dryfly

I'm with LS on this matter ... "trained bear." Why? Okay ONE idiot I believe--the world is full of 'em ... although some get et. But they don't pay camera persons enough to hold their ground like that. That bear could have JUST as easily kept coming at camera guy and he/she never flinched. "Finns are stoic bastards and don't scare worth a crap." One would think that Darwinism has improved the Finnish gene pool by now Taco. Translation "stoic" ... an old Finnish word for stoopid. Real translation here..

Here is the corporate "ask" letter.

Andrew!! A guided trip to meet Big Earl !! You can throw in a free blindfold.

adc and I are offering a one-day guided pike fishing trip to a reservoir somewhere in Southern Alberta sometime between May 8 and June 15. We may or may not be able to go here ... 3M .... We need to get clearance from the land owner. If not, we will likely go to Badger, Cochrane or wherever the hot bite is at the time. NO GUARANTEES ... pike are more moody than trout. You know the drill. Trip will include lunch (we make great lunches), refreshments (no beer--sorry) and flies. Pictures taken. The lucky winner will have to provide his/her own float tube or pontoon boat as we will be floating. The winner will have to drive to the agreed-upon site -- or to Al's house in Lethbridge. (We won't be picking anyone up in Calgary.) In case we get the okay to fish "3M" this has to be limited to one angler only! Minimum bid is $200.

The flier pdf has been uploaded and you can get it by clicking here..... Edited original post...added flier pdf link

Yes, TUC will issue a tax receipt. adc has a corporate "ask" letter if you want it.

Harps...will mail to all on my TU list tonight....

STREAM WATCH COMES TO SOUTHWEST ALBERTA -- UPDATE Allan "adc" Caldwell announced Stream Watch for Southwestern Alberta recently ... click here. This is an update on what's been happening! And it is considerable. adc has assembled a Stream Watch committee that met yesterday. Barring a major monkey wrench, this will go ahead for 2008 and there will be an Enforcement Seasonal Officer in the upper Oldman and Livingstone areas this summer. BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP! READ ON! Click here for the 2-page PDF flier that you can get use to show your boss and fishing friends. (It is nearly 1MB so takes a few seconds to d/l.) Here is the “Stream Watch Southwestern” webpage with details...please have a look! ... Click here. Toolman is going to run an online auction. LynnF is heading up an “oilpatch” promotion. Thank you to those who have donated already. But we need more. The “corporate” campaign is just getting going. We have a commitment from SRD to provide a F&W Officer supervisor based out of Blairmore. See webpage for details. What can you do? We would like you to: • Make a $100 donation…You can pay by cheque or credit card. See webpage for details. click here. • Any and all donations are needed and appreciated. • We would like you to talk this up with your friends. • We would like you to give us contacts, especially any companies that do business in SW Alberta. • We would like you to speak to your boss or PR person in your company if you are comfortable doing this. OR, • Send LynnF a PM and get her to do it…make sure you have contact details, OR, • Send Allan Caldwell an email (see webpage for contact email) and ask him to make the contact. SPECIAL NEEDS We need a one-time donation of the following for the Seasonal Enforcement Officer: • One pair of binoculars. • A 6- to 8-MP digital camera preferably a “super zoom” with 10X zoom. • A Garmin eTrex Legend GPS. These will be held by the supervising F&W Officer at the end of the summer. WE WILL MAKE THIS WORK FOR US! THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND HELP! Cheers! Clive

IMHO opinion ... probably the closure decision was 95 politics, bureaucratic power struggling and pissing contest and only 5 percent actually based on a technical risk assessment ... (Don ... just saw your note after writing this post ....."fired for doing her job" ... Do we know that? What standard did she invoke? Do we know? There are ten thousand reasons to have a plant shut down. Fired for invoking some nit picky standard and now she's hiding behind the non-measurable "1000X." Sounds scary as hell and it is clear that's the effect she wanted. I don't know. None of us do.) [ For all we know, her Liberal cronies got her to shut the place down using some technical nit picking just because they are scared of an election and needed anything to overshadow Stéphane Dion. Like someone said, his Hanglaish is so bad he could not qualify for many senior bureaucrat jobs...like Ms. Keens! Calm. Calm. That was a joke. Sort of. ] But none of us will ever know for sure as we do not have any technical facts. "1000X" is not a technical fact, but an opinion. Those sorts of probabilities are not measurable. Someone said that she probably had nuclear experts backing her up. Maybe. Maybe not. Experience dictates that expert opinion (and common sense) is often overridden by bureaucracy. (We see it in F&W on much less critical matters.) Nothing but a third-party public inquiry will shed light on this PROVIDED qualified insiders can speak freely. And you never know, maybe the place is a wreck. But let's not just hear from a few workers who have axes to grind because their last year's vacation was canceled. And now I am crawling back under my rock pile for a couple of weeks. Y'all stay warm and don't split any atoms. Adiós, Clive

I agree with Don (and probably everyone), that something was apparently amiss and needed attention. But I'll stick to my initial statement, "We will never know because there is not enough information on which to base a rational assessment." Thanks for the reference Highlander.. I see the "1 in 1,000,000." But also see "1 in 1,000,000,000 ", and 100 times higher, ten times more, ten times less, 1,10,000, and the words, "theoretical probability," "postulate" and finally "1 in 20,000 per reactor per year (it has been suggested, moreover, that this figure could be out by a factor of "5 either way")". Point being? We don't know and can't know how probabilities were compromised. At best guess Ms. Keen's "1000 times" is pure speculation. Something was probably amiss and cause for concern. Rickr said, "There is absolutely no way that she knows if the chance of accident is 1 in 1000 or 1 in 1,000,000 on something as complex as a nuclear power plant." Cheers! Clive

We will never know because there is not enough information on which to base a rational assessment. Almost certainly there was an elevated risk, but facts are now mired in bureaucratic and political wrangling. She needs to testify so she looks good because she's going to sue the gov's sorry ass for tossing her. The CBC item said "there was a one in 1,000 chance of an accident occurring" is meaningless as it stands. It merely seems to be a sensational statement. Was there a heightened risk? Almost certainly. When one failsafe system goes down, then the system is less secure. How much less? We can't tell. I scanned the article and did watch some of Keen's testimony while on the treadmill the other day. Nowhere can I find a reference to time. Highlander, wrote. "...a 1:1000 annual probability of failure, " If you saw that somewhere please post it. There is no reference to a time period that I can see. The item said, "the safety risk of resuming the Chalk River, Ont., reactor was 1,000 times higher than accepted international standards." One wonders how that is assessed and what that statement really means. Without some reference (time would be good..or some other standard) we have no information on which to base a risk probability and the "one in 1,000 chance" is empty. Ms. Keen may be (have been) a scientist, but she was also a high-level bureaucrat and my experience with these folks is that science no longer matters. They are de facto politicians too and all spin doctors. It would be nice to see an independent appraisal done that is free of political interference. Maybe the reactor was running on Windows 98. Footnote: Just for fun ... here is Ms. Keen's bio ... ======================================================================== LINDA J. KEEN, President, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) Linda J. Keen is the President and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). She was appointed a full-time Commissioner on November 1, 2000. She assumed duties as President and CEO of the CNSC on January 1, 2001. The CNSC regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada’s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, with 3500 licensees, covering all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle and, uses from mining to power reactors to cancer clinics. As President of the Commission, Ms. Keen presides over a quasi-judicial administrative tribunal that is responsible for making licensing decisions in an impartial manner and where the public is invited to participate. As CEO of the staff organization, Ms. Keen has charted a course for the CNSC to become one of the best nuclear regulators in the world by being recognized for its regulatory effectiveness and efficiency, its transparency and openness and for being a preferred career choice that attracts the best and the brightest within the nuclear field. Ms. Keen is the elected President of the International Nuclear Regulators Association (INRA) for 2003 which represents eight of the largest countries in the world with regulated nuclear installations. She is a member of Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) and a member of the advisory committee for the Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign (GCWCC). Prior to her Governor in Council appointment as President and CEO of the CNSC, Ms. Keen has had over twenty years of experience in senior management positions within the federal and provincial public service, and the private sector. She has been responsible for program and policy development in the science, technology and resource sectors, as well as for employment programs. Ms. Keen also has extensive experience in trade policy and international marketing development. A native Albertan, she holds a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) and a Masters of Science (Food and Nutrition Sciences) from the University of Alberta.

Andrew, those are some sweet looking flies. Got any in yellow?

Yeah, well when the "big one" comes, and the Island slides into the Pacific, we'll see who gets the last laff, eh? Say, can you tread water?

Aw, shoot. I thought you were thinking along the lines of a fishing dream team!! You know? Me, adc, taco, Mr. Andersen and TerryH. The OFFs ... Old Fart Fishermen.

"I'll be roarin' through that fair metropolis to your west @ 6am tomorrow... " Wave as you go by! If it was seven I'd offer you coffee. I bin getting up way too early, but it's hit and miss ... so keep driving as you pass. "I gave my customers the option of delayin' these past few days and they all took it for some unknown reason" Bloody wussy cowboys these days. What's this world coming to? Well I bin hiding under a rock pile for a few weeks--all but completed two "consulting" gigs. Ass is sore. Brain is dead. I've emerged for a while and have to crawl back under later today. This shitty weather has been a boon to me. Ida been wanting to kill someone if it had been nice nice and I was locked up in here. If I focus for a few more days I should have three of four winters gigs all but wrapped. Then it can get nice again and I can crawl out for good until next November. adc is coming home today and will start bugging me to "go fish" if it gets nice.

The effects of cold wx on the MPB seems a tad contradictory and fuzzy. Still, one has to think one week of cold will at least thin them out some. The standard LD50 process should kick in. i.e. some of the pop should get nailed. Let's hope so. Assuming -40°C (or whatever) for 6.7 days (or whatever) will kill all MPB, one might assume that something less (say, a range of -25 to -35°C for 8.3 days) will kill a bunch of 'em. (Thus selecting out an even more cold-tolerant genotype?!?!? Go Darwin!) Anyway.. yeah this should knock a few on their collective asses. Let's hope so.

Cool fly for sure. I see you found some mylar Christmas tinsel on sale. Great stuff. The white/clear pearl is great. "I bet that will look great when its wet." I bet that will weigh as much as a standard-bred poodle when it's wet. Rabbit is great stuff, but a couple of six-inch strips soak up enough water to lower lake levels and it gets so damn heavy. As totally cool as that fly is (and as cool as the strips will look in water) the huge ones do cast poorly--or more so than other large flies tied with synthetics. And, yes, eyes rock. First, the eyes may trigger fussy pike into hitting the fly. Probably 70 percent of the time—when pike are feeding actively and aggressively—the eyes make no difference at all. But if the pike are tentative, pike will hit eyed flies when they won't hit flies with no eyes. Seems to be so. Secondly, the large eyes may improve hookups on larger flies. I recently was told of this concept by a friend and I think there is basis in this. The concept is simple: large eyes direct the hits toward the hook end of the fly. Years ago, we started with smaller flies and after a couple of years graduated up to 6-inch flies with no eyes or small brass eyes. We used to get a lot of false hits. Apparently the pike would hit the back of the streamer and miss the hook. There is a general consensus by a few of us that the large eyes result in fewer false hits as they attack the head end. Who knows for sure?

Mr. Taco. I take it the hoof doktorin' bidnez is a tad slow these days. That poor poor waif. Her bum reminds me of two tom cats fightin' in a gunny sack. Okay everyone...focus focus..back to work immediately!

Tako, A few comments ... "both rainbows and cutts (westslope and sea run) are native to BC, including all the strains currently stocked, to mention nothing of bull trout, dolly varden, 4 species of pacific salmon, steelhead, lake trout and kokanee, as notable salmonid species, along with three or more species of whitefish and numerous cyprinid species." Yes, but you'd also agree that some of these have been moved within the province. And that in itself affects diversity. Put a salmonid in a barren lake and the biology is affected. Aquatic invert pops would be immediately affected. I am trying to make the point that you seem to support some stockings (natives within a province) but can't support others, i.e. non natives from outside of a border. And yes, I agree some of the stockings were terrible. "I don't think we were lacking in diversity to begin with." Yes agree. And we could also have argued way back, that there was enough diversity in Alberta 150 years ago. But the Euro invasives wanted rainbows and browns and they despised bull trout. So it was done. Good? Bad? "Stocking of brook trout was done carefully" You'd get one hell of an argument about that. In hindsight, brookie stocking was probably not a good idea anywhere west of Manitoba. Fish opportunities or not. "..and mostly in previously barren lakes, to avoid competition with native fish." From a purely fish (and fishing) point of view there were benefits, but as noted above adding fish to a barren water would change the entire biology of the water. So you support brookie planting from a fishing perspective. But from a "big picture" eco perspective, stocking brookies in a barren lake could only be seen as "bad" because it alters the ecosystem forever. It is dangerous to argue a stocking (of brookies) because it is "okay" and does not affect native fish species. But that is a narrow and slippery defense when viewed by ecologists who could rightfully argue that the "harmless" fish plantings mess up the aquatic ecosystem. (Hell, there was talk ten years ago of actually bombing ... NOT joking .. some waters in national parks to destroy all fish as they were not native. That was actually in a written discussion paper at Parks Canada. To weird. I bet Harps has a copy of the paper.) " Brown trout on Van Island (I believe) were illegally introduced by one of those 'sports fishermen' that seem to think they can single handedly transform a fishery into something great." Gee..sounds like Stauffer and the Bow River. "Bass, perch, pike, pumpkinseed, black crappie, carp and even goldfish have been sampled all over the lower mainland and southern interior, with even a couple smallmouth bass being caught (reportedly from a family pond) in the upper Quesnel River watershed!! The problem with these species is their incredibly high fecundity." Yeah, some of this is well out of hand and dangerous for sure. "My point is this: Illegally planted invasive species have caused some mega problems in this province." Agree, but legal stockings could just as easily be argued to have had a huge affect on aquatic ecosystems all over. Bass and perch mess up salmonid pops. Plant brookies or Gerrards in a barren lake and one can argue that they too mess up the natural ecosystem. So it all depends on one's perspective and we have to be careful how these things are approached and discussed. "It's as controversial a topic over here as jetboats or bully poaching is over there." NO NO!! Please never say "jetboats" on this board! "Hope to cross paths this summer and share thoughts over a drink," I am cool with that.

Sorry Tako, I can't buy your exceptions. Man-made plantings are man-made plantings. (Unintentional ones like zebra snails excepted.) Some fish plantings were thought out more than others. You can't decree all bass should be killed while condoning brown trout, brook trout and rainbows--well there are native rainbows in BC. How many cutts in BC have been moved around? Are Gerrards native to all the waters they are found in today? Is it okay to move a trout 100 km but not a bass 1000 km? (I am not saying I agree with any of this but your posts smack of a serious double standard here.) "scientific stocking " What scientific stocking? I'm no historian, but I bet lots of brookies got planted without biologist input and anyway, just how scientific were the "biologist" plantings of 100 years ago. They weren't. Some "bios" had a hard-on for rainbows and browns and it was done. And just how scientific was the Bow River brown trout stocking? A guy's truck broke down so he decided to save the browns by dumping then in the Bow -- or so the story goes. Who knows? Yeah, let's preserve native strains. It is indeed noble. But let's not waste a lot of time and effect tying to purify all of our waters back to before the European invasives got a foothold. Cheers! Clive

Swell bass Neil. I made it to Duck once. It was fun. Tako ... Rainbow and brown trout are on the "top 100" list of invasives in North America. Should we whack all non native trout in Alberta and BC? Whoopee. We'd have cutts and Athabascans here--and some bull chars. Rainbows and browns have an adipose fin so maybe they are "elite" ... and bass don't have an adipose and therefore are alien trash to be killed. I bet the Bow River crowd would be all over killing all of the invasive browns and rainbows in the Bow river. Hey gang...what say? Rightly or wrongly, a lot of our ancestors screwed up big time by planting some fish species where it was not a good idea. About 99 percent of what has been done can't be undone. Yes, we should try to protect some cutt watersheds from further degradation--it is a grand idea. But, let's get over the past screw ups and try to preserve what we have. Cheers! Clive (Crawling out from under my rock)

For you Shaw guys an gals. Shaw has a Photoshare feature. You can store images there in addition to the server space--on which I am running low. http://photoshare.shaw.ca/ Photoshare allows you to make image galleries to share with people. Although they don't advertise it, you can use Photoshare to store fishing images for posting on webpages and message boards and not affect you regular server space. Okay they are sneaky. The image properties need tweaking....the image below URL is: http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/2/d/8/6398...g9281.jpg?rev=0 Have to remove the ?rev=0

Get your cameras out and get Dave to start an abuse page. Then start sending the images to all MLAs and the media. Write a personal letter to Ted Morton with a copy to your own MLA. Somewhere on this site is a list of senior managers in SRD. Pictures are great to put in a letter. Old randon camp webpage It seemed to work for a while. I've not been up for a few years so don't know what it is like anymore.

"And there are @ least 2 south of Pincher Creek that are similar." Pray tell Mr. Andersen. Clive PS: Thanks for your hard work Don.