Pipestoneflyguy

My Pontoon gets winter stored hanging from my carport for the last 3-4 years without any problem ( as I mentioned in another rececnt discussion the 1st year I had it I deflated it and had a heck of a time getting the bladders lined up right) - I keep it inflated but not at full pressure - no problems yet - I rigged up two 2X4's sligthly wider than the boat and use prussik knots to lower and raise it - real easy to get in and out of the truck but never in the way My bellys stay inflated but I built a rack inside my mud room. I do worry about the vinyl bladders stiffening so that is part of the reason I keep it inflated - someday I hope to replace them with rubber just for the peice of mind

Happy B-day If anyone ever put on a "fishing Idol" I would vote for you !

Lots of good info on the net but stick to reputable sites (such as the Arthritis Society) - lots of snake oil solutions that can do more harm than good. I have SRA and believe me, there are a lot of people out there willing to take advantage of your pain to make a buck. Try to get a referral to a rheumatologist from your family doc and get your advice from a pro. Personally I don't take painkillers - I consider them a slippery slope to addiction - I only use anti-inflamatories (nsaids plus deasease modifiers at about 30k a year, luckily covered under a special blue cross insurance), diet and life management to control my pain but that said each person is different and what works for one may not work for another. I see Dr Liam Martin with the U of C rheumatology department at foothills - He basically gave me my life back - I was on a walker 6 years ago and preparing to move to a wheelchair when I was refered to him, now I am out-hiking guys half my age. G'luck

I know three fellas with FJ's - they are all happy with them. Bought for size and safety though, not wheeling prowness. Although clearance is decent keep in mind the actual height is relative to wheelbase and width for capability. overall the truck is a little too big for quite a few typical alberta roads and trails - Off road the FJ isn't in the same class as your wrangler, the JK is a better comparison from the Jeep line-up. All I am saying is that you should expect to compromise your paint if you expect your FJ to go the same places your Jeep is capable of. If you stick to more comonly used roads I think you'll be happy - There a good article in one of the 4x4 mags comparing FJ and JK - should still be on the shelves - if you can't find it let me know and I'll mail you mine - I've read it and its in the recycle pile now.

Be aware of the extra cost associated with Classified waters which effect much of the moving waters in that area. Can get pretty pricey for us Albertans.

feeding and harrassing wildlife are two of the charges I can think of, off the top of my head. From a Parks act perspective I don't think the intpretation would differ between a gopher and a bear, for example, in terms of defining a contradiction to the act (offence). In other words you can't mess with any critters, big or small, within the park - even pests in our residences have to be removed and relocated with live traps - all just part of living in a Park. As entertaining as a field full of burning gophers would be, I don't think it would bode well with the tourist crowd up here LOL The magic of a bread ball is you can make it any size thus you could form nice loops with almost any weight rod if you "roll" specifically to the appropriate ideal targeted mass within the manufacturers reccomendation for weighting on a specific Rod. I guess there would be limits - remember the "A dog swims through it" You tube vid - that guy really needed something like a 20 wt rod for that giant rubber ball. Maybe one of this sites expert rod builders can offer some expertise on the science behind effective breadball casting technique. Too bad this site is limited to fishing and not hunting, cause this thread is begging to be linked to a potato gun discussion - I just had a mental image of flaming gophers being sniped off with a potato gun - now that's a video that would get some hits

I like the 1st too

Be carefull with carrying your toon on top of your topper - I had mine all assembled (with my last truck, a dakota with an expensive paint matched topper) at Dark lake in the hills above Peachland and I decided to just strap it on top since we were only going to shift an hour away. (BTW nice remote spot to camp and fish) Despite my best effort to clean it, the small amount of sand that I didn't get off scratched the heck out of paint on the topper and to make matters worse the straps also ruined the paint on the truck box too. With my latest truck I opted to not get a topper as the boat stuffs great right into the box (gate down) - anyway something to keep in mind, I would get a rack if your planning to roof a toon. BTW sorry to get off topic, but there is a funny story about that move - Sandy and I like to go on "wander where the breeze takes us" type vacations, we were in Peachland to freshen supplies after camping a few days at Dark Lake, and Sandy noticed posters up all over town for a music festival in Keremeos,... so images of lying in a grassy field, sipping cold beers, listing to bluegrass while lying on a blanket in the sun, filled our imaginations, hence the decision to toss the toon on the roof and head to Keremeos. We get to town and check into a rustic old motel and decide to go get info on the festival - Well you should have seen our faces when we found out the the music festival was for public school bands - within a matter of hours, dozens of buses dropped off hundreds of pre-teen band geeks LOL - Despite the towns atmosphere being akin to a city mall on a Saturday morning we made the most of it and I floated the Similkameen which was a great way to spend the day. The area actually has both quality lake and river fishing that was beyond what I expected, so all in all, the stop was worthwhile despite the misunderstanding LOL

That's a good point - in my case I have a truck (and trailer for the jeep) I did let the air out of the toons the first winter but had trouble getting the bladders lined up right again so now my pontoon and belly stay inflated all year round. A good tip for bellys - I bought a set of quality replacement straps for a backpack at campers village a couple year ago and rigged them to my belly boat with little biners. Makes it so much more comfortable and easy to carry than rigging it to a backpack and my fishcat 4 came with the loops to clip in already there on the boat. I feel for you guys with cars - constantly pumping must be a real pain

Geez looking at that post I better qualify that one just in case I offend someone... The above reply is a satirical commentary drawing attention to the fact stereotyical imaging in almost any context is often invalid and the commonly held image that all flyfishers were created in the image if Brad Pitt is just plain silly !

"Fly fishing is single malt scotch, Cuban cigars and the graceful, romantic arc of the cast." Ha Ha Ha - I know some guys for whom fly fishing is "The cheapest crappy beer on sale, illegally purchased "reserve" cigarettes and skunk weed fatties, and wind-knots followed by the loud retort of "Mutherf*&%#$" echoing across a lake" NOW that just oozes "made in alberta" romantic notions LOL

Too Funny ! Back in my days of ski bummery, A fella I lived with in a large ski hill residence, devised a basket made out of a wire clothes hanger, rigged with a tied-on "breadball" (made by rolling bread between his palms) all set up on a spin caster. Anyway within an hour about 10 guys, with similar rigs, were "catching" gophers on the front lawn - anyway whole thing lasted less than an hour before the Wardens showed and offered to pass out fines and confiscate everyone's gear. Certainly is one of the weirdest visual images related to fishing in my memory bank. I hadn't thought about that in years !

I have both and I can tell you that the only time I choose the belly over the toon is when I have to carry the boat in and it's just too far for the toon. Some folks don't like the toon because it is harder to control drifting and spinning but over time I have gotton to the point that I very rarely ever even use my flippers - I just drop one foot in and rotate it in the opposite direction I want the boat to turn, after a while it just becomes second nature. As for drifting I appoach the toon the same way you would a bass boat - figure out which way the boat will drift and then set up so the natural drift takes you through the area you want to fish - honestly its not that big of a hassle, for me anyway. One thing I would suggest is investing in a decent quality boat either way. I have both a fish cat 4 and a Caddis belly boat - the difference between sitting high out of the water vs sitting half sumberged in the water is signifigant especially on long days with hiking involved - as for the pontoon, well going too cheap, and the repurcussion to that is something you'll have to decide your self - If your a small light person you probably can go a little lower on quality - if your pushing 200lbs, buying quality becomes an important safey issue. give this decision the respect it deserves because bobbing upside-down in either a river or lake with you waders holding your topside under water is a pretty scary prospect (and I rarely see anyone wearing life jackets on either type boat - generally because they are restrictive and no one believe "their boat" will be the one to fail) - also keep in mind if you get a 9' pontoon you'll need the "operators card" (for me it was an easy 2 hour course that cost 70 bucks) I am headed out to Wapta lake this aft and it is still 50% covered in ice - I'll be comfy on my toon but my buds who are going in belly-boats, might have an opinion on the matter after having their "grapes" cryogenically frozen within 10 to 15 minutes on the water LOL

I almost spit out my coffee laughing at that one on the news this morning - Husband must have already suspected something to scrutinize the bill I figure.

Two things you could try. Look at your CV boots - any cracks or tears in the boot and your CV's will be toast very soon if not already also - try cranking your steering slowly from far right to left and vise versa while driving slowly - if you hear a popping sound or binding you most likely have a CV problem (usually near the end of the left or right turning range) Other cause could be a broken band or belt in a tire It would be good advice to get a licensed tech to take a look at it right away

They make shirts with buttons ???

I guess no fires after 11 as well

I know two women with patagonia waders and they both rave about them, one of those two ladies are 5'9" so maybe that's an option ?

On lake days I carry a bunch of various boxes like most folks do (I suspect) - its just easy to do so with all the compartments and pockets on the pontoon or belly boat, so why not. Spring river days I raid all the streamer, Nymph wet and dry boxes to do one combo box considering predictable hatches and past succesfull flies at that time and place. Once surface action starts I carry a comprehensive dry box with a couple streamers, nymphs and wets just in case no risers. In terms of what is in my tying room - well I would say I have issues

Whoa - that is insanely big

Every year the fiasco at Maclean and Wiaprous on May long punishes those of us that 4x4 with a treadlightly attitude for the other 362 days a year. It freakin embarrasing to responsible Jeep owners Liquor ban ???? I don't get that, everyone suffers for a few bad apples ??? My back yard is across the river from the campground and anyone camping who wants to come enjoy a cold beer in my back yard is completely welcome - free the people !!!!!

I would love to be able to do that hike but with a twice reconstructed knee on one side, an prosthetic hip above it, and a posthetic knee on the other side I think maybe I just might be able to justify using a chopper. Perhaps some folks here may someday be capable of widening their views enough to recognize that true personal gratification comes from the measure of yourself against your own objectives and goals and if the dude standing beside you can hike 75km that's awesome, and maybe he should run out and buy a tee shirt that says "I'M AWESOME" cause you know, he is just THAT awesome ! Seriously though - Wes is onto a very valid concept that the harder you work for something, the greater the reward - Of course that's true regardless of your ability. I don't find the comment to be remotely offensive as a legally disabled person or otherwise - perhaps the context created an image of exclusion but I'd be willing to bet that was not the intent and I would hope that we all take the time to think, "hmmm what is the intent here" before reacting to a post or comment even though I know from experience that is rarely the case. Now that said the next time I fly into a lake I am going to offer a $100 tip to the pilot if he can blow all the hikers tents out into the middle of the lake LOL

Monger.....just curious but what do you do with the Elk once you catch one ??? Treeplanter - ha - we came across a pool on the horse last week with about 50 little whities in it - although "buffet" comes to mind I prefer to let the bullies get em

Ditto on the autosol - most car and bike guys use more tubes of autosol in a year than tubes of toothpaste LOL - it also leaves a light protective coating behind. that said I only use it on surfaces that don't have a manufacted coating Note I find it is best suited for non-mechanical application (hand polishing) - felt and fabric wheels tend to overheat it too much and create a disaster I would be really surprised that those surfaces don't have some form of factory coating- I would be real thorough in confirming that your not inadvertantly removing a factory coating by applying pastes and polishes. I have a set of american racing outlaw two's on my firebird - they are three years old and still look like new and I have never applied any polish because of the factory antioxidation coating - I use dishsoap and water and they still look as good as new You might try pm'ing Avalanche if he doesn't see this post - looking at his vehicles he must be an expert at polishing aluminum. Gel coat is very soft (surface wise) - it would almost be a certanty that it has been sealed and clearcoated so I would treat it as such All that said I think you would benefit from a discussion with the manufacturer of the car

Not sure about that one Ryan, We have no trouble leasing summer project vehicles with recievers and wiring installed already, everything from light 1/2 tons to 1 tons. (we lease through dealers) Does your trailer require a 5th wheel hitch or a draw bar type - If 5th wheel I could see finding one of those being a challenge - if you need a draw bar type also look at renting an SUV - I know this because I rented a new Ford Exporer from the Calgary airport through expedia for my parents during their last visit and because most rental SUV's come with deluxe packages, it was factory equiped with a hitch. Of course you take your chances pre renting on-line - might be worthwhile going to the airport walking through the rental section and seeing who has hitches and then go to the counter next. Other option is RV rental places - I see rented truck / trailer combos all summer up here - maybe one of those outfits will rent just a truck G'luck (maybe someone here will trade their truck usage for a nice laptop )