BBBrownie

Hey, I resent that! Edmonton is a great city, I would say much superior to Calgary...too bad about the trout fishing though! I am a transplanted Edmontonian, as much as I liked it there, the fishing here makes up for a lot. Aside from the numerous stocked potholes surrounding nearby etown, you realistically have a two hour drive to most fly water, south or west, or I suppose north (grayling) in the open water season. You could head south west to stauffer creek it is open, I am not sure whether the red deer river is open (I believe it is?) but it has big browns and is a tailwater, much like the bow is, so you will find open water. Good luck!

If you want good waders, do not go with Reddington. I had the CPS for a year, really liked the fit, never leaked, 4 days before heading on a 2 week steelhead trip in the fall a seam began leaking. Warranty was amazing, sent me a brand new pair of CPX zipper front, had them courriered (sp?) tome within 2 days (amazing!) without having recieved the leaking waders yet. Unfortunately the CPX (or fat guy waders as I like to call them - beer gut shaped and with a piss zipper) began seam leaking within 4 days of fishing so I was relegated to neoprene (showing off the rig) which isn't a situation I particularily enjoy. When I returned from that trip, I sent both my old and new waders back, and received another pair of the fat guy waders, this time without the piss zipper (I requested this because I thought perhaps they would be a slimmer fit (like my old CPS). Unfortunately they are still extra girthy, but good I suppose, if you like to wear a lot of sweaters and they do air the farts rather quickly. Moral of the story, great warranty, but leaky seams.

Droolll, drrooolll, high quality ostrich, drooolll... is it that steelhead anglers stuff? If it is I will be there friday (payday!).

I wasn't a big fan. Definately a renter. I didn't even think it lived up to the hype (whether negative or positive). Half the film - Road trip, poor us, no fish, bad weather (welcome to steelheading! It wouldn't be any other way!) then second half was bent rod, then cock grippin big steelhead. Then abrupt ending. There you go. No more, no less to it. No morals, lessons, reflections, techniques to it, just tittin then fishin. Thats how I stacked it anyhow...

easy! head to the bow this weekend- if that is possible for you. It is fishing well right now.

The shot where you are dragging the boat in the fog is a great shot.

I think it is just too easy to get caught up in a numbers game. I suppose we all have different resons for fishing, different asthetics, but for me it generally isn't at all about numbers. Most days I prefer to catch fish on my own terms, which for me means dead drifting or swinging a dry whenever possible, and often swinging streamers in the winter, etc. Having said that, if the dry fly isn't happening after a couple hours I will occasionally throw on a rig. Doesn't happen very often between about June and October though, I must say. I think my best days on the Bow often involve a couple slow hours, then spot a persistant riser, stalk onto it and hook up. Sometimes I will only catch one in a couple hours, but for me this is a quality angling experience. This is only me fishing by MY terms, buggers and dries. If nymphs float your boat, all the power to ya! It is great that we have this wonderful fishery that affords us the option of choosing personal style.

I would also like to see some sort of literature linking the mines to an improved fishery. I have never heard of this phenomenon, perhaps there is a process occuring that differs from the headwater mines in Alberta? In Alberta we have a series of coal mines near Robb which are on the Cardinal, Greg and tributaries of the Pembina. I have read that elevated heavy metals (including selenium and flouride) greatly reduce reproductive success and early stage growth. I may have also read something about increased deformities in young, reducing fry survival. I would assume that these processes would also occur in the Elk drainage, but perhaps there is some sort of a fertilation affect happening perhaps increasing productive capacity, that is working in the Elk drainage?

blarg.

Michelle and Armande of Bow River Shuttles organize it. Their website with contact info is http://www.telusplanet.net/public/shuttles/contact.html

Gone to vegas for a week, sorry for delayed response! Yes, this is indeed Kinsey. No, it wasn't my first steel, just one of those days where nothing seems to work, rainey, cool morning, then last couple hours the sun broke out, so did the steel. I supose I just really enjoyed fishing Kinsey on that particular day. I think it was also due to having some time with a hen player just before the buck. She plucked 4 flies, but wouldn't take solid to anything. First hit a steelblue and black bugger, then a silver hilton, then a prawn pattern, then a purple peril, then finally I tied back on the original bugger and she smashed it and took me for a ride. Oh, and Bedhead, I am not going to argue semantics with you. This is a photo post not a pissing contest, or a moral judgement. I treat every fish I catch and release with the utmost respect and never target stale fish. Nice fish by the way.

That is fantastic! The flathead is a special valley, I love reading Andy Russells stories about the old days in the Flathead...In celebration of the mining ban, I think I will fish the flathead this summer.

After a very slow day, I was fortunate enough to find this guy and his girl in the above piece of water. One of those days that ends perfectly, a couple fish, the way the light was reflecting off the water through a thin fog at times, grizzly tracks in the sand, pleasurable wading, alone on the run, heaven as far as I could tell...

a very special place, on a special day for me...

kispiox chrome...

some more bc fish...

Burbot primarily use barbels for feeding. Barbels are sensory organs that look like tentacles or whiskers below the maxillary. They have something similar to taste buds on the end of the barbels, swim near the bottom feeling around with the barbels for food, this is why they often take bait off the bottom. Similar setup to catfish. Interestingly, burbot are most active in the winter during the day, and in the summer and at night. As far as I know they are the only fish species in Alberta that actually gains more mass in the winter than in the summer. This is why you generally will see more burbot in the winter icefishing than in the summer. They are trying to gain weight for spawning, which occurs late in the winter.

Agreed.

Probably my favorite bow - rainbow of the year, my first spey caught fish, I saw him rising consistantly to caddis, so I tied on a goddard and skated it right into his jaw. He fought hard enough to get the 7 weight multi flexin.

well, perhaps I will add a couple more. I have some gorgeous cutt pics from this summer kicking around that I can't seem to find, I'll keep looking! Anyhow here are a few various pics. Juvenile bully with beautiful markings made for a nice shot, a snakey bow that absolutely smashed a hopper in a very shallow riffle and had only one eye, and my favorite landed fish of the year, a nice big steelhead buck that kicked my ass, then posed for a picture.

That was a nice little personal jab! Just so you know I never stated which side of the "climate change" debate I am on, only that I support minimizing emissions, pollutants. I also do not think that harvesting game is in any way "on the other side of the fence>" You are linking carbon emissions to harvesting game as being in any way related(Other than the fuel my truck burns on the way to the forest)? I harvest sustainable animals as I am a conservationist, not a preservationist, there is a huge difference that you can look up if you are not aware of this. We do indeed influence our environment in many ways, some of which greatly benefit certain species, native or not. White tail deer have expanded their range with the advent of agriculture. They are not native to the calgary area, only naturalized. In the same way that I have no qualms with harvesting (albeit rarely) non-native fish species, or even native fish species(if it is a necessary management tool in modified or desturbed ecosystems), I have no issues with sustainable harvest of game species. I really don't care whether you are utilitarian, dominionistic, transcendental or what, I jsut observed from your list of values for the earth that they were all anthropocentric. Again, not looking for personal attacks here, this is how you become ostracized, your point will be moot. So, good on you for preaching your beliefs, but in the end neither of us is a climatologist (well, I am not anyhow) or an expert studying in this field, so all we have is opinions and my opinion is that garbage is bad, and climate change needs transparent research. BTW, I have taken many dumps on dual flush toilets, perhaps mine are well shaped or something, but they flush just fine thank you (although that may have to do with my being a vegetarian for the year due to not having time to harvest an animal this fall).

Just so you know, all the bad science surrounding the climate change issue, IPCC, really burns me up as well. Even though I believe in sustainabilty, reducing consumption, etc, I really think this issue has a big black eye at the moment. I say shame on those who use science as selfish vehicle. The big problem here is that it is often very difficult tp get the public on side with a movement, to gain public trust to affect political will. When bad science is used in the manner that some abusers have in this issue, the public really loses faith. This hurts good, pure and applied science in the end. A shame is that regardless of the true processes occuring in the climate change arena, the issue may remain muddy for a long time to come as it will be very difficult to win public support back for true research and real science.

This all looks like a monologue/personal crusade to me. Is there something you feel guilty about (dirty job, drive a hummer, support feedlots, dump oil down the catchbasin, etc) and perhaps need to try and absolve yourself? I realize that the jury is still out, but bottom line, the more garbage we produce, the worse off we are. I don't care whether you believe in climate change or not, if you produce emissions, they will accumulate, there will at some point be an effect, just like if we were to all piss straight into the river (untreated), at some point it would accumulate and there would be an effect. I am never on the side of polluting and I will always seek to minimize consumption as as the more *hit we pile up, the worse off we will be. A problem I see with your list (on an admittedly quick read through) is that you don't figure in any sort of ecological arguement. It appears to me that you have a fairly utilitarian view toward nature, which is common in Alberta. You see it as only for our use, not much value beyond what we need. See, I will disagree and say that I don't feel that we have a right to continually plunder natural systems, I don't see you or me as being superior to any other living thing, don't have the right to continually take. We MUST seek ways of becoming sustainable, reducing our consumption to producing our items - food, fuel, clothing, etc from lands already dusturbed. Of course I realize that at this time it is a pipe dream, but I feel that we have the responsibility to try. Just because we are smarter than than any other organism and have opposable thumbs does not mean that we have the right to exploit everything that we are able to dominate. I am as bad as most, I drive, I have a yard, I have a dog, I probably eat more than I should some times, but I do try and reduce my footprint through the many little things I can...reduce my water usage (don't water lawn, keep rain barrels for plants, 4 short showers per week, saving for dual flush toilets), only eat meat if it is sustainable game, recycle anything we can, focus purchases on items with minimal packaging, and many other things. Bottom line, you must at least try. Defeatist attitudes will make the world a worse place for my kids, your kids, their kids, and all the living things that currently exist here.