Hawgstoppah

wow that second one just brings back a lot of memories. Spent a lot of time as a kid at my grandpa's farm, and it had a lot of those characteristics. Thanks for that.

Awful. Just awful. I can do some tying for ya too.

riffle sections 1-2 feet deep right next to shore are just as good as long deep grassy banks. Also, I always used to have a lot of luck by identifying a really good hopper bank (west wind would blow hoppers into the river, etc) and fishing ALL the riffles below it in a searching mode. Plenty enough fish will have become accustomed to having the odd snack come by Good luck!

wow sounds like a blast for sure!

nice

Highwood or Sheep have bulls and are close to ya. Any deep pools with streamer patterns give you a chance. Cover a lot of water, if a bull is in the mood he'll let you know real quick. Don't waste too much time fishing over fish you can see, they've seen you too ;-)

I helped a 3 inch cutty take a 40 foot jump once, lol. Little bit of a hookset there!

Dry fly can be tough. To me it all depends on the fish and how it is rising. If they are smashy takes you can normally set the hook really soon after the strike. If the fish is slowly and delicately sipping bugs off the top, and you see a slow swish of the tail after every snout that comes up, you'd best wait a FULL second after the nose submerges with your fly. Fish that are gobbling everything up in a "rise every two seconds or less" mode can normally be struck on as soon as the nose is down back under the water after it was your fly the fish grabbed. Study the rise to determine the length of wait time on the set. Do NOT set, EVER, before the fish has gone back down. It's mouth is still open sucking in water and the fly when it is on the surface and if you strike then you are going to miss 95% or more of your takes, and spook quality chances at fish.

Try and get out with members of the forum who are willing to show you a few things about the bow. Also, maybe even hire a guide that would take you on a wade and teach you how to fish it from shore. One day with a guide might cut years off the learning curve on the bow

Welcome! If ya ever get an itch to come south of Calgary (or you get the good old bow river blues) I can lead ya in the right direction to some good fishing. If you can learn how to catch fish on the Bow it will make you deadly in *most* other locations. As always, the more time spent on your "home" stream the better you get to know it's secrets

The Bow is a magical river if you take the time to get to know it. 2 years (alone) is not enough but a couple of months with some of the good folks here will certainly have you pointed down the right direction! If you ever get the urge to make a couple of hour trip south of Calgary drop me a PM and I can usually get out on a weekend.

Hey I am an unemployed trout bum this summer and a former guide who ran a good boat for a year, I have about 200+ floats under my belt. Give me a PM I can probably come up there for a day real soon

amen!

Where will that public hearing take place?

uh oh. Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/skeena-river-caught-up-in-land-rights-claim-by-gitxsan-treaty-society/article19582924/

Whoa. A toolman appearance!

sounds like you are hooking the fish and then losing them. It's not a hookset issue as much as I would think that you are not applying enough pressure to a hooked fish. Get to know how much pressure it takes to break a fish off. Then continually get as close to that ALL the time you are playing a fish. Loose line = goodbye fish. Tight line stretched to it's limits = 80% plus of hooked fish to the net for me. Probably even higher average overall. Lay the wood to em! It does two things #1 - you land more fish #2 - the fish don't get exhausted during the fight and you get them in quicker resulting in a better release

Not sure what you mean by that. All I was saying was to go out and "get one" and you'd love it ... not trying to sell one or anything. Cheers,

I have a custom made 10ft 6WT. You will not regret finding one. Best multi purpose stick I have, and I find it hard to put down. I can cast streamers, nymphs, and right on to some of the bigger dries (hopper dropper, etc). Only thing I even bust out any other rod for now is small streams (REALLY small streams) or small dries.

awesome!!!!!!!!

1) early July. so long as your chosen guide starts early (like, REALLY stupid early) you will have a great chance of fishing dry fly stones till about 10am most days, but it's best at FIRST light which is around 430am/5am. 2) a 9ft 6wt will be fine for whatever you'd use from the boat 3) don't know the guides at that shop but I am sure some people from the board can make a recommendation 4) I'd bet you'd need to have your own on hand, and whatever the guide feels you really need and do not have I am sure they'd provide and in fact I'd be a bit shocked if they didn't. 5) graves landing to mac. big browns on the dry in the city early and by 8am your past fish creek and into a nymphing style day after then. good water all the way hope that helps

Darren we miss ya buddy. Come back to the dark side. There's fish here, we promise.

The one thing they don't really touch on too much and I see folks do this ALL the time is the rapid movement of the fish back and forth through the water to get water into the gills. Please do NOT do this! It is unnatural for the fish and results in a temporary burst of energy, often out of your reach, before the artificially resuscitated fish goes belly up and floats downriver. It is akin to giving a human an electroshock to the heart and then turning off the machine. Please let the fish recover in an upright position, gently cradled, facing up current. When it is ready it will swim off. Have fun fishing!

There is certainly some merit to the statement that you may want to pick up a 3wt. Most people I know will have a collection of rods like this : 3,5,7 & 9 or 2 (maybe),4,6 & 8. Either way you are covered for a wide variety of fishing situations from little creeks and small trout to swinging big bully flies and chuck and duck streamer fishing for pike. I had a St Croix Legend Ultra for years as my go-to light rod and loved it. I ended up replacing it with a used Sage and I find they are both similar in feel, which was important for me when switching sticks. I can't echo everyone else enough by saying take many, many sticks out for a cast and have several reels and lines as well, find the combo that just "feels right" to you, and you'll probably know it when you find it.