robert

I personally don't know what facts are correct but in the 10 years fishing in Alberta, i've eaten a couple of fish out of one lake only and that was 3 hours north of here. The rest is all catch and release. It turns my stomach to see people pulling fish out of some lakes for consumption - maybe i'm wrong, i don't know. I fish Devils lake (Matchayaw) quite a bit throughout spring to fall but to see the sturgeon river that flows into it? OMG, that river is disgusting on the best of days - I can only imagine what the fish are full of. The NSR? Forget it, even tho i've never been able to catch a fish in there it's still a great river to flick a fly on the worst of days. Even some of the stock ponds are out - like cardiff in morinville. I've been told a few times that it was originally the old town dump from the 60's and again, I don't know if that's true or not but i'm not taking any chances. Are the fish in stores any safer? Don't know really. I think everything we eat is contaminated with something or other.

I'm a smoker too, and I can't say it's had any effect on my fishing or catch rates. Goes for trout, pike or anything else, they don't seem to care.

Gotta ask, did you read the entire agreement when you signed up for this flyfishcalgary.com? people rarely ever read every word and that's what hassholds like telus prey on. Many, many people have been burned. I have NOTHING telus related anymore and I will never ever use them again for anything. They are the sorriest company out there and if they can get you by the short and curlies, they will - and they don't care what happens once you autograph that contract. I'd personally love to see someone take them over and get rid of the name... sound like alot of love for them? i'm an IT consultant, and I cringe every time I have to call telus regarding internet - they have blacklisted me so I have to lie about who I am to get any service out of them. how sad is that.

I only wish we had a river to fish almost year round. Don't feel bad, i've been on the NSR here in edmonton many times with both flyrod and spincast and i'm yet to catch a fish at all. pretty sure i've tossed my entire arsenal into that river and been skunked every time tho I had one rise for a floating mouse lure I bought. I've destroyed so many spincast lures from them beating off the rocks, it's not funny anymore but thankfully i've reeled in more lures that others have lost than i've destroyed - none of the lures I caught were debarbed BTW and that really upsets me. Can catch and release till the cows come home on any other body of water but that damned river.

Took the old blades to a wet stone and got an edge back on them. not great but should suffice for getting through the ice. Put the new blades on, managed 9 holes today through about a foot and a half of clean ice without problem. Murder on the arms but sure beats an axe, wouldn't want to drill through much thicker. Makes one realize how out of shape they are.

I hunted through hell and back to try to get a set of blades for that auger. crappy tire in spruce grove, then west edmonton, and finally south. walmart had ONE set on the rack but when I took a better look - someone had opened the package and stole one. canadian tire had a rack full of them... i'll just have to be more aware of where i'm drilling holes and check every now and then as to what i'm drilling into. won't be making that mistake again. i'm going to keep the blades i took off, take them somewhere to get sharpened. thanks all.

we were a good 150 feet off shore, in the summertime there should be at least 5 feet of water at that point but oh well, maybe the lake was lower than i thought. lesson learned good idea with returning the blades tho. heading to devils tomorrow when i get a new set of blades, water is clean there and i know the depths. my fav lake for sheer numbers of pike.

went to walmart to look at another one, and my blades are dull already. need to get another set of blades and a sharpener to go along with it but the walmart was sold out of everything. stupid me can't find the reciept and i threw the box out already. Just went out with a flashlight to check the hole I made (didn't bring one before and drilled the hole in the dark) the ice was really dirty near the bottom of the hole and the ice around the hole was almost brown. wonder if it's gritty or sandy and it killed the blades. i'm at alberta beach right now on lac st anne. thanks. i'll check out iceshanty.com.

I bought a normark swede hand auger and tried it out tonite. Managed to get down through a foot of ice and it stopped cutting, more shaving. really weird. Can anyone offer any suggestions? can the blades dull that fast? blade angles off?

holy cripes, I was going to drop into bass pro on the way back to edmonton today - I really thought there was an accident on the hiway when I started getting close to it but it was a lineup of cars a mile long trying to get in there. Nevertheless I kept driving.

I know it's a weird time of year to be asking this but I have 2 small holes in my coleman 4 man (maybe 4 little kids of course). It's a pretty tough and rugged vinyl and doesn't seem to want to hold a patch. Tried a rubber patch with contact cement, but it peeled off pretty quick. Tried a vinyl patch, again with contact cement but it wouldn't take. Yes, it was cleaned really well and I followed the instructions to a T. Not often I use the boat but it's a good thing to have around when I don't feel like being in the float tube. Any ideas?

I'm not albertan, just another newfie refugee that planted his ass here in search of a better life... That said, i'm curious about the alberta separtists. I'm not saying yay or nay in any sense, I don't feel I have a right to but i'd like to hear albertan's opinions on separation... It seems to me that the major bulk of alberta's economy hinges on the price of a barrel of oil and natural gas and everything tied to it - and i've heard many stories of when things went bad like in the 80's when the price was down to $20.00. If Alberta were to stand alone as it's own nation, and the price of oil crashed/burned and stayed there, what would be the result? Could Alberta survive alone through a long term recession when its major exports are tied to the oilfield? Not asking for any other reason but curiousity.

I never once attributed anything to CO2 levels sundance, i'm smarter than the average bear, go back and reread. I said it's not it's not just about CO2, it's about pollution in general... Not to sound morbid but as for dead people, still have to produce a casket, still gotta get them to the graveyard or incinerator and not too many people dig graves by hand anymore. Yeah, we rot in the ground, so do many other animals that die.

Well, lets say for a moment that global warming is a myth. Some of you are saying it is - and that's your opinion, you're entitled. I'm not a bleeding heart or a tree hugger by any means - let me make that clear. Look at the major cities around the world - From los angeles to toronto to beijing to New Delhi - whereever. Ever notice how many are wearing face masks? The clouds that hang over many of these cities? Doesn't that bother people? Does it bother you that each and every one of us are contributing to this? When we drive our cars, buy stuff at stores, turn up the heat, keep the lights burning? I personally would not eat the fish out of many lakes and rivers around alberta and every fisherman on this board has seen it - simple oil slick, crap floating down the river, whatever and we all complain about it - look at the NSR flowing through edmonton, would you eat the fish out of it? The sturgeon river is completely disgusting - but why is it? What is being dumped into these rivers and why? When you turn your lights on and leave them burning, where do you think the energy comes from? It has to be produced somehow and the chances are damn good that pollution is made to fullfil your need for that power you're burning, it doesn't just come out of thin air unless it's wind powered. It's not just about CO2, it's about pollution in general - we're killing ourselves by wanting our toys, by wanting to be "haves", by having the simple demands that we have. Look at diseases like cancer? Rates seem to be increasing as the decades go by - anybody else noticing how many more people are dying of diseases like cancer? Can pollution be a part of that problem or do you consider that a natural effect? Can anyone out there give me examples of pollution that is not created to fulfill the hunger of our human population in some way? That's a good question for us all to answer. To hell with economics for a minute - it's all supply and demand.

i'm more worried about fumes. Isopropanol burns pretty clean but it has an orange flame - maybe a 5" flame and it's controllable. I don't want to be carrying around cannisters at all, hence the reason for looking for other sources. Looking for something that beats starting a fire on the ice and backpacking/travelling around. May be heading out tomorrow so we shall see I guess.

In the process of getting rigged out for ice fishing this year - haven't been on the ice in many years, and looking for some heat. Don't want to be lugging around too much in my car for one but i've been looking at these DIY alcohol camp stoves. Made one last night, roll of toilet paper in a small coffee can filled with alcohol. People say to use denatured alcohol only - but that contains methanol which isn't a good thing to be around but I bought some 99% isopropanol at walmart and it burns great. Lots of heat but I can't find anything on the fumes released from 99% isopropanol. The only reasons I can find for not using isopropyl is the water content. Should be pretty clean burning I would think. Any ideas on this?

wow, what a response sundance - someone piss in your cornflakes? If you want to make this personal, I have no choice but to have a car due to being self employed but I chose to buy a kia rio. I keep my car well tuned with addon's to average 38 miles to the gallon in the city - on the hiway i'm above 40 mpg. I don't load my life down with crap I don't need and don't have an apartment full of useless crap that I don't need. I'll take the 10 minutes to walk to the store instead of driving. Yes i've looked at my own footprint on this world and made adjustments but again, it's my personal choice. I'm not dumping my ideals on anyone else - but I have the right to question what others do. We are ruled, regulated and governed to death in this country... Why do we have rules and regulations brought in all the time? I think we all know why, and it goes with everything. There are those that want it all with no accountability for their actions - hence, rules are brought in place to moderate those individuals - moderate everyone. On a smaller level - there are those that want to carry handguns in canada, those that want to kill 10 moose a year and shoot anything that moves. There are those that would clean out all the lakes in canada if they were allowed. There are those that drive whatever they want, pollute all they want - because they can, because at this point they are allowed and it goes for businesses and individuals. It's because of those reasons that we are ruled and regulated to death in this country and we all suffer because of it. Now if more rules are brought into play to moderate pollution and CO2 output? who's flucking fault is it going to be? Who are we going to point the fingers at? And who's going to pay for it? Blame the oil companies when we all drive cars? Blame all the cows for farting when there's nearly 7 billion mouths in this world to feed? Blame south america for cutting down the rainforest when people demand their cushy soft ass wipe, paper and homes built and whatever else that wood is used for??? My point is, if people would moderate themselves and take accountability for what they do, we'd all be better off and we'll all suffer alot less in the decades to come. For a small example, we all get pissed off with people that litter - and I hope we've all picked up someone else's trash when we go fishing - but why should I have to deal with someone else's mess - when they are too GD lazy to do it themselves. And that's what i'm talking about - personal accountability on every level. Why buy a hummer when one can get away with a small car - or are you of the mind that the 12 million vehicles in this country don't dump CO2 into the atmosphere? Why should a person be allowed to drive a hummer at current gas prices when there are others buying economic vehicles? You're damn right that there should be a levy for driving gas guzzling vehicles for personal use. Give a break to those that are trying to make a difference. I get your point and it's my point too, economics and the world economy is the reason things aren't going to change. I couldn't imagine what life would be like if the production of oil stopped tomorrow - could you? Is it going to stop? No, there's too much money involved, things need to be transported, people need to get around. Things aren't going to change any time too soon and we all know it.

Been reading alot of forum chatter on global warming and pollution lately and i'm going to toss my 2 cents in for what it's worth. Lets throw some common sense in here and think globally. If people would start taking control of their own lives and really put some effort into it - this transition could be alot easier and alot cheaper for everyone. For example: Look around your home for all the useless little trinkets that you didn't need to buy but they were pretty or something to look at - chances are it's made in china or asia somewhere - now think about what it took to get it to your shelf. Good chance that resources were trucked to the plant where it was made, resources burned to make it - then on a truck, then to a train, then to a boat and to another train, then to another a truck to get it to the store - then you burn resources for a round trip to the store. Was it really necessary to buy that one little item that cost so much in emissions? Next time you go to your local walmart - stop and think about all the useless crap on the shelves, look at where they were made and think about what it took to get them to your hands. Hydropsyche has it right - we have become a gluttonous society. Are we going to pay for the sins of our forefathers? Maybe, maybe not - but our kids and generations to come are going to pay dearly for ours - that's the way it is. The population of the world is pushing 7 billion - that's alot of people, alot of cars, alot of mouths to feed and clothe which means alot of carbon footprint. It was stated in this thread "why should I do it when my neighbor won't". Like the old addage goes - If your neighbor jumps over a cliff - are you going to follow him? Why not set an example for others to follow? Answer? Because too many people want to hang with the jones' - people like their toys and I can't see that changing any time too soon. People are going to buy their gas guzzling hummers and bitch about the price of gas cause that's just the way it is. Next time it goes to -35, be consious of your driving - look in the rear view for the exhaust coming out of your tailpipe - that should get you thinking cause it's not all water people. There was a cloud over edmonton during this cold snap - could smell the emissions in the air. Can people really believe that we're not causing damage on a global scale?

I haven't flicked a fly in so long now, everything is frozen here from the looks of it. open water, no matter how cold, is appealing right now

whoa, peeps are still flyfishing the bow? does it not freeze over? I'm heading that way for christmas, maybe I should take my rod with me?

Best piece of meat i've ever ate was an aged black angus t-bone cooked naked on a grill - no spice, no marinade, nothing.

you figure it out http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009...7/12071886.html

I hate treble hooks... silly question, but why are barbless hooks so much more expensive than barbed? there's one less step in the manufacture but expensive.

anybody find it a little on the bright side??? otherwise, it's great

headscan beat me to the punch and is correct... http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/quick+...9124/story.html