WyomingGeorge

Simplest advice I can give: --use a thing-a-ma-bobber as indicator. It's indestructible, easily adjustable and floats well. I use white on the theory that it looks more like natural foam in the water (but that may be delusional) --use a stout leader (3X or even 2X) --tie on two or three nymphs. I tie the tippet for the droppers through the eye of the previous nymph, so that each nymph can wave about freely in the water --use successively lighter tippet as you go down, so that if you hook your lowest fly on the riverbed, you are less likely to lose the entire rig --space the nymphs over 12" apart, especially if one of them is large --use split shot -- your rig MUST get down to the fish quickly -- spaced about 12"-18" above the uppermost fly --use more split shot if all your nymphs are small, and less if the upper nymph is heavily weighted (a wire worm doesn't count as weighted, nor does a tiny bead on a little nymph, but a turd pattern with lead wire inside the chenille or a big stonefly with a large bead does count as weighted) --set your bobber at 1-1.5 times the water's depth to the split shot --you should touch bottom occasionally but not drag continuously -- adjust the bobber's height as needed --you will lose a few flies That's how to rig -- now your challenge is choosing the right flies and the right water. Good luck!

Of course, the key to everything is that you have to LIKE streamer fishing to begin with! I can't believe the number of anglers I run into who think it "doesn't work", or who "only do it when nothing else is working", or that trout somehow aren't "fast enough" to catch them (!) (especially bizarre given that the fastest rippin' streamer retrieve is barely equal to a slow hand-crank of a spinning road). And of course, absolutely for sure, if the water isn't 10 feet of gin-clear crystalline perfection, the fish CAN'T SEE THEM. Oh yeah, and never, never, never streamer fish in a tailwater. Ever. It's a wonder anyone even makes streamer lines. Who buys that stuff? Streamer lines are like those weird consumer products sold on late-night cable to old people, like the garden hose that straightens itself out.

Monger: You are right. But the fellow was talking about chasing bulls in SE B.C. Down in the canyon section the Elk has pools that must be 20 ft deep or more. I've stood on some of the cliffs and looked straight down, with no sign of the bottom, and these murky gray torpedo shapes doing lazy circles way down there somewhere. The 15" cutts swimming around above them look like minnows.

I use the Rio Outbound Short and love it for the type of streamer water I like to fish, which is usually not all that deep (banks, riffles and shallower runs rather than really deep holes). It does, as reputed, hurl streamers like there's no tomorrow. For deep water, a full sinking line or a long sink tip is the way to go. Not only do you get down faster and farther, but you avoid the tendency of a sink tip to form an angle in the water once it does finally get down (meaning you are usually pulling the streamer "up" through the water column, rather than along the bottom) the way a sculpin would swim. The deeper you need to get with a shorter sink tip or sinking leader, the steeper the angle to the floating section becomes, and adding heavier flies or split shot only increase that. So it depends on the type of water you want to fish. From the sounds of it, you want to get pretty deep.

I laughed about the sarcastic endorsement of Beaver Dam. I live near the Beaver Dam Golf Course around Madden, and my twice-weekly bike ride takes me across Beaver Dam creek as well as along it for a good stretch. Every ride, no matter the month, I look intently for rise forms. In hundreds of rides over 10 years I've seen one possible (not confirmed) rise. Lots of muskrats and waterfowl. Today, though, I just about fell off my bike when I saw an incredible rise form, that is to say, the gentlest dimple followed by large waves slapping both banks. I stopped to watch and, sure enough, there was a large to massive fish working. As in, an inch of dainty snout, then big ripples, then three seconds later a tail poking out two feet from where the snout had been. The fish moved around quite a bit and rose about eight times before I headed onward. I was just about jumping out of my shoes. It was well onto private land, though, and I was far from home with just my bike.

I didn't say I was annoyed by it. As I said, I wade more than I float. My point was, some wade fishermen's expectations seem to ebb and flow: if they're the only wade fisherman they expect half a mile of bank to themselves...if it's busy they're OK with 10 metres to the next wade angler...but either way, the boats had better steer clear. One of the reasons it works so well on the Missouri is that the wade fishermen don't expect more from the boats than from other waders, they expect the same thing: one casting radius. If there's a large feature with room for 8 occupied by 2, then it makes no difference whether two more wade fishermen wander in, or three driftboats pull in and each takes a piece. You see this daily on the Missouri. And in some areas where the boats tend to recirculate on the eddy and do repeated laps, the wade fishermen don't even go.

And there are plenty of waders who think that, because they're on foot, they've personally reserved half a mile of riverbank. Yet on busy evenings at Fish Creek Park they're happily lined up 10 metres apart...but the apocalypse befalls them if a boat approaches. When both banks are lined with anglers, the implication would seem to be that boats are required to float down the precise middle of the river, not fishing. I wade fish far more than I float, but sorry, the expectations of some wade fishermen are simply excessive.

Hey mkm: Sorry this devolved into joking after what was surely an intimidating encounter. For what it's worth, I would have called it in to police and supplied every detail I could remember. If the cops didn't take me seriously, shame on them. But for all we know, this was a character who is "known to police", as the euphemism has it, and it would have been one more useful piece of the puzzle for them.

I should have added, or watch a few episodes of "Justified" and dress up like any of the numerous extras who get bumped off along the way. That might require getting some fake tats, like barbed wire around your neck.

Rodney Dangerfield used to say, "If you wanna' look thin, hang out with fat people!" By which I mean, all of us clean-shaven, mild-mannered, harmless looking schlepps might need to add in a little bit of creep for those unforeseen eyeball-to-eyeball sessions with the really weird: --don't shave for three to five days before any planned fishing outing --wear old shirts and scruffy waders --have a hunting knife on one hip and bear spray on the other. There are bears everywhere now --drive a big-ass diesel truck, loud, keep dirty, have a front plate from a rugged U.S. state (Louisiana, say) --when the weirdo says something weird, reply with something even weirder and try to adopt a lunatic expression (for some of us, this comes naturally) All bs aside, if you're out late at night, wear a headlamp when you head back to the parking lot. If someone strange approaches, a bright beam of LEDs right in their eyes is pretty intimidating and gives you a big advantage, masking your movements while allowing you to observe anything the creep does, as well as ruining his night vision for a few critical seconds if you need to jump in your vehicle and turn on the engine.

And if you play it backwards, you get your girlfriend back and you land the fish!

Hi Big: Of course you are right -- every word of it. There are hours and hours on the river in which simply being there is magical. And yet, the impetus for the journey, the framework of the activity, the object of the quest, is a certain thing. So I believe the magic is linked to the success of the quest, on some intangible level, one that varies from day to day, river to river and angler to angler. Being honest about myself, for me fishing multiple days without catching is like kayaking without surf waves, skiing in the rain, washing a car without soap or running the lawnmower without a blade.

Hey Big: If it's not about the fish, then why fish? Just canoe the very same water. For me, I gotta' admit, it's 80-90 percent about the fish, or I would go kayaking. So when I take a pounding, yeah it hurts, because it is about the fish.

Silver: wasn't that a Glenn Campbell song? Other gents: if you're nymphing the Bow: --get down deep -- split shot, split shot, split shot. You should be hooking the river bottom more than occasionally, and losing the occasional fly --use stones, worms, and little mayfly, caddis and midge stuff -- always have some little stuff on. Sometimes go "all small". Bright day, bland coloured worm; cloudy day or murky water, bright worm --fish deep water, shallow water, fast water, slow water. As summer comes and the water heats up, fish more and more fast water --set on ANY indicator movement -- every time, every time, every time --if you see the occasional fish rolling near the surface, or single rises but not really working fish, then shorten the rig and occasionally let it go tight at the end of the drift, simulating rising insects You shall be rewarded by the harsh mistress.

Whatever damage they may do, watching a pair of them float down the middle of a wavetrain, their heads swivelling alertly like little periscopes, almost daring anyone to come and do something about it, is a sight that never fails to make me grin ear to ear. I'd gladly hand them some fish just for the performance.

Alas, I don't tow my Clack with a Morgan Three-Wheeler.

Don: I was born in Saskatchewan and have lived nearly my entire life in Alberta. I happen to GO to Wyoming in the summer is all and I needed a forum handle. It's a self-deprecating reference to "Wyoming Bill Kelso" in Peter Sellers' "The Party". You know, "Oh golly, thank you so much for crrrrrushing my hand..."

Should nature remain static for all time? 12,000 years ago, Alberta was nearly 100 percent rocks and ice. That means virtually every living thing we see is ultimately an invasive non-native species. So the crayfish have spread out of the Beaver River (possibly with human help), and otters are on the Eastern Slopes.

Don, there you go again! Who cares? House pets all carry diseases and/or parasites that can afflict humans. Do pet owners typically die a terrible, lingering death as a result? Nor have I caught swine flu, bird flu, West Nile, AIDS, tapeworms, hantavirus, and on and on. I'm not planning to exchange bodily fluids with any otters, and if the poo-line at Bonnybrook hasn't gotten me yet, I doubt a few otter turds will do the trick. Do you wake up in the morning and see the world as a gigantic menacing smorgasbord of mortal hazards? Or are you just having some fun?

Holy smokes, now I feel sorry for the pile-on. Don, it wasn't that you were factually wrong, it just, you know, came across as a tad over-anxious, compared perhaps to Putin's behaviour towards Ukraine.

Yes, there's an almost Monty Python-esque absurdity to labelling a thread about otters "be careful out there". Look, virtually anything can get you killed, but this post-modern tendency to turn every single thing in our lives into a safety issue and risk management challenge is pathetic.

Caddis are critical, spinners are useful if you want to experience the most magical moments fly fishing has to offer: giant fish kissing the water in mirrored glass at dusk.

And of course, as Hank Patterson reminded us, insist on pulverized sunglasses. They let you see the fish, in the sense that when you stick your head completely in the water, you will see fish swimming around.

Maui Jim products are phenomenal. Another option is the Switch brand that you can get from MEC for about $150, and then order up just the swappable prescription lenses online. The lenses are attached by small but powerful magnets, suitable for skiing, mountain biking, etc., so they should not fall out while fishing.

The big nymphs should be great in the spring, especially when the water's a bit cloudy.