gillmy

Last time we were in Hawaii, we rented a house from a site www.vrbo.com (Vacation rentals by Owner) and found lots of space at a reasonable price. We just used the same service again in Orlando and also rented a house - it is the way to go.

Don't mean to sound totally stupid here, but it is a habit of mine.... What is a false cast and a double haul? I think that I understand "shooting" - when you hand onto the line and then let it go on the forward stroke?

SilverDoc, what kind of a rig do you need to make your own furled leaders? I've tied my own tapered knotted leaders, but a furled one? That would be magic.

That last post of mine was pure genius.... Sorry. albannachxcuileag - what drag system does that HK reel have? I saw those reels on eBay, but easy to overlook in favour of the "badged" reels. Thanks for the information. Mike.

Just because lightning is so cool.... (or more than you ever wanted to know about lightning) Found this good explanation on a website. "Lightning does indeed come up from the ground. Even though we commonly view lightning as 'striking' the ground...the process of lightning is a bit more complex. The internals of a thunderstorm effectively separate electrical charges, with positive and negative charges accumulating in different parts of the cloud. These charges are still attracted to eachother, despite being separated. In a thunderstorm, most often it will be the negatively charged ions at the base of a thunderstorm. The Earth is charged as well, and in response to an increase in charge at the bottom of a thunderstorm cloud, the opposite charge will be climbing up anything it can find to get as close to the charge building in the cloud. In most cases, this would be large amounts of positive ions finding their way through the crowd, up sky scrapers and radio tires, sailboat masts (and even people holding fishing rods...) to get as close to the cloud as possible. This is a feedback process, which mutually encourages charges to increase in concentration toward a central location in both the cloud and on the ground. Finally, the air itself can no longer insulate the electricity and breaks down ("ionizes" -- happens at a very high electric charge level)...The electric charge thus begins to travel in the air beneath the base of the cloud toward the positive ions on the ground, but only in about 50 meter 'steps', because it eventually encounters more air that has yet to be ionized. Since the electricity is in such a high quantity by this point when it gets to this lower air, it takes virtually no time at all to push this air beyond the breaking point and ionizes it. Each successive 'step' is a new voyage for the electric charge, and often creates crazy patterns in the sky of travel toward their end. Each time, lightning is attempting to be lazy; to get to the opposite charge at the ground as quickly and as easily as possible, though it often doesn't end up that way by it's stepped appearance. However, eventually (all happening in a fraction of a second), the lightning bolt makes it down toward the ground. Now, the charges on the ground have been building as well, itching to make their move. When the electric charge from the cloud (normally negative ions) make it within 100 yards or so from the ground, all the positive ions that have been growing for a long time, think it's 'Go Time', and launch up from the ground toward the path illuminated by the ionized air. When the connection is made, there is a violent release of pent-up electricity (that can match or even exceed the temperature of the Sun), and in a split second, multiple flashes and 'return strokes' go back and forth up that established channel (sometimes you can see it flicker), until the charges have been released enough for that ionized air-path to once again fall below the threshold for electrification. One other thing, when the air column along this path has been ionized, there's a loud sonic boom caused by its quick collapse, which is often loud: Thunder."

That's a little frightening. A Graphite rod is a good conductor, so not a great thing to hold in an electrical storm I would guess. Interesting fact about lightning is an opposing charge comes up from the ground to meet the charge coming from the sky, when the circuit is complete, that's when you see the flash. There are some cool photographs of this, but here is an example. Your conductive fishing rod (at this point a lightning rod ) helps to complete the circuit. That is pretty freaking experience. Glad you didn't get zapped to bad... What damage could a billion volts do? Good warning.

Thanks for all the info - I went to MEC and picked up the southern Alberta Backroads Map (Wholesale was sold out), and also picked up a topo map there of southwestern Alberta ($5) which has a lot of detail and also list access points on the hiking trails. It also gives you an idea of how strenuous the elevation changes are Thanks again, and good fishing.

Thanks headscan - do they sell that at Wholesale?

Is there a detailed map of all the lakes, rivers and streams in Alberta?

I'm new to all this, but I would be willing to help. Shame it gets disrespected in the first place.

Those are beauties, what flies were they on?

Thanks for all the info - appreciate it. I think that I'll go try some on.... Good weekend to all.

Hi, I'm new to the FFC, and new to fly fishing as well. I tried it for the first time at a lake in BC called Pennask Lake and really enjoyed it. I want to try out fishing on the Bow, cause it's only 10 minutes away.... I know I'll need some waders and from what I've read breathable waders would be the way to go. The problem is the huge selection of brands, models, and features - some are inexpensive and some are huge dollars. I don't mind spending money, but hard to know where the best value is. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.