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midgetwaiter

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Posts posted by midgetwaiter

  1.  

    Don't get me wrong, I hate the squatters as much as the next guy. But, is everyone really onside with a full ban on random camping?

     

    I like the idea of being able to pull up to a secluded area and pitch a tent for the weekend and fish and hunt from my "base camp". Also, in the fall during hunting season "back country camping" isn't an easy task especially if you were trying to hunt with a young family along with you. I would really like to see some enforcement and rules on random camping, but I think a full-out ban is limiting a lot of opportunities for recreation.

     

    I've been making a three or four day trip like this every summer for quite a while now. The idea of not being able to do it hits me pretty hard but if that's the price I have to pay then I think I can deal with it. The long term damage done by the ditch gypsy OHV camps up and down the eastern slopes is appalling. However, most of it is already illegal! It's obvious that the government is either unwilling or unable to provide effective enforcement now so I have to wonder if just declaring the area a park will make any difference really. If I find myself giving up those fairly low impact camp trips but continue seeing the abuse from the OHV crowd I think it may kill me.

  2. I wonder what Jim feels about this move?

     

    I'm sorry I skipped the meeting. Figured it was a review of numbers; I should have known better. Was there any talk in the meeting of the success of the two tiered licensing system, and how that may effect management in future years?

     

    Sorry to see this go, for personal reasons, as well. I only motivated last year to sign up, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

     

     

    Another attendee asked, "Has Jim seen this and what did he say"? It sounds like he challenged them on some things and they went back to investigate further but no specifics were offered.

     

    I tend to agree with Altatrout, the study period had the 2013 flood in it and you have to think that the fish were effected by that, so a longer time period would have put a more definitive point to the results. Plus when Jim was involved in the program he told me that the average size of the cutthroat in Quirk had increased. Which from what I can tell wasn't even addressed.

     

    It was to some degree. There was an hour's worth of slides with some detailed statistical analysis presented followed up by a couple hour's worth of discussion so it's difficult for me to recall all of it. I hope they made the slides available eventually.

  3. I'm a little disappointed to see G of A walk away from this program. It was TU and smaller angler groups doing most of the work on this from my understanding, G of A just gave approvals to allow for harvesting.

     

    Not really, it was a Government initiative started by the former area biologist, Jim Stelfox.

     

    I went to the information session and what it comes down to is that if your goal is to recover native species removing brook trout doesn't matter. We did a great job on the brookies but the cuttie's population remained flat. It's just plain don't work.

     

    There's a new hypothesis they're testing now, the idea is that the brook trout don't move in and displace the cutts and bulls. However if something should happen where the native trout population is suppressed then the brookies can move in and replace them where the original problem is something that has less impact on brook trout. They're guessing that it's silt doing the real damage. Much more impact on the redds of spring spawners than fall spawners.

    • Like 1
  4. Be aware of a few things; one, the reality of a classroom is very different from what you and I experienced growing up. The classroom is a far more diverse environment. You can have a wide range of abilities and learning needs to meet, though that is mitigated by teaching in high school somewhat where kids are streamed.

     

    My wife teaches grade 2 and this is what I think is the particularly difficult part for her. Some years she has 2 or 3 autistic kids, another 4 or 5 esl kids and then a couple more with behavior problems etc. Some years are better, some worse. She gets a part time aid for in classroom time but she still has to make a lesson plan and then figure out how to integrate each of the kid's modified education needs into it. It can have a significant impact on her workload.

  5. I can't hep but wonder I'd the question I posted last night is part of this.

     

    My goal is to carry one rod, if I'm gonna do that I need to be able to handle the wind. I'm liking the feel of those light fiberglass rods but I don't know if they can do what I need them to. I'm making an assumption that the fast tippy action that can lob some more weight is also going to make it easy to maintain a compact loop that cuts the wind better. True or false?

  6. Maybe you fibreglass guys can help me out with something.

     

    I'm trying to pick out a new 3wt-ish and I'm having trouble making up my mind. I cast an echo 3wt glass at the show recently and I liked it a lot but I wasn't able to get very much control past 50 or 60 feet. I want tuhis rod to be my every day mountain stream rod and the lack of power concerns me. Not because I need to cast 50 ft all the time, I'm guessing that a rod I can't cast farther than that indoor is going to struggle at say 30 ft in the wind or not be versatile with streamers or what have you.

     

    So two questions:

     

    Is my reasoning about the lack of distance indicating a lack of wind cutting / streamer throwing power correct?

     

    If so would you solve this problem by buying a 5wt in glass rather than something like a BVK / Zenith / TXL-F 3wt?

     

  7. How big is your tropical setup midgetwaiter?

     

    Is it worth it to try a small (40-50gallon) salt setup? Or would I be better off going 90-125 or bigger right off the bat.

     

     

    I have a 5g planted tank with the little guys in it and a 20g with some fancy goldfish. I had a 90 I was going to setup after we moved but it was damaged when some contractors were here and I haven't replaced it yet. I'm planning on a custom 240 in wall when I finish the basement..

     

    It's common advice to go bigger when starting a SW tank but I'm not sure I necessarily agree. It's far more important to have a good idea what you want to keep and what limitations your equipment and livestock choices might might put on you in the future. If you look at forums out there it's very common to see people trying to remove a fish because it's started to kill corals they've decided to start buying etc. You need to decide if you want just fish or fish and corals. If corals, what kinds of corals? There is a lot of difference in requirements for lighting, filtration and flow rates. You will be most successful if you have a good plan.

     

    If you're going to stick to a few smaller fish and some relatively undemanding corals there are a bunch of all in one 30g tanks out there that are easy to manage. If you try and keep a wide mix of corals and fish who tend to not get along like Lorney you're going to need a bigger tank.

     

    Are you more interested in fish or corals?

     

    The best single bit of advice is, quarantine everything you buy for 7 days before it goes in the main tank. EVERYTHING.

  8.  

     

    Those Iridescents are barely 6 months old, they are growing crazy fast. In fact they may even outgrow this tank.

     

    You can be pretty certain of that. I used to work in a shop and I had some guy leave a garbage bag with a 24" at the front one day, that was fun.

     

    I used to have quite a few neat saltwater tanks, always had a soft spot for puffers and ambush predators like frogfish. HEre's one of mine from a few years ago.

     

    frogfish.jpg

     

    I don't have time for the SW any more, maybe some time I'll get one going. My current project is to try and spawn some Peacock Gudgeons, just need to track down some more males.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock_gudgeon

  9. I spent a few hours on a non-stewardship elbow trib last night that had some serious water move through it during the flooding. It's sobering to stand at the edge of the water and see significant bank erosion 8 feet above your head. The brookies were on last night, my buddy and I were not making an effort to keep track but we had at least 20 to hand in a few hours but only one cutt. The fish looked healthy.

     

    Fishing some of the new sections of the stream that had cut though willow stands was pretty neat, long slow pools with willow islands, they bring the swamps of the southeast US to mind but with crystal clear water. Good fishing now but there was a lot of silt settled out, makes me wonder if this will lead to problems with temperature swings and insect life in the future.

     

    All things considered it was an encouraging outing. I don't know how a fingerling brookie survives an event like that but they did.

  10. If Cletus drags a fish up on a sandbar, holds it down by stepping on it and then takes 11 pictures before release does barbed / barbless really matter? Likewise a miss id'd and retained Bull Trout is dead either way.

     

    There are more important factors than barbs and I think it makes sense to have COs out on the water than filling paperwork or in court testifying about $100 fines for barbed hooks. This always was a political thing, it looks like you're doing something and it's "easy" to implement, who cares if it actually has any impact on the water.

  11. GGP that is very, very true. The worst scare I have ever had (included VERY up close and personal with a griz once) was from a Moose. I got "treed" for an extended time on the Crow by a big bull moose once. I was lucky to have found the large tree I used as cover, had it not been there I doubt I'd be here.

     

    Remember when they did the Best Story Ever segment on The Hour? Les Stroud had a run in with a bull moose:

     

    • Like 2
  12. i understand eating the first 20 or 30 but there are a few places where i could probably clear out over 100 in a day (not in the area this program covers) so do you just feed to bears, yots and trees?

     

    Everybody that went on my supervised outing gave me their fish so I had a little bit more than 40 to deal with. The cats got a few of the really little ones but I had a bunch to play with. This is a very good recipe for some of the larger ones after they've been dressed and frozen

    http://www.marthastewart.com/943328/speckled-trout-gumbo#908803

     

    If you really like Southern French or Spanish cooking give the Trout with Chorizo and Peppers from that site a try. If they are fresh though nothing beats the dredge and fry method as dutchie has pointed out.

  13. I guess I just don't understand how on one hand we're trying to create "quality fisheries" in lakes with non native fish, and on the very other hand we are trying to kill what I believe to be a quailty brook trout fishery in Willow. I haven't said much on this forum about Willow before now, but there are 16-18" class brookies in there.

     

    While I don't doubt you on that I can tell you that I never caught one. What I did see is 7 little 4" brookies come out of the same hole one day and 5 more 24 hours later and then 6 more the next day. Left alone I suspect the fishery is not sustainable, they are too prolific.

  14. Yup those brookies were very tasty. I was sure I would have beat Hansma in Willow as I hit that creek really hard but I think I was short about 10 fish :(

     

    Can't wait to get the Stewardship licence renewal for 2013. Interesting that rainbows would be included, we only ever caught two at Willow with all the times we went out.

     

    I'm really curious what the guidelines are going to be for deciding a Cutthroat vs a Rainbow. I caught a few mongrel looking ones in the first few bends upstream of the bridge last year, all rainbow characteristics except the slash.

  15. The thing I found with the poly leaders is that they are difficult to cast when looped onto the end of a floating line. The front taper of your floating line is designed to turn over mono so I found this got me a loop that would collapse in a ball of crap once the front of the fly line rolled out. This fix for this is to take your floating line and cut the front taper back to a point that you can loop a poly leader or some bulk t-14 on, which essentially ruins it as a dry fly line. Could be a better caster than me would have more success without doing this though.

     

    A built for purpose sink tip line is a lot nicer to cast that's for sure.

  16. I use UV Knotsense, makes a nice finish and super easy....

     

    I've used the UV wader repair but I find I loose some of shine with it gradually. Flies still work but I was wondering if the knot sense cures shiny or goes kinds matte?

  17. That is just annoying to watch. I know that education is helpful but it just seems that some people are incapable or learning or maybe unwilling is the more accurate word.

     

    People were posting a lot of pictures over on the redneck board of trout pulled up onto the shore, including bulls. I made a post trying to explain nicely why this was bad practice and had about a 50/50 response. Some people just don't care.

  18. That is quite disturbing. Assuming that the fish originated from a food store and not an aquarium shop, live tilapia usually come in poorish condition, then sitting in the sales aquaria they succumb to a lot of diseases....released into local waters, they stand a pretty decent chance of introducing some nasty pathogens into the native fish populations.

     

    It looks like this is possible, the eroded fins and red lesions are typical. Not often they sell live fish though, they will usually gut them at minimum.

     

    Interesting that it happens right after finding Nemo is in theaters again isn't it.

  19. I was on the supervised outing on the 17th, 7 of us managed 85 brookies in 4 or so hours. Rain in the higher areas had Johnson running very muddy so it was not nearly as good below the confluence with Willow after 3:30 or so. Any fly would do but a parachute caddis emerger and para adams seemed to be the hotter ones. As slingshotz said, every hole seems to be just full of the things.

     

    I managed one very nice cut and I think 2 others in the group did as well.

     

     

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