dryfly

HA HA HA...took me a while cowboy! Actually, I do GAF if it makes hunters and anglers look like rednecks or tacky folks. I realy do not like the slogan. Clive

I think it is tacky! Maybe has attention-getting shock value, but there must be better ways. Thumbs down. Hijack. At least the ad below is funny.

Fun story Rick....reminded me of something... We spent Feb 2011 in Arizona and many days hiking in the Sedona area. I was inspired to write a caption for one photo of Willie after one of our hikes. The arch was well worth the climb. Thanks again for the sun story. Glad not to hear about it on the 6 PM news. Clive

Survey here regarding futures regs at Beaver. The survey is a tad tricky and could have been written better .. you'll figure it out. Mods: If this is already posted, delete this. Clive

Bunch o' wusses ... the Tacoman included. Let me tell ya about the time I was dicing Scotch Bonnet peppers (HOT! 100X hotter than jalapeno) to make some hot sauce. Then I took a leak BEFORE WASHING MY HANDS! Not too 'mart on my part. Fortunately, we already had children by then.

Attention Anglers NOTE: I am just forwarding this note from Matthew Coombs. Please do not PM or email me. See below for contacts and more information. Thanks. Clive Message from Alberta Fish & Wildlife - Crowsnest Pass A Mountain Whitefish spawning survey will occur on the Crowsnest River in late September/early October 2012, and Alberta Fisheries Staff are looking for volunteer anglers to assist with the project. Mountain Whitefish use to support a subsistence fishery in southwestern Alberta. However, regulations limiting Mountain Whitefish harvest have become increasingly restrictive. Mountain Whitefish are a key player in the limited diversity of native fish in eastern slope streams. They are an important prey species for Bull Trout and share similar habitat requirements as fluvial Westslope Cutthroat Trout. There is some concern that the Mountain Whitefish population on the Crowsnest River may have declined in recent decades. While they constituted 90% of the total catch in an electrofishing survey in 1985 (1), a more recent survey in 2010 estimated the Mountain Whitefish population at just 20% of the Rainbow Trout population (2). However, Mountain Whitefish are not always captured consistently with electrofishing, making surveys difficult to compare. A Mountain Whitefish spawning survey will occur on the Crowsnest River in late September/early October 2012. Electrofishing surveys are expensive and result in poor survival of Mountain Whitefish, so the 2012 survey will be conducted by snorkelling. Snorkelling will be done by two biologists with extensive experience doing these surveys in the Bow River watershed from TERA Environmental and Golder Associates. While swimming down the river with mask and snorkel, these biologists will count the number of Mountain Whitefish congregating at spawning locations. By repeating surveys over a number of years, trends in the relative numbers of spawning Mountain Whitefish can be determined. The survey will cover the entire river from Crowsnest Lake to the Oldman Reservoir, with the focus being on reaches with high numbers of Mountain Whitefish. Timing of spawning is expected to be near the end of September or beginning of October, and volunteer anglers are needed starting September 15th. Volunteers should have a high level of expereince fishing for Mountain Whitefish on the Crowsnest River and be familiar with areas where this species can be targetted. Anglers will fish during the period of time leading up to spawning and report on their catch to Alberta Fisheries Staff to assist identify where Mountain Whitefish are congregating to spawn. The number of "ripe" fish caught by anglers will be used to time the snorkelling survey to coincide with the peak of spawning activity. A special Fisheries Research Licence (FRL) will be issued to volunteers participating in the study. It will allow them to temporarily hold and/or transport fish and collect the necessary biological information required for the study. This FRL will also allow volunteers to fish with maggots as bait for research purposes along the entire length of the river, if they choose to, but all other angling regulations will remain the same. Captured fish will be measured to determine the length at which Mountain Whitefish mature and spawn, so snorkellers can then specifically count the mature fish seperately from the juveniles. Some Mountain Whitefish may also be lethally sampled to extract otoliths for age determination. Anglers will not be required to fish with Alberta Fisheries Staff, unless fish are being lethally sampled to determine age, sex, and maturity, in which case Staff will be present and provide volunteers with an opportunity to learn how this is done. If you would like to participate in this study please, or know someone who would, please contact: Matthew Coombs Acting Senior Fisheries Biologist Fish and Wildlife Division Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Second Floor, Provincial Building 12501 - 20 Avenue Blairmore, Alberta T0K 0E0 Phone: (403) 562-3293 Cell: (403) 563-8847 Email: matthew.coombs@gov.ab.ca This study is being conducted together with: Michael Bryski Aquatic Biologist Water Management Operations Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Lethbridge, Alberta

Laker ....

Hey gang I've posted a notice under special events here. We really could use a few people. Please email me .. schaupmeyer AT gmail.com Thanks Clive

... AND YOU COULD HEAR A PIN DROP.

Wow! Just "Wow!" Thanks! Clive

Great looking flies! Thanks. But geez guys, it's a glue and a lot of adhesives have nasty stuff in them. Remember, it is the dose that matters. MSDS sheets are to be used with a grain of table salt ... also highly toxic. Here is the MSDS for caffiene. Sure it is lab grade, but this just emphasizes the point: it is all about dosage. Some notable quotes: Caffiene ... May be fatal if inhaled, swallowed or absorbed thru the skin Avoid all contact. ... Overexposure by ingestion may result in nervousness, tremors, and insomnia, headache, dizziness, drowsiness, incoordination, slowed reaction time, slurred speech, giddiness, and unconsciousness. That might explain difficulties hooking fish some days, eh?

Language warning in this video. Can you imagine if the WRP made ad? It would headline news on those..well, you know...those left wing, pinko radio and TV stations. (Sort of a joke... ) Good grief. Endorsed by Allison? One doubts that. Monday will be interesting.

This ought to be good. Who's making the popcorn?

Make your own from gardening "kneeling pads" or colorful (or black) flip flop soles. Easy to whittle down or cut with a 'coring" tool made from ½-inch copper tube. You can make dozens of popper or slider heads from a few dollars worth of foam. The slider heads shown here are all home made...some look rough...the fish don't care too much.

Ho man...you mean stuff for a floor! I read the title as "Anti fatigue mating" and was thinking, "THIS thread is for me." In my dreams.

Thanks Kyle. I'll just quietly ignore weedy and adc! Since this thread is pretty much in the tank ... here is a better one weedy. See you tomorrow Al.

"He'll feel better after an afternoon nap." I'll feel way better tomorrow when I catch more trout that adc ... Ooops ... that sort of dreaming can invoke the fish gods to cause me serious "skunk" grief. Oh oh. I am doomed.

Hey thanks guys! I have a date with adc and a couple of other guys and we are indeed headed to BH on Monday morning. I was determined to not buy a license and not fish last week and it work out okay as we had a busy week with grandkids who were off school. We are rebuilding a fence here at home, but it can wait till Tuesday. So fishing it is ... sans license. I am privileged to join to the ranks of fishing icons like Don and Terry. Just think about it. I can take my two Lethbridge grandkids fishing and we can kill three limits and not have a license among us! How ya feeling about that, eh? Mini editorial rant. An adult from Germany (or what ever foreign country) can buy a one-day license for $26 (one-day license are not available to Albertans which is blatant discrimination) and take ten foreign kids fishing and kill eleven limits all for $26...foreigners under 16 years also do not need a license, which I think is downright insulting to Albertans. (This sort of stuff does not happen, but the regs allow it and it is wrong...I actually saw a German angler with three kids on the Crow once.) SRD needs to get on the program and change licensing fee structure. And yes, I'd gladly pay an annual fee as would Don, Terry and the other OFs here. Probably would not hurt to overhaul the licensing system..it is talked about but noting significant ever happens...token tweaking is all. No free rides for seniors, foreigners children and WAY higher fees for NR Canadians and NR foreigners. Thanks again! Clive

This is beedhead's tape measure...

Aha, and now we have a huge philosophical problem. Some housekeeping first. A lot of parties is probably dysfunctional to the point of confusion...there can be small differences between parties that might otherwise agree on 95% of policies. I agree that two is not a good idea at all. Three might be ideal and four where there are real differences. Some political science types say there are four basic political groupings; left and right economics and left and right "social" concepts..social conservatives or social liberals. So four should cover it, but this all goes to heck when there are so many degrees of each: far this, far that. But having (say) 8 or 10 parties is silly and wasteful and probably dysfunctional. Heck, I think your poll might (just might) indicate this already. Are people thinking the the WRP is so cool without understanding their policies might have an effect on budgets to protect the environment....although that is not clear as they seem to have little policies on, say, "fish." We agree on the offensiveness of "quality" of vote argument...it is tacky, but a reasonably good argument could be made that (say) awareness and objectivity could/should account for something in a vote. However, it is a non starter because it goes against the concept of equality. A dead issue. (I still think your vote is probably more "valuable" than one from say a Wal-Martian... Who knows?) Good arguments might be made for "Proportional representation, or proportional representation with a weighted seat/vote system, there are lots of alternatives that adhere to democratic principles." Maybe... ""this is absolutely 100% the best manifestation of democratic principles and it can't be improved so we're stuck with it"." I agree with you that it might be improved but deciding on just how that might be would be difficult especially when there are more than 3 or 4 parties. So then it would be a matter of drawing lines in the sand...no representation without X% of the vote or we'd end up with complete anarchy with every splinter party on the planet demanding a "seat" to represent their vote. But now the thorny stuff. A divergence of minds... "Mandatory voting is something I think this country/province should consider." To me this concept is offensive for basic human rights reasons .. it would infringe in human rights. We 'force' people to do many things in our society, for example, we require people to have drivers licenses. Fine. But forcing someone to vote denies their freedom of "speech," at least figuratively. If I am an anarchist and don't believe in voting then it infringes on my freedom to voice my opinion by not voting ... and forcing me to cast a 'spoiled ballot' is wrong. (BTW, since graduating from U in 1968 I've not voted on 2 or 3 municipal elections and might have missed one provincial election.) I think people should/must vote, but we have no right to force them to vote. If they (anarchists or whatever) rebel, we have the right to take action but we can't force anyone to vote. It is distasteful, even though we agree that a higher turnout would be good...although it might make no difference. Anyway, mandatory voting for me is as offensive as some of the concepts I floated were to you. Change of topic ... smitty, I am still surprised by the trend in the vote here at FFC and no one has commented on this except me. The poll results seem inconsistent with the comments on this forum. Based on a lot of comments here, one might think the WRP would not be favoured by the majority because they are social conservatives to the economic right, whereas many comments here often reflect social liberalism. So the results here are confusing. Of course, forum comments my be a function of social liberals being more vocal and giving a skewed impression of reality. And the results might indicate that males think DS is a hotty. Could happen. In fact, bet on it that her bubbly (sometimes foot-in-mouth) mien is attractive to some male type fly anglers. Methinks tis so. Regards Clive

This will sound offensive perhaps and I mean no harm. The ONLY thing that counts is "votes cast." Dredging out the "eligible voters" and saying a party won with a low percentage of the eligible votes is a non starter. And using it to show how poor the democratic system is not appropriate. Yet losing parties almost always drag this out (after an election) and holler for representation based on percentage of votes. It is a beneficial statistic to encourage people to vote and that it all it is useful for. "80% of the seats with only 28.4% of the eligible voters' votes." If those that actually voted more or less were representative of all eligible voters (i.e. distribution of party choice was the same for voters and non voters), then a high turnout would have no affect. If a higher percentage of non-voting eligible voters really wanted another party in power, then they only have themselves to blame. The democratic system is indeed flawed, but appears to be far better than alternatives. Too many parties is a major flaw. Oh gosh, this will sound bad....one might make an argument that the higher the turnout the lower the "quality" of the vote. Someone once said, "One flaw of democracy is that votes are counted and not weighed." That sounds snobbish or elitist, but an argument could be made for that. Obviously it will never happen. In this regard, I was gonna say something about the least federal election...but never mind. I don't like flaming crosses on my front lawn. There are potential problems with having four parties in the current election. Both the left and right run the risk of vote splitting. The PCs, WRP or Liberals could win with a low percentage of actual voters. Regards, Clive

Excellent poll smitty. Thanks. Okay, so only 24 have voted (hardy Gallup stuff), but what I find incredibly confusing is that when there is an "eco-enviro-climate-regulatory-enforcement-habitat-forestry" thread here people tend to want to burn the federal and provincial PCs at the stake. "They don't protect the rivers, forests, riparian areas, etc etc etc...." Yet given the platforms of the parties, WRP might be considered to be less eco-friendly than the PCs. WRP is way more to the economic right and more social conservatives ... way more so than the PCs. According the party platorms the AB PCs are middle of the road and only slightly to the economic right. So if find the poll results not consistent with common comments on the forum. Lordy! Don't tell me you guys think Danielle is a hotty and yer voting with yer hormones? Say it ain't so.

Dave Akamina Pass is in Waterton. The snow pack is off the charts at more than 200% of average...850mm water equivalent. or about 28 feet of snow at 1760 meters. It has snowed up high almost daily for weeks. A slow melt will be fine. A fast melt will not be a good thing. Clive

Snow pack at some monitoring sites in the hills is silly high! Wait for it coming soon to a stream near you. Here and here.

Gee Terry you must an engineer or sumting. That is a very cool idea. Totally eliminates any concern there could be over extending the factory cable...this effectively moves the battery terminals closer to the motor. Good one. Clive