DonAndersen

Guys/Gals, 1] A $ 1,000 US check got me $ 949.10 CDN when US vs CDN was 1.04 2] A $ 20.00 US money order cost me $ 24.98 CDN 2 days ago 3] A Pentax W 30 on Ebay is $ 280.00 + 15 shipping for $ 295.00 Same camera @ Blacks in Calgary is $ 299.99 - about 10 locations to serve you. catch ya' Don

JayVee, Retailers "book" the product as much as 6>8 months in advance. They try to guess what the market will be. Booking in advance gives a high discount. Failure to pre-book will result in reliance on wholesalers to keep the inventory high. But wholesalers also book in advance. They try to guess the market 6>8 months out. Retailers only want to order in the summer when they get enough orders from a single applier to justify the cost. No retailer is going to order 1 package of dubbing, get charged $1.00 for it + $15.00 for freight and expect to sell it to you @ $16.00. The joys of retail. catch ya' Don

Hawgstoppah, How many years ago did that happen? I had much the same experience about 6>7 years ago after 2 years of winterkill followed by several years of no winter kill. The fish were large!!! And lots of them. Landed over 50 one afternoon in September. Was about 1/2 over 2 lbs. Several over 5 lbs. Police gets about 130000 fish/yr. You have to remove 360 fish/day 365 days per year to break even. That's about 70 limits of 5/day. If you don't remove the the same # you stock every year, the bug life goes into the crapper with a result of smaller fish sizes. Any fish "held" over increases the demand on the food resources. catch ya' Don

Hawgstoppah, I would wonder if that was one of the occasional trout that don't spawn and live 8>10 years. Sterile fish do happen. Or it could have been related to Herman Munster. A one-off fish doesn't really tell us a lot. Even @ 10 lbs. it is still only a 50% fish. Sundancefisher, I really don't know when Lees & Beavius were stocked. I know that the fish were that size when I fished it 48 years ago and later only 40 years ago. From that, I'd expect that it wasn't the initial stocking that raised them to that size. regards, Don

Sundancefisher, Lakes like Beavius, Lees, Crawling Valley, Cow, Struble, Swan, Carson all had fish in them exceeding 10 lbs. Only Crawling Valley & Cow do not contain trout now. Cow, Struble, Swan, Carson all had fish in them that exceeded 15 lbs. Not now!!! Weather is not the issue. Best lake in BC with rainbows exceeding 25 lbs. is in northern BC. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, The Provincial Fisheries Roundtable is has circulated a "draft" position paper on Quality fisheries that the participants attending the Roundtable were asked for their comments. I circulated the draft to about 40 others for their comments and I'm attempting to encapsulate their responses and get the comments "right". The question is: What is quality? What does it mean to you in terms of fish size. I realize that a lot of you fish waters where your day is enhanced by the lack of people you meet, wildlife seen, mountains viewed or other nebulous things. BUT - in terms of fish size, what is a quality fish. Do recall that the provincial record for rainbows is 20+ lbs. and browns 15+ lbs. So is a quality fish one that is a 5% or 1 lb rainbow, a 25% or 5 lb. rainbow a 50% or 10 lb. rainbow? How big is a quality fish to you and if given the choice what would you manage for in terms of size. For me - it is the maximum size that the fish can attain given the quality of the water it lives within. [assume adequate recruitment/stock rates, diligent enforcement etc.]. Need help here with a definition or better yet the WORD that describes what we all mean. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, I would think that most of your ties should be gray/blk. and tiny. This is a sample of the bugs I picked up on Stauffer the other day. There is about 20 bugs on the leaves. Don

Lady.. Poll results are neat. But, takes about a dozen of one size to get it about right and about 100 to get it close and about 1000 to get the proportions bang on. But you can hardly ask fishermen to do that. catch ya' Don

Rickr, If you think it's good now - you should have seen it before you could cut the air into chunks in the city of Calgary. As far as it could be worse - Beijing any one. Don

Cast.. Like what I heard. Told me what he's done and what he's planned. Good stuff. Don

Guys, I was employed by the oil/gas industry for 45 years. Been through ups/downs. This ain't nothing new. As far as fixing what isn't broke. In a survey down over 15 years ago, Alberta ranked 9th of 10 provinces in "standard of living" Things like beds/patient, teacher/pupil ratio, paved road/car etc. The only province lower was Newfoundland. Hate to think what a study might reveal today. Don

Guys, Bear in mind that when oil dropped from $35/bbl>$10.00/bbl. in the early 80's, Alberta did survive even though 80,000 people hit the bricks and most of them went "home". Peter Loughheed doubled royalties and he got hospitals named from him. I sympathize with Stelmack. He got a real ugly problem delivered to him by Klien. More the 80% of the population believes that they are getting screwed. Politically, he's got a big problem. And do you guys really believe that he can in a 20 minute address lay out the royalty regime for: 1] heavy oil - mineable 2] heavy oil - deep 3] conventional gas - shallow - mid depth - deep 4] conventinal oil - 5] CBM Give you head a shake. Therre are few people that really understand royalities and you want a 20 second sound bite. Give me a break. Don

WesG, In the Police Outpost Lake, Mitchell Lake & Alford Lake - installing aeration made an ugly problem of lousy fish growth even worse. Rather than a winterkill every now and then to reduce the fish numbers and let the bug numbers rebound, the fish always stay alive thereby reducing the bugs numbers even further and ultimately resulting in ever smaller fish. The winter kill did what the Govt guys seem incapable of doing, reducing the fish stockings to maintain growth rates. And I agree with Rusty, spending money creating another 5 fish/day any method aerated lakes is just plain stupid. regards, Don

Fishing licenses for non-resident/yr. Alberta - $69.50 includes Win card [ =$71.75USD] Montana - $70.00 Idaho - $82.00 Maine - $72.00 California - $100.00 Don

Kungfool, Lakes only need aeration when the levels fall >3ppm 02. Stocking rates, food availability/production, management and enforcement + genetics all add or subtract from the size of fish available. Aeration only keeps them alive in low 02 situations. There are 2 types of aeration - one style for winter and another for summer. It is possible to have kills both summer & winter. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, Below is a link to a proposal by the Alberta Conservation Association to increase the license cost. See: http://www.ab-conservation.com/ & http://www.ab-conservation.com/about_us/Fe...ctober%2007.pdf catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, Been wondering why. When Lougheed & Getty retired, they got schools, hospitals, parks et al named after them. Well, Raphie got a swamp named for him. Been wondering why. Do the Conservatives believe that the swamp was appropriate? You'd think that they might have came up with: 1] the Raph Klien Memorial General Hospital 2] A chair in the U of C for cut and paste to high marks 3] Ralph Klien bottle recycling depot. 4] A school of economics - privatize electrical system and watch the prices fall 5] The Shot, shovel and Shut-up school of Public Health There obviously is a whole lot of things that should bear Ralphies name. How about adding to the list. catch ya' Don

Cast... Ain't going back for more money but for a share of the fish they catch. Yummy - - - fried trout. Don

Castuserraticus neglected to tell you that: 1] The Alberta Gov't, under Klien, sold it's interest in the Husky Upgrader for nickels 2] Klien also sold about a 15% interest in Syncrude. And then he cut royalties. Go figure!! Don

Guys, Four things to keep in mind: 1] Alberta Auditor General says we're getting screwed 2] Royalty review says were getting screwed 3] Dept. of Energy says were getting screwed 4] Oil Companies says we're not getting screwed. Now who would you believe? Don

Mike, I'll be home Friday - off to Beaver for the next 3 days. Give a shout Thursday night - got every line weight from 2>9. We'll test run the sucker. Don

Guys/Gals, A pattern should only acquire a name after it has been responsible for several thousand fish caught over a period of years. Otherwise it's just another wet dream involving feathers et al. To that end, I've only named 3. They are proven over and over. catch ya' Don

Flytyer, I used to polish out the stainless tips using a high speed die grinder c/w felt bob and jeweller's rouge. Took some time and you never really knew if it worked till it started to break thread. Kevlar and jeweller's rouge would be a great idea for those inclined. Kevlar by itself is quite abrasive. The wax carrier in the jeweller's rouge would cut down the abrasion a tad. I'd suspect that dental floss [not the Teflon stuff] would work as a jeweller's rouge carrier as well. catch ya' Don

What's curious about the result is that Calgary's PO4 and N04 additions to the Bow were a lot higher 30 years ago prior to the increased technology of water treatment. Whitefish were a major run in the Sheep and Highwood. What has increased in the Bow is things like latex paint, birth control pills, pesticides and on and on. Water treatment removes PO4 etc well, not the others. catch ya' Don

Guys, I use mostly Griffin Supreme Ceramic bobbins. The stainless style wears out readily. Works fine for wire though. See http://www.griffinenterprisesinc.com/bobbins.html for a good selection. catch ya' Don