dube

Thanks for all the comments men, It's a tough decision. Can't wait too much longer though, summer will be over before we know it.

I'm looking at buying a pontoon and have been thinking about all the ins and outs, I would like to hear some thoughts. I'd like the boat to be versatile in that I could use it to do some river floats like the kootenay for fun (not necesarily fishing), or on bigger lakes- Spray or Kananaskis for example. Even potentially to set crab traps (which we do from kayaks) to hopefully prawn traps which are way to deep to do from a kayak. What are the concerns as far as salt water on the pontoons themselves? I'm not really interested in a motor just because it seems like more weight and hassle and money. Haven't decided whether I need to stand or not, can you stand on them without the standing platform? I like the Dave Scadden frameless models but I'm not sure what they would be like in bigger chop on a lake. On the other hand these are light enough to day trip into alpine lakes. My other choice would be the Outcast PAC10' or 9'. These seem like really nice boats with the ability to customise or macguyver. Obviously money is a concern otherwise I would just get a jet boat. All comments appreciated!

Sorry couldn't resist. Yes, rivers are high, run off is happening.

Well I'm just going to come right out and say it, I'm your typical apathetic canadian genx'er. I always vote for the social or eco parties just to be counted. I think Rick nailed it on the head for me, it's sums up in a nutshell how I look at canadian politics. It's a big smoke show as far as I can tell, that's an ignorant statement I know but it's how I feel. I'm a healthy, white, mid 30's, unmarried, childless, tradesperson who has been sucking on the oilsands tit since I was born. My country takes care of me for better or worse. I know this sounds naive but I don't feel like my vote matters or makes any difference; going back to what Clive was mentioning about the "quality" of the votes. I would consider my vote to be of much lower quality than someone like Clive, to use an example, who in my assumptions is a wiser, more well informed, more experienced fellow than myself. So, after chatting about this for the last few weeks and getting a few opinions about my riding in particular I decided to vote PC. Might as well have cast me in that video. I'm regretting my decision solely based on the fact that I'm ashamed to not be more informed/involved in my government. I feel sick about it actually, and I think this might be the tipping point for me. I do care about my country and it's about time I get involved, it might not be a matter of life or death but it will impact me on the ground level. Or I may just run into the bush and never come back....

I would vote pine marten too, pretty curious creatures. Mink are generally a solid deep red color in my experience. Weasel are tiny little things and probably still lots of white on them yet.

Well we've come full circle now haven't we? I still find it fun and exciting and relaxing and getting back to my point, I spend the time and effort to find spots where no one is. That's not to say there is never anyone there but I'll go on a wed. for example and fish stretches that require a bit of walking. Generally everythng has cooled off from the weekend and it's as though it's never been fished. I think the whole point of this thread and what a lot of guys have been trying to get at is you have to leave as this crap behind and immerse yourself in the actual act of flyfishing and I would say that includes just getting to where ever you are going. Having a back up plan is always good, if I find vehicles or people where I was planning on going then I move elsewhere. I fish pretty fast and on numerous occasions I've come up on someone, my first instinct is to race back to the truck and start over. Last year on at least 2 occasions I was waved through which floored me. One was a group of three and weren't concerned with fishing behind me and another was an older gent working on fooling a particularily wary trout and waved me through. He just said lots of fish and left it at that. Judging by the shiz that goes on in these boards you'd never imagine that would happen but I think a major portion of us are decent and friendly guys. Keyboard confidence mixed with shacknasties brings out the worst in everyone. Despite the growing population of anglers in this province I still think there are plenty of places where you can get away from it all if you really want to. Fact is maybe a lot of folks don't want to, don't like getting to far from truck, scared of bears, not fit enough etc. Flyfishing can be whatever you want if your ready to put in the time to find what does it for you. If you get to hung up on all the bullshit then it's going to be challenging to have any fun. The older I get the more I realize it's all about the journey and very little to do with the destination, might seem cliche but I think it's true. As far as why I continue to hang out on this board, I like reading up on the gear, figuring out different techniques, pick up cool fly patterns and I'll admit I get a kick out of the senseless drama that goes on, it's like watching a car crash c-a-n-t-l-o-o-k-a-w-a-y........... I prefer well composed shots of interesting subjects and honestly get bored of the grip and grin shots of fish so most days I don't even bother with the photo section. There are a few guys who regularly post awesome photos not all about fish. It's all what you make of it, and the season is short so make the most of it.

By insinuating that you are a humble and gracious gentleman? I'm confused.

No doubt you are quite the gentleman. Humble and gracious too.

I honestly couldn't wipe the smile off my face watching that. Thanks for posting!

One of my favorite ways to get the skinny on a piece of water is to go drop some coin in a local shop and chat up the folks working there. The whole nature of what we do has a rich history of telling stories but info travels a lot faster these days. Sharing tips with a guy you run into on the water or in a shop is a lot different than sharing with 135 people all at once. The way I see it is if your main focus is where and how to catch lots of huge fish then you are missing out on a huge part of what this sport has to offer. May as well narrow your odds and set up with a boat and a fish finder and hammer huge stockers at the abundant lakes around the province. On a side note, consider the folks among us here who have been flicking flies since before a lot of us were born. Things have really changed even in the last ten years. I had the privilege of having a few pops with Barry Mitchell in his trailer one night on a certain river which I'm sure a lot of you can guess and he 's quite the story teller. I'm sure he took a lot of flack for publishing his mag every year but at least you had to pay to play . He put me on a real good stretch of water the next day and it was a great day of fishing to say the least and even got my beat up old copy of trout highway signed. Nothing wrong with passing on the tradition but nothing good comes for free.

Well, my absolute main goal when flyfishing is to be alone. Period. Whenever this topic comes up it seems the main idea is that folks should be more adventurous and find some water for themselves, it's more rewarding to stumble across a "hotspot" than to be spoon fed directions to fish. I started flyfishing before I went "online" so options were limited in terms of getting the lowdown on where to go. Smitty, I cut my teeth fishing for grayling in some of those tiny creeks and caught those little rainbows before I even knew what they were. Of course I moved on to bigger rivers and bigger fish further south, getting sucked into the high gradient freestone rivers that I now love so much. I went back to my one little creek a few years back and was sadly dissapointed, barely a fish to be found. Lots of boot tracks and honestly it was logged so hard I could barely recognise it. It was a sad trip. I don't imagine I'll ever be back there. I think the main reason I was so dissapointed was because it was not how I remembered it. I had these really strong memories of catching my first fish with a flyrod in a creek that I came across by reading Mitchells books and magazine and found by using oilfield maps my old man gave me. The memories I had were more to do with the adventures I had learning to flyfish and less to do with the fishing itself. There was and still is something so awesome about going to those spots that you haven't read about the day before on a fishing board. I've spent a lot of time with a map driving around in circles trying to find acsess to a new spot, almost sweating with anticipation. Sometimes I win and sometimes not but at the end of the day I always get what I came for and that is a day of fishing. I've since moved to Canmore and now have a whole new region to explore, stoking the fire so to speak. Last summer was epic to me because I figured out a few rivers that had stumped me in the past and my excitement for this upcoming season can hardly be contained. I'm already doing research on spots that I've never read about on this board and dreaming about what I might find there. At the end of the day, like is always stated, there is no such thing as secret waters anymore but there are still so many special places that I think we should all do what we can to keep them that way. For me it's easy because I fish alone and don't really care to show off pictures or stories on the internet, I'm out there solely for my own selfish reasons. Long story short, if I could give one piece of advice to a newb flyangler it would be to get out there and explore. A day of fishing can be so much more than just having something on the end of the line. Get out there, roll down the windows, crank up your fave summer road tunes, drive down some deadend roads, get stuck, fish just one more corner, cast one more time. It's worth it! Good topic, interested to see where it goes. Tight lines y'all.

Not sure how luxurious they want, but my girlfriend takes advantage of the seasonal spa deals at the springs. I believe they have spa and stay packages, and obviously the spa is top notch.

Not really surpized at all somehow. Ethical is a pretty subjective term, for example I feel PETA members would be better off euthanized than for them to have to witness all the terrible injustices being done to animals all over the world. What a bunch of assholes. 0.02$

Right on dude thanks for sharing, we all know how knowledgable you are in every field. Always so constructive and helpfull. Maybe cake is not such a bad idea. Making ribs for dinner so may whip up a cornbread.

I need to learn when to quit.... I'm not sure how macho comes into this? Nothing macho about deciding not to carry firearms. To the original poster since this did get off track, there are lots of steps you can take to minimize an encounter. I like the air horn idea and I think they are quite effective. I have this little whistle that I got at MEC, I think the brand is fox, and it is louder than you can imagine. I wear it on my vest and give it a good toot from time to time especially when I'm walking into the wind and coming around big blind corners. I always have a can of spray and wear a good sturdy knife on my belt. In my mind and from what I understand the worst move is to surprize a bear and in most cases if they know you are there they will do what they can to avoid you. Some are curious I suppose and there has been some research to show that young black bears can be dangerous as they try to define their territory. It's a whole other can of worms debating predatory versus defensive behavior but I like to think that for the most part they want nothing to do with us whatsoever. I think they are also inherantly lazy and don't really want to burn too much energy on anything but eating. As far as I know we aren't super high on their list of food. As a bit of comedic relief I have some good stories of being attacked by animals. The most memorable was a hen ruffed grouse with a little flock of chicks. I walked right through the gathering not realizing what was there, the chicks look like a common sparrow, all of a sudden the hen came rushing out and did the little dance to try and lead me away from her chicks and apparently I didn't move fast enough because she turned on me and came flying at my chest full speed. She literally drove her beak into my sternum and when she fell to the ground she proceeded to beat at my shins with her wings. I actually had to run away albeit laughing my ass off. This all went down in a few seconds and I don't believe a shotgun would have saved me. I've been chased down by numerous geese and a cranky old turkey once too, that is some scary business. Be scared of birds they are effing crazy. I've also been attacked by numerous dogs and one thing I can say is that when you have a legitamate pissed off animal coming at you there is very little time to react. In all cases the dog was on me before I could even register what was happening. Personally part of the whole experience of being out there for me is that sort of vulnerable exposed feeling you get when you know you're not at the top of the food chain anymore. I find it really humbling and it brings me back down to earth in a way nothing else can. Getting out there and being out of my "element" really makes me feel alive and at the end of the day that is just as important to me as the fishing. I know....super macho .

One thing I find interesting is that you don't see any other mountain enthusiasts packing guns. Hikers are at great risk and have never seen one with a gun, at least not a visible one (camp guns seem more appropriate). Rock climbers, paddlers, mountain bikers all frequent the same areas and some how carrying a weapon is not even on the register for these groups. The way I see it is while having a gun doesn't really decrease my chance of an encounter by any means yet it increases my chances of shooting at a bear by 100%. When it really comes down to it I don't want to shoot a bear, I think they are pretty cool. So I take all standard precautions to prevent having an encounter and trust that when I do I can calmly handle it. If my luck runs out then so be it, could just as easily be mangled in a car accident.

Bearanoia is a good thing, if anyone ever asks me about bears I'll gladly tell them about all the mean looking hungry sows with cubs I spot on any particular river. Easiest way to get some peace and quiet. I have half a dozen expired cans of spray sitting around and the only thing to ever get a whiff was myself doing a practice shot with an old can, it worked on me anyway. I aim to have the least amount of shiz with me while I'm fishing and what I do carry is more focused on the possibility of having to spend a night or 2 in the woods because I slipped and sprained and ankle while trying to get into the perfect casting position on that rocky ledge. I've only seen a handfull of bears on foot and aside from one cinnamon who acted like he didn't even see me it's always been a quick glimpse of their ass as they bolt off into the bush. In my opinion we are in their house and if you don't have the confidence or fortitude to stand riverside without a gun you should stay on the lower bow or better yet take up lake fishing.

sublime! thanks for sharing.

So...3 four year old boys are re-enacting the nativity scene of the 3 kings with little tea towels on their heads... they put these boxes down on the floor and the first boy said "I bring you gold", and the second boy said "I bring you Myrrh", and the 3rd boy said "Frank sent this". Merry Christmas all! Royce.

YESSS!!!!!! Awesome Weedy! Coffee all over keyboard. Also some really great links

Not sure about timber /log homes having exclusive code. The Alberta building code is the last word and also the minimum. I would imagine logs and timbers would be designated by dimension not unlike regular framing material. May be able to find span or load tables specific to timber building. I have to admit all of my timberframing experience has been off the grid in the backcountry, permits and inspections not part of the picture.

Hate to give advice on internet forum but... minimum area for pad supporting columns not spaced more than 3m from bearing is 0.4 sq m. for one floor and 0.75 sq m. for pads supporting not more than 2 floors. So that would be 24" square for single floor which sounds like what you have and 36" square for what you need. Other things to consider would be whether or not the columns will stack up on eachother or will the upper point load come down somewhere midspan of the beam below in which case the loads would have to be factored into the existing lower beam as well. hope this helps. concrete must have been expensive when they built the place

Without really seeing what you mean it's hard to say but generally I would not point load a strip footing as they are deisgned more for evenly distributed loads such as walls. Pads for posts are generally 36" or 48" square. The 8" thickness is pretty standard. I have seen thick plate steel laid on pads to help distribute bigs loads on insufficient pads but I'm no engineer so I couldn't really speak about that. Good luck.

The Blackstone has a special place in my heart, I'm glad this guy got caught. It is one of the most beautiful rivers I know of and I think because it is a bit of a haul to get in there people figure they are all alone. I know for a fact I have been watched by a CO on more than one occasion from far up on the bank. The fine is dandy but a one year suspension doesn't quite cut it if you ask me. Thanks for posting Don.

What do you get for catching a 20" cutt on a #8 foam beetle and then pulling not one but two #20 nymphs out of it's mouth? 3lb tippet and microscopic flies (nymphs no less) seems silly to me when you can cast huge ugly flies and have them slurp them up without discrimination. Mind you I'm not looking to join any clubs.