rhuseby

Gear's in the car almost year round. Take out between trips whn the weather's freezing so that the boots aren't frost damaged. Never a break in so far.

Hey Taco, you mean like "8 shots and the buffalo kept coming". That is a damn fine video I would say. Shows just how tough African game is and why it is. Can you imagine an elk surviving that, taking nothing away from elk for toughness.

Am I asleep? Am I at work? Do I have the kids? If all three answers are no, it's time to fish. That said, my basic experience is that the most productive time for fishing is generally from about 0900 to 1300. Lots of exceptions, but over the year that seems to be consistently the best for me.

Pipestone. I don't have a clue about the origin of your rod. Like a lot of new technologies, when fiberglass started to beome widespread in the 50's a whole pile of small manufacturers sprang up, and large corporations would set up a little side operation to see if they could make a profit. Some of the real tackle geeks might be able to id it for you. You should be able to use the rod safely though. Just be really carefull not to rap it against anything since a lot of older rods didn't have any lateral strength in the weave. The fiberglass rods I've used all have a fairly soft action which makes it hard to get a lot of distance, but they tend to make really nice deliveries on short to medium range casts. Have fun with the old girl and treat her nice.

Bought my first flyrod in 76 just before I went to Great Bear Lake as a guide. First few times using it, I went to Stauffer Creek, talk about the wrong kindergarten. Used it almost exclusively since then. Hey Don, I remember running into guys with rods from you in the early 80's, when did you start selling them?

Good luck. Hope you're in the water asap.

I just feel sorry for the poor guy who nails him with a car when he's on the wrong side of the road.

I've had 2 pair of the cheaper Wardells. The first ones had about 120 days on them, and the current ones are getting near 150. I'm hard on my waders, in and out of canyons, crawling on knees, bush-whacking, riding a mountain bike with them to save carrying extra stuff (no one's ever accused me of being smart, just lazy). Once in a while I curse them for being flimsy and then I stop and think about what I do to them. I've never owned a pair of the high end breathables by any maker, so I don't have a direct comparison. One thing I do know, don't walk into barb wire fences.

Donnamatrix. Just trying to be nice to the guy with five rigs, maybe he's getting out his friends as well. I can't see even the morons who destroy the country having five rigs of their own. I'm with you on the random issue.

A guy I used to work with was a park ranger down in the Highwood and got treed by a black bear. When the bear saw him up the tree, it started up after him. Luckily he was young and agile, and jumped about 5 feet across to another tree. The bear goes back down, and starts up the second tree. My bud has to jump back and forth about 4 times before brer bear gets tired and takes off. He had radioed for help and when the fish cops and other rangers got there with guns, they said he looked like he had lost a fight with a bagfull of wildcats. He's been spooked about bears ever since. Guess I would be too.

One minute you're wading along a creek casting to a rising fish, and the next you're asking St. Peter why the pearly gates are open. Let's hope the trout still rise in heaven.

Called in sick once to fish, and that was when the ex and I were having "issues". However, let's get real, given a choice, you know where I'm going. However that's why God invented morning and evening fishing, so you can still fish on a work day.

Just make sure that you can run faster than Ben Johnson on roids. I almost peed myself watching that.

Cell phones are a work of the devil, and the good lord was just looking out for your soul. Oops, was I speaking out loud? Better luck with the next one.

Tough one, but I'm going fishing.

1. Baja (good bud has fished it alomost every winter for 15 years and raves) 2. Great Bear Lake (guided there for a summer when it was crap in the mid 70's and it was awesome then) 3. 50 mile radius of Nordegg I'd take my daughter and son, but if Sean didn't go I'd love to have had the chance to fish with Rod Haig-Brown.

I find that cutthroat are very variable in colour pattern. In some parts of the province this is due to different strains beiong stocked over the years, but even in streams where I believe the strains are basically native there is a lot of variation. You will get the really rosy and yellow, heavily spotted ones one cast, and the next cast will pick up an almmost silver one with few spots, then you'll get one with many very small spots. Quirk Creek is like that among others.

3 hours for the underbody!!!!!! Man, I hate spending 20 minutes on a single whole fly. I like them to take less time to tie than it does for me to lose them. Gorgeous fly.

Nice memories you've got stored up there. Some great shots.

Looks like my brother and I timed our trip perfectly. When K-Country was closed in late August and early Sept of 2001, they re-opened it after 3/10 inch of rain. Don't know if that would apply here, but it really doesn't take much to make a big change in the fire hazard.

I'm with you Toolman. My kids go fishing and hunting with me, and they understand that you have to care for wildlife and the environment as part of those activities. My son has decided that he's not ready to hunt yet, because he isn't sure of making a clean shot. When he feels he's ready he will, but I just tell him that's what respecting wildlife is about. Rabbiee, good job starting a very thought provoking thread.

Okay, let's start pushing the Alberta government to bring in something like this. There's not really much anyone in the ATV/4x4 community to say against it, since they are otherwise saying that their recreation destroys the environment and they don't give a flaming rat. One nice $100,000 conviction is all it would take to clean up a lot of trouble.

Great report. Is it okay to pm you about saltwater flyrodding? I'm just getting started at it and will be spending most of September on Vancouver island chasing anything in the salt.

Just for general info for all, I was fishing down on the Oldman with my brother and he had to phone his wife. To reach a tower we had to drive south on 22 to the top of the hill to the south, about 5 minutes from the Oldman itself. He had no contact anywhere else from the the Gap east.

I've never actually fished the lake, but when climbing in the area I've seen quite a few rising. The trout are natives, so there will still be fish in the lake, as well as in the upper meadow portion of the creek draining the lake. A couple of the fish I saw cruising looked to be 12-14 inches.