WyomingGeorge

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.

Vagabond re: Kola Peninsula. An acquaintance of mine works the deep underground iron mines in Kiruna, in the far north of Sweden. He let me in on an amusing secret a few years ago, namely that ordinary middle-class Russians and non-rich Swedes go and fish the exact same water in the Kola Peninsula as the Euros and North Americans who pay $6,000 or whatever it is a week. They drive up to the Kola Peninsula and then stay in (much) rougher camps just down the river from the fancy ones, eating simpler food, and if I remember right paying about $1,500 for the week. In order to book, you'd probably need a Russian-speaking friend to surf the web for the Russian-language guiding outfits and camps catering to those folks...but it might make the trip of a lifetime affordable.

You're most welcome, best of luck with the project. I quail in fear at the idea of self-building a boat, and admire those who do. I'm sure the satisfaction of floating in one's very own boat will be intense, similar to catching fish on self-tied flies.

As well, a big part of ease-of-rowing is good tracking. One can waste a lot of effort on correcting undesired course changes. I recall renting and hating a high-sided 14' Clack, which felt like an unguided cockleshell in even a moderate wind. Honestly half my energy went into trying to control the direction rather than moving it in the direction I wanted to go. A longer boat should, generally, track better, although the best tracking comes from subtleties of hull design that various manufacturers claim to have the edge in.

Rowing effort will depend far more on the amount of rocker in the design. Lots of rocker means a middle that hangs low in the water, meaning you are always rowing "uphill" in either direction. Less rocker (although it has disadvantages, such as crashing into rather than smoothly taking waves), means faster rowing...as long as the boat isn't over-loaded. Which brings me to point 2: a longer boat should row easier because the overall draft should be less. You'll be especially happier to have the larger hull when you put in three relatively large guys. When I was in the market for my driftboat I agonized over size, and I've been continuously happy to have gotten the Clack 16 Low Profile ever since. Its overall length is 16' 10", very close to your boat. I enjoy rowing it solo, with one passenger or fully loaded.

Well there are a couple of other streams that open April-ish.

I agree that one should generally use heavily weighted streamers and/or sinking tip lines -- but not always. In shallower water, like riffles, heavy weight simply gets you hookups on the wrong items, i.e., streambed junk instead of fish jaws. The largest fish I've ever seen on the Bow took a streamer on floating line in 18 inches of water. When the fish are aggressive, they will rise to streamers from far down, coming towards the surface or even exploding right out of the water as they scoop up their prey from below. One time a couple of years ago I got crushed streamer-fishing by my wife, who was using a much lighter rig. My weighted stuff was being dragged right past the fish, who ignored all of it, while hurtling up out of the depths to grab the smaller, slimmer streamer my wife was stripping barely a foot below the surface. Despite being a slow learner, after a couple hours of humiliation I switched over and started catching.

Good advice on the last few items, especially varying the retrieve and using loop knots. I should have qualified the "be patient" part by adding "when it makes sense". On a bright hot day and gin-clear water, don't streamer fish. If fish are rising methodically to an obvious hatch, don't streamer fish. If they're languidly taking nymphs 8 feet down and your streamer rig won't go deeper than 2 feet, don't streamer fish. Be patient and stick with it when conditions are favourable to streamer fishing, i.e., when it's cloudy, the water is murky, or at dawn/dusk. The best approach is to have a streamer rod permanently rigged, using it during times when you have one of these advantages, and emphasizing the most likely streamer water, like riffles and banks (swinging in runs can also be very good). If your cast is muscular, fishing two streamers can increase your prospects, or adding a larger nymph behind the streamer. Three anecdotes to give you hope. One time the best fish after three consecutive days on the same river came on the ferry towards the takeout ramp at the end of a very long day that had brought almost no streamer results. Another time a wonderful brown was hooked on the first rod-lift of the day, 30 seconds after leaving the launch, after I sloppily flung the streamer in with all kinds of loops and slack, just to get some line out. The best time of all came after seven hours of almost fruitless solo fishing the town section. My wife hopped in the boat at Fish Creek park and, seven minutes into her fishing afternoon, hooked and landed a five-pound brown on a streamer in a shallow riffle beside some rip-rap. Over the next two hours she landed another six fish on streamers, two of them browns over 20". She always puts a prince nymph behind her streamer. This kind of stuff can happen...along with the hundreds of casts to get one strike.