dryfly

Taco HA HA "Clive the truly ancient mariner...." Purchased the car-topper in the T. Eaton Co. store in Medicine Hat in 1971 for $219. ... slips neatly in the back of a pickup. Weights about 70 pounds. Not one leak in the welds and rivets. The 6HP Johnson kicks it along well. You won't find a more versatile and stable boat than these ...

Agree that the jon boat will be more stable. Depends on what you want to spend because you can probably buy a good used aluminum car topper for way less money. Another serious consideration should be a small inflatable. Inexpensive. Light. VERY stable for standing and casting. Samples here. A few of my friends have similar boats and they are great. I have an ancient 11½-foot alum car topper...rarely used it. Last fall, I removed the bench seats and added a flat plywood casting floor. It is not as stable as the inflatables, but is fine for me.

Chiquita has declared that they will not ship their bananas in trucks using "oilsands" gasoline. Here, here and here. They'll use conflict oil from non democratic places like Venezuela and the middle east but not ethical oil from Alberta.

Col you got it fixed. "They are coming back to put a camera in the pipe. " Neat a sewer colonoscopy. We just put in new counter tops, splash tiles and sink. Ordered the sink though a plumber .. he gets it for about $100 less than I would so it pays for the install. We were using the "old" faucet .. quite new. His man came in to install it two days ago. Had a problem and ended up drilling a hole through the supply lines on our faucet...so we got new faucets. In theory they are paying for it ... it in theory. Anyway...plumbing is for professionals. Clive

HA HA. Taco, it started already. This morning I threw some papers and books on the floor! Wait till I start tying! As I told TerryH, it will soon look like a bomb went off on the craft section of a dollar store.

The thick vinyl planking went down well...seems to contour to the hills and dales of the concrete floor. Decided to take a chance...leveling or sub floor not an option. Thanks for your comments. Now I just to to mess up the tying quadrant.

Thanks guys. Most likely to take a chance that the heavy (but flexible) vinyl will form to the contours without popping. Regarding the "self-leveling" compounds. Only about 20 percent of the floor is a bit higher than the rest. Would have to cover about 150 sq ft with the goop from very thin to near 10 mm. Cost would be about $600 for the glop. AND it is adjacent to a carpeted room. I rec'd a PM gently warning me about the leveling glop...complete with photos. A subfloor would be easy to do..but would have a 2-inch step up. I already spill too much coffee...as witnessed by the stains on the carpet underlay we removed. Probably will tackle the vinyl on Tuesday. Will let you know...next post may be from a convent or or cave in Tibet. Thanks Clive

Sort of a weird question.... Has anyone here used, "Commercial Grade 10.5MM VINLOC PLANK VINYL FLOORING" from Windsor? The vinyl is shown here ... page 3, right middle. "Commercial Grade 10.5MM VINLOC PLANK VINYL FLOORING." We are replacing the flooring in two rooms in our basement: my office and my wife's sewing room. We removed the Berber carpet. We were considering laminate flooring, but the concrete, although smooth, is gently rolling in one direction...which we discovered when we lifted the carpet. There are gentle hollows in one direction. The length (15 feet) is quite flat end to end, but the width (12 feet) is slightly wavy wall to wall. See below. There is a high spot going to a low spot and the elevation difference over about 3 meters is about 10 mm. I am advised that this is far too much for stiff laminate (the snap connects will separate) and I am not about to use a liquid floor leveler...just not going to happen. (Seen the videos. Gak!) Vinyl flooring in assorted thicknesses seems to be surging in popularity..about half of the "laminate" displays now at Home Depot are vinyl vs. particle laminate. Thicknesses vary from about 3 mm all the way up 10.5 mm. We are looking at the thick vinyl plank flooring at Windsor. The stuff we are considering looks great... seems durable and is flexible...a bonus for us because it will flex with the shallow depressions in the concrete flooring. I brought home six sections and snapped them together in assorted configurations. All seems good....lays flay..joints string and tight fitting. Anyone used this stuff? Thank you! Clive I put in the "north south" directional arrow because I showed the photos to my brother who knows the room.

What makes you feel good Don? That us Canuckistanians argue about Spey rods, nymphing steel, the oil industy, Flames, Oilers etc etc...and this pussy thread makes our discussions ... well ... just more meaningful? Holy crap! 138 replies on 14 pages in about one week about CATS! Don't anyone show this to adc or he will be signing up for that Brit FF board. He and "Nick" would be all over that. Glad I moved away in 1955. Regards Clive

Don Regarding your number 2 item..they banned ALL balls except Nerf balls. Rex Murphy's editorial this week was about that. Too funny. This will make your heart soar. Someone paid $4.3 million for this photograph.

This may deter you...

This was raised a few months ago. Here is the short version of a long story. I post photos at an international photography message board...we show photos and talk about photography. Folks from all over. One of the members lives in Cyprus and recently posted some horse-riding photos taken with his new ultra-fast focus, 12 fps Sony A77 that also has a GSP unit on board. I was curious about the shutter speed and aperture so looked up the EXIF data using an online EXIF service. The EXIF file also showed the GPS coordinates, apparently accurate within a few meters. So I looked up the location using Google Earth. GE took me right into the outdoor arena where he took the photos some 12,000 km away! Neat as hell but also a tad scary! You guys with cameras with GPS may want to strip the EXIF data if showing off (say) big fish from your secret brown trout stream. EXIF is erased when you "Save for web" vs. merely "save as." Just though you'd want to know if you did not already know. Great technology with clear uses, but something we need to be aware of. Clive

Don. The gov't folks are idiots because they are scared to be seen as being "anti green" and they are horribly influenced by radical eco groups such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, WWF and Suzukians. So we can blame the green weenies for biofuels and subsidized alternate energy sources, which have limited practical future in supplying energy to the masses. Don said, "The N. American farmer is the least energy efficient farmer in the world " Don we've discuss this before. Western Europe and North American producers use a lot of fuel BUT They produce more then anywhere else on earth so the input:output ratio is high... the best in the world. Briefly.... 2,000 acre Canadian farm - four people, three cars and trucks, a bunch of big machinery, ONE house...use a lot of fuel but relatively not much per unit of output. Fertilizer inputs are high as well..but so is production. LOTS of surplus production to feed several hundred others. Four people feeding (say), 1000 others (in food energy equivalents). A ratio of about 1:250 or more. 2,000 acres in Northern China - farmed by 2,000 people living in 500 houses that have to be built and heated .. spewing foul emissions from inefficient fire boxes burning coal and dung. (Photos available on request.) They use dozens of small diesel or gas tractors, fertilizers and pesticides, not necessarily applied according to the label. They produce just enough food for themselves and about 2,000 more people. A ratio of about 1:1. Just consider the "fuel" cost of just feeding and housing those 2,000 farm people! North American farmers do use more fuel, but the "use efficiency" and output is very high. justfloatin ... I mean no harm. You have a naive view of food production. Whereas Don has some errors of thought (I'll' cut him some slack because he's even older than me ), Don is correct. Here is some recent info on palm oil biofuel. Quote: A new study on greenhouse gas emissions from oil palm plantations has calculated a more than 50% increase in levels of CO2 emissions than previously thought – and warned that the demand for ‘green’ biofuels could be costing the earth. Same arguments against wind farms that have defiled our local environment, duplicate existing capacity, cost you and me when we pay our bills because we are forced to pay for new transmission lines AND we subside the kWs produced by wind power. And I've not even mentioned that they kill bats and birds. Wind probably kills more birds than have ever died in the "patch." AESO reports there is interest in TEN TIMES as many wind farms than already exist in Alberta. They are bad for the environment but for some demented reason they are seen as green. And so far wind turbines have not reduced carbon emissions one molecule .. despite the organic effluent (read, bullshit) you are fed from wind investment corporations...feeding on subsidies. When the wind is blowing the gas and coal plants are still running. The world is green mad run by biofools. And the madness costs us all while doing virtually nothing for environmental protection and detracts (time and money) for REAL issues on this planet such as clean water, health care and REAL environmental protection. EVERY ONE ON THIS BOARD COULD FIND 'real environmental protection" WAYS TO SPEND THE $2 BILLION WE ARE WASTING ON CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE IN ALBERTA. Yes, eco madness takes money away from real environmental protection. Environmental protection as seen by green weenies could ONLY happen If there were 500,000,000 people on this planet versus 7,000,000,000. We need responsible use of resources extracted reasonably well and used efficiently. I won't even mention energy costs of ridiculously wasteful conspicuous consumption in western society...that is now the goal of folks in developing countries. The answer is not driving a Prius to Starbucks for a $7 organic, fair-trade coffee ... to discuss those bastards in the oil and gas industry and agriculture .. while planning the next flight to stay at a spa in Cancun. End of my Sunday morning rant. Stay warm. Regards, Clive

A tad strange ... most odd patterns with strange thread. Perhaps a very young person or someone who is physically or mentally challenged .. in which case, it is what it is, and good on 'em.

Thanks again. Hope our flies work ½ as well as yer $15 flies. Now we are all nice nice and dutchie has waxed poetic....below is from my book...was writing about swinging flies: Over fifty years ago Roderick Haig Brown wrote about this technique for steelhead in his treasure of a book, A River Never Sleeps. I started down the pool happily, rolling the fly out into the tumbled water, mending the line upstream to give it a chance to sink well down . . . The fly came over the loaded place, and I held it there in quiet water at full stretch of the line...knowing how it hung, how it looked, how the water plucked at it and gave it life. I moved my left hand up to recover line, and the pull came . . . Cool stuff. RHB could write well. BTW ... Read the last paragraph in that book some day ... Clive

dutchie This will go down in FFC history as one of the best posts ever. Thank you! First, you have a great way of expressing feeling and passion. Nice. This was not just any old yada yada yada post. Good stuff. And secondly, as you know three of us OFs [Al, Gord and I] are leaving this Saturday for the Bulkley. (BC steel virgins.) So I learned a few things from your great post...practical stuff beyond the passion. Been trying to absorb as much as possible...and mental osmosis and old age are ... well, it gets harder to learn stuff when yer an old dog ... Here is part of my steelhead fly collection ... (adc has the Intruders.) And yeah ... we tied a few eggs. FIRST I gotta hang a steelhead. THEN I'll become pure. Hope to see you up there. Thanks again...great post! Regards Clive

Sorry to hear about your arm. You can nymph fish lakes very well with spinning rods and small bobbers and nymphs or leeches. My grandkids have all caught fish like this in Police and Lees Lakes. You can use a clear or colored torpedo float in either rivers or lakes. I prefer setting the kids up with the round red and white bobbers in lakes. Yeah those bobbers. They work just fine with flies below. Good luck! Clive

Smitty .. PM sent. Clive

Thanks. Was about 6 feet from the heads in the hole. They were hunkered down wondering WTF was going on and who was disturbing their afternoon rest. The top photo is not cropped much. Here is the uncropped original...just resized.

bcube ...Using a Sony 70-400 G (ED) lens on an A700. SJW .. they really are shy and want to be left alone and pose no overt threat. Naturally, you move carefully and slowly and carry a stick.

Part II These shots were taken in the hole in the ground...not actual wintering den as it was too shallow. When taking photos, it is normal practice to use scissors to clip away grass and other plant stems from around the primary subject. This did not seem like a swell idea in this case, so just shot as best as possible through the clutter. Was fun! May go back next week. Thanks for looking. Clive

Last Monday, I returned to the same rattlesnake wintering area as last year....somewhere in southern Alberta. (Think last year's photos were posted here.) My wife and I arrived at 1 PM and stayed until about 3:30 PM. (She stayed in the truck. ☺) Saw most snakes after about 2 PM. Was about 26°C by then. Seemed to be a lot of rattlesnakes around. I saw five (or six?) above ground and 3 or 4 (hard to say) in a shallow "den" that was about 80 cm across and maybe 40 cm deep. They scared the crap out of me when I walked by the first time. I walk with a broom handle and sweep the grass as I go...and I'd never step over a hole. I have learned a few things about rattlesnakes. They really are shy and not aggressive...they just want to be left alone. Good with me. This first set are all different snakes. The next set are those in the "hole." A few more shots are posted here as well. Regards Clive This was the best "pose" of the day and I forgot to set the focus point to low middle. DOH! Yeah yeah! Shoulda used manual. Believe me. I was a bit shaken by this snake as it had rattled and spooked me a bit.

THAT river does not even exist ... pure fantasy! GREAT piggies Brian.

Anti-static bags. Neat concept. Most bags I know give me all sorts of static.

Walton's best tip is "get yourself up North." However, you said you were going to Athabasca. As Walton suggested, just make sure you have both dries (add EHC to Walton's list) and wets are Walton suggested. Hopefully they will be looking up, but in case they are not you'll want to swing some beadhead flies through the fishy parts. If they are eating dries, they will break your heart how they take flies so innocently. They just may be my favorite fish... maybe because of where they live as much as anything. Nice grayling on an X-caddis. NWT, June 2011.