flyangler

Holy cow Al! I think you emailed us about that one. Looks like a beautiful area. Congrats to you both and thanks for sharing.

Well thank you Max. I started tying the wetflies yesterday. I haven't made wetfly wings in a long time. I thought I would make one of each fly on the catalog page, but got better at them as I went along and decided to cut the first few bad ones down to the hook and start over. I'll post photos of the completed project.

OOOOOoooo pretty flies everyone! The organized boxes kill me too. I'm not sure I remember how to tie anymore. I'm thinking of making a winter project of tying all the wet and dry flies on this old catalog page I have from the 1950's. Also, there's a show coming up in Chicago, so I'd better get to work on a realistic of some kind. That usually takes some inspiration, and you can't really schedule that.

Eggnog's also good in french toast. Replace the milk with it. 4 slices firm bread (that kleenex bread just falls apart) 1 beaten egg 1/3 cup eggnog whisk the egg and eggnog together. soak a slice in the mixture and fry in butter. If you're lazy you can soak all four slices at once and just leave them in til the stuff is soaked up.

Nice fly! I see a Loop Wing Emerger. Similar, but a titch more complex. Green Man 1 is just thread and CDC. One of my buddies fishes with that Loop Wing Emerger almost constantly.

Mr. Botangles, I'll mention you in the Christmas card we send them (pm me your name if you like). Speaking of amazing Susie, I have two of her paintings. One of the area around Waterton and another of the 'Pass that shows the Crow, the pines and the slide in the distance.

After I got a few of these from my friend Susie at Crowsnest Cafe and Fly Shop, I started tying them myself for use on our "home waters" in MN and WI. They also worked very well on the St. Joe in Idaho this summer. Susie's Little Green Man two ways: Hook: sz 18 to 26 dryfly hook Thread: olive Wing: gray cdc plus some white on top for visibility Head: red, cinnamon or orange thread Second version: Hook: light wire scud hook sz 18-26 Thread: olive Overbody: tan or olive stretchy cord, v-rib or what-have-you in very thin size Wing: same as above Head: same as above Second version takes an nth more time, but these are otherwise very quick and easy to tie. For the second, you lay down a layer of thread in your preferred body color (sometimes baetis here are more tan and sometimes they're more green). Then you wrap the plastic cord over it. If it's reasonably transparent you have the thread color coming through. It's an interesting effect and slightly more durable than a simple thread body. Also a bit fatter. But you know, when you get down under a size 20, you don't want to put a whole bunch of crap on a hook. The white CDC addition is also my own variation and the sharp eyed among you will not need it.

Birchy- I think having brothers is the reason I'm not a gullible grown up. After they weighted down some laundry in the chute with the cat, they over stuffed the chute again and came looking for me. That would have been a three story drop. I was in the wind, my friends, in the wind. Lynn- you still on those drugs? Try this: Bellybutton lint. Anything? Muted amusement? ROFL?

Glad these have given you a chuckle, Lynn. You know what they say about the best medicine. Um. I fell off my shoe and twisted my ankle. Not even a snort. Ok, when I was little (er) my brother was giving me flying lessons. I was Super Girl and the whole "powers" thing was not really kicking in. So he laid on his back with his feet in the air. I sat on his feet and he kicked as hard as he could. I flew through the air. I mean FLEW! Unfortunately, gravity trumps Super Girl wannabes and I dove for the ground as fast as I went up. I caught myself with my hands instead of my face and only cracked one wrist. At least a giggle?

I told that joke at a roast for one of our flyfishing buddies and it went over pretty well. Except for the mom with two kids under 12 at the party. She still glares at me from time to time.

Our buddy Lynn busted a flipper! Let's be thinking of how we can borrow her fishing stuff. Get well soon!

Ninja flash eh? Count on the newsguys to get it wrong.

On our local news in Minnesota. Police dashboard cam records meteor in Alberta. Yikes!

WhoooHoooo indeed!!!! Magnificent fish, story and photos. I so appreciate your sharing it all with us.

Oh good lord. I just realized that my girlpal and I went into the optical store last night and asked Mr. Optician if we could have a screw for her glasses. Completely straight faced.

And many happy returns!

One time a bully spat a huge cone head double bunny at me. It brought to mind the time a trout spat a tiny bwo and hit me in that little space in my sunglasses right over the bridge of my nose. So when the double bunny of death came whistling my name I nearly hit the dirt! It's much better to get hooked with a barbless size 18 bwo than almost anything else. Sadly, it seems that I have to be reminded that hooks are sharp every time I tie. That's the only explanation for the blood and swearing.

I use a third of a cup of vodka, 20 drops of manuka 20 of lavender essential oils as a cleaner for the face rest of my massage chair between patients. I'll bet you could use your lavender/vodka infusion for the same. Cheap vodka is the best for these things. Save the spendy stuff for making limoncello. Yum.

Because bullies exist in just 25% of their native range in North America, I decline to name the stream in open forum. I did PM you, however. I'm anxious to get back to Canada for some more fishing in the Rockies, but it won't be this summer. I just don't want to be the ugly American contributing to a place getting used up.

An oldie but a goodie. The one that got away was a sizeable fellow (they always are, no?) who took a Royal Stimulator. I had given up on the cutty that was rising regularly under the tip of a leaning pine. It was time to go. The day's last cast failed to hook the cut, so I was reeling in and making a tiny wake on the water with what I vaguely recall was not a huge fly. Maybe a 12? A freight train took it instead. Then the bull jumped clear of the water, not in that arched way that a porpoise will show its head, back, then tail. No, it cleared the water with it's full length at once, like somebody had tossed it up into the air, then splashed down again. It tore into the stronger current in a boulder field and was gone, leaving me with a permanent need for one more cast to that spot. Downstream, on another day, I landed several bullies on rubber legged foam hoppers and stones.

Ok, I'll bite. This topic is probably one of the oldest questions known to bulletin boards and maybe even covered here before you were born. (I'm kidding!) Every list of favorites depends on where you fish. I'll try to think back on the last time we fished Alberta. Dry Flies 1. Royal Stimulator 2. Green Drake (and green drake emerger) 3. Para Hopper 4. Foam Hopper 5. Black Foam Beetle Nymphs 1. Iron Sally 2. - 5. Iron Sally Streamers 1. Wooly Bugger-various colors 2.-5. Double Bunny- various colors

Magnificent! Congratulations on a fabulous trip. Fishing opportunities here have been few and far between, so the vicarious adventure is much appreciated. Is that your "office" in the sunset shot?

I like that!

From September to July and on any rainy day in between, I wear a jacket. In warm months I use my WM Joseph chest pack. Both the jacket and the pack have D rings in the back of the neck or between the shoulder blades. I attach a magnetic net holder to the D ring and have it handy, but out of the way, to corral a fish. I cannot overemphasize how important it is not to put your magnet on any sort of elastic bungy, especially if the magnet is near your noggin! Pain I seek not! When fishing for steelhead or salmon, I forego the net in favor of unhooking the creature in the water. Last time we fished in the 'Pass I was happy to have a little poncho in one of the chest pack's pockets for those occasions we'd have a surprise rain and didn't want to hike back to the truck and get the jacket.

This week, I have neither the time nor the money to fish. But I did get a chance to volunteer on Sunday. A van load of us met up with another 5 folks in a flood damaged town a couple hours to our south. We spent the day gutting and powerwashing houses. Damp dirty work with 4 colors of mold counted on the soaked sheetrock. The upside, besides finally being able to help, is that the owners of these homes will be able to repair them. In one neighborhood, we worked in a house that looked from the curb not all that different from the one two doors down. The difference was that beyond the facade was the evidence that the one two doors down had been lifted off its foundation in the flood and was condemned. None of this lowers gas prices or rivers, but at least the sense of helplessness has diminished. I find that volunteering is nearly as good as fishing for forgetting about my own troubles. Have a good weekend, folks!