trailhead

The recommendations in the regs are good ones to follow. I have come upon fishers on the river and asked which way they were going and they replied "guess". So I moved up a few pools and fished upstream of them, I guess they were going downstream

I know. no matter who I vote for the government always gets in.

We were having a conversation at work here about the result and one guy said that it's always the same here in Alberta, everyone votes conservative. Yea all of 41% of eligible voters got out, and that guy was not one of them. Apathy = Alberta. If even half of the 59% had got out and voted differently would the results be different?

Ed has got his mandate and he'll do whatever he wants.

Depending on where you are there are some creeks and rivers with grayling and bulls.

I got started flyfishing in the early seventies, I was working at Woodwards and there was a young guy who I worked with that was my age and he was big into flyfishing and tying. I can't remember his name but he kind of introduced me to it, showed me a setup to buy, I think it might have been a Cherrywood glass rod too. Unfortunately he was killed in a car accident shortly after and I never did get to fish with him, and my brother stepped on the rod in my canoe and broke it. So I bought a Diawa that I still have, and I did some reading, and got some tips from Barry Mitchell's fathers booklet. I trolled around the stocked lakes but I think I caught my first fish on the Wildhay river, a athabasca rainbow on a Royal Coachman. I did catch some in the lakes, I recall a decent day on Black Nugget. Then I moved to Calgary and by doing field work was in proximity to a lot of good fishing, Smoky, Raven, Kakwa etc. Plus I started fishing the Bow, which was a different river in the eighties. Then took a few years off to have a family, but now that junior is older I have time to get out more. Plus we have a shack in the Pass and that offers more opportunity too. Sorry about the soliloquay but fishing is all about the memories.

Trout Bums Patagonia is showing tomorrow night at Mount Royal College. The Backcast Flyfishing Film Festival.

Yes I have also seen some of the hosts and guests on The New Flyfisher put one hand about a quarter of the way up the rod while fighting a fish. I was always taught that the handle was where you kept your hands.

I tie because it is creative, and it is a way to relate to flyfishing on a different level. Also you can catch a bug/nymph out of a body of water and tie a closer imitation than you could buy. I still believe that it is cheaper to tie than buy. I always try to buy my supplies at sale prices and even if flies are only $1.00 each I tend to lose about a dozen everytime I head out. Which works out to around $600 a year.

Please don't let this be my "Luck of the Draw" fly.

Don, I some of those already have names. ie Pineapple Express and Siberian High. Im sure the meteorological experts have them all tagged with some moniker.

Ha, what kind of geek are you, engineer geek right? Actually I am a seismic pimp, thank you

Yeah and your both computer geeks to boot!

I can't say I donate a ton of time or money or write lots of letters, but I have done all the above. So maybe I'm a do a littler. Better than do a nothinger.

I like it here too. Plus I have met and fished with some you , and I can say it has always been a pleasure. Also whenever I run into people fishing I ask if they are from the board, and it works like a charm. Thanks to Dave et al.

Maybe a Burbot too. A buddy of mine hooked one that was over 30 inches long, and the thing wouldn't stop running. He fought it for about 20 minutes before we even saw it, couldn't figure out what it was at first we thought pike, laker, bull, then finally burbot. But it took off again and again, he even handed me the rod to spell him off. I told him to get it closer and I would net it, which we tried, but it was too big for the net. Then it took off to the middle of the river, and busted off. Took the worm too.

Yeah all those are factors, but in the old days the human factor had a lot to do with fish size. People would keep everything they caught or just the bigger ones, and that was why the fish remained small. They never got past 6 inches in size before someone ate them. As for predation by larger fish, I can't recall ever catching a bull trout back in those days, well except on the Wildhay River upstream of the FTR.

Where's the Shack?

I agree with Tako, the less pressure the bigger the fish. There is a middle section of the Oldman that has some real nice cutts, (see avatar) I have seen very few anglers on this stretch, but it is rather unexciting looking and you gotta walk. The only time I have seen other anglers they were hanging around fishing at the access point. I also think that the "catch & release" mentality does increase the size of the fish, but they get wary. I have a story that illustrates this; in 1981 a few us were camped along the Oldman by the falls, and the average size of the fish was about 6 inches, I released every fish I caught, and I got one on just about every cast of my royal coachman. A whole family group of about 5 walked up and kept every fish they caught. It was all legal, because I believe at the time the limit was 5 or 10 fish. Anyway I did say something and their response was that they were having a fish fry. They did leave though, but I think that their mentality at the time kept the fish pretty small. I have been back to that spot and the fish aren't as big as down lower but the average size now has to be around 10 to 12 inches, but I don't catch as many. So maybe we have less fish but they are smarter & bigger?

It's all in jest, and we need something to do besides tie flies, arrange our tackle and dream of sunny days. Calgary is a big target and usually we take it with a grain salt. But sometimes we fire back.

Well I spent over 20 years in Edmonton and the lakes are better there, mostly because there is more of them and that's where I started to flyfish. Now I have spent over 20 years in Calgary and the mountains are better here, mostly because they are closer. As for the rivers there is just as much junk on both of them, it's just that the NSR is silty so you can't see the "floaties" but it does have some good evening hatches for Goldeye and you can catch sturgeon in the city. The Bow is a trout river and as it has been labelled "blue ribbon". Which I personally wish had never happened, because now we get all them dam tourists from BC. I am glad that I live in Calgary though, mostly because it's more of a white-collar town. In Edmonton I was involved in too many fisticuffs for my liking, more of the blue-collar thought. I still like going out to some of the pothole lakes around Edmonton after ice-out, it's pretty sweet. Then once the mosquitoe migration occurs I'm in the foothills west of Calgary casting to rising trout. So tomato-tomatoe, potato-potatoe whatever. I say all the fly fishers from both cities should target the central Alberta area and really tick off the Red Deer and Rocky Mtn House guys.

It is as most of the reponses here so far, there is limited fishing in fresh water anywhere in S.Cali. There are some reservoirs that have stocked trout, but the seasons are very different. Open at odd times, variable access and also a ton of anglers. If you wanted to flyfish there is some in the salt.

Yes those are ospreys. A few years ago some friends and I hiked into Rockbound Lake. When we got to the lake we split up with half fishing each side to the far end. I saw an osprey doing the same thing, diving into the water and coming up with a fish just about every time. It's interestong to see that they always hold the fish headfirst in the direction they fly. So I walked up to where I had seen the osprey picking off fish and there were two of the group sitting on some rocks. I was all pumped to cast and they grumbled, there's no fish in this lake. Then they walked off and I cast out and landed a nice brookie, I did share with them later and we all did very well. So if you are out fishing and you see osprey picking off fish, move and crowd them off their water, they don't catch and release.

First I've heard of this, WTF?

Wish I could go, the boss has booked us to go away for the weekend.