bloom

Watch out Jack...too much time designing fly rods means less time fishing. Let me know when you want to test those designs out though and we'll hook up in the Kootneys again.

There is a fly fishing club in Medicine Hat called the Cypress Fly Fishing club. We meet the first Tuesday of the month over winter. If you need more information, let me know.

This was a great year...a lot of time on lakes with friends and family (family being my 7 and 5 year old girls). Thanks to everyone who made the trip down to the Cypress Hills area to fish the lakes around here. This was my most enjoyable year lake fishing. Spent some great time climbing hills with H2O looking for Goldens again, and then bumming around the Castle and Elk drainages with friends on 4 different trips...doubt the family will let me do that again. Next on the list is Steelhead, and some time out on the Kamloops area lakes.

Yup, it's all about chironomids for me. A couple dozen done, and and a few more dozen to go...I love tying chironomids as I seem to be tying them all year long to keep up with the demand.

Actually drinking spiced rum and egg nog right now....and eating cake! Life is good. (Too bad I'm stuck watching Franny's Feet with the kids)

It's Palmer Ranch...check dune's link

So, if you were a CO, think about who you would check. Would you walk down the cliff to check the guy decked out in $500 worth of Simms clothing, walking and wading tossing flies, or would you just keep patrolling the highly accessable spots for people sitting on the bank with a rod propped up on a forked stick? Just because you're not being checked, doesn't mean it's not happening...most of us just aren't the right "clientelle". I've been check a few times at Bullshead, but I feel it's more about optics as the CO's are checking everybody else and they better check the fly fisherman too!

If I was to move to Calgary (which I never will), I would look at these lake communites. There is a big attraction in regards to stepping out your back door to take your two little girls fishing everynight. Lakes are safer than the side of the bow river, and these stocked lakes can give high catch rates which is what you need for the little kids. (In summer and winter) Not saying this should come at a cost for the bow river (which I love to fish), but those stocked lates have a nice attraction to me too.

If Santa is Dave at Fishtales, then yes! You actually did start that whole thought process too when I casted your xp and saw how light it was...should have never done it.

Nice fish. Did you put a tape on any of them to get length and girth measurements?

What are your experiences for a line to suit this rod? Go with the standard 6 wt, or with a heavier 6wt like the GPX or the cortland 6.5 wt?

http://www.flyfishingcanada.net/views-updates.php?id_pag=68

$35 for the flies

Slide the line (I only use straight tippet) through the indicator, then bring it back up to the top of the indicator and run it through again. Sometimes, you don't even need a toothpick to hold it in place as it's so tight. I usually use the froghair indicators with bobber stoppers, and they don't stay too well on straight tippet.

just run your line through the indicator twice

Yah, but how to you get permission from the people at Ross Creek Golf course And how about the other problems of catching a golfer in the backcast. (Gone through this many times when I take my little girls golfing there) Thought about this before and the problem is that golfers can be as crazy about their sport as us. No use getting up at 6:00 am to get the pond to yourself as you can guarantee there will already be people on the course

Golfman, we have a flyfishing club that meets at Eagle Butte High School starting in December. Send me a pm with your email address and I'll add you to our mailing list. We do fly casting in the gym, lots of fly tying, presentations, etc.

Thanks for the info Don (pm sent also). I was thinking the stocking this year was around 29,000...even a drop from the previous years 'standard' of 35,000.

Thank you Conor...someone gets what I'm saying (just not the 8 years part ). It's hard to keep going and asking for change when we're not even letting one idea play out. -Lower stocking rates were asked for, we got them...it will take time for us to see the effect. -Trips were asked for, we got them...it will take at least 2 more years to see the affect these have on the false spawning attempts. Sometimes this reminds me of work where they keep coming in with a new policy every year and we really haven't given the other ones a chance. We keep joking what the new 'flavour of the month' will be. I know what the stocking rates are on those "Cow guy" lakes and their VERY LOW. Those numbers on a public lake wouldn't work. The angler hours on BH and the private lakes are vastly different. Put that same number of fish in BH and they would be gone due to hooking mortality alone. (Don, send me a pm if you're interested in more info on these lakes) I DO appreciate all the passion (from all sides) for these quality fisheries lakes though. I like where all this is going in Alberta but there is definitely a need from the passionate people (ie. DonA, Clive, ADC, TimD) to keep this moving.

Stocking rates have dropped a lot over the past few years...only problem is that it takes time to see the difference. The number right now is ~28,000. If you look at the history, there was a year when there was an 'accident' and 2x the number got put in. I don't have the data in front of me but it was like 70,000 and it was ~3 or 4 years ago. It will take some time for that stocking class to dissapear. It would be interesting to see what the stocking rates were like in the early 90's late 80's? Others may have different memories than I, but I always remember BH in the 90's to be a lake that no one really went to. Whenever I was there, the parking lot was basically dead except for a few guys in boats who went down to the dam. I also remember a 'big fish' to be around 18-20'' out of there. A 28-30'' rainbow trout is a HUGE trout.

When a cop says stop...you stop. Whey you're high on coke, trashing places, threatening people, and attacking cops...expect to be tazered. I say put the blame on the person or the parents who made him that way.

As mentioned earlier, it would be tough to set stocking rates as you wouldn't know how many fish would survive. The reason this lake was developed was to create a fishery where you would always have a chance to catch a quality fish. Before BH, there were times when you couldn't catch a fish over 18'' (or even 14'' in some lakes) because people would never let them get there. We might be right back in the same boat if the regs get changed to keeping the smaller fish...they were never given a chance to get big before, so don't see why it would happen now. There's just so many people on these lakes in Ab and it doesn't take much to clean a lake out. In the 90's it went through a pattern here in Southern Ab where the lakes would systematically get cleaned out. Once a lake started to produce fish around 14+", everyone would congregate there and meat it out. Then they would move to the next lake the next year...sort of went in a cycle when a lake was only really good every 2 or 3 years, and some years, no lakes were producing. Right now, BH gives us a chance to catch numerous fish between 14'' and 20'' every year. I guess the problem now is how to go from good to great!

Don, any info you have on the AF3N and how they got into Alberta would be great. Would like to see them down here.

Did you watch the video...cause that's what I'm getting at

Yup, forgot about that Beedhead. Some big ones did move back into the pond, so we'll see what happens come next spring. Can't imagine that we're going to get ice off again in mid to late April like we did this year.