Sparkplug

Not an IT techie, so my apologies in advance if this post doesn't work, and for the poor quality photos. However, I need some help identifying this fish - arctic char or brookie? There were no vermiculations on its back, just spots (all yellow), and belly color was decidedly red. Any thoughts? Thanks

At that time of year, between regs and ice/snow, your options may be somewhat limited. The Athabasca usually is fairly low and clear in May (though that can change quickly with weather) and as such may be a good bet, especially if you're looking for a "pretty casual stop and go" opportunity, as opposed to more of a time and effort commitment. Per last year's regs (which of course don't necessarily mean anything for this season), the stretch from headwaters down to the 12 Mile Bridge (on Hwy 16 E of Jasper) was open in May. In this stretch (d/s of Athabasca Falls), the Athabasca at the mouths of the Miette, Maligne and Snaring are all readily accessible and could be good places to try.

Thanks Don. To my mind, the perch question is a tough call - I appreciate your point about retention amounting to condoning an illegal act. But what is the alternative? Do we just write off Struble as having been permanently lost to the perch, or are there other alternatives that could eliminate the perch population and at least create a chance of this lake being restored to its previous trout glory? If Struble were to somehow be rid of perch, I wonder what the risk is of repeat illegal stocking. I don't know the history here, but I would imagine that the lakes were stocked with perch some time ago, i.e., pre-internet times...maybe today, things might be different, in terms of the risk of illegal perch stocking? Maybe that's just naive, and it's almost a given that if one or more of these lakes were to be rid of perch, they'd just get illegally stocked again anyways. But maybe...one or two high-awareness "rehab" initiatives might have a chance of success (vs. 0, in their current state). It's the old Wayne Gretzky quote - "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take".

Born and raised in Edmonton, Dad taught me to fish chasing pike west of town. Got into fly fishing in my early teens; bought my first rig with allowance money from Reg Denny's old shop, a clearance-barrel Daiwa. I taught myself to tie flies with Helen Shaw's book and my Dad's metalworking vise in the garage - learned to tie "lefthanded" as a result, as the door swing in the garage was right into the right hand side of the vise. For many of those early years I tied flies using Mom's sewing thread, yarn I could scrounge, and elastic from my ginch waistbands (Mom could never understand why I went through ginch at the rate I did). Am a gearhead by trade, did my engineering at the U of A, then moved to Pincher Creek to flyfish there for a few years, er, I mean work in sour gas production. Moved to Calgary in '96 and have lived and fished here since. Have worked in the energy industry my entire career, most of it in natural gas and power generation (have we talked about a campaign to get TransAlta to run the Kananaskis units more as run-of-river, to stabilize lake levels?). Currently run a small alternative energy company, which between that and the family, cuts into fishin' time. But recently moved to a community lake in Calgary and have quite enjoyed the convenience of chasing trout in my backyard.

The issue is with the characterization, often used by governments to try to garner support for pipelines like TMPL, that the pipe will open access to "lucrative" new markets. Asia is not a "lucrative" new market for Canadian crude; generally it is/will be a lower margin market than the USGC. So, why expand a pipeline like TMPL, and put the BC coast at incremental risk, when expansion of pipe capacity to the USGC (e.g., Keystone XL) instead would result in similar/better margins for our heavy crudes, and doesn't bring with it the marine risk?

Had to laugh, the very first vise I ever had as a kid many moons ago was "hecho en Mexico". A rather crude device by today's standards, but got the job done nonetheless. I agree with the comments re not bringing back foreign road kill or animal matter generally speaking. Train wreck at Customs, any way you look at it.

Just a correction, with the proposed TMPL expansion, tanker traffic would increase to about 35 tankers per month, not per day. Most tankers are 1+ million bbls capacity; the combined transfer capacity of the existing TMPL and proposed expansion is about 1.2 million bbl/d, so enough to fill a tanker per day or so. On the topic of refining in Alberta, there is no economic basis for this, as there is no large market for incremental refined products in W Canada, and other jurisdictions have their own refining capacity - hence they want crude (at crude prices), not refined products. All that said, if I lived in the Lower Mainland, I'd probably be out there protesting against the TMPL expansion too. The story of "lucrative" markets for Alberta bitumen in Asia is basically BS; the Asians buy heavy crude from the cheapest sources globally (e.g., Middle East), and certainly won't be paying any premium for Canadian crudes. The biggest and best market for incremental Canadian crude (i.e., oil sands dilbit) remains the USGC, and TMPL expansion doesn't do much of anything for that.

The pattern that worked well for me as a chironomid larva attractor was: Hook: Tiemco 2499SPBL, size 12 Tail: UV pink marabou, pinched Body: holographic purple flashabou (coated once ribbed) Rib: maroon wire Collar: UV purple ice dub Bead: 7/64 pearl white

If you love the red/claret, try it in purple. Did a lot of of chironomid larvae fishing this season on stillwaters, with both red and purple variants on the same rig. Didn't seem to matter if the purple was on the point or up top, it outfished the red by about 3:1 or more.

Whoops, let me finish that above: Legs: sililegs, yellow/brown/black Shellback: tan foam, marked with brown and black Sharpie marker

Slayed 'em this fall with the following pattern: Hook: Tiemco 2499 SPBL #16 Bead: amber/brown glass bead Body: gold crystal chenille Legs:

I like the net idea, a lot less work than catching them one at a time. Clearly waiting for/expecting the gov't only to do something is Waiting for Godot. Years ago I helped out on a volunteer effort to remove suckers from a creek in which they spawned that flowed into Beauvais Lake. The suckers were put into drums and sent off to some animal food processing destination. Probably wouldn't have much trouble finding takers for the perch, whether they be for fertilizer, animal feed or otherwise. I wonder if a perch netting/removal pilot or demonstration at one of these lakes is something that various interests could get behind (TU? ACA? Yes, even AEP?). Can't see it being harmful, and could at least generate some publicity and awareness on this issue.

If I go and pick bottles and cans from a ditch where people have littered, and then cash my pickings in at the local bottle depot, should I feel guilty about benefiting from someone else's illegal act? I like the thought of the "pickup box full" limit on such waters, on the illegally introduced species. I seem to recall the Brookie removal project on the Elbow system being relatively effective. But to build on Don's original Crimson Lake adventure, why don't we organize a perch fishing derby at one (or more) of these lakes some time? Get as many people out as we can, to pull as many perch out of such lake in one day as we can (of course, working within the 15 fish limit). Or - even better - maybe we could get a waiver on the limit for this one-time event? Could be a great awareness building thing, especially if you got a whole slew of people out on the lake on a given day, all bonking perch. Volunteer filleters, donate the fillets to a food bank or something.

Nice. I think you'll find that color combo will be very effective. I've had good results with the same pattern, but with brown hackle (still the black tail). I echo FHD's comment above on the tail length. On stillwaters in particular, I have had many similar experiences with short strikes on flies with long marabou tails. As I continue to evolve my balanced leech ties, I find that they are getting shorter and shorter on the tail (and with overall fly length), with an attendant improvement in hookups. You can pinch off marabou to give you the desired tail length, on flies already tied. It doesn't seem to me that the trout notice any difference between full-fibre marabou and marabou that has been pinched off. You can always taper the pinching off as well, if you want a particular shape to the tail.

I've often wondered about the potential effectiveness of small windmill-driven aeration (like the kind you see on farmers' dugouts). Not a lot of horsepower there, but enough to drive a small air compressor that could bubble some air into the lake when the wind is blowing, to prop up O2 concentrations? Maybe small air volumes would be enough to keep dissolved O2 concentrations high enough over the winter, but not adversely affect ice conditions? For larger bodies of water, a number of such aerators?

I like the idea of everyone having to have a licence. The cost of having one for children or seniors could be either negligible or zero; we're not talking about a revenue issue here. The real question is how do you get ALL fisherpersons, young, old(er) and in-between, to be aware of the regulations and "bought-in", i.e., clear understanding that the regs apply to them, period, not to mention starting to develop some sort of a conservation awareness/ethos. I like the thought of having to pass a short test in order to get your licence. The licence candidate would at least have had to read the regulations in order to pass the test. Could be available on-line. I'm not talking about a university entrance exam here; just a short test to require someone to basically prove that they have at least read the regulations and have a basic understanding. And maybe for anyone under 16, a parent/guardian has to pass the test too, in addition to the <16 person, in order for the <16 person to get a licence (even if free for them).

Try double-bunnies, with at least one rabbit strip in white.

Elbow - lots of them, but generally small

Don't know about spots on the Red Deer, but when I used to live in Edmonton, on the NSR, a grasshopper pattern on the surface did the trick nicely. The goldeye seemed to like the fly even if (preferably?) dragging/on the swing.

Andy, I used to fish in Bowness when I lived in NW Calgary and found that around the Stoney Trail bridge as well as the tailwater behind the islands upstream from here there is some good water for decent Rainbows. I had the best fishing late evening/into the night as bigger fish seemed to be willing to rise at that time. Also had some good streamer fishing on the swing here too.

Some other possibilities in this regard: - Sibbald Lake - perhaps with aeration, the true potential of this seemingly bio-rich lake could be realized? - Aeration at Sparrows Egg to possibly address the winterkill risk? - Has Marl Lake in Kananaskis (with aeration?) ever been considered as a fishery - seems to have similar biological characteristics to Sparrows Egg? I don't know much about the state-of-the-art of aeration technology, but is wind-driven aeration a possibility so as to eliminate the need for electricity supply?