Jayhad

Yours, late june good for ya? and it's for two if you can't fill that we can put the spot up for another to jump on.

I will give up a guided drift on the Bow. Perhaps above the weir. No lunch supplied and we'll split the shuttle 1 Seat still availible

OK There has been many opinions expressed for and against a guides association on this forum from time to time. At one time there was a guides association, but from one that wasn't involved it looks as though it has gone by the way side., ie website is dead and no reasonable research can locate information. I for one can't really decide if it is a good thing or not my two concerns are: -Having a guides association can bring awareness to the economic value of our resource and one voice can impact change. PGK has brought very good information to the table to support this idea. -Through economic value, guides have been able to impact usage of resources for the benefit of thier pockets while presenting the implemented restrictions as a benefit to resource. I feel it would be horrible if a guides association was able to inact changes that saw restrictive rod days, to both residents and non-residents on our waters. What is restricting us from getting this off the ground? -is it public perception as to what the guides should be responsible for? -------->I for one don't agree that a guides association should be responsible for education of the masses, electricians aren't putting on wire identification courses. -Are there to few guides to hold an association together? is it always the same few writing, lobbying, and attending meetings to the point as where they get burnt out? -$$$, guides don't want to pony up? and why should they when the unregulated status quo seems to be working? -Would the govt. care? -Is our Alberta culture of limited govt involvement to blame? Perhaps provincial licensing wouldn't happen but again I come to one voice carries some weight. -Is there to much disent from guides toward one another? -I was told this season from a guide that I wouldn't be allowed to be part of the guides association as my skiff doesn't have knee braces (it's designed to be fished out of sitting) are inflexable rules holding guides back? 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; With a river that is constantly reffered to as a "Blue Ribbon Fishery" shouldn't it be managed as such? -1. Bait Ban from Bearspaw to Carseland, the maggot whitefish opening does experience a lot of trout by catch. -2. No retintion, Catch and Release; there are a lot of put and take fisheries in this province and the province suggests you don't consume fish from the Bow. -3. Changing the definition of HOOK in this management zone or Bow specific, so three hooks can be used but with only one point each. Running mulitple trebles on a C&R water is not in the best interest of the fishery. Your thoughts, hopefully some guides will chime in to the failures in the past and how we could move forward (I say failure as there is no public perception that there is a guides association currently)

I would like to believe we at FFC could pull off something like this. In the thread you can give up something you have no use for, if you gave up something you can take something of like value. Perhaps it is something we can one day strive to accomplish in the name Christmas and as an attempt to bring our fractured Alberta fishing community together. What say you? http://forum.flybc.ca/index.php?showtopic=34231

This last week while walking a BC river my father and I saw a freshly dead grey heron (sp?). I didn't pilfer it as we both thought there were legal issues, I recall that there are plumes on the bird that are desired for spey flys.... Are there any issues with owning heron feathers and what steps need to be taken if I wanted to "claim" this skin?

I haven't used the stuff but could you use some self leveling cement to correct the floor, then apply any flooring

THanks me???? that was the funniest drift ever period. anytime man

Jeff i have seen cutties in the other branches as well. The first time I fished that water I got in there as the sun was setting. I saw some fish rising so i chucked a stimmy out and I got a bully after 3 more casts with 3 more bullies on the stimmy I was pretty satisfied. Gary, who is in one of those pics pretty much fished the bullies with drys and he took double digits. Several K's down another little crik comes in and there i've seen some monsters. if i didn't know better the way they were coloured I would swear they are artics, they are deep dark red with little to no spots. I talked to some SRD staff with pics and GPS coordinates they told me they are a very different and distinct bullies and they were very surprised I've hiked in there. Holy are there ever some bears up there and i saw a bizzilion cat tracks. Next season we should walk some of that, but after you come down for your drift.

when the trout are chasing salmon, ramming into their bellys making the salmon drop eggs that's matching the hatch. Pretty accepted practice on those river systems Jeff you probably do know exactly where that is, there were no cutties in late july when we went up there. the log jam is still there It was full of 18 - 26 bullies, I'm surprised at how healthy that system is..... i guided a guy up there this season and he got a 18" brown.... blew me away

Junior do you have access to the breakdown, I was of the understanding that it goes into genereal revenue... but if $X goes into general revenue and general revenu pays out $X to the fisheries that's awesome and really my point would be incorrect and moot, I hope you are right

Well, I'm in BC and after 40mm of rain in the last 2 days rivers are ripping. I've managed to roach a wifi signal so I decided to drop some pics of this season that coincide with some great days. I really fished the Bow a lot this season, having a new drifter that is so easy to work with made not driving for trout easy this season. I gave a way a few free drifts to FFC members and those days were perhaps the most enjoyable of all, each time i felt I was repayed in knowledge, new freindships and in the case of FNG.... beer, lots and lots o' beer. Here are some pics, hope you enjoy. Those of you that drifted with me this season are welcome again next and if I'm not to busy I hope some of the other FFC members will jump aboard this coming season. We'll have a sweet drift, see some bikinis, laugh, eat well and maybe stumble upon a bruin or two.

I read this as more wind from the resident gas bag. Kris, you come on to this forum and call the members names and degrade us, but yet you demand we take you as the super dope gansta smart fish biologist you believe you are. Rather than trying to fan the flames use your book smarts and all your infinit wisdom and offer some suggestions, rather than "do something." Some people on this forum are doing things and don't talk about it on the forum becuase they are doing it for the fish not for internet pats on the back. I would happily pay more, even though you paint all of us with a hugely wide brush saying "You're all cheap". For me $500 a year is still a bargin. OUr system doesn't have classified waters, I' d love to see that. We don't have conservation tags, I'd love to see that. Our system doesn't put license revenues into the resource it goes into General Revenue, I would love to see a change. Our guiding industry can't get a guides association off of the ground, why? I don't know, I agree with you that guide associations get things done by associating value to the resource. Plus the government has no intention to regulate guides, how do we change that? Many of the community support Stream Watch, that is doing something. So Kris, I ask, no plead with you to give us a small tidbit of knowledge on how we can fix our systems, you clearly have the answers. I don't know what to do other than what is currently being done. Please note saying change the current govt isn't a solution it's a pipe dream, and it is no guarentee that a new govt. would act in a way we as anglers wish they would. Jay

Don, couldn't the govt' step up and do the RIGHT and apply license revenues to the resource rather than general revenue? I guess fat chance of that happening though eh?

No problem if you have any specific questions feel free to PM me. Sage makes it worth my while to stay educated. Once the positive temps come back I am more than happy to let you cast some of the sticks I have at my disposal.

I just picked some of the ONEs and I was able to fish the 7wt 10' for 3 days last week. I was a huge Z fan, but the ONE is everything they say it is and more. First off they feel remarkably light, the 7100 feels lighter than my Z 4100. Casting the stick is truly effortless, maybe a couple of the guys that tried the stick with me will chime in. I was taken back at how little effort I needed to bust out 60' roll casts even with heavy rigs. I picked the rod up to be my go to streamer stick for the Bow. The grip is interesting and after 15 minutes I didn't notice that I only like cigar grips and I found it stay put in your hand. The cork is some of the nicest Sage has offered in a long time. I would say the rod is most comparable to a XP, but with more power and less weight. I feel the XPs don't deliver in spey casts, where as the ONE always seems to want to shoot more and more line. I found I could forget about casting and focus on fishing... Truly you need to cast one of these sticks to appreciate what Sage did. I was very skeptical that they could DRAMATICLY improve on the Z and Sage did in spades. The rod delivers pin point accuracy at any distance. My only complaint may be line based but I need to play around with lines on the Ones a bit more. I threw a RIO Gold on the 7100... I should have been casting a sink tip as that's what I want the rod for. I found up to 40' it was hard to feel the rod load but i typically cast lines with heads in the 65'-70' range where as the Rio Gold is only 47' so it is probably my issue and not the rod. Take what I said with a grain of salt as I am a Sage guy, and when the ONEs came out I was pretty anti ONE. I really didn't think they could improve on the Z..... they did and now I'm trying to figure out how to get my hands on more of them

Nor-vise

Chris, you are correct about the SP being the first Durascrim blank, I tend to lump SP and SP+ in the same breath as i do RPL and RPL+ and RPLXi or the newer VT and TXL series, sorry for the confusion. As for the the movie I was kinda guessing there, with out checking i thought it was 1994, but Oct 92 and Sage dropping the SP a couple months later was what i was getting at...... that was a long time ago.

X3..... still funny

It's been a while chucking a SP+ for me but I think they two should be fairly similar, but the TCX will be remarkably lighter.

The SP+, first stick with Durascrim, 64 Million modulus graphite, casts buggers like a slingshot. did you buy it because of "the movie?" It came out the same year so Sage really benefitted from Brad. Those sticks were rifles, I don't own one (why not?) and haven't had the pleasure to fish one since '98. If memory serves me correct it was a dramatic departure from the previous Graphite II actions. The SP+s were never as popular as the RPLs in the region I lived and I think Sage sold more RPLs than SP+s. Was your SP+ a 2 or 3 piece? the 3 pieces are fairly rare. Do you not have the option of getting the SP+? Sage has always stated they keep the mandrels of past models so they can provide warranties. I would personally think the SP+ is more similar to a Z than a TCX, perhaps the Sage employee is just looking at model value. The TCX's came from the TCR's (Tournament Casting Rod), which for 95% of the market were virtually uncontrollable. If you cast like a master they were incredible, generating line speeds and pin point accuracy that was unparalleled. BUT it became quickly evident that the TCR was a nightmare for the average angler, it magnifies faults in your cast unlike any other rod out there. Solution tame the rod down a bit and wham we have the TCX. I like to collect Sage sticks but I have to fish them, because of this I have never owned a singlehand TCX, I don't see it as the best option in Sage's line up. I do know some guys that love the TCXs for streamer fishing. Do you have the option of getting a ONE? I've only casted the ONEs and I will be fishing them this coming weekend, but in my opinion the One is a well refined Z minus half the weight... actually they almost feel uncomfortabley light..... I can't wait to get my hands on the 7100.

wow

dude you're right Terry Lake has me as speed dial #2 right after his voice mail, last time we talked he asked me if he should open the fishery, and asked me to keep this on the down low

So it appears that the test fisheries are steel numbers close to the opening threshold. Myself I haven't fished the T 10 years, I miss the fishery, I miss spences, shoot I even miss taken a tumble on those crazy slick rocks and I miss those steelbows. I really want to fish the T. But I have to ask myself do I want to be responsible for just one.....one fish that I may hook deep, when landing I slip on the rocks and drop a fish or just plain release poorly. There is another side to the arguement; that the more eyes on the river is better for the fishes...... I really don't see Peter Powerbait going to the T to whack a couple steels, when all those easy to floss salmon are just a little ways away. What are your thoughts....... I hate to say it but I think I'm going to agree with PGK