scel

This is a great pedagogical approach to most issues. The one failure to this approach in this situation is that it does not allow others to learn from someone's mistakes.

Grrr...I try not to let the internet anger me. This is the exact behaviour that messageboards can educate users on.

Early: yes. The wrong forum: probably. While this is fishing-related, ice fishing is really hard to do with a fly rod. Besides, why would you go ice fishing when there is a whole new river to explore?

I fished the RDR today near the dam. My friend and I decided to be nostaligic and fish for whites. In 4 hours, between the 2 of us we easily caught 40 (and 1 little brown). Considering the crappy condition of the river (it was still high for this time of year, and less than 75cm visibility), it was surprising. Now I know that it is nothing like my youth, but the river seems to be in fine shape---or at least in better shape than the last few years. Most of the fish were small (indicative of a recovering population), but all the fish were healthy and incredibly active. There was one fish that my friend and I was sure was a brown. it screamed out line, and jumped twice. But I digress... The RDR is a special environment. With a little love and attention, it could be something truly amazing. My question is this: What are the consequences of altering the flow so radically? I guess I just have a hard time being concerned about human induced flow rates when one considers how artificial the dam is in the first place. I am certainly willing to change my (relatively uninformed) opinion.

I tried using the figure 8 knot. It is great knot for a straight leader. What I really like about it is that you can use your forceps to keep the loop really small. i.e instead of making a loop and twisting it 3 times with your fingers, wrap a loop around forceps, twist your forceps for 3 revolutions, and grab the loop with the forceps to pull it through the hole. I also really like how the figure 8 knot stays straight. Thanks for the tips.

It took me a bit to 'get' it, but I greatly prefer the perfection loop. Before, I had used the surgeons loop. Mechanically, I think the surgeon loop to be stronger. What do you use? Is there a difference is strength? Is there a situation where one should be used over the other?

What part of the Bow are you fishing?

I usually catch a couple of suckers from November-March. However, during the summer, I had never caught any. I have caught 2 in the last 30 days. I have walked 20 km of shoreline. I have seen 5 dead fish. 3/5 have been small suckers. I am not sure what this means (I could have encountered the only 3 dead suckers that succumbed to the flooding). My inclination---the cleansing of the riverbed probably hurt the sucker population. While suckers are native, they are not capable of handling the super fast, high water. They are, however, resilient, and the flood will not seriously impact the population.

Thanks a ton people. This was mission critical. I have heard that they are quite fun and quite easy. It sounds like a good fly fishing training fish. I really appreciate it.

I am about to break all the messagboarding rules. My best friend will be in Alberta for a whole week---no kids, no wife. We have 5/7 days of fishing planned. The only time not allocated is when we are in Red Deer. I grew up fishing the RDR, but I have never fished for Goldeye within city limits (I usually went downstream to Burbank). I never fly fished for them. Most people think that they are great time. So...<ahem>...here it goes... Where is a good spot to fish for Goldeye within the Red Deer city limits? What is the best time of day? What flies should I use? I feel dirty. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Be gentle on me, FFC.

I think that an increase is important and crucial; however... Can someone please tell me how an increase in enforcement will help the longevity of fisheries in the province? As far as I can tell, there is no political system that benefits from increased enforcement over the merits of increased education. Can someone tell me how increasing non-resident fees increases awareness and health of fisheries. We want want more people to come to beautiful Alberta. In most cases, increasing fees just increases non-compliance. How are fisheries any different?

Sweet. This kind of posting is what makes message boards of unrivaled usefulness---sharing of practical experience from a diverse group of people. Where is this lightning hole?

I was a little surprised to find out that the riskiest activity to undertake during a thunderstorm is fishing. I do not spend a great deal of time worrying about lightning striking me, but waving a large carbon rod during an electrical storm does make me a little nervous. In the US, in the last 7 years there have been 238 deaths by lightning. 64% of those (152) were undertaking leisure activities. Of the 152: 26 were fishing 15 were camping 14 were boating 12 were playing soccer 8 were playing golf (the rest are distributed in other activities) SOURCE: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20130624_lightningsafety.html If I get caught in a thunderstorm, I usually lay my rod down and tuck myself in the bank and wait it out. What do you do?

As far as I can tell, the advisory is for boating. I know that there are spots that would be safe, but I also know that in between these spots, there are potentially unsafe areas.

So, Nenshi posted that EMS had to be dispatched today to save someone from a falling bank. I do not want to be a Nenshi-noun, but I would really like to start exploring the new river. When do you think that it will be safe to start hiking the banks?

What was the visibility? Has it started to turn greenish yet? I can see that the flows have been stabilized at 400 m3/s.

Yeah. Fishing was great last year with the high river. Once there was 35 cm of visibility, you could catch big fish with a couple metres of the banks. I did not catch anything with less than 30cm of visibility though.

I understand this flood is perhaps an unprecedented natural disaster in Calgary's history. In this picture, however, I only see a beautiful and thriving boreal/temperate ecosystem. I would never, ever have guessed that this was a picture taken less than 10km from one of the biggest cities in Canada.

I dunno. I figure that flood adaptation is factored into 200 million years evolution.

This is just rain that is making the river high. This rain fell as snow in the higher elevations. When the rain stops, the Bow could clear up for a few days. Although, I would wager that we will see run-off-like conditions until the beginning of June, when we will start to see the actual run-off.

The city will help you solve this problem. It is a free service provided by the City of Calgary. In the genius of the previous owners, they planted a chokecherry tree that overhangs the front sidewalk. It guarantees a nice purple hue to my front entrance. If the tree is less than 3.2m from the centre of the gutter, it is significantly probable that the tree is owned by the city. It might only be a 2% chance, but given the possible (and highly probable) $20000; they are protected by a rather zealous group of people. There is a positive aspects to zealots: they tend to be moral altruists. Call 311. They will send a city forestation officer to determine if the tree is protected by the city. A tree can be protected outside of city jurisdiction (i.e. 3.2m outside the . A landowner can register a tree in their yard. The city will assess its value based on a rubric (i.e. its health, age, proximity to infrastructure, etc) before adding it to the list. The list is small, but they are, in my experience, fairly obvious (like a 90 year old apple tree, 100 year old oak, 70 year old spruce). Hope this helps.

Exactly. The genetic expression of the slash could have been selectively eliminated. For most taxonomists, hybridism is a sum of the traits, not the exclusion of a particular trait. If you look at dogs, if one lets them interbreed long enough, there is a remarkable consistency in the 'mutt'. Taco is right: nobody knows what a Bow River cutbow actually *is*. I think you should call that fish a Bow River Muttbow.

I would say 'yes'. The spotting is a much higher density near the tail (a cutthroat trait). The mouth extends beyond the eye (another cutthroat trait). The last way to tell (but not from this picture) is presence of teeth on the tongue, which are absent in pure rainbows.

I dunno. I figure if you choose a golf ball colour on the city section of the Bow, you will be OK.

To keep your feet warm, you need to keep your entire leg warm. If the blood cools down too much on the drive down to your feet, it will be very hard to keep your foot warm through metabolic activity. Silk long johns, plus either fleece or jeans works best for me for leg warmth. For the actual feet, you need at least 2 pairs of socks. Sock liners are nice. truthfully, a pair of dress socks actually serve as great sock liners. Then a full pair of wool/thermal socks. You will want the wool socks to come up over the top of your boots, if possible. Blood movement in the venous system (i.e. the return to the body core) requires muscle movement. So your feet need to be able to move around. If your boots are too snug, it will prevent the micro-movements for blood return. If your feet are already cold, get out of the water (water has such a high heat capacity that it will be almost impossible to warm up in the water). You can warm them up quite quickly by engaging the big thigh and buttock muscles (as aforementioned, it is muscle movement that helps drive venous return). If you have the room, 10 burpees will usually warm up everything. Otherwise 10 squats will usually get enough blood flowing to start your feet warming up. Although, not critical like the above things, bring all your gear inside for an hour before you go out. I keep my gear my waders and boots in the garage (something about smelling bad, and always making a mess). I just find the whole winter fishing more pleasant when I start out warm. Sticking your feet into cold boots and waders probably has a negligible effect on overall warmth, but I *feel* it makes a difference.