Bowcane

Tax grab by a differant name, put the rose coloured glasses on if for a second you think a cent will go where it should be...oh and get over the BC thing already, yup its not fair but nethier is life!

And the reason for doing this closing would be what? I assume people think that doing this will have the Bow brimming with Browns from bank to bank. Quite likely the limiting factor(s) in Brown trout numbers are 1) anchor and frazzle ice freezing eggs in the winter 2) low flows in the winter again freezing eggs in the redds 3)high flows during incubation scouring eggs out of the redds 4) run-off sweeping fry away from sheltered back waters and 5)fry predation. Theres likely more but point is spawning and nursery habit are the limiting factors in trout production on every stream, river, lake or pond on this planet. Now someone is going to say that if guys were not trampling redds there would be more more fish because there would be better egg survival. If that were so, take a river that has little wading on it, say the Red Deer...we all know how many browns are in the Red Deer, not exactly polluted with them is it. Why...poor egg and fry survival, because the trout there are limited to spawning in the main river. If the tribs were of any use there would be far more trout in it. So rather than waste time and effort on basically a plan that would limit peoples fishing oppertunities, focus on improving the spawning and fry conditions in the trib waters such as Fish creek, Nose creek and the Elbow. When I lived in Ontario we (TU, various Clubs, even the OMNR) wasted piles of time, effort and money trying to improve spawning for Browns and Steelhead with rather poor results. We then relized we were spending our efforts in the wrong area, then when we focused on trib spawning we had fantastic results (summer temps were an issue main stream but my point made). There is no scientific evidence to support this closure so I say...NO.

The whole issue has to do with the size and scale of the operation. For example, as a former Ontario guy and left about the time Dalton McStupid showed up, his big thing was to fight smog by shutting down Ontario's coal fired power plants, Lambton near Sarnia, Nanticoke near Long point and Lakeview at the centre of the universe (Toronto). Dont get me going on his alternatives! However on a scale of 'clean' they were the cleanest and biggest coal plants around, but the total volume/wieght of emissions were the highest going by single source. (high bang for the ton) Now in the US of A, just about anyone with enough cash can build and run thier own power plant and sell it to the grid. Therfore you have a lot of small operators using a lot of coal to generate relitivly little power(low bang for the ton) but can claim to have low emissions. So you need a lot of small plants to generate the same power of Ontario's three. As far as where they get thier coal, the powder river basin, it isnt no garden of eden anymore, they just do a better job of hiding and spreading the mess out. For example there are roughly 30-35 train loads per day shipped, 320000 net tons, it roughly takes that much horsepower to move those trains. The average distance travelled is 1000 miles, 1280000 gallons of diesel fuel...per day, 365 days a year. Ever heard of death by a thousand stabs? But you really dont notice a single stab do you? Those ontario plants burned mostly eastern, cleaner, coal, shorter routes and a lot by ship. Still not great but cleaner on a scale of dirty. So the tar/oil sands is like a great big puss filled zit out there were the whole world can see it, mean while the world has undetected high blood pressure!

You beat me to my edit; Overall mining and burning of coal has more impact the oil and gas, however because of its BTU rating, which some say is higher than oil and gas (it is the apple and orange comparision though) is the fuel of choice for power plants. It is the only fuel in the form of coke which can be used the the mass production of steel, that high BTU rating.Plus there is way more coal than oil and gas suppositly. Clean coal simply refers to low sulfur, ash and volitiles. Its still a dirty fuel. So yes it is a sales pitch. Bituminous coal and better is refered to as 'clean coal', but its still coal. Go look at downtown Coleman down by the CPR next time you're at the crow.

Coal in a nut shell from hardest to softest, cleanest to dirtiest burning; -Coke, almost pure carbon with little or no volatiles, smokeless. This is usually Bituminous coal heated to 2000° in a air (oxygen) free oven to drive (burn) off the volatiles. Mostly used in steel making. -Anthracite, cleanest burning hard coal, approx 22-28 million BTU/ton. This is the coal from Pennsylvaina sometimes called 'Blue coal'. -Bituminous coal, next cleanest burning, approx 21-30 million BTU/ton -Sub-Bituminous, this is the Powder river basin coal of Wyoming burned in a lot of US power plants -Lignite, soft very dirty coal, high in sulfur and other volatiles, approx 9-17 million BTU/ton As stated the clean burning coal refers to sulfur, ash and volatile content, however, burning the carbon produces, well, carbon dioxide...use that however you wish! Its the sulfur which is the cause of acid rain and the blackening of limestone buildings.

In no order; no name fibreglass Hardy Hollakona (cane) Hardy Wye (cane) Fenwick HMG Fenwick Iron feather Powell Spey Powell ? model 5wt Hardy favourites, deluxes, sovereigns (4, maybe 5 in total) Fibatube Sage SP, XP, LL, SPL, VT2 (a good ten or so) Lamiglas, various models/blanks (about a half dozen) St Croix, various models (ditto) TFO'S Redingtons Scott Payne (reproduction)

Perhaps this is best for the tying section, but since it applies to Spey here goes. Anyone do any experiments, have opinions, heard anything on black up eye hooks VS bronzed down eye inregards to hook up percentage? Could fish be attracted or spooked by one or the other? Bright day bright hook, dull day black hook? The black up eye hooks while providing a natural diving action (un-weighted) do have a rather bold hook profile, while the bronze hooks tend to have a rising action (un-weighted) and a flashy look. I've always tied my spey wet flies with the blackened hook and an curious if I'm missing fish. Swtching back and forth really isnt a good experiment because we all know that we can swing a fly a dozen times through a spot and on the thirteenth get the fish that was there all the time ignoring it. Yup, it likely doesn't matter one bit in those pea size brains of theirs but who knows!

I found a 12' 6wt to be the best for just about any-thing any-where resident freshwater. Something smooth and light (too bad Sage didn't/doesn't make a SP spey rod!) with a traditional action which loads nice in the 350-400 grain range with short and mid belly lines, and scandi's 290-325 grain with a nice crisp feel . Does all the tips to 6"/sec and flexes enough to handle 24"ers on flies down to #16-#18.

Yes try them all, but on the first point, while I can only speak for myself, I'd much rather single spey with a scandi/WC as my first choice, then snake roll/jelly roll. If I'm using a difficult to lift tip, then snaps. Not calling the double out dated, but it is a very slow cast prone to your sink tip, well sinking if the first stage is done improperly. All too often people tend to drag the first stage rather than lift it. Cresent lifts help greatly.The mechanics and sheer lifting power of skagit basically overcome this. One thing to remember with skagits when singling and rolling is to use a lighter head then you'd normally use, and anchor placement can be difficult but not un-doable. I tried and used it skagits, but in the end found them little advantage...for how and where I fished. If I ever get through my 'gotta fish there' list and get to a Pacific NW coast stream then by all means I'll re-investage skagit. Before someone asks, yes you can lift a tip with a single spey using, and I do it, with my previously described WC set-up and scandi's. I've only used mids for Atlantics on the Margaree so I really cant comment other than to say I was using long mono leaders/light polytips and down force flies, though I bet heavy tips would be a bugger! In the end I still think the Rio WC and its competiters are one of the best all round lines...the F100 (that dates me!) of spey lines

One big point we've all missed that just occured to me, with a WC the head is about 50' plus tip/leader and rod your out there about 75' cast after cast...no need to strip running line back, a big plus in the winter. No guide icing, wet hands getting cold, gloves/mitts getting wet etc.

Before buying a new line try some tips on your WC, you may have to cut it and your tips a bit but it does work. With my Scott LS1206 I can cast all the rio 6wt tips (inter, type3 & 6), I shortened the WC6 about 3' and cut the tips to 10'. I'll say it up front, I'm not a big skagit fan and other than fishing the Niagara gorge @ 10000CMS cant think of any situation east of the rockies where you have to. You relize for the most part you will only be able to double spey and the snaps? If I were to buy a new line I'd look into the Guideline DDC Scandi system with both floating and intermediate bellys. Scandi will do all you want here, after all it was developed for fishing those tight Norwegian fiords with big tube flies in the winter, and these rivers are not spring creeks. Yes you still have to get down for Atlantics 2-3' or more in those conditions. Nuff on that! I only use floating and intermediate polys, everything else is tips. Some of the Great lakes steelheaders do indi fish, I haven't done it, even when I lived there as it was what we were trying to get away from using the two handers

I believe the stuff I have is the courtland braided backing, it may also be labelled as braided shooting line. Not even sure if they still have it, yup, its been that long since I bought it.

I forgot to add that when doing the welded splice or loops to cut the end(s) on a long bevel (1/2" long) to smooth the weld and roll the splice in your fingers when melted, yes its hot so be carefull. Both the splices described I can personally vouch for, both have handled 30"+ steelhead in both the St Marys (Ont) and Niagara (which averages 6000CMS down stream of the whirlpool) so a 20" rainbow shouldn't break them. I prefer the welded splice.

Either a welded splice or the braided finger puzzle splice. No need to go over the welded splice, Maxwell pretty well hit it, other than to mention that its going to end up between 40 and 50% bigger in diameter than the line itself. That said all splices are going to have a bit of a bump, just try to make the transition as smooth as possible. Also dont go cheap with the heat shrink use at least double the lenght of the desired splice, hey its only a buck and a half for 3 feet, and use clear so you can watch when it starts to fuse. I use a multi-setting heat gun for my splices. Briefly the finger puzzle splice is done by, 1) slide about 3"-4" of braid over one of pieces, it will be a _____ to do 2) use the thick ACC, just a drop, and glue the two pieces end to end 3) slide the braid over both pieces evenly pull it evenly tight and just a drop of ACC at both ends 4) wrap thread over both ends about 1/2" and finish off as if you were wrapping rod guides 5) apply Pliobond over the whole splice. This splice can be a bit sticky going through the guides but when done right can pull a truck out of the ditch. Note the ACC is not part of the strenght of this, its just to hold it all together till the Pliobond sets. It has less of a bump but is more work to do. I assume you have checked out 'Speypages', they have a wealth of spicing info there as does the "Irish Angler". Also dont try welded splices with the sink-tips/polytips as they are mono core, you'll have a weak splice or a melted mess if you try, welds work only with rayon/dacron cores such as in flylines

Two ways to modify for tips, 1) cut an loop 15' back from the tip and use Rios tips as is. 2) What I did was cut the tip back about 3' just to get past that little level short bit to a spot where on my 5/6WC its about .050" in diameter. Then I used Rios tips and started cutting them back till I could effortlessly cast the type 3. I then cut an intermeidate and type 6 the same lenght. I doubt you could cast a type 8 so I didnt bother. They ended up about 10'. I'll add they work a lot better for depth control than poly-tips. Oh, and cut from the back because I believe they are density compensated, obiously re-looping is required. Now when you cut the line, go to Rios site and look under spey. They have a table that gives the line specs, lenghts, grains, etc. You can do all that math stuff and figure out where to cut to get tha grainage you think will work. Good luck!