DonAndersen

Guys/Guys, Sundance's request for a reduced harvest on Bill Allen pond seemed to strike a cord amongst a lot of anglers. Some points you might like to consider: * Change Put and Take designation to Catch and Gobble - how 'bout that for a great ring - now you have 2 designations C&R - C&G * There is no trade off between those C&G Lakes and keeping people from breaking the law and keeping native stocks. Poachers are just that - Poachers. * The angling public spoke loud and clear on wanting more Quality Lake Fisheries - see: http://srd.alberta.ca/fishwildlife/fishing...ts_Sept2008.pdf *BUT you have to only look @ the SRD's site http://www.srd.alberta.ca/fishwildlife/fis...roundtable.aspx and read # 10 to know you've been BSed again. * Trophy lakes are not be to confused with Quality Lakes. To this point there are NO TROPHY LAKES IN ALBERTA * Quality lakes by the definition provided by SRD require 10% of the fish to exceed 50 cms. within 4 years. Beaver Lake & Bullshead Lake may have qualified as Quality Fisheries but are unlikely to qualify now. Police & Muir, with the overstocking done, may never reach the !0% benchmark. The only lake that might be close to the Quality Policy is Ironside Pond which is curiously a C&R regulation. * There is one proposed lakes close to either Edmonton or Calgary. Where in the h*ll is Calgary Ring Road Pond? And I could go on and on - but what's the point. Till we kick life into the Quality Lake Policy, we get what we get. After all, if we didn't like it like this we'd get off our butts and do something. catch ya' Don

Guys, The layout and wording of the sign should reflect the intended audience. Notice there are large words except for PowerBait. Don

Jayvee, Here is a picture of a sign that I got built and a friend and I installed @ Ironside Pond. We got 4 signs built - 2 for Ironside and 2 for Beaver lake. One of them got pitched into Ironside. It was rescued and reinstalled. Took several visits to CO's to get the $'s right - they didn't want to tell me. Can't figure out why. Least it gives you some of the penalties. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, It is a little known fact that rodents like Muskrats and Beaver carry Swine flue. You must avoid these areas @ all cost. Just a friendly warning. catch ya' Don

But!!! Are not left handed folks right brain dominant whereas the reverse is also true. Don

But!!! Are not left handed folks right brain dominant whereas the reverse is also true. Don

bhurt, If you really want to do something for the fishery, deal with those that have large impacts on the fishery. I'd suspect that bears take few if any, hawks none, eagles very few BUT - give an irrigator a chance and he'll destroy 25 miles of river and the best part - you get to pay for it. Don And Taco - you're bang on. The Pelican thing all over again.

Keith, Bang on - the newest bumper sticker WHACK A QUADDER -SAVE AN OTTER!! Don

A Mexican guy + family, whose kid's school is closed due to the Swine Flu, hauls his kids to Canada for a visit. We let them in!! God, Please forgive us - 'cause we're stupid. Don

ricinus, We can have it any way we want it. We just have to understand that an increase of predation will result in a decrease of trout. Or another 3 River Dam destroys up 25 miles of the best trout water in Alberta. More logging/gas/coal/cows means fewer trout. And each of us have out own bench mark of when enough is enough. And after the Three River Damn - I had enough. Don

Harps, Just have to agree with your limited number of impacts on the trout. So I guess that we add Otters to: Irrigators/Dam builders/ oil company dewaterers, OHVs [ quads/bike/etc.], cattle grazers, pipeliners, logging, various dicky birds, Pelicans, Cormorants, pike and the other fish gobbling beasts and birds + the other assorted butt heads that we chose to do little about. " The real question is where do you spend your trout resources - on the above or ????? You can't have it both ways. Either you want trout or destroyers of trout. Farley Mowat was a fiction writer. There is no balance in nature - it is dynamic. All predators increase till they run outta grub and die - except man of course - he just keeps birthing & killing till nature looks after him as well. Don

Today toured some of the Clearwater River. On the second spot, a beast was swimming upstream. Crawled up on a log - stretched out and fell asleep. Just another unlicensed angler with it's belly full of browns. Otters seem to be extending their range. They are a "furbearer" in N. Alberta and are quite common in Montana. I've seen them in Yellowstone Park and in N. Alberta but never in the Rocky area will last year. Friends have told me of seeing them on the S. Raven, Prairie Creek, Mitchell Lake & I've seen them on Ironside Pond all within the past short while. A trapper told me that they were all over the place & taking fish everywhere. I'd never seen one so pooh -poohed the idea. After the past 2 years, his comment seems right on. Can't imagine the wreckage several of them would have on the over-wintering pools on the N. Ram. Frankly, I was shocked at this animal's behaviour. To go asleep in the presence of humans is just not normal for any animal in the wild that I've ever seen. He/she was not afraid of either of us who watched from 1/2 way across the river leading me to suspect that it could be a "young of the year" who had been chased off by Mom so that she could look after another hatch or maybe otter's " I don't give a crap" attitude or more seriously, non-furious rabies which acts much the same. A fish rose within 10' of the otter while it was awake and other than turn it's head, there was no hustling for supper. With Trans Alta's abuse of the N. Sask. River with the resulting flood ice, I'd expect that the otter came down either the Clearwater or Prairie Creek. As some family groups of otters have been seen on Pr. Cr., my money is that was the source of this otter. I have seen more otters - three - between last year and this than I've seen in the past 50+ years of wandering in Alberta's foothills/mountains. Whether or not as fishermen we are now facing another impact on the numbers of trout in our streams in not clear - but as Otters are fish gobblers - I'd suspect that there are now fewer browns in the Clearwater. Maybe it's time SRD changed the Trapping regs to reflect the new Otter reality.

SanJuanWorm & birchy, You guys been fishing cuts for far too long. You're getting easy and I was using a 0X tippet. cheeler, And that is the article I was looking for - I had the research reference but not the article. My thanx, Don

Folks, I know that somewhere there was a very good posting about trout survival depending on time out of the water. I've looked high and low. Does anyone know where it is. Thanx, Don

And I'm going to ponder how long it will take C-train riders to get home when the wind turbines stop spinning. Or how come anything that is listed "GREEN" cost twice as much, takes 4 times the product to do 1/2 of the job. Just gotta make sense to someone. Don

Golfman09, I'm with the others on the Lady McConnel EXCEPT that the deer hair overback doesn't wear well. It shreds fast. Substitute a darker grey or elk brown over- back of craft foam. A liberal coating of fly floatant will keep it up for a long while. As far as chironomids - been fishing them for the past 10 days in BC. They were hatching like crazy. Landed fish up to 8 lbs. on black ones suspended 28' down under a yarn indicator. The bugs pumped out were coal black with a few of olive c/w black rib. catch ya' Don

craneguy, I've made saddles that hold lots of things out of a 5 gal plastic pail. Cut out the strip with a jig saw, sand edges, pop rivet "things" to the plastic saddle. Web straps c/w Fastex buckles [http://www.fastex.com.au/classic_buckles.htm] hold it where you want. The bottom of the plastic strip can be lined with the same stuff that lines cupboards to keep plates from sliding. catch ya' Don

Lynn, You actually got a video. Now the real question is - do you threaten Hubby with it? And Please - please, never ever think of me as either young or hip. Hell, I still think rap music is where you put the microphone in your mouth and rap yourself along side the head with a hammer. Least that's what I'd like to do those that cooked up the crap. Don

God Lynn, Please never do that again. Had to Wiki the Pr. Albert. The image will stay with me forever. Where is Darwin when you need him? Don

Hi ya' all, Inquired about the various steel things sticking out of young folks. One told me that the steel things help with cell phone reception. Is it true? Don

Keith, Mudkid gave you good advice BUT, the fish in all those creeks have seen every type of fly that can be tied on a <22 hook c/w with spider web leaders and the like. The BUT part - - They haven't seen anything else. When you join the herd, you compete for the grass. So as a fellow angler, who was landing fish after fish says - "they've never seen a black Humpy #12 c/w a flourescent orange body". He was landing fish regularly. One trip, I'd tied some #12 olive leech patterns - after the fifth break-off, the 3X went on. Then the fish came to hand. So join the herd, fish <22 flies and 7X. Works. If you wanta land fish, head in the opposite direction on both flies and leaders. A #12 PT and a Humpy. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, Many years ago I was fishing Buffalo Ford on the Yellowstone. With a bottom composed mostly of small cobble and if you were not moving a lot, the cutthroat lined up in the wake of your waders. Sometimes there was upwards of a dozen lazily fining in the slack water. Well, the challenge was to catch one of them. With 18" of tippet in my hand and a cast as long as my arm would reach, I dropped the nymph into the swirl next to my waders. I watched fish after fish inhale the fly and spit it out faster than I could react. Finally caught one. Lesson learned - we miss a pile of fish. catch ya' Don

420FLYFISHIN, I like trout poached in a mixture of white wine, water and lemon juice. Catch @ least three 16>18" bull trout, rip their guts out promptly including the gills and blood vein along the backbone, place into a "desert" bag and into a willow creel. When arriving @ camp: 1] Prior to cooking fish slice up 2 yellow onion rings and 2 sticks of celery into 1/2" chunks. Prepare about 4 cups of long grained rice till fluffy. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch into 1/4 cup of cold water ans set aside. 2] Place bull trout into a 18" fry pan with about 1/4" of boiling fluid - cover with tin foil 3] Flip the fish after 5>6 minutes and add celery & onions & cook for about another 4 minutes 4] remove fish and butterfly fillet onto a rice bed 5] thicken the water/lemon/wine mixture with the cornstarch 6] pour over fish Enjoy after dialing the clock back 25 years. Damn miss the good old days. Bull Trout = GOOD GRITS. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, I watched this thread with interest. I generally carry about 8 boxes and couldn't figure out how in the devil some of you get away with 2 or 3. Then the light came on. How many boxes of SJW's and Buggers do you need!!!! Me, well I pack my vest to fish from the 49th for the next 400 miles north spring>fall. You never know what you might need. catch ya' Don

Folks, CDN bashing on Fox isn't anything new. Ann Coulter is a master of it. She, of course, rarely speaks the truth. Don