Pipes

Awful news. Sympathies for all who knew him.

I grew up with what I call tough love. From a farming background, where if you had any issues, you just rub some dirt on it. You don't show weakness and you definitely never cry. This week, we buried one of my best friends. I have had people close to me pass on before, but never by their own choice. Mental illness is probably one of the most challenging things to deal with. There is no cut to sew up, there is no cure and its something many people are ashamed of discussing. If you don't feel right or if you know someone who doesn't seem themselves, please act on these signs. It is not something anyone chooses, so you aren't crazy and you can't fix it yourself. I don't know a single person who can truly cope with it on their own. There is help and there are better days ahead. There are people, places and therapies to make it all manageable. It can be discreet. Most cases go undetected or diagnosed way too late. It's something that you can slip into without really knowing. It is scary and it is real. I was a tough guy. I didn't read all the tell tale signs. While I made some sign of concern, I have to live with guilt and doubt for the rest of my life. I never took this too seriously when people talked about it, but if I can help one person....maybe you won't get the phone call I did.

I will re-emphasize getting someone to help you out. If you are picky, it will save you from throwing away some ugly flies. Online is helpful, but you still miss some techniques on how to hold material, proportions etc. I will also suggest watching Fly Tying the Anglers Art on PBS or online. I started watching LeRoy Hyatt many years ago. Great instruction and insight. He walks through each tie slowly with great detail and also shares good tips that you normally don't think about. He was my inspiration on learning to tie. A legend in instruction in my mind.

I have usually tackled most home reno's myself. But find myself with little time. I am looking at a bathroom and hardwood floor refinishing this year and in 2015 a kitchen and exterior. looking for references as it can be difficult to find good people in Calgary. thanks

Excellent. Can't wait for the cranefly hatches. Looking forward to hosting the hunt trip. It will blast.

yes, thanks Rick great job and effort.

Hey man, forum etiquette frowns on giving away secret spots.

Don, I'm well aware of who you are and I am not diminishing the work you have done with TU. You posted this topic along with others on this forum of similar nature. Posting on forums invites debate and questioning. I asked valid questions and I'm not going to apologize for pushing you or anyone else on the topic. I know of your TU ventures. I also know that the industry stuffs the pockets of TU. I see your posts on the oil and gas industry, which despite your work history and its support, you seem to have a disdain. I'll save myself from dropping my pants too to see who is bigger. Maybe take some of your own advice and find out more about me. Invite me out for a coffee and maybe I'm not just a snot nosed kid acting tough behind a keyboard. Maybe, just maybe you might even be pleasantly surprised at my own efforts.

Don, thanks for agreeing with my statement on realistic information. I'm aware of the situation. Like you were; I am in the industry. The point to my comment wasn't the report. It was the copy and paste activism that you like to do. Seems like you hit Cntrl Alt C and Cntrl Alt V to make you feel like you have done society good. What I am asking for are solutions. Activists for the most part are lazy. They like to regurgitate information most don't understand and complain. That's the tip of the iceberg in coming up with solutions and answers. I'm challenging you and all the folks that think they are changing the world when laying their sleeping bag across a gravel road.

Don, since you worked in the industry, do you have any suggestions on how to improve? As a scientist, I hold no weight to a news article. Show me a legitimate study with predictions on volume. I worked on the North Slope of Alaska and we had to place drip pans under our vehicle. If drop of oil or diesel hit the pan, it was reported. Speaking of which, I wonder how many vehicles in alberta have leaked oil, antifreeze or gas spilled from re-fuelling. My comments are not aimed to say leaks are acceptable and shouldn't be improved, but all this anti stuff is ridiculous. Come up with answers, be informed, find alternatives if it all bothers you. The world wants oil, these are some of the sacrifices. No one wants to hear that last sentence, but I'm not going to be ignorant or naïve.

I like Orijen too. Currently, running Now as my dogs seem to digest them better. The fresh foods like Origen and Now seem also to have a more appealing taste as well. However, I don't give my dogs choices. They are taught to eat what is there. Raw diet is good as well, but way more work. I'm running gun dogs so there is a big difference in food value versus a lot of the common foods out there.

Ok, as i mentioned in my first post, i deliberated on sharing this experience. I have been on here awhile, on the old flyfish calgary forum, the old flyfish alberta forums years ago before it went under. I'm not a big forum guy, but contribute when i have time/ interest. The 'silence' is due to the fact that i have been travelling and working 12-18 hour days. An internet forum is not my priority. I have recieved somePMs. I will do my best to share the guide info. My purpose of writing up this post was following a discussion with a good friend and he encouraged to share via social media what is happening in BC. I did so. I guess i expected the two sides to the story response and questioning whst happened was legit. I guess typing up words to screen is impossible to justify. I can only suggest looking at all my topics I have created. If you deem me as a troll so be it. What I wrote was true. There were exactly 5 drift boats that day on the lower elk. I'm sure there is a method to find out charges laid for august 10th. Search to see them. I have the business card of one of the officers, if you have an issue with what I wrote, I will PM you his info. CALL HIM. I am following up on the issue with how the situation was handled. Sharing this on the internet serves no one good. Not your battle to deal. I'm notbposting the fly shop because the owner has always treated me well. The actions were purely of the guide. The situation is being addressed. Again my point, was awareness not retribution or any other agenda. This type of action is not isolated.

tires have been slashed, headlights smashed, keyed paint. It all happens. I am going to file a complaint of the guide. I will most likely publish the name of the guiding outfit as well. It is sad. Although we did nothing wrong, it spoiled a great day.

I have been tossing on whether to share a recent experience or not, but here it goes. Friends and I from Alberta recently went to fish the Elk river. We brought our drift boats down and fished for three days. On one day we fished from Morrissey to Elko and started out about 9:30 am. About an hour later, a boat caught up to us while drifting and the guide mentioned they were going to pull over as they had 2 more boats in their party. We continued on our way until lunch and pulled over to fish some good holes. Shortly after the boats caught up to us while we were pulled to one side of the river. The guide in one boat started to take pictures of us with his cell phone. At first we thought odd but were too busy yarding out several cutthroat on some caddis emergers. The rest of the day was filled with some decent fishing but did not see the other boats. When I finally reached our take out, the other boat in our party had already arrived and they were grabbing the truck and trailer. As I pulled in I saw a CO talking to them and he quickly ran to my boat demanding whose boat we were in. I said it was mine and without any explanation demanded my other two boat partners to leave the boat and were escorted away from me. I was told to stay put in the boat. What also transpired was my friend who went to retrieve the first truck and trailer was met with the 2 COs road blocking with flashers and yelling at my friend to not move as they unclipped the holster to their firearms.They yelled about a report of him with a firearm violation. After an hour of interrogation, we found out that the guides who passed us, phoned in and said we were illegally guiding from Montana. Here is my problem, the guides down there were from one of the fly shops. I know guides do not like us on the water there, despite the fact that we purchase ALL the required licenses, fish with respect and etiquette, do not have liquor, polite, share what is working etc. We also support the local fly shops, accommodations, restaurants, gas stations, shuttles etc etc. The restrictions these people have put on the river is enough to say the least. To call in a bogus complaint is BS. They had zero reasons to believe we were guides. I'm guessing they may have been getting some heat from their clients who were nymphing and we were doing well on surface. My other issue: the actions of the COs were over the top. Illegally guiding does not warrant the response. A quick visit to the truck and trailers would have been the first clue that our license plates read Alberta and not Montana. Second, I claimed the owner of the second boat as we came to shore and I was FISHING!. How many guides fish (from the front I might add). Guilty before proven innocent. One of the COs asked why the fellow gathering the truck was nervous. I don't know, screaming in to blockade the road and polishing your guns might be a reason. I won't generalize everyone in the Elk valley, but I spend enough time to know we are not welcome. Everything from comments to vandalism to this. I'm not feeling obligated to support the local shops unfortunately and will likely change destinations for the future. I guess the guides eventually win, but the town does not. Ironic that the local guides will also advertise guiding alberta waters and I also see as many BC plates upland hunting the same areas of southern alberta as I do. Not in their backyard, but ours is fine. Funny, vented, but don't feel any better.

An interesting perspective reading this thread after the fact. To play devil's advocate, we don't know the details of the failure so how can anyone speculate on due diligence. We can certainly question the process. I listened to news reports making this sound worse than it was. Explosive chemicals! .....or not. Fear that it may be Jet fuel. It would have been better if it was jet fuel since both the flash point and fire point is higher than gasoline or diesel. I'm not trying to underplay the seriousness of the issue, but speculation running rampant makes no sense. It's like a fire alarm goes off and everyone would rather trample each other heading for the door than work together. I think Nenshi's has been good throughout this ordeal, but as the leader, I'm not sure he should have been ripping the Feds so quickly. Don't get me wrong, but I'm glad this worked out the way it did, but let's keep with the innocent until proven guilty process.

I think the comments about the amount of 'bobber' flyfisherman is a bit skewed to be honest. Every year, In my many miles travelling western Canada and USA through various river systems, I will say that I don't find this to be necessarily true. More often than not, I see people dry fly fishing. Maybe its the areas and smaller rivers that I like to go to. The bow is an easily accesible and good fishery in the heart of a large population. With any large river, most often nymphing is the most effective way to catch fish. For new comers, this presents an ideal situation to enter the sport. How many would continue fishing if they tried dry fly fishing every saturday during mid day? I know a lot of flyfisherman that begin at nymph fishing and progress to other methods. I don't buy that the majority like to stick to indie fishing. How many people on the Elk pound the nymphs all day long? The other comments about fish being spooked or move away from indicators, I've had fish steer away from a well drifted #20 BWO dry because it was feeding on emergers etc. I've also had fish destroy my bobber on the bow......Careful how we mention the effectiveness of this method. Pretty generalized comments. In the end, I share the same thoughts as many on here. I don't get out as much as I used to. If that means fishing at 2pm on a Sunday and feel a need to fiight a fish in the middle of august, I'm going to do what I want and could care less about the guy in the fedora thinks.

Well, there is way more to this story than what the Sun reports here. Which is typical because the whole story doesn't sound as exciting. I do not condone trafficking of wild life. But I'm sure you all know all the rules surrounding these charges. FYI, it is legal to sell antlers in alberta. It is legal to possess antlers. It is not legal to sell antlers attached to a skull. The majority of his antlers are sheds he either found or were given to him by local community members. Something he had been collecting for over 20 years. Unfortunately, he did break the law. Which he will pay for, but to make him out like this huge underground wildlife offender is way way off. So, to say you hope he loses everything seems unfair to me to judge this man from an Edmonton Sun article.

that sucks Brian In july, I had the unfortunate incident where a friend of mine dumped two full cases of my flies into the river never to be found. All my small dry flies and my entire nymph collection. about 1800 flies in total. I have been fishing a lot of big foam bugs lately.....my only box left.

On a beaded nymph, I tie them in behind the bead while I am whip finishing. check out some of Jermey Davies ties and you will see what I mean.

I guess my mistake is continually to get frustrated by journalist who don't want to do their homework and present a fair case. The U of A geochemist comments were only based on his opinion of reading the EPA report. He was not involved in the study. The message of the entire article is that Contamination will get worse in Alberta and his justification is based on the EPA study of the Pavillion study in Wyoming. First of all, the EPA report does not state wells drilled over 8000 feet. The author suggested wells in BC's Montney play are over 8000 feet. No study has been done. That's my problem. The EPA study is entirely different than the operations, formations and regulations we have to deal with. Soooooo, I get pissed when I hear, read or witness people talking about the evils of 'fracking' without knowing anything about it. We then get a mass population of gullible people to believe this junk that the article and many others spew. This impacts many, many of Albertans credible and hard work. Mine included. Fact is, these long horizontal tight shale plays and 'fracking' provide a key role in cost effective method of extracting gas for power generation. Power generation that is needed here and abroad. Power generation that serves as a much more environmentally responsible alternative to the coal we burn here. Here's the EPA report in discussion: http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion/index.html Oh and Merry Christmas Don.

Sun, Thanks for elaborating and giving good information. I was too lazy. Mostly for the fact, that for the past 2 years I have been fighting this battle about the evils of "fracking". Getting tired of presenting SCIENCE and then having the comeback from someone who watched Gasland. It's just complete BS that people spread garbage like this. It's ok to lobby without educating themselves. Surprise Surprise.

Some info. Not necessarily accurate info. I've read the exact EPA report. I'm involved more than I care on the issue. Rest assured we are only getting one side of the issue. as usual it is the uneducated side. Stunning how a journalist can become an expert in chemistry. And for the accurate record, this is technically a drilling and cementing issue. Setting surface casing above an aquifer?

Bigtoad, my problem is you tell us that it's "irresponsible not to wear it". And I'm saying that #1, in my years and style of hunting I have never had an issue. And #2 there's no study valid that says it does improve my safety. You keep asking for a reason why someone shouldn't wear it and I'm not arguing that point. I don't see any problem with people wearing orange. If you ask me why I don't wear it, it's because I don't see the threat in my hunting (the whole point of my initial argument). I COULD wear a helmet and a mouthguard to walk down the street to get a carton of milk as there's a potential for me to fall and hit my face, but I weigh my options and decide not to. So we are arguing two different thoughts. I'm not going to argue against orange, I'm arguing I personally don't see the issue. You and Junior are both trying to make this a tough guy image and in my case it is simply not. As said before, I don't wear cammo. I'm not worried what I look like.

Well put LittleMoodz. I am glad that Alberta lets the hunter choose whether they want to wear orange or not. I don't want someone else making my decision for me. And don't comeback with the seatbelt BS. I will re-iterate again that getting shot in Alberta is highly unlikely, getting in a car accident IS. The hunter shot by his partner a couple of years ago may still have been shot if he was wearing orange, we don't know that, so one can't make the mistake of assuming that orange will in fact help. Go ahead and wear orange if you feel like it, but don't tell others they are stupid for not. Bigtoad made a huge mistake. This is not the fault of a guy in a ghillie suit. You're pissed at him and you scoped him? I can't for the life of me understand the reasoning of your comments that he looked like a moose. If you thought he did, you made a judgement error. Number one rule of hunting is identify your target. Anyway you argue it, you did not identify your target plain and simple. I'm not sure if a guy who can't tell the difference between a human and a moose that wearing orange really accomplishes much. So for the guys who scold people for not wearing orange, move to Ontario and you will be fine. Let the government make your decision for you.

You're claiming of stating facts, so I don't see what your experience and opinion has to do with anything here. I assumed you didn't hunt because you shared no information towards that and admittedly got your facts from googling. I'm sorry, but I don't see accurate scientific evidence on what appears to be articles written that are pasted with more advertising than pertinent information. You continue to contradict your stats by going from 3 to 7 times more safe. Which one is it? There's no correlation to Alberta, in which I am specifically discussing. Alberta is a diverse hunting ground, from prairie, to foothills to mountains with a vast difference in population density of hunters to New York. We have significantly more styles and species to hunt. I base my opinion on legitimate facts not taking 10 minutes to google something that "fits' to defend your position. Here's some FACTS from Alberta. There were 104889 , 102193 and 100820 hunting license bought in alberta in 2010, 2009 and 2008 respectively. Now, tell me how many people were shot and how many were not wearing orange. what conditions were they under? As already pointed out your stats don't directly correlate wearing orange decreases your risk by the numbers you describe. I dont' wear cammo. Specifically, I dress in layers, but my outer visible layer is the following: MEC Dogma pants in Black, Dark grey North face Shell and Blue fleece toque (not sure the brand). They don't make me feel cool or like commando, but they do keep me comfortable in the elements. Now go get some real facts or calm down.