BurningChrome

Less impact, yes. No impact? Uh uh. This is one of the problems with internet shaming is that everyone jumps on the bandwagon so quickly for a good lynching that they don't think about the big picture. We've all seen some of the vehicles at the launches that don't look very well maintained. All I'm saying is that we should be checking our own vehicles too so we're minimizing impact, especially when you consider the hundreds of put-ins and take-outs every season. And I still think this guy should be fined.

So just to play devil's advocate for a second, how many people back their vehicles partially into the water when they launch or pull their boats out? How many people can say for sure that they don't have any fluids leaking from their vehicles when they do? It's pretty easy to internet shame this guy (and I'm not saying what he did wasn't wrong) but I'll bet there are some fly fishermen leaking diff oil, grease, etc. into the water every time they use the boat launches.

I think they forgot to renew the domain and it expired over the weekend. Probably the DNS hasn't fully propagated out yet and the servers your phone uses have the record but not the servers your computer uses.

I don't think there's a hard and fast rule that anyone could give you, but if your forceps were in up to the handle I think I'd cut the leader. If I feel like I'm going to need to keep the fish out of the water too long to remove the hook or it's deep enough that my forceps will probably cause more damage than leaving the hook, then I'll just cut the leader.

Just how deep are they taking your flies? Most of my dry fly fish are lip hooked, but I'm almost always getting them upstream unless I'm skating the fly ie. stones. If the fly is fairly deep and you're having trouble getting it out I think that cutting the leader close to the fly might be the better course of action for the fish's survival.

The Vapor boots should be at any of the shops that carry Simms - Fish Tales, Country Pleasures, and Iron Bow.

I hope the Herald photographer got more shots with the guy's face and license plate. I see people parked on the gravel bars down there all the time but this is the first time I've seen someone driving through the water.

I used to use the Simms sandals for wet wading, but I gave up on them because I was tired of the current forcing gravel and twigs into them. This year I bought a pair of Vapor boots and wet wading socks. I've worn the combo a few times now and I'm much happier. The boots aren't too heavy, have good soles and provide ankle stability for walking to/from the water. Can't speak to the durability yet since I've only worn them for a couple weeks.

I clicked on this thread expecting to hear some Europe, so before anyone gets disappointed like me...

I use it as a PFD for myself. I think it's an SA or C&F (think SA distributed them for a while). I got that one from Simon Gawesworth a few years ago and it didn't have a logo on it, but it's identical to the C&F streamer boxes I have.

They do not. You should just stick to a thingamabobber to keep your nymphs off the bottom and give all your hoppers to me so I can add them to my collection of unfishable flies...

Random pictures from walking the banks over the past while. (all the flower pics are for bobloblaw) Blossoms in the rain. Goslings with mom and dad. Something smells like wet dog. Pretty sure that isn't from an axe or chainsaw... Some more blossoms. The fishing dog in his natural environment. Note how he stays back of the bank in the long grass to survey the water looking for rising trout. Snake in the grass. Flower power! Yes, this was taken on the banks of the Bow today. Yes, I'm dusting off my fly box full of foam soon.

Sorry, not sure what that is. Can you provide the full latin name please?

But did you still manage to land it with the broken rod?

This the one?

Please don't. Someone will feel the need to make a comment or something and the videos will be taken down before the authorities see it.

Yeah, take screenshots as well if possible, but the videos themselves will be the most damning thing. Hopefully the quads have plates on them so they're identifiable.

But the ones already breaking the law will continue to do so and ride in the closed areas. Look at it this way if we were talking about poachers: Unless the fishing crowd starts self-policing, they will lose access to many rivers. The ATV crowd already does self-police just as the fishing community does with poachers, but as we know that doesn't stop the problem and you'd only be punishing the folks who stay within the law. Hopefully the increased presence of enforcement will make people think twice.

A little news on the enforcement front. http://alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=380653EF8CA6C-D296-D4E6-2EB6CFB38FFC7D52

There are groups trying to do exactly this, but so far there has been very lukewarm response from ESRD. Some of the folks there (usually on the enforcement side) think it's great, but those higher up the chain could care less. In the meantime we've been using our own resources, grants, and volunteers to build bridges over streams but we just don't have enough to do this everywhere. Like you said, Ontario has a good community and so do lots of places in the states. Hopefully we can get there too. http://trails4tomorrow.ca/the5es.html

Hmm, this thread reminds me that I need to sell my Yeti cooler. I'll post it as soon as I double check on which size it is.

I found from fishing a fast rod that the problem isn't the presentation if you can cast the rod properly, but more with protecting light tippet on the hook set. I used to use a Method and getting a strike was never a problem, but when fishing 4x or 5x it was tougher not to have them break off on that first run after the hook set or a good head shake. Switched up to an Accel and haven't had a fish break me off since.

Huh, I thought they already started on Grassy Mountain. There used to be a 4x4 trail going up the front of it but they've had it blocked off since last summer and when we were in the area in October they had put up tons of private property/no trespassing signs along the road in by the golf course. You could also see that they had already started work on top of Grassy, had lots of big machinery in there, and were hauling boulders out. For anyone interested, here's the exact site: https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.683728,-114.4189882,314m/data=!3m1!1e3 It was already mined previously then abandoned. You can even see the switchbacks that lead up the mountain where you can get an incredible view. Here's the existing mining site from two years ago:

Haha, maybe. At least one person on every forum I'm on gets the reference.