bjbailey

Nice stones, Doc. I like the subtle flash and mixed colours

I used the Simms Rivertek Boots with Boa laces for 2 seasons, with 70 days on them the first year and 80 days the second. I also do a lot of kms on most days. They first started breaking down around day 75 (early into second season) and by the end, they were in rough, rough shape. I replaced a set of laces in each, but I had to buy them from a local shop as I didn't realize Simms would replace them for free as some of you are saying. In the end, that many days on a pair of boots isn't bad. I didn't buy them again, but I enjoyed them on my feet and think that would last some guys several seasons.

All nice ties. I particarly like that extended mayfly!

I can't take credit for several of the photos, but thanks anyways! It was fun to explore a lot of new water. We caught some fish from unexpected places, which always increases the experience with any given fish.

It's hard to believe that the 2015 season is effectively over in Alberta. It felt short, mostly due to taking 4-5 weeks off in the heat of summer to let those stressed fish rest in our foothills. In preparing for my next adventure, South Island of New Zealand in 16 days, I started cruising through old photos and thought I'd share some with everyone. As much as I would have enjoyed bumping into many of you on the water, I'm happy to say that tonnes of walking and exploring paid off with a lot of solitude this season. All of these are from the AB foothills, with the exception of the carp which were in Saskatchewan. Here's a link to photobucket...hope it works. http://s1377.photobucket.com/user/BrandonBC/library/Alberta%20Summer%202015

Nicely done. Looks like some kms on the boots have done you well this summer!

Nice fish and nice pics too. Great colours on those browns!

Try slowing your hook set down. Saying "God save the queen" (or something similar) under your breath helps give the fish time to fully eat the fly. Big male browns especially need the extra time because they often have gaps in their mouths due to the size of their kypes. Also try paying attention to whether or not the fish took facing downstream (quite possible, especially using larger dry flies such as golden stones), you need to give an extra pause on a downstream take for the fish to turn its head. Hope that helps you stay connected

I have the Smith Low Light Ingnitors as well as their Amber polarchromic lenses (which have been my go-to lenses for years) and I have to say that I now fish the low light lenses probably 50-75% of the time. It seems that I rarely prefer the darker lenses anymore (even though they're great) because even on a bright day, the low light lenses help you see into shadows, undercuts, etc. Plus, the low light lenses are indispensable on cloudy or rainy days. I've heard similar feedback on the Maui Jims but I love my smiths so much I wouldn't stray...

Thanks for the heads up Don. This is great to know. I'll be checking my pontoon before taking it out!

Some nice fish indeed!

There are a few different rivers in those pictures. Nothing around Queenstown, all on the north half of the South Island

Hey - river access is the same as Canada, perhaps easier in some cases. It's all under one license and a similar mix of public lands and private lands owned by farmers. With a smile and courteous stop at the landowners place, I've never run into an access issue. Mind you, I'm sure if you snuck around some of them would give you a piece of their mind!

No, it was Serge Bonnafoux. I'd highly recommend him to anyone. I've fished with him two years in a row now.

This was a really fun fish... it refused the dropper on the drift past but then changed its mind after the fly was already passed him. He turned and chased the fly 15' downstream with my leader almost to my rod tip before finally taking. Last pic for now!

My favorite are still the smaller creeks that hold one fish every 500m or so, but it's always interesting trying to land 6lb fish in rivers 15' wide...

Same fish, just before the fly was taken out.

This fish was definitely top of the trip for me. It was sitting in a very shallow inside flat feeding in a tiny trickle that joined the main stem of the river. He took the dry on the second cast and was an absolute blast in the skinny water.

A nicely coloured brownie spotted on the shoulder of a fast run.

This was the one and only sea-run fish I caught, which coincidentally, was the only fish that broke the fabled 10lb mark as well. Many other anglers caught many more "mousey" fish this year in NZ than I, but I also can't handle flying across the world to compete for space on rivers

This was the release of the same fish.

I am starting to plan another trip to NZ for next winter and found myself going back over old pictures today and realized I hadn't posted any pictures of my last trip. In short, the trip was fantastic. I hiked a lot and got into a lot of waters that I didn't have a chance to last year. Unfortunately, most of the days I was fishing alone so had pretty crappy selfies from a GoPro, but here are a few of the ones that turned out better (or from the days I had a fishing partner or guide). I wish the pictures could bring as much enjoyment for you as catching the fish did for me! I seem to have to upload each individually, so I guess I may as well provide a caption. This first fish was on a really rainy day with terrible visibility due to overcast skies. We still found a few fish.

Agreed on jimmy legs for golden stones... Size 6 in the varigated chenille with a good amount of weight to get down. I like olive & brown as well as yellow & brown. Cheap and super easy to tie. Can't go wrong!

I can absolutely echo Murray's viewpoint. I had a very similar experience. I talked to 7 or 8 dealerships in western Canada and nobody was willing to move very far on price at all. This is the first new car I've purchased and it blew my mind how little they'd negotiate. I had it in my head that price on cars was always substantially overstated on MSRP. I was also told that the 2014 models all sold out and they anticipated the same for this year which is why they wouldn't budge much on price. I ended up buying the 2015 Outback with the technology package. Unfortunately, I haven't received the car yet and don't even really know when to expect it. I'm hoping the EyeSight feature is as good as it seemed on the test drive. Best of luck in your search!

If I really had to boil it down to just three of each, I'd say top three nymphs for me are a pheasant tail, a dark stonefly (I typically just tie the jimmy legs), and a wire worm. For dries, a parachute Adams, an elk hair caddis, and a stoneflopper (or something else to double for adult golden stones and hoppers). Unless you're having multiple sizes of each, you're asking each one to cover quite a range of hatches (for example, the Adams would need to cover both BWOs and PMDs as well as other mayfly hatches. If I were only tying 9 flies I'd probably give up two of the streamers and stick with a heavily weighted bugger or slumpbuster and add two emerger patterns, a midge, or a trico pattern.