DonAndersen

Pipestoneflyguy, Got a Major spinning rod that I bought about 1954. If I recall correctly, it + a spin reel were $ 10.00. It's solid glass c/w all cork handle and slip rings. I've re-guided it once. Caught a sack of fish on it till I got my first cane fly rod 2 years later. Fish the rod. They are a whole lot tougher than the graphite of today. catch ya' Don

MrBotangles, Missed the Red Sea thing but was on the Bow when it was really sick. That's when the refineries used a "once through" cooling system and the oils/gasoline/etc in the Bow made for some interesting smells. Now the sweet smell of gas is gone replaced with the effluent smell of 1,000,000 people crapping in the river every day. Oh, for the good old days!! catch ya' Don

God do you pups make me feel old! Heading to my 62 birthday. Been FFing since I was 10 - tying from 12, built first plastic rod 40 years ago and first cane rod 25 years ago. Started FFing on the Sheep River in Alberta. Fished the Bow for the first time when I was in grade 9. Hell, I got tippet older than most of you guys. catch ya' Don

Here's a marketing opportunity. Needed is one Louisville Slugger c/w with stencilled sign saying MANNERS. Conversation goes like this - " guys it's about time you meet MANNERS" Don

Frank, Often wondered that myself. When is enough enough. Had a day much like you last week with + 50 landed. I wondered what I proved after 10 or so. Just reinforced that cutthroats are dumb!! catch ya' Don

cdock, In addition to the comments above, all deer hair is not the same. When I was tying commercially, I looked hard for early fall hides. there was little underfur and the hair length was all the same. All hair on the hide is not the same - back and neck hair are more hollow with leg and hock hair nearly solid. When trimming use a razor blade - a real 2 sided razor blade from Gillette. Razored hair has a larger end thereby appearing to add bulk w/o adding more hair. This is important on flies requiring weight like the sculpins etc. And Rusty is bang on doing the hair all @ one time. Used to have upwards of 500 Muddler Minnows to do @ once. Fast that way. catch ya' Don

We've been dog sitting. Our pup Mortimer found my son's dog a fine place to sleep. Son's dog is from Calgary - a female, our pup is a male from the country. Guess who's on top. Don

Cripplecreek, In addition to the above, if you are fishing where the fish are small, it is not unusual to miss many of them. catch ya' Don

Birchy, It is an Illegal Possession and the fine is $250.00. This is a hold-over from Premier Manning when the Socreds were in power 35+ years ago. Some things never change. You can get a IP for walking from your camp to the neighbors in campgrounds or drinking on the beach @ the lake. Anywhere that you don't have a residence. And other big plus - I don't have to pick up the cans and bottles. catch ya' Don

Taco, Never cast a Payne rod. Seen them though. I tend to like para rods for casting a sack full of line. The Para 15 taper I use is capable of casting a whole Cortland 444 DT6 through the guides. With a silk line - add 10>15'. Know what you mean about progressive tapers though. For most fishing, I prefer such a taper. The 7'9" I've used for years is a progressive taper. And getting old has it's advantages - you are no longer capable of believing rod manufactures adds. catch ya' Don

Taco, So you fished a Parabolic. Which taper. Always wondered about parabolic rods. Seen them defined a whole lot of ways. What is your take on a para. I use a Paul Young Para 15 8'0" 6 wt. for all my lake fishing. Plotted and fooled with the graphs for this taper comparing it to other "parabolic" rods. None of them seem to fit the same footprint. Maybe it's like the definition of good fishing. To some it's catching fish, to others its a day away. catch ya' Don

Toolman, I haven't but a friend in Port Moody has built a bunch of them. Mostly about 12'. He uses them for steelhead. Catches them too!! Another friend in Invenmere has built several. He uses them on both salmon and steelhead. Me, I'm chicken. No way I want to hook a 40lb+ salmon. I have trouble enough with 6" rainbows. If you are interested in such a rod, I can supply you names via private email. Don

Lynn says "This may qualify as a threadjack, but it's been brought up so I'll throw it in. I bought a 6 weight floating line and loaded it on my 5 weight rod. I could never really cast the rod well before (it's an 8 foot), but with that 6 weight on it just flies out there. It's almost effortless. So I guess the question is - doesn't a heavier weight line than the rod you're using help you cast farther (or better, even?)" Lynn, You just stumbled on what the graphite rod manufacturers are not telling you. Their rods are intentionally 1>3 line weight underrated for a whole host of reasons. Enjoy your discovery. regards, Don

Guys, Why not try page 18 of the 2007 Alberta Sportfishing Regulations or failing that get the pamphlet "Handle and Release Fish with Care" from your local F&W office. There I got ya'. Guess it's not only the bait fishermen who don't read the regs. catch ya' Don

Regarding Steelhead remarks: 1] He obviously has no idea where the headsprings are located. In Picture #4 in the previous post, the headspring for Stauffer is located mid-picture about 1/2 mile east. For Clear Creek headspring see picture #5 in the center of the picture in the grove of poplars. 2] He obviously can't read or he would have understood the danger to the infrastructure of the area if the Clearwater does go down the Stauffer drainage as both were detailed in my first post on the flooding. Curiously, neither did the Dept. of En. till last week. Maybe he has hope for work there. 3] He also doesn't understand that the land where the headspring of Stauffer is located is presently jointly owned by TUC, ACA & AF&G as part of those organizations efforts to protect this valuable fishery for all or the fact that the Rauch farm is located just south of the grove of poplars in picture #5 of the first set of pictures. 4] He doesn't know that over $250,000 has been spent renewing Clear Creek after the agri-damage. 5] And he clearly has no idea of the effort made by myself and others to enhance, preserve and protect these springs. There are quite rare in Alberta. 6] He doesn't have a clue that I've spent over 35 years in a host of activities related to the enhancement of all types of trout fishery in Alberta. Like the first C&R stream [ North Ram], like the first C&R low elevation lake[ ironside Pond] - aw *hit, I could go on for a while. As someone pointed out, if he had a clue, he wouldn't have posted his type of BS. And finally, my thanks for the positive comments for you guys. For those that are interested here are some pictures of the same site @ various points. Several of us were involved in the installation of tree roots in the areas of Clear Creek in 2003. This was in addition to the work previously done rebuilding the bank and revegetating the area. Picture one is prior to the installation Picture #2 after installation Picture #3 was post June 2007 flood. Looks like the anchor points used for the tree revetments were adequate. And fishing was OK today. 'nite Don

Guys/Gals, Things are not back to normal. The Clearwater River has been rerouted to a previous channel by the County. The rerouting is temporary and the river will again head east on the next high water. Do recall that the County work took place <150 m3/s. 2005 flow was >600 m3/s. Meantime the Province dithers and evades responsibility by suggesting they just determine the danger but are not prepared to do anything about it. Unless the pressure is kept up on the Province, nothing further will happen. So what are YOU going to DO? Will be contacting the County for disaster relief for the lands held jointly by the ACA, TU and AF&G on the headsprings. I'm sure Barry Mitchell and Dave Jensen are aware of the problem. You'll have to contact them for their take on the issue. Don

Tbabe, Remember me? I was the guy taking a short cut when I stumbled on the antics. Best I recall, the targets kept the mosquitoes busy for some time. Sure do miss them city folks. Used to stumble on antics quite often. Rarely anymore - don't know what happened. Maybe the FF types of today are just to involved to bother with the niceties of life. catch ya' Don

Guys, While I'd really like to judge the biggest boobs contest. How about who does the most for the fishery in Alberta? Maybe with some reward, there might be an interest. Don

Some Pictures of the Stauffer Creek & Clear Creek area taken while touring a photographer from the Red Deer Advocate newspaper for a story on the problem which will be published early next week. June 4 is directly downstream of B for W bridge while taking a bug sample. June 10 - same location June 10 for both of below pictures - first one looking west down Clear Creek. The second looking east up Clear Creek. A view of the flooding looking south from the Clear Creek to Clearwater River confluence. Note whirlpool on right side of photo. This is where the Clearwater is entering Clear Creek. The culvert sizes are what is limiting the flow.

Mvdoaq, Flooding is a natural process. But man meddles in natural processes all the time. We control our home, work and car environments by the application of heat, light, air conditioning, we suppress or put out fires, we immunise people, we place kids in car seats, we control behavior by laws covering nearly everything. Hell, some of us even drag kids out of the way of on-coming traffic. Not sure man can resist meddling. But because we meddle, some folks live that would have died. Nope, make that a lot of folks. If Ontario hadn't contained SARS, it is unlikely that this conversation would have taken place. So I guess, I'll continue to meddle. regards, Don

Folks, Why would we care? After all, it's just one creek among a land infested with trout bearing streams. [ Just a tad cynical there] But care we should. Stauffer Creek is the closest trout stream to about 1,000,000 people. It's the only spring creek in Alberta that is open to public access for much of it's length. About $ 1,000,000 has been spent repairing the damage from agriculture. It has raised fish to +10 lbs. Some of the below is from emails sent on this subject to effected landowners. Some history, the Clearwater is moving east and has moved about 1/2 mile or more in the past 10 years. The first move was about 500 yards @ the Clear Creek confluence. The flood of '05 moved the river upstream east as well.. The only thing that kept the Clearwater from flowing down Stauffer forever in '05 was the Butte Road. As the flow was not able to breach the road, the water flowed along it and backed up Clear Creek and down the Stauffer. This is not a big issue. BUT!!! If the Clearwater continues to move east, it is inevitable that the Clearwater will flow down the Stauffer Creek. The cause of this is simple. All streams when they meet a low gradient area with no definable bank will slow allowing the bed of the river to drop out thereby raising the level of the existing channel until it is high enough that the river will seek a new channel. It happens everywhere and river outlets to lakes and oceans are a great example of this activity. The Mackenzie River where it enters the Arctic Ocean has a river mouth of over 150 miles in width. Every year or so it cuts a new channel to the ocean. In the Clearwater case, a flood moves the river bottom big time and where it slows, the gravel and sand drop out thereby causing the problem. If the Clearwater goes east, it won't take long as most of the land has been cleared on the top end meaning that erosion will take place very rapidly. Once it gets down to where you are it will cut a new channel. This will take less that a week. The willows and grasses will slow it somewhat but not for long. The real scary part is the loss of farm land, a complete change of access to schools, stores etc, a possible destruction of oil field infrastructure and so on. The river will require a number of new bridges. Further, all the bridges from headwater>the Red Deer will be gone. Some of them will be replaced quite quickly [ Highway #54 for example] while others will take years as the Govt diddles with the issue. Normal routes of travel will be disrupted. The biggest problem as I see it is the County's approach. They are seeing only the loss of Rauch's as an issue. Not the larger global issue of everything else downstream that will be effected. Of course, little of the effected area will be in the Clearwater County as the Red Deer County is only 5 miles east. The big issues are: * water pollution as the river eats a new channel - both Red Deer City and Medicine Hat will be be effected * oil field production fluids in the water after pipelines/field facilities etc are destroyed * loss of land from the along the new channel * increase in water flow of 50% in the Red Deer River will have profound effects on both Red Deer City and Medicine Hat use of the river flats for both recreation and housing. The Dept. of Environment's response doesn't much surprise me. They always wanted to take the Clearwater to the Red Deer to further irrigation in SE Alberta. Here's their chance. Do nothing and let nature take it's course. Of course, then the Balzac mega mall will have enough water. OK - what is the situation now? 1] The Clearwater is backing up into Clear Creek and down Stauffer. This only happened in 1971, 2005 and 2007. 1971 was a major flood year and was 2005. 2007 - well a little bit larger than normal but nothing to get excited about. The issue is the Clearwater is breaching it's banks readily and Stauffer & Clear Creek are suffering and it's not going to get better. 2] The County and Dept. of En. are now arguing - a lot - mostly about money - like who pays? Meanwhile the situation gets worse. The Province should be doing what it can - no surprise that it isn't. Different drivers for the province. Irrigators and mega-malls. No surprise that trout streams lose!! catch ya' Don

Toolman, The deep water system + a full discussion of using different type of yarn indicators can be found @ http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dmanders/indicators.html It must be appreciated, that I've only used the deep water system for about 2 years. Still working on it but for the most part, the kinks are about polished out. Appeals to my Scottish nature as well. regards, Don And on the guide thing Do get a kick outta guides all fishing the same way - some times they are right - sometimes wrong. But a herd they are!

Toolman, I, like a lot of folks on this board, have some experience. In my case, I quit chasing technology about 1995. Realized it was similar to Chev changing the fenders and calling the car a new model. I now use cane nearly exclusively, fish with Hardy reels acquired over the past 40 years & trying to wear them out, don't have breathable waders and never expect to buy them, been using Cortland 444's for 35 years or so and hope Cortland doesn't screw them up by "improving" them. For that reason, I'm outta the loop of what's hot or not. Mind you, do use some of the new leader material but build them myself and did acquire 2 neutral density fly lines this year so I guess I'm still in the market place. But the fish are much the same. So, if the question is about fish or fisheries issues, I may have an opinion and if I can advance the knowledge, I'll contribute. Hope that is OK by all. catch ya' Don

All, Been lead down the garden path several times and am just curious what it takes to make a "Pro" and who they or she/he might be? catch ya' Don