Bigtoad

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.

Well, you're not going to be happy about this but the absolute best steak ever! is one that is cooked over the coals on a campfire beside the Bow river. My favorite is the Teriyaki steak from M & M but I have found others work as well. When done properly, you can cut it with the side of a plastic fork. Mmmmmmmm........... Sorry dude.

I realize I'm entering this conversation really late so I apologize for any redundancy here. When I was in the Philippines 10 years ago, I tried dog once, at a wedding feast for the community I was staying in. Went back to the house I was staying at with a Filipino pastor and our dog, Chips, was "missing." Well, apparently Chips was invited to the wedding as well. I didn't feel bad, he was a mean dog anyway. A bit fatty as well.... So I would try eating dog, but I wouldn't eat dolphin. The part of the movie where he brings the TV down to the dock and the dolphins could identify themselves and seemed to enjoy watching themselves perform was, for me, the turning point in my mind. I realize that my emotions probably got the best of my reasoning, but that did it. The level of self-awareness seemed too high. It wasn't a matter of how "smart" it was. Pigs are "smart" and delicious. Period. But the film made a very strong argument for dolphins having another level of self-awareness that other animals (maybe some primates???) don't have. I'm also an avid hunter and do occasionally come across something I will shoot, but if I came across a deer sitting around, watching themselves on TV, I would probably put my gun away and watch the TV with the deer. Cheers.

Just speaking entirely materialisticaly, I'm asking my wife for a 4pc, 4wt 7'9" finesse series TFO rod with a Pfleuger Trion reel (on sale at the fishing hole). Something to take backpacking and slay a few cutties and bulls west west of Rocky. I hope Santa is nice.

If we had similar penalties here in Alberta for public waters, maybe we would see a decrease? And if you get caught fishing during the time you are banned, you instantly get a lifetime ban. If you're on a lifetime ban and you get caught fishing, you get a ridiculously huge fine. OR, even better, you have to do community service by helping out with stream restoration! Ah, if only I ruled the world.... what a sweet place it would be for me, and a select group of others.....

I wasn't saying they were "just" college students. I was just saying, why not give more people, who would be willing to be trained in some way, some kind of special status? Status besides calling it in and waiting around for C/O's who are too few and far between. I believe the streamwatch program is great. I'm not getting down on it. I just think the concept could be expanded to a few more willing participants.

Forgive my naivete, but if college students (I believe that is who is being used for streamwatch?) can be trained and then sent out to "catch the bad guys," why can't there be a course offered to fishermen interested in helping out? I don't know what powers the interns have but fishermen who have taken the course should at least be able to collect evidence (pics of fish/tackle/technique) and ask to see their license number. They could then file a formal report and the C/O's could follow up on that. I'm just thinking that 5 interns aren't as good as 50 of us that would be willing to be trained. Am I out to left field here or what? Cheers.

I like Sport Fishing on the Fly because it's usually quite local (thus relevant), doesn't have the stupid infomercial feel that huge sponsorship seems to bring, they have a fly-tying section where they tie what they're using, and it's pretty low-key/low budget which I like. Even better, they are now putting full episodes on the web. http://www.sfotf.ca/ Cheers.

A glass-bead caddis larvae, boatman, backswimmer (I think I got the names right this time?), and a micro leech. Ice fishing is approaching and I wanted to try some flies that might work besides wire worms. I also tied the backswimmer with the hook upside down that I'm going to try through a hole when I can't swing a fly anymore. Cheers.

Let me be the first to say... NICE VIDEO!!!! Let me also be the first to say OUCH! It looked like a couple of the one's you missed were biggins' . That's the way it works. I saw myself in a number of those missed takes. Cheers.

I agree that when it comes to gov't decisions; money talks. So lets just talk #'s. How many RV's did I see random camping in a 20 km stretch along Prairie Creek on the long weekend when several, beautiful campgrounds within 10km were open? I would conservatively guess close to 200. Down one gas-pipeline alone, I saw nearly 50 in 3 big groups. So 200 x $20/day x 2 days weekend x 10 weekends = (drum roll please) $80,000 in lost revenue along ONE piece of highway over the summer. Start estimating how much the government is potentially losing any given weekend in the summer due to random camping and it begins to become a bit comical. We all get that the government is not going to stop RV's camping; you're missing the point (or I am) about the whole thing. The POINT is that it is completely unregulated and if it isn't out of complete control, it will be in many areas within several summers. The government should be able to find a solution without losing money. In fact, if they did it correctly (oxymoron, I know), it is potentially a very lucrative scheme. I mean, look at New Zealand, they're 2nd industry behind sheep is Tourism. THERE IS MONEY TO BE MADE HERE WHILE STILL REGULATING THE CAMPING/ATVING/FISHING/ETC/ETC/ETC/ AND MAYBE JUST SAVING THESE AREAS AT THE SAME TIME!!!

I've only experienced the random camping up here West of Rocky and in some areas it is truly ridiculous. I am totally with you that the government needs to step in IMMEDIATELY and do a strategic, province-wide plan on how to stop this freakish road-show. Some initial thoughts: 1. There must be designated areas for quadders to have some fun but these should be more than 100m away from any waterway OR body of water and stream/river crossings should be only in designated areas. These designated areas should also have marked trails that need to be followed so only the trail is damaged and not the whole area. Stiff fines if broken. 2. Random camping (I'm thinking mostly tents here... RV's are covered in #3) continues to be allowed but MUST be registered. ex. If I want to go to the South Ram and camp along the river: a. If there are designated campgrounds with firepits I NEED to camp at those sites (If all sites are taken, I don't camp there). b. If the area is too remote to have sites, I still need to register approximately where (and how many nights) I will be staying there. The gov't could charge $5 a night to random camp to take care of the admin costs and to pay for improving designated sites in more remote places. You could register online and print off your registration card. If you are out camping and you don't have a registration card for the area and time you are there, you get some seriously hefty fines. 3. Areas that RV's can access, there needs to be more designated campsites made available, even rustic ones with no utilities, but still a dumping station. Charge $10 - $15 a night. MAKE ALL OTHER RANDOM CAMPING BY RV'S ILLEGAL ON CROWN LAND! (unless of course there is no designated rv camping sites within 25km (or something like that?) in that area. However, they would still need to register under #2 above and pay $5 a night. 4. Education and information: There needs to be camping/quadding regulations JUST like there is for fishing and hunting complete with brochure or magazine. In it, there would be good maps that CLEARLY show where you can and can not quad as well as defined trails. There would also be general regulations in there like only crossing rivers in designated areas, staying 100m away from waterbodies, etc. Camping could have something like that as well. A general regulations booklet with maps of all of the designated camping areas and rules for camping. They could even steal some of the info from "How to *hit in the woods," to help educate campers on minimum impact camping. 5. STIFF PENALTIES! Once some of these things are in place, make the fines for breaking them incredibly steep. This would help to pay for extra workers as well as be a larger deterrent for idiots. Thoughts??? Oh, and WHERE DO I WRITE A LETTER? Someone, please tell me where and how I can get involved and I'll be there. I just don't know who to send it to. Cheers.

I've heard the legend of the "Birchy Mitts" so I'd like to guess 19" Bob.

I'm not really sure if we can count anything caught while nymphing on a cuttie stream, regardless of how big and nasty that fish may be? Sick fish. I'm salivating....

Really Wolfie????? I thought sex would probably be the #1 form of therapy for a man and woman? Maybe fly fishing a distant 2nd?