lonefisher

Well I would really like to make it for this but I gotta work Sunday morning as well..... You guys have fun at the show and maybe I'll see some of ya tonight when I go in.

I was checked atleast 2 maybe 3 times on the upper bow last year. And probably 5 times in various places in K country last year. Bout the same the year before...... rarely get checked on flowing waters though. Also been checked 4 times in the past few years in JNP.... once in Banff but I don't fish in there that much. 3 times ice fishing on spray lakes over the last 2 winters. Once in BC but again I don't fish there much and not really the popular places. I have to say that the officers in the Northern K country/ Canmore seem to be doing a good job....... or perhaps I look like a poacher.

Gotta go with Max on the bauer reels..... they are not a flashy looking reel but they are well made and work very very well...... I have never once had to do any trouble shooting at all with mine.......

was this reel made by dragonfly? or made by bfr ? as there is still BFR dragonfly reels available........ edit in see this link has em for sale..... also there is some large arbour BFR dragonfly reels if you google em....... http://www.poingdestres.co.uk/ProductDetai.../productID/1796 Edit in again..... AHHH I thinka you might be right they might not be available anymore......

I gotta say Rickr, Fishhead and MikeFS seem to be looking at the big picture and I tend to agree with them...... This forum does seem very down on anything motorized and in my opinion if an area has a quad trail through it that should be fine, they should be monitored, they should not rip up creeks, and the number of trails should be limited. As soon as a big group gets together and starts outright banning/trying to ban others its just a matter of time until all groups are banned or all groups just simply hate each other..... I know a few guys who belong to some quading groups who build bridges, fix erosion sites and generally do their best to leave the place better then when they arrive. I also have seen some of the assholes who drive around in rivers do donuts in pastures ect. So some are saying we should ban all the quaders because of the bad ones? Ok sorry but thats just not a great idea because if you simply replace quads with fishermen its the same arguement against us...... no one can deny that not only in the past but also the present that there are bad ass fishermen, there are poaching fishermen, there are littering fishermen, there are ignorant fishermen. SO if you can say that its fair that we ban all ATV'ers simply because of the bad ones then you are a hypocrite if you don't have the same feelings in regards to fishing. Regulate more, build bridges where they have river crossings, charge them access or trail fees to pay for upkeep and monitoring, Even a camera system in delicate areas to snap pics of people being destructive could be a possibility. Punish the assholes not everybody else thats my opinion...... I do have one other thing I feel should be noted specifically in regards to the Livingstone River....... Where is everyone parking to fish? I have never seen 1 single vehicle parked right on the FTR and theres not really any established parkin lots up there....... SO anyone who leaves the FTR to park is off the highway.......... So does this mean we are against off highway vehicles but we are not against our highway vehicles that we take off the highway?

Heavily monitored organized trail system, zero tolerance + higher fines for littering, off trail riding, and fishing infractions as well as habitat detruction. Hit every user group harder when they screw around and break the rules that way its not banning or attacking just 1 group of users. As far as I am concerned everyone should be able to enjoy it out there but the foremost message to all should be Low Impact Recreation. Definately want to hear more about this streamwatch meeting if you can Harps

I believe I was told that it will be going up next season..... not a lot but a little bit. I'm A ok with it.

Welcome back Gordon, looking forward to seeing you at the show. Will any of your rods be available for testing? I still want to try the Norway. I would really like to take your advanced course but as usual I have no idea if I will be around at that time. If any spots open up in the days leading up to the clinic just try to post em on here as if I can I may jump in last minute. To any others interested in doing the clinic I had Gordon take me out for a day solo and its was definately worth it. I usually find I teach myself fairly well but this took a lot of time off the learning curve. Plus he taught me some really cool casts and some stuff I would never have had the forethought to teach myself.

Well Birchy atleast the bastards were dumb enough to drive into Canmore in a snowstorm cause it dumped out here and that likely helped put em in the ditch...... I figure its better they crashed and you got the minor satisfaction of knowing they didn't get off scot free........ Wish I had seen the accident on my way up to sunshine today. Any idea where the crash took place as I did see some evidence of someone ripping around in median between the divided highway from canmore and banff.

I buy a crapload of flys from Glenbow. Way to easy and they catch fish....... Plus he's my best fishin buddy. But that said some really special/complex or local patterns might only be available at 1 or 2 shops in which case ya just gotta bite the bullet and buy a dozen or so

I love that material. Did you get one of the leechs I sent in the crossboard swap?

Thats a pretty cool video....... looked like a pretty decent sized pike that came in for the kill there....... hmmmm maybe someone should try speyghillies dappling/dapping technique for pike....... anyone tie a grayling dry fly?

well I figure this is a question with a few answers...... I think its possible that the Hook generally being a reflective silver colour will reflect many of the colours in its surrondings. This to a certain extent could make the hook harder to see. It could also be related to the right shape, right place, right time where they just hit something that seems to be similar to the naturals they are feeding on. In some ways that hook, or things that make our flys look different could actually be getting them noticed....... Its something to do with the predator prey relationships.... In some cases there is safety in numbers and a safety in not standing out or being different from the rest. Its a theory that predators will sometimes attack individuals that in some way stand out from the group. I have heard this theory more in regards to saltwater fishing which I will now explain. Your a shark or some fish that feeds on smaller fish...... you are cruising around and find a school of some baitfish. The first thing the baitfish will do is go into their defensive position which is they all school together really tight. http://www.borneo.com.au/images/divefish/reeffish3.jpg As a predator you are now looking for the weakness's here the fish that fall out of place, leave the school, can't keep up ect. A fishermans lure will never copy the uniform precise movements that these schooling fish make which is likely why they catch fish. If you toss a your lure into a school of fish or shrimp it will simply pass through the school of baitfish and emerge from the school into the danger zone where the predators are. Once the predators who are intent on the attack see an individual leave the group or outside the group, or simply behaving differently they will attack it sometimes even if does not resemble the members of the school. This is an example of how acting different can get you noticed. Of course one could draw parallels to certain situations in freshwater. In some instances the predator fish may even single out certain fish that are noticably different then the rest of the group, say an odd colouring, parasitic orange spot in scuds and shrimp ect. Sometimes in the face of a lot of food a predator will be in some ways overwhelmed by all the same individuals so they attack the ones that look a bit different. I figure that having an individual that stands out allows them to better focus their attack. I think the best example of this is when you catch a lot more fish on scuds or shrimp with the orange hot spot...... I would imagine the majority of the scuds do not have this but sometimes you can have major action on the hotspot and nothing on the regular.This could be an example of how looking different gets you noticed. I can't really say for sure how this all relates in regards to fly fishing but I think in ways it does. Especially in situations where the fish is facing a lot of prey food rather then a lack of it. Anyways I'm done my BSing...... as long as they kep catching fish who cares about the hook.

Happy Birthday Dave!

fair enough that makes sense.

Ahhhhhh well I could see that being a reason if one spent a lot of time with a full fly line and 50 yards of backing out on a regular arbour reel...... but if you have a large arbour reel the difference to begin with will be minimal and unless you are into your backing the difference would be non existant. I can sorta see the reason on a steelhead or salmon reel when you stand a good chance of a fish running you 50-200 Meters into your backing but honestly it doesn't seem to make any sense at all for trout fishing spey rod or not....... Plus if a fish ever takes me into the backing I am chasing it down the river. I dunno I just don't see the point for around here...... In fact I would love a 200 foot+ fly line that fills my large arbour reel without backing...... I would use that for 95% of my fishing.

why do you need more room? I often wish my backing was a bit thicker so it would be easier to handle.......

Well I would have to say the K lakes day on Glens Birthday was my most memorable day. Started it off with a rainbow that came damn close to 30 inchs.... Stupid me though I started fishing before Glen got there so I never got a good pic of em. Had to hand line that fish most of the way in as I developed a phantom loop between the 1st and 2nd to last guides I'm sure it wasn't there when I was casting but it showed up as soon as I hit that rainbow...... that one still has me scratching my head. Glen did I ever tell you about the grizz that day? But another day that was very memorable was a at MT lorette ponds about a day after it had been stocked...... me and a couple friends were cruisin by and decided to stop. It was a cool early morning and there was no one there. We went over to the pond and found "the school" and proceeded to catch a fish every cast for a couple hours and surprisingly enough there was even a couple of hefty fish in the school (not huge just hefty) about 10 the people started showing up and I let half a dozen random kids catch a couple little rainbows..... Little kids look like their landing 1000 lb marlin even when they have a 6 incher on. Way to funny. By 12 oclock there was likely 25 people fishing this school including 1 old guy with a rod and rig that should have been used for a 1000 marlin..... Rod musta been an inch thick at the base and 10 feet long. He had about a 1 ounce bell sinker that the fish seemed to have trouble even lifting if they did take one of his hooks. There was several groups that were literally filling buckets with fish. It was total anarchy we finally sorta stopped fishing and just watched. Then we left for some Bull trout action at the K lakes.... unfortunately as far as I saw the old guy never did get his Marlin..... I guess this is just one of those places where the fish are not mean't to last. It was one of those days that started beautiful and ended kinda ugly. It would be a really nice place to fish if they made it C&R for the first half of the season and tossed some big fish in there, then they could allow a harvest towards the end of the season....... Gin clear water nice and shallow, great for site fishing some good bug action and very good child and disabled access. If you can catch it a few days after stocking take your kids out for the morning but skip the afternoon. All in all there was way to many memorable fishing trips this year to count...... the crow a couple weeks back, A half dozen stellar days on Albertas best cutty stream Another trip with miles and miles of awesome scenery on the MTN streams no one fishs, didn't catch a ton of fish but fished a half dozen streams that I had never heard of which was cool. Fishin the K lakes with a few different board members was a lot of fun. Saw Bloom tape what I think he said was his biggest rainbow. Watched GGP school me and Glen on the finer points and patterns of K lakes fishing. And discovered something very very interesting while fishin with Beadhead. Also saw atleast 25-30 griz this year on my trips and probably atleast as many black bears...... Luckily this year only a couple were a bit to close for comfort.

Looks sweet great idea. Love the way they are presented like that.

Weedy Thats definately true and it sounds like you were likely using your rod to it full potential before upgrading. My GLX has opened up about 15-35 extra feet overhanding and about the same switch and spey casting with light rigs, But it nearly doubles the distances achievable with a big heavy rig while roll/spey or switch casting...... And I am not unconfident feeling takes or setting the hooks at long distance. There is definately a difference...... Some also say that most fishing is done within 30 feet...... sure on creeks it is. But when fishing stillwaters from shore the ability to catch fish at long distance is priceless........ The comment about breaking has merit as well I think. Maybe you can't measure toughness but I have only broken my streamdance once and it was my fault...... fishing cheaper rods I went through a lot more rods and most breaks should not have happened. Weedy ya don't have a 11ft 7wt native run single spey in your bag of tricks do you?

TimD is definately not of base with his post its not the rod that makes the angler and if you are not using your low end rod to the maximum of its potential then there is little need to upgrade a bit of practice and improved skill is gonna go a lot farther then an xtra 400 bucks spent on a rod.

:Happy New year ahhhh man do I ever need an advil.... Feels like my brain got stepped on.......

RKNbugs - Did you take the HLS? I did. Hopefully I will have a Max GLX to test cast soon...... thats supposed to be something else. The zaxis and other top end sages are in most all ways just as good as the GLX but I don't know why but nothing that I have cast yet feels as good and performs as well for me as my GLX...... Its like sex in your oh wait thats not gonna sound right......

TCR I think that stands for tournament casting rod. These rods to be fished or cast by us mere mortals may work better a bit overlined but from what I understand you pair it with an even weight (5wt rod/5wt line) long casting line like the XXD and perfect casting it will do what its supposed to do cast well at maximum distances. Overlining should only make the short and mid/long range casting easier it may even make the long range casts feel easier but it will probably loose a few feet off the max distance. Overlining will just make it do things its not really designed for like cast short. Also some tournaments do not allow overlining ect.....(with all the casting tournies in calgary I guess thats not really an issue though) I really really really want to cast one of these rods. I like to pick on sage users a little bit because I do like GLX rods a lot but if you are gonna go top of the line with either brand you are gonna have a sweet tool. I read a 6wt shootout article in an aus/nz magazine and they tested like 30 or more different 6wts. They masked the rod info on the butt so as to make the rods hard to identify and had every rod tested and reviewed by 70 different testers in 4 different locations. Additionally the testers could not have any connections to the tackle industry. They were rated in 5 different catagories build quality, short casts, long casts, loop control, feel. The top 15 in this order were #1 Sage SLT #2 G loomis streamdance GLX hls #3 G loomis streamdance GLX mls #4 Sage Z Axis #5 G loomis streamdance metolius HLS #6 Sage TCR #7 CD rods XLS #8 G loomis crosscurrent GLX #9 Sage Fli #10 Sage Xi2 #11 Redington CPS #12 Sage launch #13 Stalker guide series #14 Cd rods ICT #15 Scott S3 TFO first appears at 19 TiCR 20 Lefty kreh pro 24 TicrX 25 Jim Teeny interesting results for the TFO rods The Winston Boron 11x the 2nd most expensive came in at #26 which was the big shocker. Price wise the metolius by GL would appear to be the best value for someone with a mid range budget looking for a top notch rod. The Sage FLi would be the next to fit this list, less then the metolius but 4 places lower. Some manufacturers we have in our poll were not included in the test however so who knows where their placement would be. I was very surprised that there was not an orvis rod in the mix. Nor a fenwick...... But maybe these rods are not common down under. I don't post this in order to slag or boost certain brands just cause it seemed to be a fairly broad test pool and one of the better run rod tests I have seen. Thought you guys might be interested to see the results Just as an added note none of these rods got a perfect score and with a scatterplot graph they designed factoring score/price ect they determined that by extrapolating this graph a perfect score rod would cost you $3700........ Sounds like a cane rod to me Don

Well atleast there is one other voter who recognizes a good stick. G loomis all the way That said I gotta say sage makes a nice rod