monger

I'm with Brent...way more fish handling going on....more stress to the fish....immunocompromised....disease gets a foothold

So much whitefish love....thanks for sharing Steve

Great story Dustin. That's a serious fish!

I believe Cap-it uses Leer. I found a great deal on Kijiji.....$800 instead of $2200 for next to new. Lots of competition and you have to be patient Range rider makes a cap in BC

Great point...is Willow Park yellow your favorite

Agreed...trying to will a fish to bite your "incorrect" offering can cause one to speak a different language. Making it tougher can make you grow.

I thought this might be what you were getting at Don. I agree with you. That is why I try not to fish in the kinds of areas you are describing or do something out of the ordinary. Luckily no one else uses wine corks like me so the fish don't get it yet.

I'm confused...indicators are a foam ball/yarn whatever that is about 4-20+ feet from your fly. Why would I want my indicator to be a natural color? The indicator has nothing to do with the fish biting my fly. My indicators are telling me when the fish has the fly, therefore I want my indicator to be both as big and as brightly colored as I can get away with. What am I missing Don

I just stand my ground when I fight a fish, don't need to go to shore. Put the boots to the fish, palm the reel (Bow fish are rarely over 3lb, most under). Reel them in, get their head up out of the water and waterski them to your leg/hand in your personal eddy. Grab the fish or hook and twist the hook out. Usually takes less than 2 minutes (no exhaustion issues). No slime loss/abrasion lost to net, standing in 12"+ of water (no drop worries). None of my buddies use nets. I guess we are just in a hurry to catch the next one. The only time we use nets are for fishing tiny dries with fine tippets or fish over 5lb (not really an issue in the Bow). With the growing number of anglers on the Bow there is going to be more handling/skin issues on the fish. It will be interesting to see if the fish end up with lots of sores like on the Madison.

Do you really need a net? It seems like a pain in the butt to me to lug one around unless you are in a boat.

Friday...Goooood Friday! Fishing was more like Great Friday He is Risen! Thank you Father

Two drift boats were headed that way this afternoon. I wonder what the plan is at the end of the float

This is Canada....hockey laces always work. Just cut to length and melt the new ends...done!

Cheaters!

I use bright pink ones as they seem to stand out well. When fishing on dark, cloudy days, chartreuse glows.

I replaced 2 sets of guides on a old rod....before sharkskin came around. Not expensive guides, but they did wear out

You Chaparral guys obviously own the big browns in this river. Perhaps one day I could tag along with you guys as your team photographer. You can blindfold me so I don't learn where secret spot #3799 is. How long can we stretch this stupid thread out for.....

I've heard of 4 other Helios' blowing up. Light.....but fragile

Zombie's are X-fish that only troutlover and I have been able to land thus far. If you work at it you can join the club. Troutlover's was a fine burbot and mine only a boring rainbow.

How can anyone get something bigger than a Texan? I think I'll spray paint my new noodle rod yellow to try and increase my chances of catching a real fish. The real goal this year is to catch another Zombie fish so I can out perform your "netboy" with the purrty face

That was an awesome fish Rick. I'm pretty sure the rod don't matter (my spey rod cost $100...real fancy). I'm just getting bored of watching bobbers after 25 years.

I wonder if there has been any inter-breeding between strains in the last 100 years.... "Don't squirt there!!! That's a Scot for goodness sake" Guessing genotype via phenotype can get one in trouble

Confession is a good thing Clive. And your right the Lord is GOOD. I think I still might be able to find a bobber for lake fishing though. All this global warming should have the ice off early this year . Can't wait to get back in the tube to chase some big, fat fish!

Brown was a nice, thick fish who didn't really want to see the shore. I thought the rainbow was unique enough for a picture. I've seen a lot of rainbows that are very colored up in the last month. It looks like they are more than ready to go party early this year. There seems to be a lot of 18-19" rainbows these days (I think the spawners used to be bigger 20-23" in the past). Catching a rainbow over 22" is getting more and more challenging.

First off I need to apologize for all the negative thoughts I used to have about spey rods on the river. I didn't understand why folks were using them here. Well now I see the light and have been having a great time catching quality fish. Though my rod is an 8wt with a 12wt reel, it's still lots of fun to feel the tug. It's been a fine month with no bobbers in sight.