jjthom2

Caught on Saturday at a stocked pond. I thought the wakes I was seeing were beavers until this little lady took my suspended chronomid. My personal best rainbow - even if it is a piscine equivalent to a holstein hieffer. Thanks to the gentleman who was kind enough to take a pic and e-mail it to me.

Wildfly fishing is a good one. All exotic flyfishing destinations around the world.

"Fly Life" is another great mag out of NewZeland and Australia.

I like "Fly Rod and Reel" for Gierach's column. Another excellent magazine on fly fishing travel is "Wild on the Fly". I haven't been able to find it anywhere lately though.

It just blows my mind that such practices are allowed when they are so obviously detrimental to not only the rivers and the fish, but all the communities along the river.

I'll do that. Thanks for the info.

Don't trees and their roots prevent erosion??? Meanwhile the town of sundre wants to redirect the river to keep their dykes from eroding away next flood and we log the valley almost to the banks. Does anyone have any idea how much rainfall an acre of spruce forest can absorb??? There should be a law that keeps logging 500m or so from the banks of any waterway.

The first time I floated the lower Red Deer I threw streamers for 11hrs witout a strike while I watched a spin guy catch a 5lb brown on a rapala. Stick with it, it'll be worth it.

Took these pics of logging thats been done on the banks of the upper Red Deer river this summer. The logging companies are clear cutting the entire slope and leaving a 50' strip of trees along the bank. I wonder if there will be a heavy sediment load from run off next spring?!! Sure hope the Bull trout eggs like hatching through mud. I can't believe these practices are allowed.

Unbelievable.

I think fewer fish but bigger average size points to less natural recruitment through spawning (possibly because people are killing spawning age fish). I agree we need more enforcement but with the budgets given to Alberta Fish and Wildlife, more officers are highly unlikely. Rotating closures of tribs, sections, or whole streams might be easier to enforce (I don't want it anymore than anyone else). C&R regs on all streams is the way to go but it will take a long time to get everyone who uses the rescource on board. Lots of people feel it's their right to take a fish or two home for the table, just like some people think that if they don't want to wear a seatbelt it's their right. The change in attitudes will take time but hopefully people will eventually understand that with the ammount of people fishing and the ammount of back country now accessible to them, they'll have to get their trout at Safeway if they want to continue to enjoy the rescource. If we can keep the next generation of fishermen involved and caring about the state of our rivers maybe I'll be able to tell my grandkids how BAD the fishing was when I was young (opposite of what my grandfather tells me now).

It's an excellent Idea but I don't think it would fly on the Elbow upstream on Calgary considering it feeds the Glenmore resevior where the city gets it's drinking water - maybe on the Sheep or Highwood. I think if we're looking at stream management like crop rotation we may need to consider "summer fallowing" some of our streams - simply close them to the public for a season or two. I'm not saying we shut all rivers down, just identify crucial spawning and rearing sections and tribs and close them for a season or two at a time and rotate through different streams/rivers/drainages to take the pressure off them. I know no one wants to miss a season on their favorite stream, but this may be easier to police than C&R regs in some cases.

Different spot (direcctly west of there) but yah, that guy never looks impressed either.

I had a similar problem last fall on the Fallentimber, directly upstream of the Fallentimber Recreation area. There's a gentlmen who lives up on the high bank just upstream of the bridge who informed me the land to the water's edge was private property. I told him that to the best of my knowledge I was within my rights to walk below the high water mark. He disagreed and informed me I would be charged with tresspassing if I took a step out of the river. Rather than argue, I politely left (I try not to do too much wading in brown trout streams in late fall) and fished downstream instead. I always access at a public crossing or ask permission and this is the only problem I've ever had. Anyone else know the guy I'm talking about?

I caught a large bull today with a snelled bait rig in it's snout trailing 10' of line.

I have a Water Skeeter "double take II" and it's been great. I like to be able to break it down to two individual boats if i need to, but it's great to have the casting platform and someone else rowing. I even tried to break it on class 3 white water on the upper Red Deer. Not the best white water raft but it held up.

The mushrooms are puff balls. They will eventually turn brown and if pop, releasing millions of spores like a puff of smoke.

I throw big mouse imitations on small meadow streams at night. You'd be amazed by the monsters that are strictly nocturnal.

Worst thing I ever found was a duffel bag containing one brick and 5 kittens on the Little Red. Horrific.