dryfly

Pike ain't no fun at all. You guys should stick to salmonids and suckers. http://members.shaw.ca/clives/pikeflyfish.html We had a great spring in 06. 2007 was decent and last year was cold and late and I only fished for pike two or three days. Even small pike on sliders are unbelievable fun.

Toshiba. What's your next question.

My age is showing AGAIN! Cheap old bugger ... Fitovers and assorted knock offs. They work fine for those of us who already are wearing coke bottles...

A reasonably well-constructed backpack is all one needs for many things. If one is backpacking high in the mountains maybe a $200 b/p is a good. Too old for that... This sounds a tad gloating and not meant to be. I have an "El Cheapo" $20 backpack that will head to Chile with me next week. I got it in about 2003. It has been to China and Inner Mongolia ~ 4 times (depending on exactly when I got it); Bahamas, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize and Vancouver Island (2X) and maybe Vancouver as well .. in dunno where all....probably missed a trip or two. It's been lugged onto (what) forty planes and is always stuffed to the hilt. It's been hauled on a tour boat/buses to Belize Mayan ruins ... Expensive camera gear is stored in big ziplocks when necessary--seldom. My wife sewed up a blown seam last year. When it dies it will be tossed. The padded straps are comfortable.

????? Save $200 on a backpack ???!??!? Good Lord, if someone paid $200 for a backpack they'd be bleeding nuts. $300 backpack. GAK! $40 backpack and large plastic ziplocks. Done. Or a $16 rain cover. O.F.

"Wholesale has a new purchaser, I spoke to him yesterday and he told me " gone are the days of the shelves being empty" Well tell him to get his ass down to Lethbridge then. Word from ___ is that WSS in Lethbridge can't get anything (re FF) and have no communications with sales staff... no such thing as automatic re-ordering .. HQ sales staff too busy to help ... hook supply (okay, supply is the wrong word) is weak ... Bloody terrible down here... Hate going in there but HAD to make a couple of small purchases the other day ... had what I wanted ... shelves were indeed quite bare.

Nice stuff beed...love the reel shot and the top one in the second post. Clive

Leroy got it ... Toss the thick stuff and buy Sally Hansen Hard as Nails. Done.

Even the old farts caught a few. Geez Flyfishfairwx, next time yer there put a sign in yer window ... we though your silver car was a Calgary veehickle ... and we were going to flatten the tires.

Seriously.. rusty..just saw your question, "How old do you figure your standard mid February southern Alberta 20 pound gator would be?" From ACA study in 1999. For Badger Lake....the 9 and 10-kg pike netted were 10 and 11 years old. For Keho the 6 to 8 kg pike were 8 and 9 years. A mid February female would likely be heavier than summer (netted) pike since it would be laden with roe. Clive

If we are talking pike. The smaller (of the big ones) are males and no one cares how old males are. The really big ones are females and I sure as hell will not get into a discussion about the age of females and the fact that they may be 'heavy" .. talked about double-edged sword. That's a lose-lose situation for a guy. :P

Cosmic experience well captured! Thanks! Clive

"You guys are my idols." Geez monger, you may want to seek medical attention.

Methinks Terry is older 'n me and adc ... combined. He's up there with Andersen. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRY!! Clive

Gary said, My fishing partner has a saying "Bragging about catching fish on the Michel is like paying a hooker and then bragging you got laid" That will go down as one of the site's top ten posts ever. Too funny. Thanks. The irony of course is that some us don't like to pay the BC Whorehouse Madams $20 a day to play anymore.

1) Was fissin' the Crow one nice sunny day in March. Up to my ass in water against a late-season ice shelf. Bobber drifts down toward me and goes under. I lift the rod to feel sluggish resistance but it tightens up and heads toward me. I get my net ready and yell to partner, "Fish on. Must be a big lazy rainbow as it's sluggish." Net in hand, the "fish" eases toward me...no fight..real sluggish ... but heavy. It comes into view. The excess leader had looped around a 'nipple' on a softball sized stone. Ooops. No picture. Short, but thick with big girth. Probably weighed 4 pounds. Shoulda had it mounted I guess. It was a courageous rock. 2) Was bragging about the hot day I had on one of the SE BC cutt streams a few years ago. I told the folks that I was using "hopper dropper" with more on the hopper. They reminded me that it's a one-fly province. Ooops. 3) Shot a whitefish in a canal after the water was shut off about 30 years ago...lots of whities stranded in a pocket of water. Boom. Stuns 'em. Had a net and scooped it out. (What's the statute of limitations on this crap?)

Birchy said, "Will she pay for the gas?! hahaha " Are you kidding?! adc will pay the gas. KIDDING! This is not a criticism, but I get a chuckle about how damn near everyone wants to leave for the Left Coast aka B.C. My advice would be: live in your choice of the interior, island or lower mainland from November through March and THEN make a decision after you've not seen the sun more than a few hours for 4 months. My old man lived in BC for 30 years and we spent a lot of time there and visited many times at Christmas and in summer. B.C.? No thanks. Southern Alberta gets 2,400 sunshine hours a year. This winter has been a royal PITA, but overall weather in S AB is quite good. Roads good. Low smug or SDS factor (especially compared to BC), a few decent streams, not hordes of stoopid tourists. flyfishfairwx pegged it.

Tim, The mtgs here and in MH are "local area" meetings with Terry. (Thanks Terry!) Major items are taken from our meetings to the regional level and up to Shangri La. The Edmonton powwow is the final provincial top-level meeting at which major decisions are made or at least given informal blessings by special interest groups from across Alberta--well except southern Alberta. I still don't see why there could not be two "provincial" meetings. The "votes" at Edmonton are not official anyway...what happens still has to be approved by the minister op advice from ADMs etc. Have two provincial meetings would be better for us at least. Edmonton can argue all it wants about the need for one provincial meeting. Bless their hearts it is indeed on Saturday, but that still means a minimum of two days for folks from our way. (Unless SRD can "Beam me up Scotty," leaving Saturday morning is not an option. Lord knows they can make money disappear so why they can't beam us up there...) Working guys can't go if they have to take time off work. Even OFs find it onerous...and it is not our age. I just don't like spending that sort of time and money driving...time mainly. In any case, I could not go this year anyway because of other commitments. We appreciate the support we got for Police Lake last year. But a few of us are very unhappy with the current minister and TOTAL lack of action on other items we've pushed for. Bloody waste of breath and ink. In his eyes, we are personae non gratae down here. Clive

Don, I am guessing Brian Meagher will be there. These Saturday gigs in Edmonton are just too much for us from down here.... 14 hours of driving 1,200 km round trip is nuts. There has to be a better way... always holding the meetings in Edmonton is not the ideal. I am not sure why the guys in Edmonton could not hold two meetings and senior staff have to travel to (say) Calgary. As long as they continue to be held on Edmonton, the meetings are toploaded with Central and Northern Alberta folks and the South is under represented. We made the one in October of '07 ... it's a long haul. [Critical comment about the Minister and his staff has been removed...not happy.] If it does not snow too much I plan to attend our local fisheries meeting tonight in Lethbridge. Clive

Tough crowd! :lol:

Nice try Allan... In adc's defense.... That specific day I got back to the "docK" at the appointed hour and was happy as a clam as I'd hung a decent tarpon (made better by breaking another good one off about one hour before) and it was all good. So Iraldo and I hung out waiting for Al to get back ... and waiting .. and waiting...finally they motored up to the dock and naturally I am all pumped about telling MY tarpon story. Well you never saw anything like it. Here is the adult adc with a *hit-eating grin and he babbled and babbled non stop (I still catch him doing it to this day ) and he told us all about his grand pike popper experience. I could be mistaken but am am sure I saw him smoking a Cuban ceegar that evening. So whenever the Gods decree that I can go catch a tarpon again, you can bet there will be pike poppers on board. But we learned one thing in Cuba for sure..see below.

"Let it sit overnight and check it in the morning" Damn! I spose there is a statute of limitations on this, eh? Al.. I'll call RAP and if you are convicted I'll get a $300 reward and we can do lunch. EDIT: Oh I forgot ... way back then was before there were fishing regulations.

Mr. Speaker, apologies accepted, now off with his head! Al .. we will try it once again this summer after your tarpon trip...hell, just think of how good the whities will be after that!