BurningChrome

Also the next disease or invasive species will spread just as quickly unless people start cleaning their boats and gear properly between water bodies.

Yup. Exactly what they were planning to do with the North Central recovery program.

Entire system declared infected. http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/whirling-disease-found-in-north-saskatchewan-watershed

For the line you can put some drag on the reel and pull it off a bit at a time, then attach some heavy mono to the front and tie the mono to a doorknob. Pull it tight to stretch it a bit then reel it back on. For a leader just grab a couple feet of it at a time between your hands and pull or buy one of those leader straighteners.

They don't have any population numbers for anything. The numbers have been asked for and none were supplied. Their definition of pure strain is greater or equal to 99% and it's determined by pulling some fish and mapping their genome. Heh, I could be such a $#!+ disturber and say "yeah, the Bow and Highwood". They presented it more as something they're looking at, but didn't say it actually will happen or where. The context around it was similar similar projects in the States that they've been watching. Find a pure strain population upstream from a hybridized population that has a barrier between them. The hybridized population should have a barrier below it as well to separate them from other hybrids. Nuke hybrids then transplant some pure strains into that stretch.

I also heard the words "closing rivers to angling is the gold standard".

Wonder how much more water per acre golf courses use compared to an acre of residential lawns.

I think you're likely to find more ice the further down from the city you get. There's less ice in the city is because of the warm water coming out of the sewage treatment plants, especially Bonnybrook. If you don't know the river at all, now might not be the best time to try learning it by yourself. Maybe find someone who'll fish with you or hold off until the river clears up some more.

http://www.backcountryhunters.ca/ Stay tuned, there's more coming around the habitat stuff. I'll push habitat restoration as much as I pushed for people to send letters against the closures. To be honest, I never even fish any of the rivers that were going to be closed. I got involved in this because I saw the absurdity of closing the rivers to angling without addressing habitat issues.

So that didn't take long after we started getting in the media. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-trout-fishing-recovery-plan-1.4546810 http://edmontonjournal.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/alberta-government-backs-off-plans-to-close-popular-fishing-rivers/wcm/ecd291b2-3ea5-4b7f-a163-4c0dbedb501e And folks, make sure to thank Don Anderson as he helped us (Backcountry Hunters and Anglers) out a lot with this.

Starting to get some coverage. http://calgaryherald.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/alberta-anglers-fear-stream-closures-coming-blame-industry-recreation/wcm/d959eeb5-8c42-411b-943c-b9bd9cea7a27 Funny how the AEP spokesman is quoted saying “No decisions regarding potential closures have been made at this time.” but this page: http://aep.alberta.ca/fish-wildlife/fisheries-management/north-central-native-trout-recovery/default.aspx clearly says for 2018 "Fishing closures begin, habitat restoration activities continue, fish and fish habitat assessments". Seems they may be starting to backpedal so keep the pressure on and keep sending in those letters. This isn't just about keeping the rivers open to angling, it's about making sure the real problems like habitat fragmentation and sedimentation get addressed.

Take a look at a Regal Rotary or a couple of the Stonfo vices. The Stonfo Transformer comes with three different jaw styles - one for smaller flies, one for streamers, and a tube adapter.

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers has issued a press release and created a call to action. Sign the letter here : https://www.backcountryhunters.org/take_action#/34

I've heard multiple people say they didn't fill out the survey and haven't paid much attention to this because they don't fish those streams. It's almost a guarantee that if they push this through due to angler complacency that closures will be coming to the SW streams next year again without addressing the larger issues of industry and OHV damage to habitat.

I think you could still go with short rubber legs or spanflex/life-flex type stuff. If you stretch them when you tie them down they shouldn't add any more bulk than deer hair. Should be more durable than biots too.

The only stonefly nymph I tie is a variation on Pat's rubber legs, so I use Life-Flex for the legs, antennae, and tails.

And that is pretty much the approach that BHA is taking as outlined in the letter I posted further up in this thread.

I encourage you to read their position statement for yourself and make your own decision: https://tucanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/TUC-statement-on-NCNT-Jan-2018.pdf I used to be a board member with a local chapter and stepped down because of policies like this and I will no longer donate my time/money. TUC is not an angler's group, they're a cold water conservancy org whose membership mostly happens to be anglers.

Not yet... Btw, TUC issued a letter of support for the NCNT. If you are a TUC member and disagree with this, I suggest you let them know - tuc@tucanada.org.

Did anyone get email from AlbertaRELM or AEP about this survey, NCNT, or the Pike and Walleye one? I only saw them linked on social media and posted here. Guess it's no wonder so few people filled out the NCNT one.

Not sure if you caught the one they snuck in as part of number 9: The recovery of species is more important than my angling experience. That's a precursor to angling closures for sure.

The Alberta chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers has already sent a letter to the AEP minister about this:

It's the weekend of March 16th. Tickets aren't on sale yet.

CP was the shop I took my first fly casting lessons from and where I bought my first fly rod 27 years ago. Sad to see it go. Thanks to Mike and everyone else who worked there through the years.