ironfly

I also have a hard time understanding how a hatchery fish is so genetically inferior to a wild fish. Hatchery fish originally come from wild stocks. It's not like we made them out of Play-doh. How can ten or twenty generations in a hatchery have much influence on millions of years of evolution? If this is true, and they are inferior, it stands to reason that very few escapees would actually survive to spawn. Yet rainbows have somehow managed to establish stable breeding populations all over the world. So either they can't survive and are no threat, or they're very adaptable and successful, and not a threat. As some have said, our wild fish have much bigger threats than this. I haven't heard much talk about Snakeheads, but they're being sold alive in BC.

cgyguy, can you provide a link to that study from Purdue? Or maybe some other information that explains why triploid minnows are less likely to survive, and why hybridization results in population collapse. I'm very curious, and a little skeptical. After all, mutts are usually stronger than either parent, right? I'm not saying I support stocking triploids, just that I need to be armed with information if I'm going to fight for something.

I love Shunda. I wish I counted as "directly affected".

Up until now, I've been a big fan of MEC. That may have to change. Which anti-hunting groups do they support?

I take it from your post that you don't contest the depth, just the effectiveness. I gues I mis-spoke, because now that you mention it, I've had my share of luck "bank-robbing" myself. The water's pretty shallow there, though. A longer leader wouldn't do any harm near the banks, and gives you the option of going deeper without re-rigging. Or am I wrong? I envy your success at fish rising to your streamer. Maybe I do too much blind-casting, but fishing that way might as well be steelheading, for me. I consistently have many times more success getting the streamer down deep. I guess I need to find better fishing spots. On second thought, I do just fine. Always big fish, eh?

All those who say it's a fad, how long have you been tracking this? The story I heard was Tom Whiting was told 2 years ago to get ready, and his response was ,"It's just a fad." Seems to me it's just getting going.

I'm not a certified casting instructor, but I've taught quite a few lessons, and I've seen this exact problem many times. Pretty much every time a caster "graduates" from casting little dries and nymphs, to big streamers. It's mostly about timing; they have a rhythm they've learned with small, nearly weightless flies, and they use that same timing when they start casting large weighted flies. The heavy streamer drops more than the little dry while the caster is waiting to change direction. I take my students back to basics, and get them to turn their head and watch the cast unroll, so that they match their timing to what's actually going on, not what they expect to happen due to their "little-fly habits". I may wind a few people up over this, but my advice would actually be to speed up a little bit. Soft rods and open loops are the textbook advice for streamers, but my students and I have had a lot more success with fast rods and the oval cast. Also, a short leader is fine on a sinking line or sink-tip, but a 4-6 foot leader on a floating line will have that streamer swimming about a foot under the surface, if there's any kind of current at all. Pretty much useless. Don't worry about turnover, if the rest of the cast has gone okay, the momentum of that fly will have no trouble at all straightening out the line. Unlike a little nymph or dry, which needs a transfer of energy from the line to keep it moving at all. To illustrate, take a #16 Adams, and try to throw it across the room. Now, grab a #4 Beadhead Wooly Bugger, and do the same, but this time make sure you're not aiming at glass. I hope this all makes sense, to some at least.

I have 2 CPX's, a 7wt and a 9wt. Love 'em! I'm casting bigger streamers, farther and more accurately, than ever before.

More than once I've seen Brian Chan on an episode of Sport Fishing On The Fly, using a throat pump. When he arrives at the lake he mentions that they're on Chironomids, but decides to start with his favorite leech. He hooks a decent fish, pumps it, and shows the camera all the little bugs. He talks about how the ones that are still moving indicate the active feeding, blah, blah, blah, and chucks his leech back in the water. Catches another fish, pumps it, "Oooo, they switched to green chronies!", and soaks the ol' Ruby-Eyed Leech some more. All day like that. He never did change flies. As far as Phil Rowley goes, I've taken courses from him. Sure he advocates throat pumps, but he also teaches the acromym DRP- Depth, Retrieve, Pattern. Basically he feels that the fly is the least important part of the equation. Those episodes of SFOTF with Brian seem to back that up. I have no particular conservation concerns with throat pumps; the fish have WAY bigger problems than that. After taking Phil's course I got one, and actually found it hurt my catch rate, I think because it mislead me into ignoring more important aspects of presentation. I would argue that the majority of the increased catch rates that most people have enjoyed is due to the extra confidence they gained.

Makes no sense to me. Neither of the responsible parties were first offenders, and I promise you they were prepared to pay the full fine. I have no documentation to back this up, but I have witnessed the decision-making process first hand. It goes something like this- "How much will compliance cost?" "Ten million dollars, minimum." "How much is the fine?" "One million, maximum." "Hmmm, let me think...pay the fine."

Best warranty in the business, as far as I'm concerned.

When I first got into flyfishing and flytying, money was real tight. My wife was a bit concerned about the expense, so I saved every receipt. I never showed them to her, obviously, but I did get a lot of comfort from them. I lose/give away over a hundred flies per year, maybe even 2 hundred. In my first four years of tying flies I spent about $200. So that's about a 75%-90% saving. Then it became a hobby of it's own, and my finances improved. I stopped keeping receipts, and now estimate my materials alone to cost $4000 to replace. The problem as I see it; if you enjoy tying flies it will become expensive sooner or later, and if you don't enjoy it, you'll stop. So realistically, you'll only save money short term. All in, it's still a small fraction of the cost of golf or skiing.

I was having trouble with mine, and a buddy told me that the Apple store gave him a replacement for $80. I figured out how to fix the trouble myself, so I can't confirm his claim.

As I recall from a conservation meeting I was at a while back, there are no pure strain native cutthroat in Alberta. Westslope Cutthroat are so named because they are native to drainages West of the Continental Divide.The biologists were doing a genetic study so that the Alberta subspecies (Eastslope Cutthroat) could get official listing, but they discovered that they all contained Westslope and Yellowstone DNA. I love Brookies, but what do I know? I like Goldeye too.

Paul Whillock for his realistics. Dave Whitlock for his deer-hair work. Will Bush for his Spey flies; did anyone see his work at the Trout Waters booth at the WCFFE?

And I'm glad MEC put some support behind that cause. Alberta CONSERVATION Association my hairy derriere! I can't speak to MEC's official policy, but I applied for a job there not too long ago and asked several staff members and the manager about their feelings on fishing; none were opposed, some were fishers themselves, and one asked me to teach her to cast.

Love that caddis, JayVee, but I think I'll find another way to weight it. I usually don't care much about those sorts of things, but that's a really nice imitative fly, which to my eye is ruined by that big blob of gold.

Flytyer, it sounds to me like you got the "complete" Tubeology kit, and you're right, that one's meant to be a crossover between fly and gear fishing. That kit is currently unavailable in North America, so you're pretty lucky that way. As far as the cost goes, let's walk through the math; that kit would probably retail for about $200, and allows you over 72,000 fly variations. Materials notwithstanding, that's almost 4 flies per penny. The Nano kit, which is available right now through several local retailers, doesn't have any of those "gimmicks", costs about $100, and provides 2127 fly variations, which works out to less than 5 pennies per fly. Also, the components are available through the Fishin' Hole and Wholesale Sports right now, so for an investment of about $20 a guy/gal could pick up a pack of tubes and cones, substitute a sewing needle for a mandrel, and give Tubeology a try.

The AFGA puts in a little trout pond at the Edmonton Boat and Sportsman Show. Last year they had a blue trout in with the regular rainbows. Beautiful fish, lousy camouflage.

In no particular order- 1. People that drive in the city with their brights on. 2. People that speed up when you pull out to pass. 3. People that drop their speed below yours after passing.

I don't understand how the Gold and the GPX would be a more accurate comparison. The Grand and the GPX are both 1/2 size heavy lines, with almost identical taper profiles. The Gold is an AFTMA standard weight line with a long belly.

Have you tried it using Stillwater Solutions Sparkle Blend? Dubs way easier, and Brian Chan put a lot of work developing that dubbing blend specifically for that fly.

I think you got ripped off. The average price increase over the last three years is less than 10%.

In my experience the problem was kind of the opposite; it seemed more like once someone made enough money, they'd ask for a discount, almost as if they felt entitled. To be honest, as I remember it they would often TELL me, matter of fact, "you're gonna give me a deal on this." Hardly ever got a request like that from a regular blue-collar type. If I were still in retail this would definitely be on my pet peeve list, because they rarely take no for an answer easily. My favorite memory of this kind of thing was when a guy bought a spinning rod, reel, and line. All in he was spending about $80. He thought that he should get a discount since he was buying "all the parts at once." I politely explained "all the parts" involved a lot more, and if he were purchasing lures, tackle boxes, bait, etc., or if he bought more than one rod and reel set, then we could do a deal. He understood. His elderly Mom did not. Both of them were obviously affluent. No matter what I said or did, she wouldn't stop arguing for a discount, and the line-up behind them started growing. Finally, a guy waiting in line piped up, "Hey Lady, when you go to the grocery store to buy milk, do you ask for a discount?". After she and her son left, I thanked the guy for saying what I couldn't without risking my job.

All wrapped up in the Christmas spirit, are you?