Keith

Recent study out of the U of C showed that bear spray was effective in 90% of encounters. The stuff does work.

What type of line do you guys usually use for swinging streamers? Floating, floating with a split, sink tip, or full sink?

Has anyone used/tested their yet? How well does it work? Any problems with tangles?

Sounds like fun.

These regulations have more to do with chauvinism and protectionism than they do with the protection of the fishery, and that is why they are so annoying to people. I would absolutely bet my life that the number of fish getting hooked on Elk has not gone down since the introduction of these regs. I have even heard of one study that is finding an increase in pressure because people feel the need to get their 20 bucks worth, so instead of fishing for a couple of hours and grabbing a pint they are hammering the river from sun up to sun down to get their 20 bucks. This is just one more case of people trying to pass of an environmental public policy in order to meet their own political or personal aims. If they really wanted to protect the fishery then they would increase the fees for BC residents, as they are the majority users. This is comparable to Dion's green shift. In principal a tax on carbon sounds great, but wait, we aren't going to tax gasoline, which is the single largest source of carbon emissions in the country. What is the sense of regulating a problem if you are going to let the largest source of the problem slide through. Well in Dion's case it's because taxing gasoline is a very unpopular idea with voters, so we'll tax oil plants in Alberta and let drivers and voters in Ontario slide. In BC it's the same thing - let's drive off Alberta anglers, but we'll leave 90% of the anglers to do their thing because they can vote in our jurisdiction. I would totally be all for any restrictive regulations to protect the fish here or in BC (or to limit CO2, for that matter) but these policies are just ugly politics dressed up as enviro solutions.

What I don't understand is why Alberta hasn't stepped up to this. I see BC plates on the Crow all the time. Is the Crow not a busy river? I say we fix our 'crowding problem.' For a province that is known (and reviled) nationally for not letting people mess with us or our resources, I can't believe that nothing has been done about this.

Humble, where do you find these monsters? That's the gnarliest fish I've seen this year.

This was the hardest fighting trout that I've ever caught. I had 2X on and I had the rod cranked over with side pressure, but I couldn't budge this fish. I thought for sure it was foul hooked, but when I brought it in the nymph was just sitting in the corner of it's jaw. It made some nice runs and came out of the water a couple of times, but it spent a lot of the long fight just hovering in behind rocks in the riffle where I caught it. It would take me minutes to budge it out of there before it would run and then do it all over again.

It difficult to say without knowing where they came from. But I would go with: 1) Westslope Cutt - difficult to say purity without knowing some history of the location. But no spots on head or below lateral line say that this one is more on the pure side. It does have a pink stripe, but colouration isn't a good guide. Color will change with the seasons and according to the food in the any given water. 2) Hybrid, for sure 3) Hybrid, for sure

The easiest, though not necessarily the best, ways to tell are the spotting on the sides and head of the fish. Pure Westslopes will have an arc on their sides from the anal fin to the head where they don't have any black spots below the lateral line. Westslopes also generally don't have spots on their heads. And they generally tend to have larger spots. If you have a cutty with spots below the lateral line on its sides or spots on its head then it is a hybrid. If that spots are small then that is also another indication. As trailhead said, there are not a lot of pure westslope populations left. Some are more/less hybridized depending on the quality of habitat for rainbows. As most know, westslopes tend to have the competitive advantage in higher colder waters, while rainbows win out down lower, so depending on how suited the water is to rainbows then less will have moved in, although it only takes one to compromise genetic purity, which is why there are few pure populations left. If you want to be sure then look at some of the academic or resource papers that have been released, and to be really sure go fishing above a barrier to rainbow migration such as a waterfall. There are some populations around that live above falls and these are likely to be the only populations that we will have left at some stage. It's important that we recongize these and protect them.

I know trout unlimited was doing a bit of a project, and I have heard reports of fish being in there. However, there are plenty of obstructions to fish movement, and lots of fertalizer than runs off into it. I think a better question than 'is there fish in it' is: Is it worth fishing. I would have to say that's pretty doubtful. Would be interesting to try though if you wanted to put in the time.

I lived in New Zealand for a while and I also puzzled over the same question. I think the most important question is constant temperature, but I also think that subspecies/strain and the presence of large water bodies plays a part. Constant temp seems the main factor to me. In New Zealand, especially on the North Island the temperature is relatively constant all year round. They don't get below zero or above 25 too often, which keeps the fish in their ideal conditions. As we all know, Alberta has one of the more nasty winters on earth, but we've also had some seriously hot weeks lately, which are hard on the fish as well. NZ gets none of those. NZ has the most efficient agricultural sector on earth for a reason - the constant temps make it a great place to grow things and that means bugs and fish too. Another thing NZ has is a lot of large lakes and reservoirs on both islands. In a lot of rivers, including the famous Tongariro the largest fish are generally fish that run up out of these large bodies of water. So essentially they are catching land-locked steelhead. As far as I know we don't have something similar to that in Alberta, but in BC and Ontario the similar situation occurs with trout in the 15 - 20 lb range being caught in rivers (Larger if you count the Gerrards). Trout as large as 50lbs spawn up out of kootney lake into the Gerrard river, although you are not allowed to fish them when they are in the river. Check out the DVD 'Landing the trout of your life' by John Barr and Landon Mayer to see them catching 15-18lb browns that run up out of Lake Ontario. As mentioned above, strain can be a big factor. I am not sure of the strain/life-history forms that were stalked in NZ. However, in Blue Ribbon Bow, Jim Mclennan mentions that it is suspected that Bow River Rainbows are from a Californian Steelhead strain. This was determined from stocking histories, and makes sense given their silver colour, long spawing travels and hard fighting. So this would factor into the size of the Bow 'bows, although not all steelhead strains are necessarily huge. I know the Bow has been electrofished in the past. That data must be public or there must have been some volunteers along for the ride. If the river does have any of those mystery lunkers that rarely get caught, I suspect one or two would have been shocked over the years. Anyone know anything about that?

I second Cataract Creek. Both upstream and downstream of the falls. Upstream of the trunk road, walk to the second bridge and then fish up. There are a lot of brookies in there. Downstream of the falls there are several species. Quirk Creek also has lots of brookies and it would be good if you got involved in the Brook Trout Supression Project.

There is definitely a strong difference between dry and nymph hook setting, and it can be a real problem when you fish dry one day and nymph the next. I try to make a real conscious effort as soon as I'm on the water to start setting the hook correctly for the type of fishing I'm doing. If you start off setting it wrong then it's harder to get yourself to adjust. At least it is for me.

That's a nice looking fish. No doubt about it being a hybrid.

That project has been on going for many years now, and has made a significant impact. There are a lot of cutties in Quirk these days. Fish the lower sections and you'll be surprised. I agree with the recommendation to buy Barry Mitchell's Trout Highway. That book has put me onto more trout than any other, plus it's a good read. Especially for a beginner, it is invaluable.

I agree with that reccomendation. I fish that area often and it can be up and down. The water is already getting low in that area and the browns can be sluggish on hot days. I find the best success early in the moring (before 9 or 10) during the warm weeks.

"Dreaming on the grayling score"??? I used to work at Edson West Gas Plant and I spent every evening catch piles of grayling. The Embarass river still holds the provincial record for grayling. And the Erith is probably the best river for catching a McLeod river rainbow. Also the C&R regs that have been in place for quite a few years means the number and size of the fish can be decent. The stoneflies should be coming out on the Embarass soonish, and the fish are more than willing to take a dry. I have caught some nice size grayling there. Access to these two rivers isn't that easy, but it means the fishing is better if you put in the effort, and the Embarass does come along HWY 40 in the middle and upper reaches. The Erith is harder. The easiest bet for Grayling is right in Sundance creek. In the prov park the creek is bushy and casting can be tough, but the fish are willing and there even a few browns in there. The easiest place to catch a grayling is where HWY 40 crosses sundance, south of HWY 16. It's not a nice fishing spot as it is right on the hwy and gets fished often, but there are plenty of Grayling and some good hatches in this section. The McLeod is also a decent river, but I generally stay away because the access to it is too easy. I have never fished there without running into ATVs, bait packages or the like. Emerson Lake has good fishing for brookies.

Get well soon Jim. I love your books and hope you'll write many more.

I can't believe the quality of those ties!

I would definitely take part.

A few people mentioned that they create the same thing with their vises when clamping the barbs on their own hooks. Can some one please exlpain how you do it? If you don't crush it down all the say it leaves a little rise on the hook, but I don't get the kind of bump that was shown in that picture.

When I was down at Christmas Island all of the guides used a similar tool to release fish without using net. I bought one off them the 10 bucks.

This topic has likely been discussed before, but I've always wondered how long it take a hook to break down in a fish's mouth. If you break off a fish and it isn't able to shake the hook, how long will it take to rust out? Have there been studies on this? I'm sure there is a big difference from salt to fresh water.