dryfly

Very nice. Looks great. How durable are the legs? You tried old-fashioned rubber?

Agree with Don .. be careful. My experience with these things is that hiring a guy at $100 is often less expensive than DIY. Ask me about the front door window I was checking for leaks in January.... Ooops....crash ... $210 later..replaced window...

Don .. good luck. Ah! I forgot it is ONLY about color with the ladies, eh? (Just kidding.) If you do not like Ford I am sure that are many compact to mid-sized vehicles that get 35+ mpg. Good luck. With apologies to Don and the FFC board for this ongoing hijack... mods can snip it of they want... (Man, I gotta get out fishing or picture taking.....ugh!) Smitty. I am all over conservation. Conserving somewhat finite resources is important—as the earth’s population grows it is getting more difficult. My wife and I try to do our small part. We live in a small bungalow (could be smaller)...we use a push mower (okay only at our summer trailer place) ...we drive a 6-cylinder vehicle for 80 percent of our casual driving (yes we could drive a four-banger if we had to)..we rarely eat in restaurants and cook fresh veggies at home… I walk downtown for errands and groceries when feasible…we compost. But still, we live in a house that is too large and probably drive too much. But I ain't pretending that we are saving the environment like many green weenies claim to be doing. Conservation is indeed important but we also need to put energy use and lifestyle in perspective. What irritates me no end is the "pious" attitude of the "eco weenies" and how they single-handily are saving the universe with (frankly) rather silly concepts or old concepts and often concepts that have a larger "footprint" (whatever THAT is) that what they are trying to replace. And they are passing much misinformation along to our youth. THAT is the shame. Let’s see: — Green housing subdivisions in which "green" methods and supplies are used to build 3,000-sq-ft homes ?? — Hybrid Escalades — production of bio fuels that take land out of food production and drive up food prices — wasting billions on expensive and ineffective wind farms and claiming to reduce emissions (the BIG wind lie that claims to be emissions free..far from it!) The couple of billion $$ we have spent in Alberta on ineffective wind turbines would have been better spend on conservation in our homes and businesses. And let’s not kid ourselves, you and I and all individual consumers pay every nickel of the cost of wind farms and transmission...whether or not you got sucked in to buying Bullfrog power....THAT is a huge scam...we all pay for wind! It is all the same grid. The turbines do not shut down when the wind blows..Smitty as I write this post, wind is generating ZERO electricity in Alberta...zero....last night it was working at 1 percent of its capacity..NOT 1% of demand ... one percent of wind capacity..today it is producing zero electricity...all backed up with coal and gas power...as IF wind is emissions free...such a shameful waste promoted by capitalists and egged on by weenies. Such strange bedfellows and we all pay for this waste.) — vilifying the tar sands because birds die (such a shame) while turning a blind eye to wind-turbine bird and bat morts — the 100-mile diet ( I spent many years working with market gardeners and vegetable producers in order to increase local production, but to feed the masses it is ineffective nonsense. In most cases it is cheaper to produce in a warmer southern climate and transport—but that too has limits—see pepper photo below. ☺) Pretending to do stuff to make us feel good while having no overt effect on the environment is misguided. The big shame of many green efforts is wasting time and money in ineffective green things that have no effect on the environment while ignoring the plight of millions who don’t have clean water and a decent health services. We are wasting billions pretending we can change climate while ignoring the plight of millions. Environmentalism is detracting from the REAL needs of the earth! I am all for teaching about the environment but teaching scientific untruths and misleading our youth appears to be rampant in our society. Such a shame. We need sanity in our educational system and it is not there....we are not teaching our children the truth about environmental protection .... just misguided Suzukian platitudes not based on science with no conceivable positive outcome. Regards Clive PS: Maye it is the drinking water in Lethbridge... :P These are all Lethbridge events... FAIL ... what makes this so unacceptable is that the teacher can't understand basic engineering and scientific facts and acts as if he invented landscaping. (There are several fallacies in this teacher's woefully misguided effort.) FAIL .. organic peppers flown from Israel... (efficient truck transport of veggies 2,000 or 3,000 km is one thing...flying peppers around the world in the name of misguided environmental protection....utter nonsense.) It works both ways as well… this Lethbridge fencing contractor wants us to “save a tree” by building a plastic fence?!? You can’t make up this crap. FAIL!

Don .. my apologies for the hijack!! There are a lot of options for you, none of which involve getting a hybrid IMHO. You can get Sandy a great well-appointed, mid-sized sedan that gets good mileage and won't break you stock options to maintain. In the long haul (say over 200,000 km) you will save a lot of money sticking with conventional AND get good mileage. Clive

Mike "A Cadillac SUV Hybrid HAS to be earth friendly- Right? Right?" Well .. er ... well .. maybe .. then again, maybe not, eh? To quote someone here about 2 years ago... "Pretending to give a *hit." (One of the great quotes here...) Pretending to give a *hit is the ONLY reason to drive a Caddy hybrid. Makes no economic or physical sense. Just window dressing. And if an owner of one of these thinks they are portraying "greenness" I have news for them. It is right up there with buying electricity from the grid from Bullfrog ... the same electrons as the rest of us 98 percent of which are coal generated.

Don This is a "no brainer." Ford Focus or similar model. Let me see ... mileage is a bit less than the Toyota Pious ... for the same (what?) $36K you can buy two (count 'em two) Fords and easily get (what?) 500K kms on them...they will outlast the little woman. Or you can get one Pious and save a few $$ on petrol that will be pissed away when you need to service the batteries at 100K or whatever it is these days. Ka-Ching! I dunno about that VW Green car of the year BBT ... there was one parked outside of dad's last spring ... was around freezing and the diesel Jetta ran all day long ... green as grass. Don ... buy her a Ford Focus and buy a chrome "Hybrid" insignia for it it that makes Sandy feel better. If you get her the hybrid you can move to Lethbridge so she can get priority parking at the Park Place Mall. Green madness. BTW .. this is real ... there are hybrid stalls at PPM. You can't make up stoodip eco-weenie *hit like this. Regards Clive

Remember to "save for web" when posting images (from this GPS-enabled camera) on the internet. Or we will all know exactly where the pictures of HUGE fish were taken. Looks like a nice fishing camera.

How you keep track Terry? Carbon dating or counting rings? Happy Birthday! Clive

"After You" When someone asks the name of your boat, you can say, "I named it After You."

Hey beed! I think you can get about 4 years in PA for: 1) Handling a leopard frog and placing on a fishing reel 2) Taking an endangered species out of its natural environment 3) Failing to report the GPS coordinates of said LF to the Department of Something or Other. Man oh man, yer in big doo. Just kidding. Great shots and the leopard frog on the reel is my fave. Great stuff. Have a happy winter. Cheers! Clive

Come on gang! Pony up a few bucks for Ryan, Darrin, Jared and Smitty! There are few here who can't afford twenty five or fifty bucks to help manage a disease that will hit 10 percent of you before you "shuffle off this mortal coil." Here are Ryan's and Darrin's Movemebr webpages: http://ca.movember.com/mospace/918464/ http://ca.movember.com/mospace/1159394/

Excuse the crappy formatting ... here is a list of raffle and auction items...some fine tuning yet. ...but you get the idea.... RAFFLES Outcast 9' Pontoon Boat BUSINESS CARD DRAW 2 btls of wine COFFEE MUG RAFFLE Orvis FF 9' 6wt 7 pc Rod Battenkill Reel & Line Certified Data Netbook Optio Underwater Camera LIVE AUCTION Elk River Float Trip 4 Flames Tickets & 2 Hotel Rooms HD 'All Sport' HeroCam Pkg. "Silent Witness-Waters of Nova Scotia" Framed Print Hurricanes Super Suite Duck Blind; Goose & Mallard Calls Sierra TX2 Large Arbour Saltwater Fly Reel 8/10 Day with Lethbridge Police K9 Unit for 2 people 1 day guided Belize Flats fishing & 3 nights accom. San Pedro Belize Batik Purse Winston 5wt rod/reel/line w/engraving 2 Nites Accom Bed & Bales B&B Half Day FF Lessons 'Best Practises' w/John Bransfield "Alberta Big Skies" Original Oil by Brian Stone 1955 Cockburns Port Heritage Bamboo Rod 1 day 2 People Bow River Float "World-Class Browns" Robert Batement 4 Print Set Framed BUCKET RAFFLE Fly Fisherman Wall Hanging 2 btls of wine Framed Photo "Burmis Tree" Wooden Trout Carving "West Castle Cut" "Call of the Wild" Print Framed "Trout Streams of Alberta" Jim McLennan 7/50 Bradley Portable Smoker Furled Leader Package 1 Dozen Mayflies 24 Flies Flybox & 10 mixed Flies for Local Rivers Dragonfly 8 wt rod, reel & line "Survival Pkg" Walkie Talkies/Compass/Meal Kit 1.5 L. Fonseca 2002 Port 36 "Pre-treed" Flies BBQ Toolset Woods' LED Worklight Southern Alberta Flyfishing Experience Jewellery Set 2 - $25 Gift Cert's Guesthouse Restaurant 2 Green Fees for 2011 @ Paradise Canyon Golf Resort 4 Green Fees for 2011 @ Land O Lakes Golf Club 1 Auto Detailing Certificate for Oil Change SILENT AUCTION Framed Photo "Crowsnest Mountain" 2 or 3 Framed Photos 1 Day Field Photo Lesson for 2 People Original WC "Yellow Sallie" Crowsnest Rainbow "OSO Close" Sculpture Mounted Salmon Flies Framed Fly Fishing Stamp Set Sculpture "Rooster" by Marc Pierce Sculpture "Piling in Mallards" By Marc Pierce Print "Moment of Reflection" by Diane Michelin Framed Print "Stooks" by Fraser Hines 4 Books + Bookends 7 pc. 9 ft. 5 wt. flyrod Orvis Kid's Fly Fishing Outfit Reddington 6wt 4pc rod, reel floating line Orvis Vest (loaded) Orvis Battenkill III 5-wt MidArbour Reel Furled Leader Package 22 Hoppers in a case 27 Dries & Nymphs 21 Wet Flies 20 Flies 25 Dry & Wet Flies 25 Dry & Wet Flies 25 Dry & Wet Flies 25 Dry & Wet Flies 3 Dozen Hand-tied Flies (2 Boxes) Waterton Stones Stones Nymphs, Humpies & Stones Oldman Cutties Caddis, PMD's & Nymphs Chironomids Caddis & Stimulators Caddis Alaska Rainbows Streamers 2 Nites Accom for 4 @ Crowsnest Riverside (Burmis) $50 Voucher for Food & Beverages $25 Gift Certificate 6 Bud Light T-Shirts 2 Nites Accom for 2 @ Country Encounters (CNP) 4 Green Fees @ Crowsnest Pass Golf Course 4 Green Fees and 2 Carts @ Lethbridge Country Club 4 Green Fees for 2011 @ Magrath Golf Club 2 Hour Dry Land Casting Clinic for Four People 3 Dozen Bonefish Flies 4 Lift Tickets for Castle Mountain Resort 8" Fixed Blade Custom-Built Hunting Knife w/Case Turbo Ceramic Styling Iron 4 - $25 Gift Cert's Guesthouse Restaurant Ceramic Serving Set "Posters of the Canadian Pacific" Book Amundson 9ft 4pc 6wt Rod,Reel,Line w/case & equip BBQ Set 4 - $25 Gift Cert's Guesthouse Restaurant Spinning Rod,Reel,Tackle Package "Okotoks Untitled" Original Oil by Brian Stone Wine Basket Columbia Fishing Shirt (Large) Box of 125 Flies 2 Nike Golf Shirts Walk & Wade the Crow 3 Bottles Petrolo Torrione 2007 1 Magnum Bottle Planeta Merlot Sicillia 2005 Coffee Mug w/Bandanas & Huckleberry Jams Knife Set $100 Voucher for Meat/Jerky/Smoked Sausage

Monger...did you ever see this craziness...happened to adc a few years ago...and I was there with my trusty camera. Clive

Hey gang.... DINNER & AUCTION Friday October 29 See details here... We still have some tickets left. The raffle and auction items have never been better. GREAT stuff to be had! Thanks Clive

River Run development is not going as planned... Today's Lethbridge Herald. Mike is a TU member and "retired" journalist. He owns that sweet cabin near the Burmis TU lease.

Well well, Don as another non Calgree-an and not a TV watcher, I had no idea what you were talking about. Had not heard a thing about this. But found this: Staged or not, good on her. I'd guess it was not staged. She was pissed and held it together well.

The Prairie Rattlesnake, is the only subspecies of the Western Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) found in Alberta. I photographed these snakes on October 9, 2010 near Foremost, Alberta. There are three individual specimens in these photographs. See here... Special thanks to the kind rancher who showed this wintering den to me. I appreciate being allowed access to take these photos. I plan on going back while the warm weather lasts. Clive

Yes, take your bonefish gear. I erred by not doing so last February. We were at Princeville and went down to Anini beach one day and plunked down on the beach to read and smoke a cigar. This is a public beach and there were a few dozen people on it stretch over about 1.5 km. Well holy cow, two guys get out of a jeep both carrying fly gear and I figured (correctly) that they were a sport and guide. They walked onto the flats for about 45 minutes and came back fishless. (I never understood why they just stayed a short while. It was clear after they finished that they parted company and were not going elsewhere.) Naturally I asked them about the fishing and the guide told me to give him a call as he had gear. I did not. Guides will sometimes hype up a water for the benefit of his current sport and prospective sports .. in this case me. But I was kicking myself for not taking my 8-wt and a few bone flies. Geez our condo was just 15 minutes away. The guide was Rob Arita...here. He said there were bones on the Anini flats and I've no reason not to believe him. As bone flats go these were pretty small, but there were no other anglers out there and it looked like you could wade over a few hectares of these flats. They walked out about 300 m or so. Would been a good way to spend a couple of hours now and then. Apparently lots of ponds and rivers have bass and other species .. access is an issue apparently. All I caught were pictures...here. And here.

I sure hope they don't rip up the countryside like this resource company is doing. Bastards, eh? I thought there were surface disturbance regs for native grasslands in the foothills...even on private land. Maybe not for some resource companies.

Paul I agree with you about the ski hill, but "All to protect residences at a ski hill that shouldn't have been built." is incorrect and is a narrow view of the proposed action. I can't say I am thrilled with the idea either but some facts are in order. This is a forest management burn. The ski hill and the burn will become a barrier in the "middle" (not quite) of a forested valley ~20 km long. The purpose of the burn is to form a fire guard that would block a fire from the south or from the north. The person managing the burn is Rick Arthur and he will be the guest speaker at the October 19 Oldman TU meeting. Rick Arthur Wildland Fire Prevention Officer Wildfire Management Sustainable Resource Development I recently asked Rick a series of questions. Here they are with my version of his replies in blue. 1) Are there other sections of the west side of Barnaby Ridge that have been considered as part of the “fuel reduction” plan? If so, what were the specific reasons for selection this specific section? (We understand that one reason was that the area cannot be logged because of slope.) This is the best area because of its mid-valley location, slope and potential for fire 2) How much logging has been done on the west slope of Barnaby Ridge? (It is not clear when the Google Earth satellite images were taken.) If some of Barnaby Ridge has already been logged, can any of these areas be used for the prescribed burn instead of the proposed area? No logging in any parts of Barnaby Ridge. Spray Lakes Lumber owns the timber rights and has no plans for Barnaby Ridge until 2030 or 2040 in West Castle and those are indefinite. Nothing sooner. The valley was gutted in 1936 and there was salvage logging done at that time. There is a small area where there was some fuel mod done at the bottom (it can be seen on the Google Earth images.) This was done to enhance the grizzly bear corridor in conjunction with griz bios. That entire slope is a griz travel corridor. Wood is not large and not that marketable. No additional harvesting planned although they MAY do a reburn in a few years. Side note. There is a good example of ridiculous eco fanaticism in this picture captured from GE. See the wriggly clearings at the base of the proposed burn area. Some eco weenies accused SRD of making these clearings as a reason to start a new subdivision development. As noted above, "This was done to enhance the grizzly bear corridor in conjunction with griz bios. That entire slope is a griz travel corridor." 4) SRD has stated, “The prescribed fire is part of a fuel reduction plan for the area whereby a combination of harvest methods and prescribed fore is being used to establish firebreaks on both Barnaby and Haig Ridges.” a. Can you tell us if there are prescribed burns for Haig Ridge in the future? No b. Can you tell us which areas specifically on these two ridges are scheduled for harvesting as part of the fuel reduction plan? No plans at this time. CMR is planning to clean up the existing cleared areas on ski. 5) What will be done with the burned area after the burn? Will it be reforested? No reforestation. May consider future burns. But will let it grow back naturally. 9) Are you aware of any development proposals for the prescribed burn area by Castle Mountain Ski Resort? (Or along other parts of Burnaby Ridge?) One of our members remains suspicious that the prescribed burn is part of a long-term development plan for the valley by Castle Mountain Ski Resort. We need assurance that the prescribed burn is part of a forest management plan vs. a “foot in the door” to further development in the valley. No development plans. According to Rick, CMR has been eying some land owned by the MD somewhere else in the West castle area and the MD will not allow more development. Restrictive notations and no dev proposal. 10) Clearly, the prescribed burn will not be happening for several weeks because of the unending precipitation this “spring.” One potential concern is that the burn will be late in the summer when risk of unintended fires becomes higher—collateral damage. If the prescribed burn cannot be done in 2010 will it be delayed to 2011 or perhaps done in late fall or winter? The plan is to do the controlled burn after a heavy frost and it will be late Sept or October. If it gets very dry they will not burn. Might get two days every few years. I will try to remember to post a notice of the TU meeting sometime in the next couple of weeks. Anyone interested will be welcome to attend to listen to Rick's presentation and ask politely questions.

Good find Terry. Saw one on the Crow about 12 yrs ago in April...was about 6 incjes long. And there are a "lot" at Lees Lake. Clive

A bit OT ... rickr said "Correlation does not always infer causation." and that is an excellent point. We see cormorants frequently but not in numbers or concentrations to be of a major concern generally. But here are probably smaller lakes and ponds where they have an impact. However, I firmly believe pelicans have reduced fish populations on some streams and are a serious cause of trout decline. (Have we had a good pelican bashing lately?! ) Below is a shot of a mid-size reach in the Oldman drainage. This was a great (great) trout stream a few years ago and access was controlled and difficult so we know there was no poaching happening. Now we all know that fish populations come and go with the years seemingly going though cycles. However, on this stream within two years of starting to see pelicans in numbers the trout fishing literally evaporated. (If pelicans were the cause [if], the pops should rebound because, as of last year there were no fish here, and there is little nothing for the vermin birds to eat. Just not worth their efforts.) I rec'd am email last year from a retired senior manager/biologist with SRD and he ask WTF was up with this stream i.e. why no fish here? I showed him this picture. That sealed it for him. This is a "shelf" river with a few deeper pools..but generally rather shallow and perfect for pelicans to herd fish and feed. Like rickr said "Correlation does not always infer causation." All of this is circumstantial, but IMHO these large fish eaters are a reason for concern on some waters. This injury could (could) have been cause by the sharp bill of a pelican. This picture was taken 200 m from the above picture. In addition to swallowing fish whole (which they are famous for) it seems that this sharp bill may also cause injury as shown above.

beed .. NEVER ... and I mean NEVER .. use the word "wee" when discussing a near-senior like adc. Cheers! Clive PS: Happy BD Allan! PPS: beed .. thanks for the kind words. You would not have said "Great teachers" if you'd seen me last night unable to catching nosing fish. I did hang a nice brown yesterday tho. Sight fished. Nice.

Nice shots. Arty as noted. Heck, if I wanna "... Kill An Hour In Calgary..." I just hit the Deerfoot and it stops for about one hour. Happens about 2 of 3 times...that's why I avoid Cowtown at all costs. You cowboys and cowgirls do have a nice fishery in town that is rather enviable. Yahoo ...

Excellent. First-rate report and action. You guys did very well. That brown was the icing. Nice. Clive