guides on days off. If there were ever a rod day system set up, how would you police guides fishing with friends in their drift boat on days off? Unless there is a physical exchange of money, goods, services, etc, for the day of fishing is it really guiding and on a river in an urban metropolis how would you ever enforce or prove this? Just sounds like a can of worms that could really complicate a great thing. I don't see this as a winning (or desirable) proposition for the average Bow River angler, would be negative for most of us, the only winners would be established local guides. The Bow River fishery is a public resource for ALL of us to enjoy not just guides looking for exclusivity.

Tough for me to comment on as the river I guide sees few recreational/DIY anglers due to difficult access, location... the few questionable situations that arise over a season are called in and investigated, but much different situation than we see here on the Bow. Luckily I am sheltered from much of the politics involved in a busier river such as prime time bulkley/kispiox/copper/kalum... I think we all must know by now that it isn't really being handled over there right now - See proposed Skeena AMP or any of the polarizing discussions regarding the AMP if you'd like to know how it is being handled in BC currently. Edit: I am not trying to provoke anything or turn this into an AMP discussion, etc, I just don't want to see the Bow turn into another combat river and am worried that a licensing system may be a step in that direction.

I guide in BC, but haven't here in Alberta, although I live in Okotoks and fish the Bow frequently when I am home. My concern with regulated guiding on the Bow is in regards to the definition of guiding on a river that is primarily a drift boat fishery and the ramifications of this. Owning a driftboat, any time I am behind the oars, like it or not, I will be accused of guiding. This happens in BC with the current system all the time when guides fish on a system with friends other than those that they have rod days for. Suddenly we have no right to enjoy a recreational day of fishing because of the perception of illegal guiding(unless angling only with fellow guides). It would be very difficult to distinguish between someone who is just taking their turn at the oars, and keeping their eyes out for risers, etc, and someone who is "illegally guiding." How could you possibly differentiate this? This will breed a certain amount of contempt on the river without a doubt. Even someone who doesn't guide for a living and has a drift boat, wants to take some buds out for a day(or many days) on the river risks being called out. Other than bank fishermen, the drift becomes a gift to the guides. This would be nearly unenforceable with the traffic that frequents the Bow. There is and can never be anything illegal about floating the river everyday with your own boat and friends, but if you do this would become the perception to guides and anglers alike. Could really polarize the angling community here in Calgary. As an Albertan, I don't think anyone has the right to tell me that I can't fish the river with my friends, or how often I can fish the river without being labeled a rogue guide or whatever when what I am doing is recreating, not guiding. When I am home the last thing I want to do is work on my days off, so there is no real risk of illegal guiding from me, it is all pleasure. On the other side of the coin, there will be huge issues with people claiming to be recreating, when in reality there is money being exchanged. How could you ever expect to police this in a city over a million without also bringing on all the negative vibes? Could you imagine the enforcement issues on the Skeena system if over a million lived in Smithers or Terrace?

Edit...haven't been around the internet for quite a while, made a thoughtful comment then noticed this has been beaten in a past thread...

Kevin was a great time on the Babine this fall, his jams kicked up the campfire party! Still have a couple of those tunes playing in my head...He did a great job on this clip!

Slick does the trick for me John. As Max said, stretch before first use or two, then you are off. I fished slick on both my main rigs this season and had no problems. It takes a little getting used to pinching it to the cork and this was my primary concern early on, but after a few days you get used to it, no issues. I have never had any problem wit setting the hook with this set up as others have mentioned as a possible con of the system, just business as usual with a little more shootability, less stick. I would say the only real con for me has been that the lifespan is fairly short, but then it is cheap and replaceable.

The Castle and tribs would be my choice, it has been fishing well this month.

The other side of the arguement is that some would ask why we are playing with food. I don't agree with the sentiment, but I've heard it many times. I also think that if it is sustainable, I have no issue with harvest of non-native, abundant populations. In many cases they are hybrids living in what was once westslope habitat, occupying a niche in between the colder headwaters of the cutty and the warmer foothills sections that the rainbows exploit. Angler harvest of a fish is in my opinion the wrong focus as they pale in comparison to the habitat degredation that is ongoing currently. If you really want to help, rally against the clear cut logging that is slated to occur throughout the Castle drainage this summer. That will have much more influence on fish numbers than bonking one. Think warming of water, siltation of spawning habitat, decrease in functional cover/LWD, decreased cahnnel complexity...

Nice! My buddy is staying in that area for a couple months and fished off the Marietta's a few times last month, had an absolute blast! That is an interesting looking Pompano!

Interesting...Sure a pile of bonefish specific guide operations based out of Oahu for an island with no bonefish opportunities? Looks to me like there are flats as well, albeit slighlty non-conventional.

Single hand rods can be nice for swinging dries for steel, and although it is definately possible to fish single hand for steel in the Skeena area (I did my first couple of years), I would 100% go with another spey rod, or possibly a switch. On a big river like the Bulkley or Skeena a single hand rod just doesn't cover as much water as I would like it to. On many of the smaller rivers you have no backcast room so would be relegated to single hand spey casts, etc. I found the biggest factor for me was that a week or two of throwing heavy tips and big weighted flies was just inefficient, hard on the shoulder, so I switched over to two hands ALMOST exclusively. I really enjoy fishing something in the 12-13 foot range and 7 -8 weight, dependent on what rivers you are fishing. There are a few rivers where a 7 is undergunned - Babine, Kispiox, Skeena mainstem...For Bulkley system a 7 or 8 weight 12-14 foot rod is suitable.

NICE! That will make a sweet stick, Bob does some incredible work. Now you just need to get yourself an old pre-war dingley or hardy to balance it out...Jealous!

relic of aquaculture - frankenfish... Akin to hatchery mutants missing maxilla, albinos, etc. To my knowledge, are not known to occur in a natural environment. Poor incubation conditions? Inferior breeding? Inbreeding? Too warm/cold/low oxygen? I am curious what relic of aquacultural conditions would lead to this expression...

I have also had fouled trailers, the key is to make the trailing loop JUST long enough to replace the hook if necessary. As long as your shank is longer than the loop plus the distance to the point of the hook, it will can't foul. Also, coated wire is stiff enough that the trailer stays true. When tying a long loop of braided lines fouling was always a problem as it isnt as stiff as coated wire. One fix to stiffen is to rub a thin coat of aquaseal over it.

I have broken slick shooter on a snag before, must have gotten a nick...I landed a nice hen on the Bulkely this fall on an intruder with a fire wire stinger, while pulling the hook out of the scissors I noticed the hok was holding on by a thread - must have frayed while bouncing along bottom...these observations have lead me to use coated 20lb wire from Micheals. Cheap, just stiff enough to hold the hook true, haven't had any durability issues yet.

Yep, what flytyer said. Think sparse and also think about trying for almost an umbrella profile. You need to use a ball of something stiff right behind you longer movement feathers to maintain a profile - think polar bear if available to you, I really like well combed arctic fox, Ed Ward uses spun deer hair. A pile of maribou will collapse when swung through anything with current. Less bulk = greater movement, plus a pile of maribou will soak water right up, making casting much more difficult than it needs to be. Color scheme is on track though. I would suggest either thinning the maribou to about 1/3 of that if you are limited to using maribou, or preferably using ostrich or rhea instead. Ostrich is much more cost effective and really you can spin a good number ouf intruders from just one feather. Good luck with these, part of the fun for me with intruders is learning with each iteration, what works and doesn't, then modifying the following batch. Good start, have fun with em!

you definately don't want to take a go ahead enhancing stream bed and banks or transfering browns without approval from SRD and DFO. Any sort of alteration to fish habitat (regardless of how marginal/modified said habitat may be) has the potential to trigger a HADD (harmful alteration, disturbance and disruption of fish habitat) through DFO. Large fines are involved in triggering a HADD. With DFO notification, you may potentially be granted approval. Look up HADD on the DFO website for more information. Bucket planting of fish in watercourses without proper research and/or expertise (especially with non-native trout sp.) has been a huge problem for fisheries managers in Alberta in the past, regardless of recreational potential. Current management has been focused more on native species recovery than introduction of non natives to new systems. The course of action you would need to follow would begin with contacting regional fisheries management staff for the area. Contact information can be found on the Alberta SRD website. Approach the regional biologist with your proposition for clarification/direction, but honestly, don't expect this proposal to go far - they likely won't be keen on stocking non-natives into a flowing system.

Too funny! When I first started with a spey rod I tried to get the general idea behind a couple casts then headed to the Thompson with it. I had been fishing steelhead singlehand prior to that, but the thought of singlehand swinging on the Thompson intimidated me for obvious reasons...I got to the river, started making what were at the time terrible snap T's, wasn't working great, so I figured out that I could use a spey cast to get the line straight out in front of me, then pick up line and bomb 'er over my head. That was working great, getting 100 feet easily, until end of the third day, I was deep into a backcast, and perhaps over applied the power a bit on the forward stroke and my Zaxis 8129 made a thundering "CRRRAACCCKKK" and snapped off right above the cork...mind blowing. not sure if there was an unknown nick on the blank or something, but after that I vowed to learn a proper spey cast and never looked back.

You can cast a spey rod overhand as well if you really want to, can bomb it a mile, just a lot more efficient to cast it spey style. Nothing is fixed, use the rods how ever it suits you, hell, you can cast the average 9" single hander spey style well also, which I often do if it makes sense as the best cast for a given situation.

Sports Rent in Bowness rents NRS rafts.

I generally find olives/yellow/brown/black/white to be the most effective color schemes on the bow for sculpin patterns. Sculpins are colored the same as the substrates they live on, look at the bottom on the runs you like and tie accordingly. Edit: interestingly (to me anyhow), mature male sculpins have distinctive bands of orange on their dorsal fin as well - almost a pumpkin orange...never tried tying any into a pattern, and although distinctive when looking at a sculpin in hand, I'm not sure how well it shows in the water. Might be worth an experiment.

You can reprint only if you originally purchased from a vendor. If you purchased your license on the Alberta RELM website, you can only reprint off the internet, not from a vendors machine. Really goofy system. Had this happen last year when heading angling, didn't have my license, but was planning to stop at a shop on the way, figured, no problem, I will just reprint. Didn't work, luckily the shop had the internet so they allowed me to log onto the RELM site and reprint. This year, heading hunting I purchased my license online, the new system sends you tags in the mail that you register on the RELM site. Went to print, printer was out of ink. Forgetting the fishing license system from the previous year (and probably expecting this couldn't still be the case) I stopped at the Longview esso, tried to reprint, was not successful, had to cancel hunting for the day. Lesson learned by now (hopefully)!

Thanks for sharing the Scharf clip, that was great. Must...get...back...west..The Hanna Belford stuff is rad too, I have been dead set on a Bougle ever since I heard hers singin.

Longview Jerky shop does everything. Had some really nice Italian sausage done up there a couple years ago. Lost my hanging/butchering space this year so they've got a little buck of mine right now.

sexy! Although I agree with headscan, double handle may be dangerous when that sucker starts spinnin. Is it loud? I like loud...