albertaflyfishing

Hi, well it appears this next week will see the beginning of serious logging along the Castle and tribs..lots of you know and love these exceptional Cuttie waters...if you are able or interested in joining a protest on wednesday the 11th of Jan. at 11a.m. we are meeting on the castle ski hill road at the corrals. Hope to see you there , the more the merrier as they say..........thaks for the support.Susan

Al Brice here in the Crowsnest pass .. I first saw ottersguiding on the Upper Bow river in the late 80,s ... But they have become A PLAGUE ON THE STEAMS down here ..as far as I can tell we have lost a lot of fish in all our small streams .. we still catch good fish , but numbers are way down from what I expect to see in my favorite fishing spots ..the Local Fish and Game club started complaining about the lack of whitefish on the Crow a few years back (but the suckers went first) I have seen Otters on the Crow ,Livingstone ,Oldman ,Michelle, West Castle ,Waterton , Gold creek , I think there is at least and dozen otters on the Crowsnest itself , judging by the little familly groups I see .. The bad thing about the Otters is they just kill trout for fun .. they can only eat so many trout and it,s a long day... I have occasionally seen a half eaten trout and half a dozen dead trout bitten behind the head in a pool... A couple that come into the shop have a house on Gold creek over looking the lower falls and they watched a familly of 5 otters play all day diving bellow the ice and bringing up trout just to be left to rot ..needless to say the fishing in the lower gold creek has really been poor and I counted 4 reds two years ago and none this year... that whole Frank area has been missing it,s big fish .. in the winter when you can count trout in a pool , I think there is only 25% the fish numbers as of ten years ago...It makes sence that they are most evective in small streams.. The other bad thing about this is don,t expect fish and wildlife to do anything about it , because it,s really all about them , their union and their lack of funding for studies If common sence was used for fisheries management most of us could do it !(starting with catch and release on all flowing trout water ) and if they did do a study we would be out of trout on our small streams by the time they get it together ...we can.t really fight nature ,that is why all streams need to be catch and release... (common sence again ) because that is the only thing we can really manage .. or hey! they might not let us fish at all ..??? Al B. name='DonAndersen' date='Aug 5 2011, 01:08 PM' post='148104'] OH Crap - they are already here. Folks, In the 56 years I've fished all over western Alberta I never saw an otter till 3 years ago. Now the count is 17. So for 53 years, the graph registers "0" - in 3 years it goes to 17. And I've seeing them in a whole lot of places. Both streams and lakes. What does it mean. Well, Otters like to eat - fish mostly - trout, whitefish, suckers et al. But by in large whatever they can catch. Well, I've seen otters four different occasions on Ironside Pond reflecting, I would guess, their fondness for trout. How many do they eat depends on their size and whether or not they are feeding young. One estimate is 5 lbs./otter/day. Am I the only one seeing them - hardly. One nice thing about living in the area is I know people who are in the bush a lot. They are also seeing them. A friend saw a group of 5 cross the Pr. Creek road, others have been seen from east of Spruceview to Buck Lake. I've been told of Otters on the Carbondale and well as some tribs to the Elk in BC. Frankly, they are everywhere and they are spreading. What’s the concern? Well, for some folks not much but there are hot spots of concern in the Rocky area where some species of trout exist and are barely holding on. The Swan Lake lake trout is an example followed by bull trout spawning areas located in CutOff Creek or Falls creek. The concentration of bull trout or lake trout in the spawning areas makes the population vulnerable. As far as the fishermen, the over-wintering pools for cutthroat are really @ risk as well as brown trout spawning areas in both Pr. Creek and Stauffer Creek. What is to be done? Well, I contacted SRD both fisheries and wildlife folks. The Fisheries folks told me that monitoring was a low priority as neither staffing or resources was available although if such became available streams would be done before lakes. The Wildlife Biologist told me that they need a management plan for the otters in our area. She went along to say “It would be completely irresponsible management to proceed with possible changes to harvest regimes & management strategies without first establishing otter population trend, potential impacts on fish populations (if any) etc.” But, and this is where it gets weird. Trappers in Alberta and elsewhere have taken Otters for about 200 years without a management plan. None when the Hudson Bay Company ran the trapping, none where the Federal Govt ran trapping and none for Alberta’s Provincial Govt who have been able to increase the population of Otters w/o a plan. In fact, in Alberta, there are no management plans for any furbearer. Good thing or bad – I haven’t a clue. Looks like the Beavers and Otters are doing OK So the question: Is a management plan really necessary? Facing the fact of decreased staffing and resources within SRD and the fact that Otters seem to be doing quite well w/o a plan one is left to wonder why a plan is needed. For a article on the issue written by the Wildlife Biologist, see: http://www.srd.alberta.ca/FishWildlife/ ... un2010.pdf And what can you do? The Biologist needs to know about Otters. She’s not in the field like you and I. Lets tell her. She asks for sightings, location and pictures and send to Anne Hubbs or Chiara Feder at 403-845-8230 Anne Hubbs <Anne.Hubbs@gov.ab.ca> Thank folks - we need to have something done about the infestation. regards, Don

Hi There ... it dosn,t matter if it is a tarpon rig or a trout rod .. if the rod handles the line and the amount of line necessary to do the job is half the equation .. some rods tend to fold when they reach their limit .. the other part of the equation is can the rod land the fish effectively ? It dosn,t matter if it says 8 wt. on the rod handle if it takes a ten wieght line to load it ... I get to cast a lot of rods during a guiding season and I am constantly changing my lines for clients or just taking thier rod out of thier hands a letting them us mine .. I have seen 5wt. Reddingtons that I would gladly take stealhead fishing and throw a 8-9 wt. line on .. and I have a 8 wt. St. Croix steal head rod that I have to throw 25 ft. of lead core trolling line on just to bend the dam thing... bottom line is the rod has to have power in the design or it won,t hadle the over loadig .. I over load all my Loomis fly rods 1 line weight and they realy flex and fling that line out there and are a pleasure to cast ..and I only use double tapers...try some lines out ... if it dosn,t handle over loading a line weight it,s probably not much of a rod .. gotta Go! Al B.

My wife and I just came back from a spring steel head trip on the west coast .. every trip we take into B.C. we are amazed at the number of sweet little rest spots and access points on ther streams and rivers...All we seem to do is loose access to our rivers and other recreational opportunities .. can you immagine on such a big project like that not figuring in a parking spot for a city of 1,000,000 people to access the great outdoors..In BC. there is access to almost every steam you cross with picknic tables and bath rooms and a shelter .. down here on the Crowsnest we lost two shelters in the last two years because our government couldn,t afford a coat of paint , so they tore them down ?? and everything else has a locked gate after the summer... I thought we were the HAVE province were does all that money go ? Into the pockets of the concervative party I guess .. remember that when you vote .. good luck dodging that deerfoot traffic ...