lethfisher

Sweet wired stones! I've been doing some rubber legged copper johns and tried out the gartside leech.

One entry for matinee show

Looks like it should be warm again by thursday then you should be good to go in the south. check the bow river reports thread

This might be of some help, I just finished a materials course at the university that talked a lot about concrete and we covered some durability issues. This is right from our lecture slides. Early Stage Cracking A, B, C —due to differential settlement of plastic concrete. Form before initial set (10 min. to 3 hours) D, E, F —plastic shrinkage cracks. Form due to excessive evaporation (30 min. to 6 hours) G, H —thermal contraction cracks. Cooling after excessive heat generation or high thermal gradients. Form after 1 day to 2 to 3 weeks J, K —Crazing cracks. Inadequate curing and finishing combined with a surface rich in paste Later Age Cracks I —due to long term drying shrinkage. Form several several weeks or months after casting L —due to corrosion of reinforcement. Accompanied by brownish extrusions (rust) from cracks. Form two years or more after casting M, N —due to alkali-aggregate reaction. Form 5 or more years after casting, often accompanied by white silica-gel extrusion I am guessing 'I' maybe? It is really dry in Calgary (especially in the winter) and can effect fresh concrete a lot if proper curing regiments aren't followed. Ideally the concrete should be kept moist while curing to keep from this type of thing from happening. If the concrete dries out while curing it can shrink, which causes these types of cracks. You can get different types of cement for different situations that can help combat different weather situations during curing, but that comes a higher cost. As for freeze thaw, it is possible to entrain tiny air pockets into the concrete to allow water to expand and contract in the concrete throughout the winter cycles preventing some cracking. Coming back to a common theme of this type of cement requires more money! It can happen that because of these extra costs, driveways and basic house foundations kind of get the 'bottom of the barrel' cement mixes which could lead to problems. Not always but it is possible! Hope that helps... PS There is no such thing as a cement truck, it's a concrete truck

I am sure its logistically impossible but it would be awesome to make the casting pond larger so you could really test out some of the spey rods. Kinda sucks standing on the side beaning people doing single hand casting haha You can get the basic feel for the rods but it would be sweet if you could really let it go! I tried out the Sage 5119 and 7119, Amundson 1134, Loop Switch style and the Pieroway Metal Detector. All really excellent rods!!

I will overhand the first maybe 10 feet, just high sticking the close water. My switch doesn't load well without the full head out. Once I am outside of that 10-15' length it is all two hand spey casts.

I see from the line post that mykiss has picked up the 7119 and jdangler has the 5119. Are these actually switch rods that you would ever cast overhead with? Isn't the idea that you could potentially do both? The Decho 4119 is the same length and is definitely a spey rod, not a switch. Most switches seem to be around the 10' - 10'5" range. Why not call these TCX x119 a spey rather than a switch because the length is definitely there (not saying that just because a rod is long it is a spey). Especially because Sage's other switch, the Z-Axis model, is 10 ft. There must be a special switch taper in the blank or something magical. I've cast my DH 4119 single handed and it sucks haha but I also have a loop 7112 switch and I don't like casting that thing overhand either... Also I'm not complaining about the TCX or anything, just curious and don't want to study for my finals haha Can't wait for the next spey-o-rama in the spring!!

lol that would be brutal for kids if that was a real ending. Those animators did an awesome job, super dramatic!

The Outdoor Center at the U of C rents a bunch of different kinds of rafts. Here is the link U of C Outdoor Center

Do you find yourself hooking bottom with the T-14 and a Conehead bugger? Do you change up the sinking head during the day depending on what part of the river you are fishing? ie a deep pool would need to T-14 to get down but if you are fishing the tail where it isn't as deep do you switch up the rig?

What kind of water do you look for for swinging this time of year? Water seems to cold for fish to be in anything fast... Tailouts and deep pools the way to go?

The guy reeling backwards is awesome! The reel is setup funny or something is going on that isn't right haha

Ya the bow buggers I used all this year had some purple in them and they seem to work good. Was definitely my most productive streamer, I am pretty confident with that pattern though so I don't swing much else. If I caught more fish then I would probably be able to answer your question better lol Andy, your Burla Bugger or whatever you call them work good on the Bow to. I had to toss my last one because I was fishing in the cold and when I took a break and put my rod down the fly froze to a rock and the tail ripped off when I pulled on it lol Tie me more and send them to me as a christmas present, thanks! You're such a nice guy

Usually I stick with a brown chenille or a dark ice dub, except for that white one which has white ice dub. Aren't Bow Buggers representing sculpins or leeches maybe? What other colours are you thinking of? Do you think trimming the deer hair into a sloped front would force the fly down further when it is swinging, like an upside airplane wing? Would be interesting to see the difference the shape of the deer hair would do to the fly's movement.

I tied up some bow buggers with various collar lengths, and was wondering how long is it supposed to be? This one looks a little long, but I like my trimming on it! This one looks pretty good all around for proportions I enhanced this one in iPhoto, that's why it looks so bright. Like the colours but the collar looks a little silly haha What do you guys think?

Just made one with some 20 pound mono in about 5 minutes. Pretty sweet! One thing though that they said wrong is that your leader is only as strong as the original mono. Your chain is only as strong as the weakest link... It would break at the single strand loop that you tie your tippet onto. But I am sure your tippet would break before then anyways... He is definitely right about the length though, I started with about 2.5m and ended with 1m. (8 ft to 3 ft)

Last time I went out, a few weekends ago, and it was around -5. I had just bought new woolie socks to test out so I layered up with my waders and everything on. Drove down south and got to Fish Creek. Setup the rod and tied on a fly then realized I had forgot my winter coat! I didn't last to long with just a sweater on but my legs were nice and warm, I will definitely be double checking I have my coat before I leave! Here is a pic from that day, no fish either.

Does "MOW" stand for something or is that just what they are called?

i've heard really good things about the 5119 so I would bet that the 7119 is also pretty deadly. TCX's are a super fast rod where I think the Z-axis are fast but not that fast, go cast them both!!

excellent response Toolman and everyone else! I like the look of traditional spey flies and they are smaller as well, might have to tie some of that type up. Looks like the weather isn't going to improve much by the weekend either Edit: Tungsten, just watched all that guys videos and they are hilarious!

So best would probably be to dead drift it then swing the end, sounds good. Why is it then so popular to swing flies for winter steelhead rather than nymph for them? Or is that just a completely different ball game??

Maybe this should be in fly tying category, but what are you guys planning on tying/using for the spey rod on the Bow in its winter conditions? The forecast looks good for next weekend so I might try to head out. Is it time for the big flies and skagit heads? In winter is it "bigger is better" for swinging? Does it change at all for you guys who swing streamers all year through? Fish are more lethargic in the cold correct? So they should only want to move for a big fly if they think it is worth the swim?

I have the fishpond waterdance one, same as maxwell I think, and it is great. It has the should strap on it that I use if I have a bulky coat on and use it like a satchel (lol hangover!) and in the summer I clip it around the waist. It never gets in the way because it stays in the back both ways. The fly holder at the front kinda squishes the flies sometimes but I mostly keep hooks for tube flies in there and the odd streamer.

lol alright well apparently it was a dumb question but at least I know the answer now. Thanks for the replies!!

Dumb question maybe... I know the river is closed in the NW, but would like to practice my spey casting on a river. I live in the NW close by the river and don't want to drive to FC/above bearspaw to practice if I don't have to. I am sure it is frowned upon but would it be legal to just have no fly on the leader and just casting? I would bring my license but no flies or anything like that, legal or not allowed?