Jayhad

There will be several shops retailing at the show with a huge host of tying materials, some shops close for the show some stay open, depends on their staffing. Take the questions you have here and present them to the shop rats and take notes you'll be given the info you require. Here's some good info on flys: http://www.bowriver.com/flies.php

Don, I thought a good portion of the grass rods built now were hollow, not true eh? Are all 5 sided rods hollow because they are just slats of bamboo over and under each other? Quads are just 4 triangles glue together, right so no hollow there?

hello, tickets please

Don, I am sorry you took my post as more than me just joking, I think you would be surprised at my age.. which should have nothing to do with it, experience now that's where it's at. Although I am a dedicated graphite angler, I understand grass has it's place and excels for those that choose to embrace it. as for plastic, I know nothing about people who fish with plastic, plastic is derived from oil. Graphite is an element, well more appropiately it is an allotrope of a carbon.

Don, that's an impressive video, now if you could just get bamboo to cast adequately at all distances, track well, be able to present a dry as well as graphite, handle fish over 11" and not burst in to flames everytime you get close to a fire you might be on to something, there's a reason successful rod manufacturers employee material engineers not carpenteers

Rick, maybe I'm retarded but it appears both links go to the Sage Vs Winner, Nevermind, there is a link in the link

the ones are ridiculous rods aren't they, I really feel like I'm drinking Sage's Koolaid when I talk about the One's because the hype is true

if the HIDs pull more current than your old lights (which they probably will) there is a chance you will melt the exsisting wires, seen it in multiple conversions

I tip my hat to you, some fish are worth a wrist slap.

Troutlover if you are going to drift from bowness down be aware it is a massive drift, 12hours+(if you are doing some shore fishing) from shouldice park to 17th ave. I've had days where the drift has taken 15 hours. As for the weir good luck, go fast. Don't get caught up in the pools as they really force your boat back up stream, from where the current lets go of your boat and you drop is inches and you don't want to go in any way but bow first. You have to go through correct and be confident you don't need to make any directional changes.... the channel is very narrow and at some points you cant stroke the oars with out hitting and jamming them on the concrete banks. I've done the weir a lot and I'll say it isn't easy especially after doing a 12 hour drift. It took at least 8-10 times before i was confident I wasn't going to destroy my boat. I have taken on water almost everytime going through. Water crashes over the bow and the stern gets A LOT of water coming in if there are three guys equiped for a day. But I do run a low side, I went through with a buddy's clakca fly pod and a fair bit of water came over the stern with just the two of us and that was last day you could fish so water was low. What even makes it more enjoyable is when dudes jump in the water all around your boat for the ride down. One day Tungsten and I were out and right when we breached harvey passage, a guy yells, "F**K these guys" and does a back flip off the wall to inches from my bow. He popped up under my starboard oar, and hooted about how he was going to watch these dudes swamp. Needles to say he made my efforts to row difficult, but the bikinis on the banks make it a little better. Be careful. stay river right at harvey passage and KEEP YOUR PFDs on all day in the city unless you want a boat load of tickets.... trust me. Be prepared, CPS, bylaw, and FD you will stop you and they will ask you where you are taking out, if you have any booze, and for some reason if the oarsman is guiding or fishing. As for camping i've thought about this a lot myself, from crowchild down there isn't an island that would be ok until the canals downstream of glenmore. I would stay in the canal islands myself, they are high off the water, there are protected areas where you can confidently leave you boat, but deerfoot noise would suck. yes it is illegal but so is running the weir, speeding, not wearing a pfd in city limits or smoking weed. I think there is no way you could do bowness to christmas tree island in one day. Only thing is if Hawks flys over and they are viewing the are with FLIR they might wonder what you are doing at 4am? If you have any questions drop me a pm

I have the Sonic Pros in both the zipper front and pants. The previous models prior to the sonics commonly blew seams, the new sonics are light years ahead. I also find the Redingtons are perhaps the most comfy of any waders I've worn. I got my latest sets in late october so besides 15 days in BC I don't have much time on them.

Dekkard, I thought Transalta didn't use that station for electric generation anymore.... any word on that?

thanks Dave, all those pigs in under two weeks.... wow. every time i see more stuff on NZ makes me thnk i'm crazy for not taking my buddy up for staying at his parents in NZ.... maybe 2014.... but with more of your blog entries it could be sooner

Guys, you can take something if you have put something up. Streamwatch is a noble donation but we aren't trying to create another streamwatch donation stream, this thread is to be about helping each other out with what you have.

http://www.youtube.com/user/billvietti#p/u/1/cWTcCtYl5Cs

No surprise, the US is the least free of the "free" Nations they are doomed as all great empires have crumpled People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both, Ben Franklin

I bring this topic up as I would like to see a fundemental change to how the Bow is managed and I feel a guides association could achieve these objectives. Please note these are only my perceptions (wrong or right) of how the Bow could be managed to much better fishery. From my OP.

Come on guys lets get this ripping. in BC they have over 15 pages of generosity can we see past our rod tips to help a brother out. FNG, you are in..... ps bring beer lol

Camel, Don't be so sure it will take money out of guides pockets, there are cases in other areas where guides associations have had regulations put in place to make it more profitable Liability insurance is actually much cheapier than $5000 for a single guy operation, all of the situations you stated should be covered except for food.. from my understanding if a guide is providing you with prepackaged food the onis is on the food manufacturer, if the guide is making the food it must conform to Alberta food safe laws, and there the guide could be open to liability. But if any of these do happen having your insurance renewed may be challenging to say the least. Unsafe water conditions; who would know better if the water is unsafe than a guide, tough one to win in court. guide just needs to testify that he felt the water conditions were safe and from his experience they should have been. Plus if we are talking about drifting the Bow (down stream of the weir) there aren't to many hazards compared to many watersheds that have class 3 & 4 rapids. If a guide doesn't carry insurance he's playing with fire period. AS for tax purposes if you carry a business license and insurance and show no income year after year sooner or later rev can is going to want to know how you live....... tips, now I'm sure most of those don't get declared

Fair enough I don't have all or even any answers on how this should be managed or regulated, there are many places in the world where we could take policies from. This is really the current system, buyer beware. I was trying to point out that a licenced boat system can't work as there are guides that have no interest in owning or using a boat, there are large area of this province where owning a licenced boat would be of no benefit to either guide or the consumer. I've never stated or complained that any of this would be too much trouble, actually to the contrary I am posting this discussion to see what can be done and in the end if I can help. Go back and read, you will see I never said that anyone is stealing food from my plate, but I would like to see revenues generated off of Alberta resources staying in Alberta.... nothing to do with my plate or pocket. If you read my first post my objective of this was to the betterment of the resource not anyones wallets, I feel a guides association all evils aside could bring one benefit of being a focused voice towards better management, but please don't read this as I am for or against a guides association. finally, why you so mad bro

So a guide who only does wade and walks and isn't not Bow-centric how would he be regulated? This wouldn't solve the out of province guides working the foothills.

So F&W uses a policy that was implimented 30 years ago to manage our fisheries????

If you feel it is that simple I implore you to start a petition and spearhead that effort.

well get on it Jer.... this is the reason for this discussion a guides association will have a much larger voice than this forum or a single dude trying to implement changes. Our Govt`understands $$$ not bleeding hearts. A guides association could show that the fishery is a worthwhile investment for govt coffers

Brent, thank you some excellent points there; and in asking questions please don't think I am attacking or questioning the validity of your statements I am just trying to get a better understanding. I completely agree these are hold ups, an association would have to police itself. As for who is a guide is I would think there would have to be boat restrictions, (no tinnies or canoes) evidence of first aid, and liability insurance. How do you manage the watershed? I have no idea, but if things continue unregulated where will we be? Perhaps a review of days guided the previous year with a 10% increase. You don't have to travel very far south to see we are taking it between the anal fins on shuttle prices Do you really think this is an issue? these guys never really put much effort or $$$ into their service so they go by the wayside, mind you if it was government run this would become a non-issue I think this may be a sign of the times, these problems are evident on most major watersheds in western Canada right now. Look at threads about the Thompson, Vedder, Fraser, our bow river report has one rant at least each day in the summer. I haven't fished in the US much are they experiencing the same things? or are we just not used to the growing pains of our ever increasingly popular streams? There's always going to be a-holes Even though I'm a culprit of fishing in the winter I couldn't agree more, this season I have decided to give them rest. (not judging anyone if it's legal knock yourself out) Honestly I've never given this any thought, you'd have to be living under a rock since the 60's to not know wide flow changes negatively effects fish but I thought in the Bow it was becuase we have so much concrete funneling water into the Bow. Does transalta open the valves more? I don't guide in this area as I feel it sees far to much traffic, but I think it is a prime example for rod day restrictions, I think closing guiding on all cutthroat streams is not the way to go as there is tons of virtually untoached cutty criks in this province, and then we may see a negative influx of days on the Bow, but your point does have merit. So no guiding before 7:00am? tough one for myself personally as I like to fish the stonefly hatches from 22:00-4:00 but typically that is it for me for the day. I don't see this as lowering pressure unless there is a large amount of guides taking out two groups in one day..... I know of several guides that like to launch at 4:00 Am but they are typically off at 13:00 and don't reguide. Thanks for your input