Bigtoad

I just filled it out. I appreciated the survey and how it seemed to be wanting to crack down on ATV use but seemed to have very little about random camping issues and the RV villages with literally hundreds of RV's every summer. I mentioned that in my comments but.... at least most of it seems like a step in the right direction.

Link??????? Or do I youtube "Kevin" .... I'm assuming not. Help please.

My dad and I drove down on Friday from Lacombe and were on the water by just after 6:00am. He landed this 23.5 incher at about 7:00. Was his biggest fish ever by far. Caught on a big foam chernobylish abomination. I think I was even more thrilled that he caught it than if I had. Beautiful morning to be out on the river. Cheers. Keep in mind he is 6'6" and has hands the size of baseball mits. Should put the size of fish into perspective.

What I'm saying is that it is an attitude shared by those trying to compensate for whatever. It's a chip on the shoulder issue. You could drive an Echo and still have the attitude or a suped up 4x4. It's just easier to feel like you own the road when you drive something big. Most of the idiots I've met either drive something big and/or suped up. I also know some really nice guys who drive big tanks. I've also met idiots who drive wee little cars. It's a generalization for sure but one not without merit. Guys lacking in whatever area in their lives try to compensate for it in some other way. Sometimes it happens to be big ass trucks. Sometimes it's buying a $700 fly rod, sometimes it's getting a trophy wife or wearing $300 sunglasses. Anytime you go way into some extreme it's probably because you're making up for something in some other area. You don't feel powerful; buy a big truck. You don't feel cool, buy expensive clothes. You see where I'm going here. I wasn't meaning to dis all with big trucks, just making an editorial point.

It's not how big their vehicles are, but how small their "unit" is that is making them compensate with a big vehicle driven like it's even bigger. We're dealing here with a classic case of little dick syndrome. There is very little these guys can do about it except overcompensate with macho-ism. Sad. So Taco, don't get mad at them, just feel sorry for how unfulfilling their lives must be. Just keep in mind that I used to drive a VW Gulf and then an Echo..... I'm just saying. Cheers.

Don't nymph. Throw on a chernobyl ant and start twitching it from 20ft to tight to the bank. Set the hook when you here "sploosh". Cheers.

Thanks for the input. I'll keep those in mind : ) Cheers!

We have a wedding this weekend just Northwest of Nelson, B.C, at Winlaw. I'm assuming there is good fishing all around there but can someone give me a few recommendations? I'd like to bring my 4wt and fish streams but shore fishing at a lake would be ok as well. I'll probably have part of a day or two to fish so my options are quite limited. I'm not looking for GPS coordinates, just a few helpful hints. Pm me if you'd like. Thanks. Cheers.

Insert angels singing here ____________. Thanks.

What you really need to manufacture and what I haven't seen are the individual pulley systems for anchors. Drift boats and some pontoons come equipped with them but I have a 12ft aluminum boat that I would love to be able to put a mount on the front and/or back that I can raise/drop the anchor from the middle rowing seat. I can buy an anchor anywhere but I have never seen an easy to use, quick to install, pulley system sold separately. my 0.02. Cheers.

Maybe tadpole?

Well, I've had a busy week.... my wife and I just adopted a baby boy! It was very cool. My wife was even in the delivery room with the biological mom. It was both heart-wrenching and wonderful all rolled up in one. When my mom and sister came over this week, they couldn't help but get him posing for the camera. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come (the picture, not the sister and mom doing photo shoots with the lad). I don't think you can start a kid fishing at too young of an age! See if you can zoom in on his shirt. My sister found a website that you can upload pics and then they print them off on shirts, sweatshirts, etc for you. I might have to get one made myself. Cheers.

Ok, so I don't know if you can submit 2 or not in a month.... if you can only submit one, I'd like to keep this one and take off my other. Thanks. This one is a variation of a lot of flies put together... a little something here, a little something there. This one is a salmonfly imitation but I also tied a really nice one as a golden stone; just change the chenille and foam colors as well as the size. Let's call this one: Foamer's Oddicy Hook: Tiemco 9395 size 4 streamer hook (with the amount of foam in this one, I can't see a submarine sinking it) Thread: dark brown 6/0 Body: orange and dark brown chenille, brown or black sheet foam, abdomen wrapped in amber vinyl rib Egg sack: orange sheet foam wing: crystal flash and elk hair head:same piece of brown/black sheet foam and then orange sheet foam legs: brown rubber legs hackle: brown saddle hackle I can NOT wait to try this one out on Prairie!!!!

I teach in a junior high in rural Alberta and I would say your observations aren't too far off. The problem as I see it is two issues. 1. Kids are too busy. Hockey 3-5 nights a week, soccer, dance, basketball, piano, etc, etc. I think a lot of parents keep their kids far too busy. However, I think it is just in response to keeping them from problem #2. 2. Video games/tv. A recent study stated that kids spend 6 hours a day on either tv or video games. If they're not playing some kind of sport, they're in front of some type of screen. I definitely know they're not doing homework! Motivation is at an all time low. They want to be entertained, and when they're not, they lose interest in about 30 seconds. Creativity and critical thinking skills also seem to be spirally down. What really scares me is that when I ask kids how many text-messages they send a day, it's often between 400-600/day. Yup, you read that right! Text-messaging is a de-evolution of communication. It's a step backward. When you don't talk face-to-face you lose something in the communication. Kids are more connected than at any time in history yet are missing the connections. This, above all else (even seeing them out at the playground) is what worries me the most. And yes, kids are still good. They want to be good people and want to fit in and I don't think that the world is going to end because they can't play with a stick for hours and be satisfied. It just worries me what type of adults these kids are going to turn into and what kind of society those adults are going to create.

I teach Jr. High in Lacombe and for our last trimester (starting end of March and going to end of June) I'd like to teach basic fly tying as an option. I have nearly 20 sets of vises, bobbins, etc that I can borrow from a nearby school but I need another 5-10 sets before I can offer it as an option. Anybody out there with that many basic sets that I can borrow or does anyone know someone (or an organization?) I might contact that does? Eventually, if the class goes well I'd like to buy a class set but right now, budgets are ridiculously tight so borrowing is the only way I can swing it at the moment. Thanks for any info that you can send my way. Cheers.

One of my favorite browns of the year out of Stauffer. Had on a MUCH bigger one 10 minutes before that kicked my ass by going straight into the "shnarb." I was nearly back at the car when I saw a little guy rising above a big root system. I cast to it and got it. While I was fighting it, a big one came out from under the roots and took a swipe at the little guy. I released the mini and then tied on a streamer and after a few failed attempts at getting the drift right under the roots, it came out and nailed it. I had my pooch with me so when it took off downstream, I had to grab my dog under my arm and give chase. When I finally landed it, I was giggling like a little school girl. Cheers.

I was playing around this morning. Tried out using my own foam legs for the first time. Probably not that practical of a tie as the first fish will likely destroy the legs but man, it looks buggy! Because the whole thing is made of foam I think I'll call it, "Go Foam or Go Home." Hook: Mustad #6 wet nymph hook Thread: Yellow 6/0 Body: Tan foam Wing: Mottled Etha-wing legs: Tan foam Coloured with various Sharpies.

Saw these quite often on the side of the road on the South Island of NZ. Always made me laugh. Cheers.

Funny story on the Bow about TP. A friend and I were getting ready for our annual Bow river camping trip and we were getting all the gear ready. I saw a roll of TP in a ziplock bag so I threw it in the cooler with my other stuff. When my friend arrives we are going through all of our gear and he asks me if I have any TP. Confidently, I say YES. Fastforward to 2 days later when we are on the Bow. We had steak the night before and at around 3:00pm he starts getting a bit uncomfortable and tells me to row to shore post-haste so that he might unload the steak. I row to shore, he jumps out, and is doing a little dance because things are really moving along. He yells with some urgency, " throw me the toilet paper," and I confidently reach in and throw him the ziplock bag. Frantically, he reaches in the bag and pulls out a roll of white garbage bags! The bags looked just like TP in the ziplock. So he throws the whole thing at me and takes off cursing into the bushes totally unprepared. 5 minutes later he comes back and looks relieved, so I ask him, "so what did you use?" to which he says nothing but gently lifts up one pant leg and reveals he is now only wearing one sock! I almost wet myself. We both bring our own TP now.

Slightly off topic but it does have to do with recommended lines: My lovely wife got me a 4pc 4wt 7'9" finesse TFO rod for Xmas. I fish Stauffer and Prairie quite a bit, do some backpacking to lakes (yeah 4pc!) and do several cuttie streams west of Nordegg. About half the time I fish smallish dries and the other half I like rubber legged foam stuff. What line would you recommend for this rod and these conditions? I'm not sure about overlining it when I think it will be a pretty soft rod to begin with? Thoughts? Oh yeah, and reasonably priced is always nice.

Lacombe you say???? Hmmm.... I live in Lacombe and am in the market for a new Uncle's brother. What are the odds?

I hate Telus. Period. I've had so many bad experiences with them and trying to maneuver through their customer services on the phone is a truly new dimension of hell. Incredibly long wait, incompetent and unhelpful representatives, and I always feel like somehow I am getting screwed each and every time I try to deal with them. I am so jaded by them that when we moved into a new house, I went with Vonage so that I wouldn't have to deal with Telus for a LAN line. Vonage isn't perfect but it's ALWAYS $20.99 per month and when my vonage magic-box went on the fritz, I phoned customer services, talked with someone immediately, and they sent me a new box in 2 business days for free. Now that is customer service. I am so jaded with Telus that it really wouldn't matter how bad Vonage is, I still wouldn't go back to Telus. It would take several, and I mean several, customer service representatives from Vonage to literally tell me to F$#@ off before I would even consider going back to Telus. They are a truly terrible company that doesn't care about the service they provide or the customers that they provide the service for. They are interested only in the bottom line and are not interested in anything that interferes with that line. They invent new and creative ways to rip people off. Shame on them. Shame on us for letting them.

One of my "great ideas" is to have a fly tying desk set up with a central vac hose connected to it at desk level. Take one of the sweeper ends (those ends that you just use your foot to turn on and sweep your dust pile into the tray) and attach it at desk level. When you're done tying, just turn it on and take a little hand-held broom and sweep your garbage into the vacuum. Voila!

A couple of years ago I was out at Gull Lake and there was a foot and a half of ice, easy. We were driving all over it and it was all good. A week later, a buddy and I are out at Strubel lake near Rocky. It's a MUCH smaller lake so we thought it should be even thicker than Gull. We get there and there were lots of vehicles on so we drove to our favorite spot and I punched the first hole. I barely started augering and I was through. I looked and we were probably on 8-10 inches of ice! Needless to say, I very carefully got into the truck and with the door open, drove SLOWLY to the edge. I believe that there are some springs feeding that lake which make it especially dangerous for thin ice. My point being, don't just assume that if the ice is good on one lake/area of a lake, that it will be good somewhere else. Cheers.

They're just easier to take camping because they are already frozen and marinated. Whatever they might taste like on the BBQ, they taste like a piece of heaven after being on the coals. And I was apologizing because when it's -35, it's hard to get a steak cooked over an open fire. Cheers.