snakeman

Souray is not really that bad, I'd take him over Staios any day. I'd encourage you guys to check out this article on his defensive play: http://communities.canada.com/edmontonjour...defenseman.aspx He's not a defensive rock, and as such MacT shouldn't be playing him for 25+ minutes per game. He is only soft now because of his shoulder, I'm sure MacTavish has instructed him to not fight or put too much weight on it with big hits. Physical play is a big part of his game and next season when his should is fully recovered he'll start showing that. And he can't be traded anyway, he's got a no-trade clause for the first 2 years on his contract (or just the 1st year, I can't recall).

The Oilers will definitely be selling. Tarnstrom will be gone. I hope Roloson is moved but who would be dumb enough to take on his contract, he's the highest paid back-up in the league. That link says Stoll could be moved and there's lots of rumours about that, but I really hope he's given one more year to prove himself. He has shown that he could become a good 2nd line center, or a great 3rd liner with future captaincy potential, at worst.

Thanks all I figure some of these rivers wouldn't be too much more of a drive than Lower K or the lower Oldman (probably the best southern options at that time of year), and they probably don't receive as much pressure as those spots.

Ales Hemsky. When he's on his A-game he's as fun to watch as anyone in the league. When I was younger I liked Keith Tkachuk for some reason. Other favourites were Lemeiux, Jagr, Cujo, Hasek, and Doug Weight (Edmonton's superstar, hahaha). p.s. Souray bashers, it sucks that he's injury prone but check our powerplay stats with him in the line-up, he hasn't been scoring too much but just having him quarterback the pp has significantly increased production.

I'd like to do an early season (mid to late April) bull trout trip, and instead of going south to the Oldman below 22 I want to check out a few streams north of Calgary. The Clearwater, Red Deer, North Saskatchewan, and Tay rivers are all streams that I'd be interested in trying. If any of you central Alberta guys have targeted bulls on these rivers, would you say that it is even worth my time? I'm not looking for lunkers, I just want to get a pre-runoff bully fix. Thanks

Another missed expo for me, as I was in Edmonton most of the weekend. That's ok though, I probably would have ended up spending a bunch of money anyway.

I love bass, they're definitely my second favourite group of sportfish behind trout. I've never targeted them in BC but I've been chasing them with a fly in Ontario for a few years now. I prefer smallmouth bass, particularly in rivers, but fishing a lily choked pond for largemouth is a blast as well. Nothing beats their takes on the surface.

Ha, good call Terry. I don't remember seeing dozens of dead animals and tampons along the NSR when I explored the river valley as a kid.

It's even too cold for hockey. As a Canadian male I find that hard to say, but doing anything outside of the house is unpleasant in this bitter cold.

I love the area of Calgary I'm living in now, at the far west end of the city. I can see myself living here for a long time, and I doubt I'll be moving back to Edmonton any time soon

Thanks for all the comments guys, I'm glad you liked the pictures. It really is a great drive through that region, I think every Canadian owes it to him/herself to see the North of Superior area. I plan on taking 1 or 2 weeks to camp and fish that area sometime in the future; there are just so many rivers and lakes out there that look great for fishing, and not too many people fishing them. We actually got lucky with the black flies, I guess they didn't feel too active in the chilly and wet weather. Hawgstoppah, I remember you posting about catching brookies on the Nipigon on the FFA boards a while back. It was actually one of the motivating factors in us deciding to just fish right at the bridge. That trip was probably the greatest fishing I've had under a highway bridge.

When I began fly fishing I spent a lot of time reading through the archived info at flyanglersonline.com. After reading some articles about the Nipigon River in Northern Ontario it immediately made my mental top 10 of must-fish rivers. Last summer, in early July, I finally got the chance to fish it while road tripping from Calgary to eastern Ontario with a couple buddies. After a night of Canada Day festivities in Thunder Bay we accidentally slept in till the early afternoon, so our fishing time was cut short but it still ended up being a worthwhile trip. Of course, on our way out of T-Bay we had to stop here: I had seen this monument a few times before, but it was a first for my friends. A short distance from the monument we spotted a big black bear standing on the side of the road. Unfortunately he took off before we could get a picture. We decided to just pull off of the Trans-Canada Highway where it crosses the Nipigon, and fish near the bridge. Here's a shot of the tracks running below the highway bridge (the bridge is actually a lot taller than it looks in this picture) My fly rods were buried under a bunch of stuff in the trunk, so I just rigged up a rabbit strip streamer on a $10 Canadian Tire spinning rod and went to work. It didn't take long to find this guy: This fish fought like hell, easily the best fight I've ever had from a brookie. It was bulldogging like a smallmouth and running like a 'bow. Not a big fish, but it had shoulders, as you can see. We continued fishing, and a little while later I hooked into a bigger fish. Closer: Probably my personal-best brookie. After releasing her the rain started pouring down, so we left to continue the long drive east. While driving through some brutal weather we saw a cow moose standing on the shoulder near a marsh, but conditions were too bad to try to stop and get a picture. Seeing the Terry Fox monument, a black bear, a couple big brookies, and a moose, made for a complete and very memorable Northern Ontario experience. Some day I will return to the Nipigon with more time on my hands, so I can explore the more remote stretches.

Thoroughly debunked here: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001305/

Yeah, I've spotted CO's with telescopes up on the hill above the dam on the Elbow before. Kinda weird to fish while you're being stared at through a telescope.

I still haven't been to one of these, this year I'll probably check it out.

Since there has been some talk about CO's checking licenses in some other threads, I thought I'd make a thread to sort of survey FFC members. So how many times have you had a Conservation Officer ask you to present a license? I've been checked 2 times in the three years that I have been 'of-age'. Once was on the Bow, when a CO pulled over in his boat to check the licenses and flies of myself and the 3 other people I was fishing with. The second time was on the Highwood, when I had finished fishing my favourite stretch of the canyon and walked back to the car to see a CO's truck there. The officer asked if I had my license, I said 'yeah' and reached for it, and he waved me off saying 'it's ok, I just need to know you have it'. He was a nice guy though, we bs'd about fishing for a while until he took off to check other anglers. All the CO's I've met, in these situations and calls I made to RAP, have been really nice guys who work hard, but there is simply too large of a workload placed on too few officers.

Good idea, I may do just that

What a bummer, he had a young kid.

"Fly-fishing Western Trout Streams" is one of the most informative fly-fishing books I've ever read. I had an autographed copy, unfortunately it was stolen a couple years ago

Sick bow

I've used those kling's bugs before, but I didn't know what they were called until now. Cutties seemed to like them, but they'd probably work anywhere.

Yeah you could use a spinning rod to fish a nymph without a bobber, but you wouldn't be able to get the same presentation and drag-free drift that you can get consistently only by using a fly rod and floating line.

Rickr, I was saying that someone would have to be stubborn to deny that nymphing without a bobber takes a lot of skill. My point about the worm + bobber rig is that it is not a technique that is exclusive to the fly rod, as you can use the same technique just as effectively with a long spinning pole.

I think someone would have to be a really stubborn purist to not appreciate the skill required for some forms of nymphing. Effectively fishing nymphs without a bobber often requires a higher level of concentration and attentiveness than dry fly fishing, in my opinion. But the worm + bobber method that works so well on the Bow is not really a fly-fishing technique, as you can use the exact same rig with a long spinning rod.

Depends on the situation at hand. On the Bow I rarely use beaded nymphs, I just drop unbeaded flies from a heavy SJW or stonefly and add extra weight as needed. Same goes for nymphing with a bobber on any river. When fishing a dry/dropper rig obviously a beadhead nymph is preferred.