rhuseby

It's not chumming if it's tiny bait.

Just an interesting note on Encana here. One of the guys I work with has a brother who was drilling holes for Encana. Encaba was paying $1500 a hand per day bonus for each day holes came in early this year. They were NOT increasing the number of holes they planned to drill, but simply trying to get them done as early as possible. Now Encana is claiming they have stopped drilling because of the royalty review and its consequences. Even I can smell something wrong here. As well, my brother, who has his own small business (pilot truck and truck push for rig moves) says business is pretty much normal for the time of year, and he works mainly gas drilling rigs. Where else are big companies going to go? Places that have much higher exploration and recovery costs (Arctic), politically unstable areas with hostile governments(Middle East, Venezuala)? And let's remember that, as already pointed out, the increase would barely put us into the middle of the world wide range for royalties.

I haven't fished it myself but you may want to be aware that there are a few big bulls in the lake too. They get nice and fat eating the trout and suckers. A friend of mine got his butt cleaned good by one.

NICE FISH! My first coho was a 16 inch jack. Rinse off the gear and enjoy the pops.

Okay, I must have been dropped on my head at birth. I use a 7wt for over 90% of all my fishing everywhere. Punching flies into the wind with a lighter rod drives me nuts. When it's fairly calm I do use a 5wt. If you're worried about line splash, add on a couple of extra feet of tippet. Fishing Quirk Creek on the brookie project, there have been a lot of days that guys with 4 wts were cursing because the wind kept blowing their line into the willows. The ole 7 just hammered through and put the fly where I wanted it.

Hey Brewingup. I just spent most of September on the island fishing the salt. The best flies I found for coho were small clousers in chartreuse and white and hot pink and white, about 2-3 inches long. Small pearl mickys and white wizards also got some action. Strip rate and fly depth were often very important to getting action as well. A couple of times I had gotten fed up with no coho and had let the fly sink deep and was stripping slowly trying for some flounder when bang! there was a coho. Searun cutts ALL hit the hot pink. I never would have guessed. Have fun and keep the updates coming.

Angler, I would agree with you if don't fish a lot (that's a fuzzy definition, I know), but when you start going through 50-100 flies a month, you're adding up fast. As long as you don't get stupid about expensive tools and a massive amount of materials right away, you can get started for the price of one season's flies. Since the tools don't wear out, except maybe scissors when cutting heavy materials, they amortize down to nothing over time. If you have very little time to tie, that is another twist. There have been a couple of good threads on the flytying page related to this topic.

Silver Doc, get Fisherman's Winter if at all possible. The best of the series in my opinion. A read that you won't want to put down, and a facinating look at Chile in the early days of it's flyfishing destination development.

I usually find rainbows jump more, but some of the wildest jumpers I've ever hooked have been browns. They've also made some pretty explosive runs on me too.

If you truly get the flyfishing bug, you might as well learn to tie flies. There's no way I could afford my habit if I bought flies, as I got through a feww hundred every year, between decorating trees and willow bushes, hitting high banks on backcasts, snapping off a few, snagging bottom with nymphs and streams and all of the other ways you can go through them. Have fun everyone.

Congrats Playdoh. Once you know that you can indeed get the little buggers, life becomes much less stressful. The knot Ladystrange describes is the improved clinch. It has been pretty much the only knot I've used for tying on hooks since I started fishing. I've tied double turles, non-slip mono loops, trilenes, and a few others, and keep coming back to the improved clinch. Make sure you goober it up well with spit, pull everything really tight and test it before you start casting. Usually it will pop on a steady pull if you've screwed it up and and then you just tie it again with more care. Carry3-4 spools of tippet material for rebuilding your leader. I pack 2x down to 5x, usually using 3x or 4x for the end section depending on the size of the flies. 5x is for small stuff, like size 16 and down, and any more I only go that fine if the fish are insisting on it. I use a double surgeon's knot to join sections of tippet. Overlap about 3-4 inches of the two pieces, tie an overhand knot with the doubled section, and then, without pulling it tight, take the doubled section through the loop again. Goober it up, and pull all 4 ends at the same time slowly but firmly. This knot is much easier and faster to tie on the stream once you get it learned. However, I tie up my own leaders, and I use a blood knot on all of those sections. I have time to get them right and tight then, however, sitting at home. There aren't any warnings on eating trout out of the lower Bow, but I have eaten a whitefish (my daughter's first rockie) and it had a distinct phenol taste that was unpleasant. Mercury is not only from human activity. Around Hinton, many fish have mercury warnings and there are no industrial human activities to cause the pollution. Apparently many parts of Alberta have a naturally occurring trace of mercury and it quickly concentrates in the higher food chain. If you want a fish to eat, any brook trout you catch from a stream in Alberta is a prime candidate. Every biologist I've talked to says that you will cause no harm to fish populations and you will benefit the native cutts and bulls by reducing instream competition. Downside is that they rarely get over 10-12 inches in Alberta streams.

Nice photo of the bears. Looks like they're all kids, where's mom? Were they fishing for lunch?

I agree with Flytyer that quality is always an issue with the cheap kits. However, when you're just starting out you have such a steep learning curve that you're going to waste quite a bit of material. Better that you waste the cheap stuff and then restock with the good material once you've learned the techniques. This kit looks like it only contains materials. Get good tools, not necessarily expensive but good quality and you'll enjoy tying a whole lot more. Any of the good fly fishing shops in town can set you up. Also, find somewhere you can get some instruction. I learned to tie by reading out the section in the back of Ray Bergman's book "Trout". Any of the older guys who remember that book will recognize the challenges I faced. A major word of caution, if you don't like squinty, fiddly you may not enjoy tying.

Not trying to pirate the thread, but when I was at Royal Roads Military College in the 70's, they had a bunch of peacocks running around. They are are the noisiest damn birds in Dcemeber (breeding season) right when you're cramming for exams. One of the guys (not me thank god) was going down to play tennis and gave of the males a light smack with his racket for all of the disturbance. Yep, dead as a doornail. Talk about crap hitting rotating blades. We didn't get to eat the bird though. Great shots of the birds by the way. There is a flock west of Turner Valley, usually on the Bar N ranch, but I've seen them in Sandy McNabb as well.

Have only ever used one vise. It came in my $12.95 tying kit in 1976, and looks like a really bad Thompson knockoff. The jaws are canted about 10 degrees towards me and I had to file the ends to match them up. Still it's held every hook from size 20 to 3/0 that I slap in it and I've never really felt a need for something else. Of course, I refuse to get a cell phone too, so maybe I'm just low tech :-)

Season is still going for me, but so far since Jan 1: 100+ days on the water 500+ fish of 22 different species, rainbows, browns, cutts similar numbers Biggest fish, 2 coho about 15 lbs near Campbell River Best day, fishing with the kids up at Elbow Lake Best flies, gold ribbed hare's ear, sjw, elk hair caddis, clousers Waters fished, Bow, Elbow, Sheep, Quirk, Prairie, Flat, Etherington, Cataract, Oldman, Crowsnest, Dogpound, Raven, Stauffer, Fraser, Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes, Elbow, Severn, Airdrie pond, Pacific Ocean, Strait of Georgia

Just got back from 3 weeks in Chilliwack and on the island. The Fraser has some nice coho coming in, as I got a bright 10 lb fish while trying for pinks near Chilliwack. That was on the 25th. If you have enough time to get over to the island for a couple of days, the beach fishing around Campbell River was picking up for coho when I left on the 24th. Everywhere on the lower mainland will be busy compared to what even the Bow is like, but you can find some space midweek.

The van is loaded except for the cold stuff and launch time is 0600 tomorrow. 24 days on the coast, 14 of them on Vancouver Island, chasing anything with fins. Hopefully the memory creel will be full. Out till the 28th.

Following you must be like going climbing at Wasootch the day after the army had been training there. I accumulated almost a full rack just digging nuts and pins out of the cracks that had been forgotten by them.

The BUI term is a little older and has probably been replaced by BIU to more accurately reflect what is intended. I was pretty tired when writing last night, and not making as much as much sense as I hoped. What I was trying to point out is that a small amount of rain can quickly reduce the likelihood of a fire starting without reducing the intensity of a fire if one starts. Ignition probability is one of the main concerns in determining forest closures.

A question on location. Was this inside the K country boundary or downstream in the ranch country? If it was upstream, then vehicles aren't allowed off-road at all in the Highwood drainage. Try contacting the Kananaskis Emergency Center and have them get hold of the duty CO for the area. There is at least one on duty almost all of the time from May to September and they will deal that sort of stuff asap. If it was downstream, then there really aren't a lot of restrictions other than the pollution stuff already pointed out and just plain old public pressure. That could change if enough people pressure their mla, so lets get on it people.

A couple of points as to why the access was lifted. The BUI or build up index reflects the overall severity of a fire that may occur. It heavily reflects the major fuels like standing timber that are slow to ignite but burn intensly once ignited. The FFMC or fine fuel moisture code reflects the dryness of stuff like grass and pine needles that don't burn really hot but are very easy to ignite. Because they are fine, the fine fuels rapidly lose their hazard when rain falls, and it doesn't take long to rapidly reduce the ignition likelihood. Obviously they can dry out again relatively quickly, but by this point in the year overnight dew and frost will have a significant effect in slowing down the rapidity of this drying out. While there are politics involved, remember that they closed the area right before a long weekend. All I can say is that I'm glad that I don't have to make those kind of decisions. No matter which way you go, someone is chewing on your ass. Fire closures, bear closures, etc.

Gorgeous areas up along the 93. I've been lucky enough to ski tour and climb in both areas and the views from above are awesome. The ex's uncle was a Danish shipwright who did most of the construction on Numtija Lodge for old Jimmy Simpson. Castella was his name.

I don't have any knowledge of the newer Battenkills, but my old Mk V is over 25 years old and still going strong. The drag has never been great, but a little palming takes care of any problems. Otherwise, indestrucible.

There's no fish in Crimson itself, but you'll be right in the middle of some of the best fishing in Alberta. Shunda is an hour away, Stauffer is about 45 minutes, the Baptiste is 30 minutes, Prairie, North Ram, Blackstone, even the North Saskatchewan itself. On the Norst Sask, there are a couple of good holes in the historic site park, for big rockies and smallto medium browns. There are a couple of eddies north of the park that have always produced pike up to 10 lbs as well. The best places for flyrodding are Shunda and the Baptiste, browns in Shunda and brookies in Baptiste. If you want the familiy members to get some fish though, just go down the road to Twin Lake, 5 minutes back towards Hwy 11 and fish for rainbows. I believe they have built a fishing dock along the north shore, and there are lots of places around the shoreline you can fish from with spinning gear. I spent 3 years working around Rocky and it is the absolute heart of brown trout fishing in this province. Sneak away for an afternoon and hit Shunda for sure, smallish dry fly about 14-16 and you'll get some browns for yourself. I envy you.