toolman

Another couple of my favorites to get this great thread back on track. Enjoy! Keep the photo's coming folks.

Gopher Boy, get a life. You make assumptions, judgements and character attacks towards people you have not even met. It's obvious to us, who you are. As usual, your comments/contributions are negative and you are not liked or respected because of it. Maybe I should tell the members here who you really are...maybe then you would consider your words more carefully if you had to man up and own them publicly.

Very nice photo album and a great adventure. Thanks!

Sad news for Prince Edward Islands flyfisherman. Two of the islands rivers, the Tyron and Dunk, have experienced a major fish kill this past weekend. It is believed that heavy rains have washed agricultural pesticides into the rivers. Info: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-isl...ll-webster.html

The cougar is there for the food, which consists of a lot of fat lazy deer and their fawns, rabbits, ducks and geese. The cougar is in the Park, as it does not have to compete with other predators such as grizzlies, wolf packs, black bears and other cougars etc. I doubt the cat will be going anywhere before late september, when it will move back up to the foothills. If it disappears again, as the park office has said they have in the past, it does not mean that it has left the area for good, as cougars are nocturnal hunters/travellers and may be in another part of it's summer territory only a few miles away (say Policemans Flats) and will most likely return again.

They should just bring in the hunting/tracking dogs and they would have that kitty up a tree in a couple hours. Hell, I should go down there and tree him just for the fun of it, then call the Park Office and tell them I've got him cornered..LOL! Who's with me?... Anyone? You're not afraid of kitties are you? ps. Anyone got a couple of dogs I can take for a walk some late evening?

You must have thought you had a monster Trout on the line when you first hooked it! When did you realize you had hooked a Pike?

I believe the hook set and the way the trout takes the fly, has everything to do with the success of the landings. On Sunday evening, I hooked 5 trout on a skid bitch that I was dead drifting on the surface and allowing to swing too the bank at the end of the drift. I only landed one out of the five hooked, as the line had a bag/slack in it when the trout were grabbing the fly, just as it would start to swing. The only trout that I landed, hit right at the bank when my line had tightened below me and I gave it a couple of short strips, which triggered an aggressive strike and a solid hook up. Last night I fished down and across on a tight line and had 5 to hand out of 7 hooked, because the line was always kept tight through the drift. Also, the fly I used was fished wet and would rise to the surface at the end of the swing, causing the trout to hit more aggressively, which resulted in better hook sets and more trout landed. I did not move more than 20' to land any of the trout and even pulled several almost a 100' back upstream to me, as the trout were bolting downstream at high speed after the grab. The veteran Atlantic Salmon fishers who taught me how to swing a wet fly 20 years ago, would always say, keep the line tight and the rod tip low, follow the fly and don't let him feel the rod on the grab. I now understand what they mean.

I used to fight the trout much differently in past seasons than I have been this year. In past years, I would always gauge my success by having the trout landed in the net. This season I took a different approach and do not even use a net and I don't really care if I "land" the fish. What I now call "success", is getting the trout to take my fly and presentation. After that has happened, I fight them hard right away and make them jump, run and battle. I love a good scrap and learned that if you pull hard early in the fight, you will get what you asked for. Bow river trout can be nasty customers if you get them PO'ed and your landing rate will plummet by doing this, but I am going to let them go anyway, so no big deal. This way is usually faster and easier on both of us, as running, falling down the rough shoreline, often in the dark, can leave a few marks on both you and the trout I'll take the one minute long, high adventure scrap that ends in a LDR, anytime, over a light handed 10-15min. walk down the bank, to get a photo of an exhausted trout. If I win the fight, the trout is usually landed in a couple of minutes, 5 minutes top. Win or lose on the landing, my adrenaline is always pumping pretty high at the end of it and I have a big smile on my face. Thanks to Gord K for the perspective.

I like the high flows that we have been enjoying this year. It's good for the fish and the insects and keeps the weeds from getting out of hand. High flows will keep the water temps. cooler and more stable in the hot dog days of summer. I hope the high flows continue for as long as possible and continue to remain stable from day to day. The fishing on the Bow has been spectacular this season because of these conditions.

Nice report. I would guess that it was a Bull trout chasing your 15"-16" Brown trout. Big Browns do occasionally attack when you have a small trout 8"-10" on your line, but a 15"-16" trout getting attacked is most likely by a big Bull. IMO

That's awesome. Congrats to you and your wife.

Those Sturgeon are something else. Wow...I like big fish! How long to land one of those? I think I'd bring the two hander for that gig.

A few of my favorite trout this season...

Those are the same Gentleman Angler rules in place for fishing Atlantics in New Brunswick, as well as most private beats in Scotland and the UK. In New Brunswick the use of any weight on the fly or line, is not permited and sink tips are frowned upon.

I don't think it will change any of the spawning behaviors of the trout, as they usually return to the same general area's and streams to spawn. Naturally, flooding and varying water levels from year to year, dictate exact spawning sites where conditions are optimum. I don't see any downside to this project.

A wading staff with a weighted tip is a good feature. Silver Doctor recently purchase an awesome wading staff that is the best I have ever seen. Hopefully he can share his opinion with you on it. Not sure if it is available in Canada yet, as it was brought over from Scotland by Gordon Macleod (Speyghille), back in May, when he was instructing a Spey School for us.

I agree. Whitefish do not handle the high temps as well as the trout do, especailly if taken out of the water for 15-20 secs. We see dead Whities on the Bow every July when the heat wave hits. Also, the whities are under a lot of stress and get pressured by the trout for feeding postitions, holding postitions in the deep slots and in the main river Thalwag etc.

Maybe a snake...

Very cool and definetly worth a try. Thanks flyangler! ps. How big do those Minnesota Browns get?

That was fun...

Rick...bad, bad, bad, bad... Now, write a hundred lines that say, "I will use caution when wading in rivers" And do it in a post here at FFC.

Maybe a smaller fly (#8) would have gotten better grabs. It sounds like the fish were spitting the fly very quickly after mouthing it. Also, a larger fly may have gotten more solid grabs. Sometimes it's necessary to change fly sizes and use different types of flys, to get better landing ratio's. Edit: What type of Stoneflys were in the area and what size were the Skid Bitches?

Thanks Don, They sure sound like sweet rods from what I have read about them, but I haven't had the pleasure to cast one yet. I will someday, hopefully with a nice DT line.

Birchy= 22... BC Pro's =0...