Hawgstoppah

you cant compare driving to breaking a fishing regulation. that's like comparing driving to dealing drugs. breaking fish and game regulations needs to be treated more seriously. The fact that your putting it on the same level with driving 1km over the speed limit saddens me. This is serious stuff folks! Speak up! Make your opinions heard! There are no grey areas in the regulations. It's written out for you in a easily available book. Most streams have signs on the paths and accesses to them. Read 'em or dont fish, if you got questions ask BEFORE you fish. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

isn't that the whole point I am trying to make?? bring a deer home in the back of your pickup truck right now and try to tell the C.O. it was a "mistake". same damn thing.... I don't know why alberta continually gives it's fisheries the shaft. Every time I bring this up people disagree, but the ONLY WAY anything will EVER CHANGE... is to bring in STIFF FINES and ZERO TOLERANCE. Period!

exactly. fines for fishing a closed river or keeping an illegal fish should be in the thousands. starting... yes starting, at about 5000 bucks. word will get out.

In the day and age of internet, we dont need a mix of education and enforcement. we need STIFF FINES for any offense. Regs are EASILY available online or ANYWHERE you buy a license....hearing that a fish kept from closed waters and all they got away with was a charge for fishing in closed waters - should have had the whole book thrown at them 3 year old or not that's dad's responsibility to get off his A$$ and check the damn regs. This whole warning thing frustrates the hell out of me. If you dont wear a seatbelt, and you get caught, you get a ticket. If you go fishing, you SHOULD KNOW THE REGS or dont fish! and if you get caught - TICKET.. I am so damn tired of hearing "oh we gave them a warning". LETS GET SERIOUS for frickssakes... Gaaah this ticks me off... what's the purpose of an officer if all he does is warnings. We need results! My 2 cents..

It's 2 years in class at the college. I wont have much of a life for a couple years... I ain't gonna be messing around goofin around in college like the kids. I am going to be top marks in class I'll be making dang sure of that.

I knew it all when I was 18 though! (or so I thought)

got accepted today after acing the entrance testing. Gonna study criminal justice in lethbridge college for a couple years, then get a job where I'll be 4 on 4 off so I can still have lots of fishing time and maybe even some time to keep guiding. I'll be able to guide for at least another couple summers... because it's "the perfect job for a college student" I'm going to be "creepy old guy" though... all the kids will probably be giving me some strange stares.

Lemme guess! Humble Pie?

Holy hells bells guys. Get back on topic or don't post. You took this post farther even than the "questionable" steelhead photo's I posted last fall, even though in neither case were fish handled (in my opinion) with any disrespect. maybe a bit of "oh crap this things huge wtf do I do now!!" ... but not without respect and due care and attention.

Haha you guys do a lotta fishing "not where we think" Nice pics.

I'm also sporting a "geezer mobile" minivan. One thing I do know. I bet I can fit a "toon" into the topper I got (it's a thule topper I think it's about 9ft long.. i could put both pontoons up there slightly deflated, and then components behind the back seat). Now.... if only I had the money to buy a pontoon boat and test this theory.

Only an Oilers fan could even think to bonk a fine fish like that..

that's funny. I find it exactly the opposite for me. when I do the new zealand rod high, hard pressure, good bend in the rod I lose very few. When my rod is low and I am giving side pressure, bye bye.... for me anyways, it doesnt work. Use what your confident with, though!

Harry, awesome brookie.. had fun reading your page about the trip. Great stuff

Yep. What Rickr said. Put max pressure on them. If there spitting the hook it's becuase they can... meaning your not putting enough pressure on them. Take the chance of busting a few off next time out rather than loose them to the same problem and see how it works for ya!

Nice brown... beatuy fish.

Could be a number of things wrong with the way your fishing it. If your using the same rig to fish 5ft in front and not making any adjustments to leader depth or weight on your line, when moving out into the run and fishing 25ft from you, then your not going to be anywhere near the bottom in your drifts. Without seeing what your doing wrong it's hard to take a guess though. If after a year your still struggling, it might be time to shorten than learning curve a ton and hire a w+w guide like maxwell or myself. You'll at least get a really good idea of how to fish the river. Or else hook up with some of the guys here that really know their stuff, and watch them. You can learn a lot from sitting on the bank and watching someone who's catching fish too.

First off let me state I am by no means an expert with pike at all: I think we can all learn to handle fish better from others suggestions, wether it be a cradle or a huge frikkin net, or the gill plate thing, the great thing about message boards is that we can all learn from others. but there's one more thing I do know. I had a buddy get about 25 stitches once back when I was in my spinfishing for pike days, and it was from gilling a fish for a picture and it doing a huge flop around session. I don't exactly endorse it, not for the fishes safety sake, but for your own safety. At least maybe wear a good protective handling glove if your going to do it On a sidenote, while we are on the subject. I am going to make a cradle out of two hockey stick shafts, and a mesh for the fish, what mesh shold I use? What's the best for the fish?

Nice.

Usually begins every year sometime in May. it's late this year. Will prob be here soon and last into the early part of July. I'd bet it'll remain quite fishable for quite a bit of the time though.

I just re-read your post. That totally sums up nymphing in a handbasket right there. I've guided the BEST casters, who couldn't catch a thing nymphing. And I've taken rookies out who were willing to learn, and had 'em into a lot of fish on their first day nymphing becuase after I work them hard through the learning process, they understand that the drift is what matters. Now, that does NOT apply to dry fly fishing though the better caster you are there, the better your chances of a hookup.

Good stuff. Next time I hope ya get to see a 15+ pounder chase it in and chomp it within your sight. You'll squeal like a little schoolgirl. :lol:

If your good at casting all that rig out to begin with what you can try is sorta lke a "reach cast" that you do for dry flies, but as the nymphs are getting close to landing. Just cast normal and after you finish coming through your last stroke and the rig passes over you on it's way to the river, reach with the rod tip to the upstream side. with enough practice, you'll be able to have the whole rig land already mended and in a good drift. If ya mess up you can always flip a big mend in. For normal mening once the rig hits the water - The father out you go, the higher and harder you gotta do the initial mend.

Gorgeous fish That "cutty" from K Lakes is actually a rainbow, I'm 99% sure of that. There so colorfull up there. Nice thick awesome looking fish though!!

LMAO.. yeah it's the ONLY year since I started fly fishing 20+ yrs ago, that I ain't looking forward to the opening day. :$*%&: