darrinhurst

I'm all for that. But, other than Mike Weir and Stephen Ames, who else is going going to be at the Open?

*sigh* I hate working saturdays.......

I'd be up for it. So far as Tiger and Phil are concerned, if everyone's going to pick them anyway, they'll just cancel each other out, so no point in picking them. This way everyone's five picks will be unique and likely not duplicated.

I couldn't have said it better myself...... Now....where were these alleged boobies seen......

Easy. He asked for "opinions". People are giving them.

That's a great video! I could watch that for hours myself. Were they spawning or just in a feeding lane?

I have a pair of the L2's that I picked up on clearance from last years stock and love them. Much better fit and easier to get on and off than my old Hodgeman's. Of course, I did get the Hogdeman's in the wrong size...... You'd be hard pressed to get me to buy a different brand of boot.

Nice pics dude!

Yep, Lincoln is the guy who had the most luck that day.

Well, the day finally came. When I discovered the course, "Listening to the Bow with Jim McLennan", I signed up immediately. That was back in February. Yesterday, the day finally came. I was excited to finally see if I could tame the beast we call "The Bow". We all gathered at the shop at 9:00, introduced ourselves to Jim and made our way to the river for a beautiful day of instruction, frendly chat and, of course, fishing. We drove out to the Bow along a stretch that I have never fished before (another reason why I wanted to take this course, to find some new waters ) that had a little bit of everything, nice long stretches of slack water for some nice dry fly action, plenty of rock obsicles to create some nice nymph runs with deep slow pools. I went into the day thinking, "Wow, I'm going to be able to fish with Jim McLennan ALL DAY". A minor mis-conception on my part, as it's been.......25 years since I've been in School, I kinda forgot what going to class meant...... Anyway, we spent a lot of time 'reading the water' looking at where the water changes, where it slows down and speeds up. He gave us a casting "tune up" where he talked to everyone individually and checked thier casting techniques. He noticed that I had an arm brace, so he was hoping to find something in my casting stroke to see if there was something there. He was kinda disappointed when he couldn't find anything. lol Which is a good thing for me I guess. lol We also touched on some entomology next, noticing that there were stonefly husks EVERYWHERE, he flipped a few rocks to reveal the Stone scurrying in all directions. Picked a couple up and showed us the difference between the males and the females and even held a fly next to one to show the similarities. Some guys out there tie some pretty good flys. One of our classmates had a Realistic Gold Stone. It was pretty nice. During the first discussion about reading water, we did notice some fish rising, so Jim took us down the way to the flat, slack water to try and hunt some risers. We did find one (I still think there was more than one there, but Jim figured there was just the one crusing around that particular lane) that was rising pretty constantly to a PMD hatch. Each one of us had our shot at casting to this guy. He was a nice sized fish from what we gathered. He wasn't making much of a splash, more of just a ripple when he was feeding, revealing no more than his dorsal and tail fins, which were sizable from what we could see. Only one of us managed to have him go for our fly, which would have been his first on the dry. I did have a gull take my fly off the water not once, but twice if you can believe that. I fooled the birds, but not the fish. Go figure. lol Making our way back up stream, we started our nymphing clinic, which is where we all had the most success. He showed us some examples of shallow or "short line" nymphing then the deeper stuff. There were a few guys who didn't have much experience in nymphing so we spent a fair amount of time doing that. I hooked into my first fish after we moved way up the bank. It was one of those unexpected takes, where I was just getting my rig ready and spooling line off, moving the rig out, pulling more line off and moving the rig out, when suddenly, my rig pulled back. HARD. I fought this guy for only a few seconds before the tippet broke, but man he felt big. Strong head shakes, and pulled hard down stream to get away. After a long walk back up and down the bank looking for my floatant and nippers that were attached to a zinger on my chest pack that broke, dropping them into the tall grass. We gathered around Jim for a breif introduction to High Sticking, or what he also called Czech Nymphing. He rigged up right in the same run where I had my heavy guy, and I told him that he was casting right where I had my guy on. Sure enough as he was showing us what to do, bang. Fish on. Acted exactly the same way mine did, stayed under and went straight down stream, pulling down and hard. We all walked with Jim while he fought the fish about 40 or 50 yards down the river. Showing us better landing techniques suggesting side pressure, more than upward pressure. I joked that if that fish had a bead head phesant tail in it's lip, it was mine. lol We did get a good look at the fish, a very nice sized Rainbow, before he rolled, spit the Stone nymph, got hung up breifly on the bottom fly, and then took off. So, I never did get to see if it had my fly in his lip. lol After that, only one of us had any more luck that day. One of our fellow anglers had hooked up into three or four more rainbows in a nice pool created by a rather large rock, in fast moving water. One of them fought like a demon and leaped about two feet into the air and went from about ten feet from the bank, to about two feet from the bank. Was very cool to see. After that was when it started to rain pretty good, so we called it a day and made our way back to the cars. But not before we cast to another guy rising in a pool on our way back. All in all, it was an amazing day. Jim's a wealth of knowledge, great guy to hang around with for a day and pick his brain. I would recommend any one of his classes to anybody. Weather you have five days experience or 30 years.

LOL

F and C are what I had in mind.

I've been leaning towards the Fuji FinePix Z33WP. More for the price than anything else, but I have a Fuji FinePix E900 that I LOVE, but am afraid that one day, I'll dunk her in the river and not only lose a camera, but have a really, really pissed off wife to boot. They gave it a decent review, only slamming the picture quality somewhat, but I'm not a professional photographer and don't inspire to be either. Can't really beat it for almost half the price as the others out there. As long as it fits nicely in my chest pack, and won't die if I dunk it, that's all I really need.

What a great post Brad. I am always losing focus at work. Being on the board and seeing all the success you guys are having, on what seems to be a daily basis, doesn't make it any easier either! I have yet to hit the dry fly on the Bow yet this year, and I am already considering yet another rod for the Bow as my 8'6" 5wt would be a perfect rod for dry flying the Bow, but works well enough for me to nymph with it. As I sit here on my Saturday morning, I keep thinking about the same things. What action am I missing? When will I be able to get out next? What will I use? I know that I will be learning a lot tomorrow as I head out on my Listening to the Bow course with Jim McLennan, and I can't wait to see what kind of action we get into!

Nice pics Cheeler, thanks!

Awesome pics Steve, thanks!

I'd second that. Something softer than white and black, or white and blue. Something easier on the eyes. Maybe a moss green as the Title Bar and button Colours, but something like a soft yellow, or a butternut for the main windows. Wow.....how gay do I sound right now.......

Oh wow......LOL

Nice call there Birchy! Major upgrade for the Oilers. Nothing against Roloson, he did very well for Edmonton last year, but if given a choice between Khabibulin and Roli, I'd take Khabibulin any day. At least I know one thing for sure......Edmonton will rule the BOA this year. lol

That's my basic concern with Heatly. I hope that he stays in Ottawa and they bury him on the fourth line for the remainder of his contract. I didn't really consider that with Ohlund.....maybe it is just the weather.....lol

I'm with you Birchy. I'm getting pretty tired of it too. I mean, a guy lilke Ohlund, goes from a winning team in Vancouver to Tampa Bay??? They were second to last in the NHL last year. Edmonton is a significantly better team, but Ohlund goes there for what? The money? Edmonton could have offered him more, but we don't need another offensive defenceman, so why Tampa? The weather? It sure as hell isn't for the team. Or to get a chance to win.

The signing of Bouwmeester was HUGE for Calgary. I didn't think he'd sign, but he did. Good on em. My concern is that they now have about $50 Million tied up in about 15 or 16 guys on a 26 man roster, according to Peter Mahr anyway. So how are they gonna sign 10 solid, quality NHLers on only $6 Million? Sure, they'll have a good defence, but they only have Iggy and Olli up front to put the puck in the net. Unless they send away some salary to fill some other holes, I'm afraid they might make another early exit.

I'll be going to Secret Spot 2483-63 this evening. Can you let me know if it's ok? Thanks

Nice pics! Big bear. I'da crapped myself.

Coooooooooooooooooool! Thanks for sharing!