mikefromsundre

wife has used the lady's waders from cabelas for 2 years now -no problem. check out linda mclennan's web site. she has been involved with casting for life and women's fly fishing for years. she might be able to offer some advice.

Trying to stay dry and warm.

"A landowner is a landowner and he controls pretty much who can access his land even grazing lease." ...except any surveyor and any energy company that wants onto your land. They have the mineral rights most land owners do not.

wife broke her's this summer. 5 minutes at Springbrook in Calgary and I had the new piece ready to fish... No need for a receipt even.

I agree I am stereotyping, but in the past when I have had a problem with a warrantied product such as small stereo, DVD player and scroll saw I have been told I had to take it up with the company not the store. When we had problems with a computer printer bought in a local small store and a bbq was missing parts also bought from a local store they did the work for me. They contacted the companies and got the new printer and missing parts. The stereo I ended up throwing away because I was going to have to take it to the companies repair shop in Calgary. The scroll saw I had to deliver to a depot in Red Deer and it was sent away for about 6 months. Thank goodness I have not had similar problems with sports gear, especially fishing gear that has been bought at large chain stores. A friend did have a very good experience with a rifle he bought. I have always found the staff in all Calgary outdoor stores, including Bass Pro to be very friendly and helpful. i also had a favorable response on a pair of leaky waders years ago from Cabelas. I guess my hate is on for the larger consumer box stores. I myself do hate stereotyping people eg. everyone who owns a quad is a jerk... Faceless large corporations I do not have a problem stereotyping. I have had too many bad experiences with the big stores versus the small independent ones. My experience from all my life in small towns is the jerks that run small independent stores do not succeed. Can the same be said for the big box stores? I do not know.

My kids rods are the low end TFO so I guess if I break them I can quickly get into Calgary and replace them before they know. Gets me thinking -perhaps I should be using their cheap rods which can be replaced quickly if broken and not my built rods which I have to rebuild if I break them (lol). I know I built them to use. Boy am I off topic. My original point is I like the bargains at the big chain stores but you cannot beat the service from the small guys. We see that in small towns all the time. Sundre Motors (GM) was far better to deal with for a used car this summer than Red Deer. However now GM is closing Sundre because it is not big enough. So my fear of the big chains is that we may appear to gain in value but do we really? Sundre Motors has always stood behind their products here because they know they cannot tick people in a small town off. I think the same holds for any small shop owner. They tick one customer off and he spreads the word and the store hurts. Walmart ticks you off who suffers? I try to boycott Walmart on principle -who suffers, them? I don't think so. Someone spreads the word about Local Joe's Fly Shop and Coffee Bistro and it will suffer. Having said this I do shop for things at the chains, but realize if I am in trouble with a product I likely will be on my own.

Dry flies and cutts are really not as easy this year. One very good afternoon on the SRam my wife and I could throw any big foam leggy fly at them and expect a take. However the best fishing was in the faster water at the top of every run. At one run we did not see a single fish from the slower tail of the run where we usually find them(?). Water was higher and faster than normal(?) Same Tues on the NRam. However yesterday on the Livingstone fish were mostly in the slower water taking dries and not in the fast. Streamers did find some in the fast water but they were not looking to the surface. That is what is great about nature -just when you think you know it all something different happens.

...And yes I never leave home now without a spare rod and reel. It helps that my kids have left their rods in my care when they have moved. Don't tell them I use their rods as my spares (lol).

Broke my Sage a few years ago. I had built it myself so I phoned the guys at Fish Tales to see what I should do. They explained the procedure to me and then offered to send my rod to Sage with a shipment they were sending even though I had not bought the blank from them. Now isn't that service? Since I am from out of town I gratefully declined their offer and mailed it myself. As I recall the rod was back in a couple of weeks -but of course then I had to start into to rebuild the broken piece. I had to pay the shipping both ways and had to insure the broken rod when I shipped it. So really the $30 that TFO charged my wife this summer when she broke her TFO is not excessive and we had to new rod ready to go in a day.

Agree. I am beginning to feel guilty every time I pull off the road to random camp like I have done for years or when I unload my quad to drive up a road or trail. I too have seen a change in attitude and behavior from some the last few years. It is getting harder for me to live my philosophy -I always try to leave a campsite, be it a random spot, campground, high mountain meadow that I hike into, wherever, better when I leave than when I first got there. Sometimes now I would have to haul an entire half ton load of garbage out or carry a full pack of beer cans and garbage out from the stream. The "redneck" camper of old enjoyed and appreciated the bush and would not do anything to harm it.

Does classifying waters such as the Elk and Michelle Ck actually result in less pressure? I have not read any scientifically collected data or information on the topic. From personal observation I felt it actually had increased the pressure on Michelle. A couple of years after the regs went into affect I saw far more rental cars and out of country license plates. I met a fella from the US who told me that when he saw that the Elk system was now classified he figured it had to be good fishing if they were going to the trouble of classifying it. In other words classifying it drew more attention to it. Bob Scammel makes a similar observation in the recent Cdn Fly Fisherman. My second thought is raising fees starts to make fishing exclusive. My guess is when that happens the "average" Albertan starts to say to hell with fishing and you soon are faced with even a bigger reduction in licenses sold than we have over the years. I realize it is hard for some Albertans to understand that a great many of us are on budgets. A friend of mine had to give up fishing in BC because there was no room in his budget for the high cost of a license plus $20 per day. I have had to do the same in other areas. The cost of golfing at the local courses has reduced the number of rounds I can golf a year. Again I realize for many Albertans that is hard to fathom -but it is reality for many of us. Higher fees for fishing, two tier medical systems, private schools.... so we charge more for streams so that the select few can have a great experience. I agree we need far more enforcement out there... but will that reduce pressure? It will help the fisheries though and that should be our focus not can I have a great day without a lot of others around. If that is your aim as has been said earlier get a map and some hiking boots. My wife and I had a wonderful day all to ourselves last week on a cutthroat stream after a 45 minute hike away from everyone else. I have said it before I feel a lot of the pressure is a result of our promoting and advertising of what we have. Doubts- check out the articles in the recent issue of Cdn Fly Fisherman.

Wife and I were on the Ram this week. Fish were in love with any big foam fly with lots of rubber leg wiggling. The only problem was hook up. The dry fly hooks I used for foam flies have too small of a gap once all that foam is tied on top. So continuing with the topics of the 2 thread below -what hooks are you using for big foam flies? Club sandwich, Chern. ants, Alien bugs in sizes 12 and up...

I fell and bent my favorite little reel -an Orvis 3-4 weight Battenkill. It is about 20 years old and was still working like it was new. I bent it so the spool would not spin inside the rim. I have managed to carefully rebend it. It still wobbles a bit, I did not want to get too aggressive with rebending and end up cracking it. I used it for 4 days last week and it seems to work just fine. But it is scratched up. Has anyone attempted to repaint scratches on a reel? Or should I just live with it and think of the the scratches as character?