dube

This is a shot in the dark but using hwy 2 as an example: why would they nab someone doing 115 (posted 110) which is nearly everyone when there is a very good chance someone will come by going 15-25 over the posted limit. People drive at ridiculous speeds on our highways and most people simply speed, so go for the "big ticket" offenders and get the most bang for your buck.

Awesome! Take a gas guzzling luxury vehicle a make it almost as efficient as a standard vehicle and pat yourself on the back for giving a *hit. It's almost more insulting than if it were a regular Escalade. Too much!

This is the problem. I drive an awful lot myself and I've surmised that you have to be actually driving a reckless speed to actually get pulled over. I have came up on radar that I never saw and done the " oh *hit here we go" passing them doing 122kmh in a 110 zone and have them not even blink. Makes you wonder. People drive at stupid speeds, I regularly estimate people to be going around 140 on hwy 2 and hwy 1.

They did a speeding ticket blitz in Edmonton last week. I'm not sure how many traps they set up but nailed 1200 people in a 24hr period.....it's ridiculous. People don't get it.

BINGO!

Clive, I don't disagree with anything you are saying but you are talking about food at a national level. On a more grass roots level people can do this in their own in their backyards and it can be very rewarding. Jenny, my 92 year old neighbor and egg pusher, grows a garden every year. Tomatoes, potatoes, beet, peas, green beans, carrot, cabbage, zucchini. She mentioned some "fancy" red potato she planted this year. Red flesh....the story takes some time to tell and I'm anticipating a small sample very soon. Anyway when the food is in season you eat it as it comes and about now she harvests the rest and starts freezing and canning. I'm lucky enough to be good buddies with Jenny and also shovel her walks in the winter so I get food, real local food all year long. I get cabbage rolls (the rice she likes is hard to find, sometimes she goes to those "chinese" stores. Peroghy- potato and cheese (cheese is so god darn expensive now but you have to use cheddar or they are no good). I just got a shipment of canned tomatoes as well as salsa and usually the beets and pickles from last year start rolling in within the next month. This idea is not new but I feel this is part of us that is slowly slipping away. On a huge scale food production is mind boggling but on a community level there is so much we can do to support a local population. Even if it means getting to be buddies with your neighbor. Jenny really doesn't really know any other way. Imagine having your neighbor reach over the fence and hand you a couple eggs on saturday morning. I feel this concept is about being more human less machine. Of course the machine still has to run and I'll trust fellows like Clive to handle the big picture but we can each do our part to take care of ourselves where ever we can.

See, you'd be a perfect candidate to do this. I'm going to throw this out here just as a random thought although it was not me who had it, interesting none the less. With some serious modifications a multi-story high rise could be a self contained farm. One giant, growing, composting, fertilizing- food production/recycling plant. Say you could produce enough food to feed a 10 block radius. By products from certain crops could be used in the production of the next. Obviously would run perfect until that moment when it didn't any more for some tragic reason and there would be headlines, but when you consider how much space traditional farming takes it's food for thought. If things went south you could lock it down and kill everything off, sterilize and start over. You can take this as far as you want but the main idea is that we are conscious of what we do and do our best to leave as little trace as we can. It's not so different than catch and release fishing. We don't let the fish go because we are bleeding heart fanatics who would never kill a fish, but because we want to come back next year and catch it again. Every step you take has an impact and I think it's good to try and do things to balance it out a bit. I think the main problem with this concept is that our climate is a bit harsh up here, growing season short.

While I realize this is far different than the city of Calgary some friends of mine that live on the sunshine coast started raising chickens this spring. For now they are only raising them for eggs and it's a success. They have 8 and they are actually quite tame, they simply just cluck about. They are allowed out of the coop every morning to graze the yard and do some work to rid the gardens of pests and as the sun starts to set every day they will all in unison head back to the coop as if a bell goes off. I can't explain this but it's funny to watch, all of a sudden it's like "oh time to go" and next thing you know they are all in the pen. They have 2 young kids, one 3 and the other 5 and both are getting right in there and handling the hens and getting a good education about livestock and food. It's exciting for them to come out in the morning to do some quick chores and check for eggs, more exciting say then wandering around a yard looking for dog *hit to pick up with a shovel. I think it's a good experience for a family. Like I said the Sunshine Coast is a far cry from Calgary and they have a large lot and trees between them and their neighbors and I'm not really sure what this would look like on a small lot in the middle of the city. Keep in mind though, these are not your typical white fryers that you see being raised by the thousands at lilydale. These are smaller brown feathered critters that can produce some very nice eggs. Also, just because the city might let this happen doesn't mean that every one and their dog will get chickens. It will be the hybrid driving, recycling, organic vegetable buying families who all ridicule aside would probably be responsible enough to pull this off. Of course there will be incidents and probably some fall out but as soon as the novelty wears off I think this could be a good thing for some families. This idea seems extreme and has the potential for huge problems but just think 50 years ago this would have been normal, maybe not in the city but it was a way of life. I have a old lady that lives across the alley from me and every second thursday the "egg lady" comes in from the farm and brings 30 dozen eggs and all the old birds show up to pick up their order. You can't get eggs like these in a store. As for the majority of people who like everything to come in neat little packages, they will stay that way and a few fresh eggs every morning won't be enough to convince them to take something like this on. I don't see it becoming hugely popular so I don't see a major problem with it. Personally I would love to move to a more moderate climate where I could make more of my food local for more months of the year. I could get behind keeping a garden and light hobby farming and be able to say I know what I'm eating. It's a step in the right direction if you ask me.

WOW!!

It makes sense. Fishing is generally passed down generations. Although the guys in their 20's likely see it as bs'in with some old guys . Age certainly becomes less relevant the older you get.

What the hell gets into people? I don't understand what causes people to act like this.

Going swimming for a fish is real dedication! Good to see those two are having some fun. Awesome vid.

teaching a kid to flyfish or play baseball = danger

anyone ever catch a bat?

It's obviously a brown that has mutated from the insane amounts of chemicals being washed into the river from all the meth labs in the city.

Well despite the recent economic crisis I have been busier than hell this summer and my fishing expeditions have suffered greatly. I have had some unique fishing experiences such as a high country lake and probably one of my best days ever on the *******stone, but my number of days has been way down. So after working 12 hour days 7 days a week for the last I don't know how long I decided to take off yesterday to one of my old haunts up north to chase some grayling. This was the creek where I really learned how to flyfish and had great fun there. The grayling were easy and plentiful and thee was even the odd native rainbow thrown in for good measure. I chose to go there because it is far closer than any of the trunkroad rivers I usually like to fish and saw it as a chance to reconnect with my flyfishing roots. WHAT A LOUSY ROTTEN DAY. The fishing was horrible, the garbage and litter everywhere was unreal, the gun shots going off was unnerving, and it just generally sucked. The creek I liked to fish was very low and by the looks of it has not fared so well the last few winters. All the shrubs and bramble has done really well mind you. Caught plenty of willow. There are damn few wintering holes and it would seem they've been cleaned out. Along a giant stretch they have logged right down to the bank which was sad to see. I tried a few others in the neighborhood and didn't come up with much better results. I did come across a small lake with brookies in it but the entire shoreline is floating muskeg and not sure if any of you have had the pleasure of being out on it but it's a real treat let me tell you. O course the fishing were rising and splashing just beyond where I was able to cast so I figured I'd put on my waders and see if I couldn't get closer. Well' the one thing about floating muskeg and I do actually know better is that it starts on the actual shoreline and grows out so at times it could be over some pretty deep water. Anyway I walked out on it thinking I'm going to catch one of these suckers if it's the last thing I do, I came out to a point at the water edge and there were real thick weeds just below the surface, how deep could it be really? Knee deep? Instead of taking a stick or sitting my ass on the edge to check I just stepped in.....I went in right up to my armpits still not reaching the bottom which I'm sure now has at least 2 feet of loon *hit on it, filled my waders and had to do the emergency fallen through the ice maneuver to get out. It was a sad sad day of fishing. On a positive note the fall colors were starting to come out and that's worth something and as the old saying goes a lousy day spent fishing is still better than a good day at work. Besides I've been fishing long enough that I could have driven twice as far to fish my more "prestigious" rivers and still had a rotten day.....at least that's what I keep telling myself. Hopefully there are a few days left for me before the season is over.

I agree that some people don't want service and therefore go to bigger stores with better prices. As a contractor I shop at home depot because I know the people working there don't know *hit and will leave me alone to gather my goods. I also like choosing my own material piece by piece, when you get packages delivered from the "specialty suppliers" you're stuck with whatever was in the lift or what the yard monkeys gave you. Obviously, a place like home depot cannot stock everything I will need from day to day and then it comes down to service as I choose where to shop, which can really be a pain in the ass. Getting cedar here can be a challenge, cedar village is about the only place aside from a few small dudes with mill hookups and I the service there is the pits, as is the material more times than not. Monopolies are no good for consumers. On the other hand you're stuck with what is available such as wholesale being the best flyshop in Edmonton IMHO. I believe there is one other fishing store but I was not all that impressed and it may have been a bad day but I walked around for about 10 min. and no one said a word to me. The boys at wholesale may rather be fishing than talking about fishing from time to time but I've never been snubbed there. You folks from Calgary should be happy you have a choice where to get your fishing gear. ......and because I know it's coming.....yes it's one more reason why Edmonton sucks.

I've also seen wolves on a few occasions on that stretch of highway I was floored the first time I saw one and there was no mistaking it. There oddly enough is more or less 5 million deer along there for about 15 km, coincidence?

Years ago working in the patch about this time of year a buddy called a young bull for kicks and he perked up right away. Next thing you know he came charging up and ended up chasing buddy around a tree for a few minutes. Eventually he gave up and went crashing off into the bush but not before we could smell the steamer wafting out of Rods pants. Me and my old man stood there the whole time laughing and surprisingly the moose paid no attention to us. He was a young bull probably his first rut and was in heavy competition for ground I figure. Danger! For the record they don't corner so well so if you do get charged run like a rabbit- zigzag.

Very nice. I can still appreciate the misses. I've always wondered.... .if man swears on a river and no one hears him does he still make a sound?

I like the pristine drops.

Great now the word is out -thanks a lot! Awesome report, this is my favorite river and I can picture the joy in your nephews eyes. Nice river and nice fish, rarely find one with big wounds or hooks. Don't let her fool ya though, she can be a sultry vixen one day and an ice cold bitch the next. I've had my best and worst days there. As far as the crowds go you just have to time it right, I like wed. or thur. .

correct me if I'm wrong but I'd say they're doin' it doggy.

I figure if it were a coyote it's tail would be held off it's rump a little more. And looking at the blown ups I'd say it's doesn't really have the pointy coyote snout either, I'm sticking with lynx.

The color would certainly point to cougar.