bcubed

I selected strongly agree. Our discussion on FB may reflect that!

After going through it, my quick thoughts. I am in favor of removing fish retention out of the Elbow, however it is a noted spawning stream for brown trout and rainbow trout, and therefore should not be open year round. This blanket approach is not appropriate for the stream. Time to get working on out-of-province guides or at least a day system in places like the Oldman and tribs (Livingstone, etc). Numerous guides are coming across from BC or Montana and utilizing our rivers with zero return for Alberta. There has been a significant change in BC management with the change to 'draws' for rivers adjacent to ES1 streams, therefore continuing to increase the demand on our rivers that are adjacent to the border (Crowsnest, Oldman, Livingstone, Waterton, Castle, etc). There has been a noted requirement in BC for resident-priority, which has not been seen in Alberta. Time for that to change. Guide use has continued to increase, with zero regulations, into more areas across ES1. Self-designated groups like AOGAA have limited to zero ability to discipline members at this time, and is strictly a voluntary group.

ES1 survey at last..suspect we know whats coming down the pipe, but here's a start https://talkaep.alberta.ca/eastern-slopes-fisheries-regulations-es1

Thats where this whole thing makes no sense..it's the TSX version of Crypto I'm in for a small position on LHSIF

Just cheapo cotton 6pack or whatever it is from Walmart. Huck em at the end of the trip.

The orvis zippered booties are good. Biggest thing is wearing a long sock to keep sand out... that’s what kills ya. My feet were toast after using wading sandals and having rocks and coral work there way in

One time I didn’t want to spend the extra so he moved my truck down to carseland that day. My mom got a call from the cops the next day as my truck was reported down there overnight, so they figured I hit the weir... was a good voicemail to get once signal came back. i started using his ‘overnight’ Service after that

roll/spey casting and driftboats leaves many a rower discontent...

https://www.aspb.ab.ca/events/Fishes_of_Alberta-Field_Identification_Workshop one in Calgary in February

Lois Shotton also does it. No idea if she has a website or what

Probably easiest to email Shona and find out: https://sites.google.com/site/albertafishidentification/about-me she typically does one in Calgary with ASPB every year?

Not sure what that 10times site is, but it’s definitely not the shows normal site so I’d reserve judgement to see if that’s the actual date

baitfish makes sense? Maybe boatmen?

Really obvious when you see them doing the bug-train. They fly to the top of a riffle, land, float down and eat bugs, then fly back to the top and ride the train again for hours.

ice on the river has made me forlorn.. but saw gulls crashing a riffle on the drive yesterday so im sure there was some baetis/midge action

Ya, that was the year that virtually anyone could have caught a fish on top and they were easy to find as they were all eating dries like 12" cutthroat... i miss those years haha

ya really depends on the year. forget which one it was, but there was a spring ~5 years ago that was absolutely nutty on midges, baetis and caddis all the way up to runoff. The following year they couldnt care less about the bugs on top except in pretty specific spots, even with the same number of bugs around..its super year dependent as there are tons of variables.

Thats kind of my feeling on it, as well as needing good water temps to get them moving up into the water column. Always find the best dry fishing for baetis is following a big midge hatch as i feel like it retrains them to look up.

just use a 14 weight...and then toss it like a frisbee:

The only issue is lack of 'fun'. Most fish aren't going to be able to fight you very hard if you're using an 8 weight, to the point that you can skip them back to you. Guess at the same point it makes you a hell of a lot quicker at catch and release. Definitely not an obstacle persay.. Also harder on the arms for long days, and aren't going to present dries half as delicately or accurately at close range... with that, if you're local, and are only going to go steelheading once or twice a year, you'll probably be pretty sick of your 8 in short order on trout..

Like for when you're asleep or what? Never thought i needed an alarm for it

Getting a canopy for your truck and building a bed frame makes for a good substitution, other then the damn condensation issue. Just back from sleeping in it for 5 nights for steelhead fishing, works great.

really small steelhead haha

And really, the way a dungeon is fished, isn't on a swing. Lose the whole point of that style of fly if you're just swinging it.

Think you need to make a decision. There is a pretty big difference between 30-40 inch steelhead, and the occasional 24" bow river rainbow. A 7 or 8 weight would do you a lot better for steelhead then trout, and you can always just deal with having a big rod. If you go smaller, like a 5 or 6 weight spey to have more fun for tout, you're going to be undergunned in a big way for steelhead (to the point you probably shouldn't use it, unless you're doing dries on the Morice or half-salts down in the states). If you were just trout-spey fishing, i'd say look at a 5 weight as you can easily turn over big streamers with that as it's rare that you're using big sink tips on the Bow. If you're looking at a do-it-all, a stiff 7 like a TCX would be a better option. If you're leaning more steelhead, then an 8 would probably be a better choice. Also, 'big' streamers doesn't mean much. Are you talking about 4" intruder style, 6" sex dungeons, or 10" monster bugs. They're all completely different in how they cast and what will turn them over. I remember when the spey fad hit here in a big way and guys were using 8-9 weights so they could turn over massive bull trout flies, until they realized that a 13' spey rod was essentially useless on the oldman/sheep/highwood. If you're just wanting to chuck seriously big bugs, you're not necessarily looking at the right tool for the job..