Pipestoneflyguy

Paul and I just recieved our CCI kits - goal is to test in the fall Just curious who else has gone through and if they have any good advice to offer. I noticed the FFF site says there are only two Master CI's in Alberta - Is that true ?

Calcium Chloride is just one tool - it can lower the effective temperature, but effectiveness at -15 is rare and difficult to acheive, other factors such as prevailing weather, traffic volume, surface and air temps, humidity play a key roles in that decision - using Calcium as a deicing agent really has two functional applications, one being to prevent black ice formation in anticipation of an appropriate dew point and humidity level and the other as a tool to reduce adhesion and hardpack formation in anticipation of an oncoming weather system. This particular chloride has a tendency to create slime if used in too rich of a concentration or heavy application so it is somewhat of a higher maintenence system Magnesium chloride is used as a pre-wetting agent and ani-icer, applying it to abraisive or rock salt (usually via a nozzle sprayer at distribution) can be used to improve abraisive adhesion to hard pack surfaces (on a pavement surface, the first tractor trailer to pass at 110kmph will remove 80%-90% of the applied abraisive, mag also helps reduce this effect by working as a bonding agent) Mag chloride can also be used as a solium chloride (fine to coarse crushed) accelerant, for example, to aggressevily disolve an existing hard pack layer. also works great as a response to unforecast black ice formations or battle shade or humidity effect (rock cuts and roads close to water bodies or flows) - when you travel the TCH through the Parks if you see the little diamond reflectors on c-channel in the ditches, they are the stop and start indicators for application of mag chloride as an inti-acing agent aligned with high humidity locations. In general salt only works as a de-icer or anti icer when in the form of a brine, this is true for all chlorides and why the effective temperature range of liquids is broader - the trade off is that quick response does result in less duration or a need for greater frequency in application - the nature of the liquid is that it somewhat quickly washes itself off the road surface, so not only is the unit cost much higher than base sodium the usage need is greater - really it is best used as a quick response tool or as a premptive tool for black ice - the city of Hamilton actually has computer controlled automatic sprayers mounted on some of their troublesome bridges. Rock salt coupled with a solid understanding of capabilities and environmental factors can be the most cost effective tool, as long as it exists as an economically feasible resourse, it will remain the primary tool despite its effectiveness range varying between -7 and -10 on its own - air temperature is a contributory factor, surface ground temp is the difining factor in the decision process. I think most folks would be a little surprised if they new how much and how often salt is used, even in the park - If you have driven the parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper and noticed how rough and thick the icepack often gets, well as a comparison this is what you would see on much of the TCH without the use of chlorides. I can't speak to the effective of chlorides in high concentrations in places like toronto for example but here in the mountains the envoronmental effect is negligible - I authored the EAP for use of magnesium chlorides in this Natioanl Parks and the measurable impact seemed to be limited to a slight wiltering effect on roadside growth - the primary concerns are animals and birds being struck by vehicles while consuming salt residues off road surfaces, luckily spring rains generaly relieve that particular issue and also dilute levels to barely measurable beyond a few metres from the road. The largest environmental considerations are oriented around storage and optimization of usage. The decision to plow and maintain secondary roads is purely economic - methods and standards are as varied in the east as they are here - try driving around Montreal or Quebec city on a typical snow year, many side roads in these cities make Calgary's road conditions seem like a cake walk comparitively - most cities in Ontario remove snow from secondaries as local citizens demand and pay for the service through municipal taxes. Anyway consider this just a glimpse of the baseline information relevent to use of chlorides hopefully interesting to someone other than me LOL.

Ahhh ever seen how a bear gets tagged and collared....... PS I hunt but I don't see value or justifiable purpose in hunting grizzlies, that said I also don't see much of difference between our activity and theirs in terms of potential impact - ultimately those more cpable than me should be deciding how to best manage such populations (IMHO)

Given the background scenery is Lake Louise I am surprised Trains, Trucks and Autos are not among the weapon choices. (or at least bags of grain) (Should also be able to throw Park Planners and Zip Lines too, for PGK's benefit) insert pokey thing.... PS - Banff is getting a Timmies (I believe at the brewster depot I hear)

I'm at max weight limit in my toon (9' disco) when the batt is in - been caught in wind that resulted in 3-4 foot waves on Minnawanka and had no troubles getting back in safely - I do make the effort to adjust the boat set-up by way of shifting the frame 6 inches forward on the toons to ensure it is still centre balanced though ( I run mine through while water for fun a few times each summer so balance is important). I also set up with an open top batt box and fastec buckles so in a worse case, life or death, scenario I could dump the batt and motor if I had to. All that said I didn't use the motor or batt last year as I don't really troll and to be honest rowing is just as quick and well., should help me get under that max weight anyway ha ha ha. When I get around to it I'm going to post my motor for sale here.

Stacking old J barriers works in a pinch, and their usually pretty easy to find - wall height is a big question though

I also have a 4 piece 3wt TFO - I went with the longer 8'6" which allows me a little more "hidin behind the bush" reach for high stickin dries while still able to cast the width of the Bow river pretty well anywhere above Banff. Very happy with the rod - should mention that in my experience I have found beginners find it a little harder to cast than a 5 wt or higher though. If I were you I would also consider the 5 wt sage launch on the for sale board too - I just picked one up this winter and it is a great casting rod which would give you much more versatility

Cool read- something I can relate to in regards to climbing and skiing ambitions - when I moved out here I was supposed to be on a three month working vacation but I loved the area so much I decided to leave behind a fiancee, a 60K a year factory job, two successfull small business's ( I was consulting on industrial fall safe systems and guiding rock climbing in Ontario, where I grew up) - This all meant a 90% (yeah, my 1st ski hill wage was $5.15 per hour LOL)loss of earnings at the time, for me the decision was very easy but it took years for my very disciplined straight-laced engineer father to understand, this decision bewildered and frustrated him almost to the same level as my decision to quit university and pursue rock climbing as a career three years previous to that. Just recently I made a pretty signifigant career decision that sees me take a huge loss of income but allows me to give up responsibilities that really limited my ability to travel and thus my time on the water, my fishing mentor up here recently made a signifigant career decision as well and we are both committed to pursuing interests which facilitate flyfishing becoming, well,... a much more signifigant role in our life far beyond what one would call a hobby, this includes pursuing certifications and professional training over the next few years - for the first time in ten years, I have personal and professional ambition which actually excites me and returns an element of passion to that side of my life. Unlike the first two occasions where I made a signifigant decision to put my personal interests above my professional, this time one aspect has changed, about 7 years ago my Parents made the journey our here and stayed a few weeks during that visit I went on a mission to share my passions in life with my father, we did everthing from going from route to route, discussing in great detail the particular challenges and events that occured during my alpine undertakings to getting him into his first fish on the fly (BTW Sundance, his first fish on the fly was a perch out of a trophy pike lake LOL) Near the end of my fathers visit we were sitting on my deck have a beer watching the sun subside over the divide and my dad explained that he finally understood why I gave up so much to live here, and of even greater signifigance he also told me that he truly respected my ability NOT to make the responsible decision, and pursue a personal passion instead. Something his disciplined upbringing would ever allow him to do. I think I have found a degree of peace within my soul knowing that although my path may not have been what my father envisioned he is happy to see me content with my choices in life. Being married and enjoying a degree of creature comforts in life means I will never meet that hardline definition of "trout-bum" and I'm ok with that - I think I can find something that falls inbetween the lines - As a result of the 2 year work assignment I just completed I have accumulated 17 weeks of paid leave, I plan to use a large portion of that flyfishing this summer, luckily I have an opportunity to enjoy the best of both worlds this summer. If I encounter any of you real-life trout bums on the river let me know, I'll gladly buy dinner, as I know what its like to live on Mr. Noodles for weeks at a time.

Sorry Dune for getting off topic,,, Thanks Rick - I think I am at a point where I am finally convinced barbed hooks may not be the factor I always thought they were. Re - stomach sampling,... a biologist I know showed me how to do it about 10 years ago, and I did try it quite a few times that year but I did notice that it was quite normal to find what I saw in the stomach didn't match the fly I just used to land the fish - given that, I didn't see much relevance in continuing the practice, obviously anyone who lands a fish just identified an efficetive fly so what is really gained by doing it other than satisfying a curiosity.

Tightline, Interesting study, I didn't really see it clearly clarified whether the time from hook-up to landing was consistant for both barbed and non-barbed hooks - From a behavioural point of view I have often sat at the Back of Emerald Lake (eating lunch or taking a break) watching anglers with both Barbed and Non-barbed flies. Without any shadow of a doubt it is very typical for those with barbed hooks to play their fish longer, further to that, I often see barbed hook anglers slack their lines, so their buddy can wander over at their leisure to take a picture or look at a fish - I've also noticed that fish on non-barbed hooks quite often escape the hook-up whereas fish caught on a barbed hook are far less likely to escape without actually making it to the landing stage of the process - I think, given both of those human factors, It is somewhat easy to conclude that, on average. fish hooked-up on a barbed hook get handled, on average, for a longer period, than those on Barbless hooks - I have to wonder if that factor was considered and accounted for in the study as it leads to a conclusion that the factor of barbed vs barbless has a direct impact on handling time thus indicating that barbed or barbless does have a measurable effect of fish mortality

Hey Nick - you are correct 1 fly only in the Park.

Hey Fellas I am going full on nuts up here - especially with that new sage rod sitting on the rack un-tested. Picking up my best friend at the airport next Wednesday and I figure, weather permitting it is time for me to actually try fishing the bow below the ghost. The only two spots I know of are from FFC events (the litterpick at Fish Creek Park and a spey class at the dogpark) and I remember both of these area have seams within easy reach for my beginner buddy but those spots aside, I would be most gratefull for any suggestions any of you might have for easy to access locations that might get us into a few fish within the city. Thanks Rob

mvdaog - that was my favorite post EVER - nicely put !!!! Your clearly someone who can appreciate why I live and work where I do.

What a wonderful looking pup - I hope you two get to share in many great adventures together! My wife often jokes that despite the 10+ years of happy marriage together our relationship is still secondary to that of myself and Oreo. There is a infallible bond between dog and master formed from the absolute and unconditional love that a dog has for their partner - imagine how different the world would be if humans were capable of that level of commitment and devotion.

Wow - that's as surprising as the fact that barbed hooks are still legal in the Park (which is in the process of changing I hear...) Thanks

Okay That's a good point but it sounds like one dog was defensive and one aggressive by what I read BTW the Off-leash park in Canmore is awesome - I take my dog there alot and rarely see any other dogs - I would hope that dog owners have enough sense to be able to readily identify the multitude of behavioural indicators that precede a alpha-beta establishment process if they are allowing their dog off leash anywhere let alone a dog park. maybe I expect too much LOL

Took a quick look at the regs when home for lunch but didn't see anything.....prolly went through too quick - having a conversation about how to easily identify lead in streamers without ripping apart the fly (cardboard method) - anyway nothing I ever needed to think about cause I tie my flies for both Ab and the Park so I have never used lead... What exactly are the regs for lead in flies/streamers etc etc in Alberta - just curious if its legal or not for those lead wraps on streamers

Cool Idea - gonna pick some up and try splitting instead - equally frustrated with 8 uni as well, took me forever to figure out that I had a micro-scratch on one of my ceramic bobbins that seemed to contribute to alot of breaking this weekend - problem dissapeared once I switched to a stainless tip again - had to re-tie about 20 small dries, grrrrrrr - I'll give the Benecchi a try instead if its a little stronger

I am an adamndt believer in owner responsibility when it comes to training out aggressive behaviour such as possesiveness - if this is what happens the owner of the other dog is responsible in my book - if a dog can't be verbally commanded to release anything from a toy to a bowl of food to strange dog than that dog has not been trained to a level that is acceptable for open area interaction - if a dog demonstrates that behaviour towards other dogs there is a potential the dog could react the same way to a child, nuff said. They should pay your bill.

Get well Soon Jay - Took guts to to do that, I hope it pays off with a conviction(s)

I stayed at St Andrews Univeristy for a while in the late 80's, seemed like every building in Scotland was stained dark from coal - it was incredible, in large urban centres like Edinburgh the effect was even worse. hard to imagine how coal can be called clean. BTW golfers, I did poach the old nine one night, just so I could say I've golfed it.

Turtle Lake - Also notorious for sasquatch, ogo-pogo, loch ness, giant albino moose, and Elvis Presely sightings....

I bought my spey rod off a new builder on ebay (Seattle area) 3 years ago - very happy with what I got as I paid about 25% what I would have paid in a store for similar rod with the same blanks etc etc - Rod has cool custom details such as a holographic steelie on the side, hand signed, the usual stuff you would expect - I was lucky to find a fella that was trying to make a name for himself so he was selling his first professional offerings with no reserve - his higher weights sold for more typical prices but the 5/6/7 wasn't getting attention so I won the auction with a very low bid. I have been using it for three years now without a problem so warrantee just isn't a concern considering what I saved on the price - the seller was also very helpful with tips on how to get the best performance such as ranking his reccomendations on which lines worked best with the rod. I think with anything on ebay, if your willing to be patient and wait for the right deal you can end up very happy. BTW - Don't think I don't support my local fishing shops - I do - at the time I bought it I needed it for a course and the locals just didn't have what I wanted in stock

Wapiti in canmore has some similar hooks but they are singles not doubles with extended down eyes - the extension seems to vary between 4 and 8mm at a 45 degree angle down and the hook length is 2.5 to 3 inches or so - they are very light ( I believe the are barracuda dry fly hooks). A fella in Banff uses them for deep trolling in Minniwanka but I have samples to work up some bully and Brown streamers and clousers with. Talk to Nick if you want to pick up a few. If you wanna see a pic let me know and I'll post a couple beside a thread spool or something for reference - I don't see why you couldn't glue and tie 2 together given how light they are. to replicate your picture above and remove one eye - not sure how that would work out - maybe not

First few rods were 2 piece but after trying a 4 piece I haven't gone back, other than the spey and a few antiques tha's all I use now