dryfly

A polarizer MIGHT help fishing pix if you were dealing with glare or were taking arty scenics that included sky and water. For general photg they are of little benefit and in fact reduce light quite a bit thus lowering shutter speed. Like Taco said, get a good one. Get a THIN one that does not cause much vignetting with a wide angle lens such as your 18-55. Expect o pay $80 to $120 for a good circular polarizer. If already using a UV filter it is advised that you removed the UV before putting on the polar filter. Stacked filters can cause vignetting with wide- angle lenses. Polarizers enhance clouds and skies and used a lot in scenics...see samples here. Storm clouds in July Waterton Park on Monday...

Posted some pix under the "stillwaters" reports...here. Clive

Wes...great pictures again. Love the bald iggle picture. You sure got into some nice pike. Cheers! Clive

WELL DONE! Thank you! Clive

Paper title might be changed... Spontaneous knotting of an agitated string TO Spontaneous knotting by an agitated fisherman

I guess that's what is called "String Theory" eh Terry. But there is a major weakness in their work as it applies to fly line. We are dealing with a single-end system whereas they were testing two-end strings. So there is obviously another factor involved that causes our fly lines to turn in wads of knots: the Dork Factor perhaps. I've been using furled leader of late (taken off now) and now there is a test of your patience. They are great when they don't mess up, but you can get some serious macrame with furled leaders.

"but didnt ya put this up a month or so ago?" YES! Forgot!! Time for the home. Read my new signatures!! I had posted them on a photography board and a wildlife board two months ago but forget they had be previously posted here. So I have a bit of an excuse ... but also have a red face. Now..where are my keys? Cheers! Clive

Thanks. Fun stuff. TM ... adc and I were yakking about that last week.... Week of Oct 20 ??? ...we've a couple of lake trips lined up in the next while and then there is Turkey Day with assorted family responsibilities...I'll check with Al...I am hooped on Oct 14-16....Will advise. Thanks. Clive

A few I like... Bison at Waterton .. this could be my fave shot of the year...just something about it ... Doe muley .. Cowley Livingstone Range at sunup... Old brown-phase black bear at Waterton ... we are trying to find more bears at Waterton next week ... View from camp at Whitetail last month...cosmic trip...cosmic fish.... Goose portrait ... Baby house wren making ts first trip outside... Muley doe and fawn...Cowley ... that's a 2007 fawn, not an 08 fawn. She seemed to be barren this year. American goldfinch .. Cowley .. enough already ...

From mid August ... posted on another board way back then. Inspired by Wes's great thread. Clive ====================================================================== Walked across the road after dinner today ... I saw one damsel and as I focused with the macro realized it was eating another insect. (Type unknown. Thought was a small mayfly, but no tail. Prob a small diptera of sorts.) The damsel moved twice while I was shooting so there are three venues here. (Good thing it did not fly away vs just move and I could track it.) 1) When I first saw the damsel with the insect. 2) Closeup ... while most of the insect's abdomen was whole. Its head is not being eaten but hidden behind the damsel thorax. 3) Abdomen half gone. Yum! 4) New location. Not much left. 5) Another location. Nearly gone. 6) Done. Perhaps the head and most of the thorax are not too nutritious or tasty. The damsel released the insect and one of the expired insect's legs caught on the damsel's leg and hung there. Oh BTW..the insect struggled most of the time and was still alive (or at least protesting) until the very end. Hardly lions-eating-gazelles stuff, but still fun. Well ... maybe not if you are dinner.

Great shots Wes. Love the ruffie. Did you "chum" the eagle with a small pike? Get enough tips to spend the winter in Belize? Clive

Ho Girl I ain't touching that with a 10-foot pole. Could it be the shack nasties have started early this year?

"the thread is now complete with Clive's addition of a picture-from-his-collection-of-many." Man fishing is sooo good right now and we are messing around on the Internet. Taco..."hope i don't get like that when i retire" Wadaya mean "GET like that" ? ?

I lived in Edmonchuk for 13 years between grade 3 and finishing at the U. (1955-1968.) When I was about 12, we made gunpowder (carbon, sulfur and saltpeter) in the backyard and burned it. We made a gun with plumbing pipe and the big fire crackers that would shoot a marble into a tree and through ½-inch plywood!! We shot BB guns in the backyard and in the Mill Creek ravine. In junior high, we'd openly walked with our BB guns over to the ravine. In high school, we walked to the ravine with 22s for heaven's sake and no one said boo. This was in the city!! I killed a rabbit with my bow and arrow in Mill Creek when I was about 13 or 14 and carried it home along 76 avenue...my mother thought that was great!! We'd be arrested today for all of this stuff. Schools would be locked down. We'd get counseling and probably "do time" for heaven's sake. No one lost an eye. We were not arrested. Gee ... maybe we shoulda been arrested.

This thread is NOW complete having gone sideways!

Did somebody say cake? Click here. Don't blame me. Is this somebody's mother?

rickr... That's very funny. No mention of Elbonia ... which you Dilbert fans with recognize. Clive

The next Oldman TU meeting will feature a presentation by Jeff Cox (the SW officer this year) and by Andrew Gustavson, F&W Officer from Blairmore who worked with Jeff. To quote Andrew, "Lots of war stories we can tell though. I'm sure the guys would like to hear stories of a few bad guys getting tickets." Wednesday, October 15, 2008 ATCO Gas Building 410 Stafford Drive North, Lethbridge MAP 7:30 to 9:30 PM The full meeting notice is here... This is a great opportunity for you to learn about what really is happening with Stream Watch in the field. We will also be discussing plans for 2009. Cheers! Clive

A few days ago there was a sow BB and twin cubs at the falls in the Gap....from the Stream Watch officer. Now maybe I can fish in peace! KIDDING..won't see me there.

There is a book on pike and I can't remember the name..just Google it. Here are some pages on FF for pike here in Southern Alberta..most of what you need to know is here. http://members.shaw.ca/clives/pikeflyfish.html I am gone now for one week. Clive

Thanks jksnijders! Very cool rattler shot. I want to find one of these for pictures. Next year now. HA HA. I walked down to that old house last spring to take pics...too early for snakes..still ice about. Clive

Sooo? Those bulls snakes? I have trouble distinguishing them from rattlers. Where's snakeman when need him? jksnijders...what were those two doing? Making whoopee or one eating the other? I looked for rattlers a few weeks ago and could not find any and then got a call when I was away. One day..maybe. Thanks guys.

Taco! That was more difficult to read than maxwell's. :lol: Had a swell day did we? And twernt it you what sed, "Yeah I know...I like totally hate old people with talent and time" Old? OLD? Me? Never heard me say anything about naps, young feller! ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Plop!

From a couple of weeks back ... interesting stuff... was walking about one evening looking for dragonflies to shoot...they were too hyper.... instead I saw one damsel and as I focused with the macro realized it was eating another insect. (Type unknown. Thought was a small mayfly, but no tail. Prob a small diptera of sorts.) The damsel moved twice while I was shooting so there are three venues here. (Good thing it did not fly away vs just move and I could track it.) 1) When I first saw the damsel with the insect. 2) Closeup ... while most of the insect's abdomen was whole. Its head is not being eaten but hidden behind the damsel thorax. 3) Abdomen half gone. Yum! 4) New location. Not much left. 5) Another location. Nearly gone. 6) Done. BURP! Perhaps the head and most of the thorax are not too nutritious or tasty. The damsel released the insect and one of the expired insect's legs caught on the damsel's leg and hung there. Oh BTW..the insect struggled most of the time and was still alive (or at least protesting) until the very end. Hardly lions-eating-gazelles stuff, but still fun. Well ... maybe not if you are dinner.

rusty makes some good points...getting a new camera cam be like getting into fly tying... worse than drugs... "The D40x doesn't have it automatically onboard and I sorta wish I'd stepped it up a notch." HDR is getting a tad technical, but can save some pix in a few instances--and make for cool images as well. My A700 has a DRO (HDR) feature built in ... won't go into details here... rusty's main point is that it does not stop at the camera and lens....." ... bag, UV filter, lenspen, and a good memory card. It will add up on you in a hurry..." Another thing lost an folks...all of a sudden the file sizes are huge. My BIL's D80 files are only about 3 to 6 MB each off his D80 ... the files off my 12mp A700 camera with good lenses (lenses make a diff to file size believe it or not..sharper the lens the more detail the more data to record) range from 8 to 13MB per XF JPEG image and RAW are 18MB per image...RAW + jpeg ar 23-25 MB per image........ Point being? Your computer has to be able to handle this stuff... you need a minimum of 2 GB RAM and preferably 3 or more....hard drive space starts to fill fast ... I am on the verge of getting a new terabyte HD and I already have close to a TB in HD storage. Card -- at least a 2GB ..if you take a lot you'll need way more..I am currently using (what??) 12 GB of cards (2 by 4 Gb and a some 1 and 2GB cards..I dunno) and one week away can pressure that space if I don't have a means of dumping files, i.e. no travel laptop. Cover the lens with a UV filter... If you are into artsy scenics a polarizing filter is a must have too. Sexy dark blue skies and dramatic clouds--if you are into that. They run about $100 for a good one .. get a "thin" one ... Good telephoto .. good macro ... a second job ... good divorce lawyer .....