humblefisherman

Hello my fly fishing friends, Tis the season, and as the weather begins to grey and freeze it allows me the chance to get a little editing done. Fly fishing the Black Shale was filmed in mid August, on a beautiful and remote river in central Alberta. We flew in with Ahlstrom Air, and had the chance to see all the main features of the river. Mike was an amazing pilot... what a ride! If you ever need a pilot, take my advice and look him up. We flew the from the confluence up, and at the main wall we opened the chopper door to film it naked (no glass). Cory the camera man filmed out the open doorway. What a trooper. The river itself is breath taking, so many falls and big bends it was difficult to decide which section to fish. With getting the chance to see the entire river from a few hundred feet up we settled on a braided section of fast long runs, but also within a day's walking distance of large falls. The trout in this river are the beautiful Yellowstone Westslope Cutts. Easy to the dry fly, but the big ones were picky. We would bunker bomb nymphs in the morning and go up top all afternoon. Paradise. Had some super hilarious times with the boy's, what a gong show. I'll have a blooper reel from this one for sure. Big thanks to Cory our Camera guy, Trouttrek is a fishing god(look him up on youtube!), and Kelly. Without Kelly this just wouldn't of happened, so thanks again Kelly! I also owe Dave Jensen some props for his insight into the river and it's history, thanks Dave. k, all that aside, hope you all enjoy our two part season opener. And thanks for watchin! Flight to the Black Shale Fly Fishing the Black Shale

Great vid, i really enjoyed that. Looks like a great day on some intimate water.

He gave you a wonderful gift Jay, his memory will stay strong in your heart.

damn Max... your good!

you have a great eye for photo's Max, you also catch Pigs on a freakishly regular basis. Thanks for the Candy.

i prefer Pie.

Not sure what to add, other than, Thanks Highwood Fisher, I am very surprised at the wide spectrum of views on this topic. Who knew? and...

so far this season i've found 2 on myself and another 2 on my dog. Only one took hold on my dog and the bump is just now starting to shrink. I have a feeling they are going to be bad this year. I'm more fearful of Ticks than i am of bears. Anyone know of any "natural" non-chemical repellents for ticks?

Very informative Clive, thanks for sharing your wisdom. I will give it a try soon,and the next time you see me publicly holding a Pike i'll most likely be using this method. Quite a thread. Many points of view, and packed full of opinions and knowledge from a full range of experiences on the water. Thats what these forums are all about!

I am very thankful of the support i recieve from everyone on this board. It is the feedback i get from all of you that drives the direction of the series. Most of you watch enough of the video's to see that we do the best we can to ensure the health of the fish we catch and release. 99 percent of the feedback i get is positive. 1 percent is not. I pay as much attention to the 1 percent as i do to the 99. If i had a bunch of responses from people about the poor fish handling, i would remove it of course. The fact is, i didn't. And most likely won't. In the lake that we were fishing, most people kill the big Pike for eats. We release EVERY fish we catch. We were also using the largest rubber net i've found locally, it's not a small net by any means. Some would even argue that a cradle made of fine holed mesh removes more of the protective slime on a Pike, thus increasing it's chance of post release injury. Or the grip strength required to immobilize a Pike of that size could crush it's spine and leave it swimming around with years of chronic pain. How bout sticking your fingers in it's eye socket like the old guy at the gas station said to do. We could analyze it to death but that fact it is those fish were not injured other than a small hole in the lip. I like that Clive has a reverence for Pike. They are overlooked by most anglers and are super fun to catch. His point is valid, and i don't dispute that. It is his opinion, and opinions should be encouraged. My opinion is, the net was slightly to small for the fish we caught that day. That is the first time that large rubber net was ever too small for any fish i've caught. It worked, we didn't stuff it in, nor did we have bend the Pike beyond what it could handle. I could recount a story of my uncle, he was bit in the hand by a 20 pound pike. He lost a tonne o blood, and had to go to the hospital. So i will state, in contradiction to Clives opinion, you should avoid putting your hands anywhere near the mouth of a large pike. Their saliva has a natural anti-coagulant, they have a velcro like trap of sharp teeth, they are also very willing to bite if given the chance. This video being aired "Public" IS the issue. I hope that the viewers will make their point of view public as well. Thats the joy of it. Thats also where the education aspect works it's magic. I respect your opinion Clive, maybe you should make a video showing the "proper" way to land a big Pike. I for one would watch it, I'm sure i would even learn a thing or two. Would you really dangle your digits in front of that face full of teeth? Now that would be great entertainment!

Thanks for the feedback everyone, Sorry Clive the movie stay's up. But i will add your input about using a cradle to the description of the movie, that way people don't make the mistake of going out Pike fishing with trout sized nets. Thanks for watching!

indeed, i'm curious if anyone else has been offended by the way we handled those fish. Anyone?

Man it was tough! i saw a big one swim by below my boat when i first got there and it built some lofty expectations. Both Troy and myself fished for a solid 5 hours with only a couple of bumps and a couple of solid takes. I was really really happy to catch that fish.

Hey Clive, I don't expect you to apologize for your opinion, it is just that. I expect you have caught many big Pike in your day, I have not, I'm more of a trout guy, but my buds took me out for a day of Pike fishin and it was alot of fun. Like all fish we catch it is entitled to the best release possible. I have made a cradle for future trips and we'll see if that makes any difference. I sorry you were "shocked". The fish were held up for a pic and released, all were caught on single undersized barbless flies. The fish were kept in the water for the most part and only lifted up for the shot. They were released and the chances they survived are very good. I don't claim to be an expert on Pike fishin. I'm learning like everyone else. I will take the positive form your comment and thank you for your advice. My opinion, you should soften up a little Clive, your point could of been made with less heat.

thanks for the positive words boy's, left my hand made net in the truck, but luckily i had my spare store bought net in the boat bag.

Hello fishing friends, I've been trying to get this one up for weeks, but the youtube police kept flexin on me. Got some legal advice on copyright laws and I'm fighten back with giant Pike on the Fly. Mike and Mike in one boat, Strando, Camera man Cory and myself in the other. We had an hour long window in the day to target these pigs in the shallows before the storms kicked our asses. Thanks goes out to the boys for doing the deed of hookin up on film, Nice fish Strando and Turnbull. Great job and thanks with the filming Cory. Man that lake has some huge pikers! Hope you all enjoy the newest film in the Humblefisherman series Fly Fishing for Trophy Pike Thanks for watchin, The Humblefisherman

Hello fellow fishers, As the mountain lakes begin to thaw over the next few months finding these Marl colored cutts will be the target of many of us fly fishers. I've had this particular vid sitting in the archives for awhile now. Finally time to release. We only caught one big fish all day, but it was a lunker so it was worth hike in. hope you enjoy 1 Marl colored Cutt On a side not I have figured out a way to bypass some of the music licence issues youtube has put apon us, so there shoud be a flurry of old and new vids over the coming weeks. We have been doing lots of filming the last while and we have a very full year ahead of us. I will be posting a pike vid in the next day or two... i didn't catch the "big one" but Turnbull and Strando each got a massive slough shark. Thanks for watchin, The Humblefisherman

Tents don't have basements, besides i just fiinished it. Who wants to see 20+lb pike on a fly rod!

Last week i saw three guy's fishing below Glenmore res on the Elbow. I walked up to the one guy and told him the river was closed, he smiled and shrugged his shoulders pointed to his rod on the ground next to his worm container and said "I'm not fishing", so i said, bait too eh?, and what about your buddy there? Just then his buddy hooks, one fights it in, bonks it, and sticks it in a bag already heaped full of fish. We exchange a few choice words while my dog is going nuts , eventually I walk around the corner and call the RAP line. They tell me the only available officer is over 2 hours away and that the best they can do is take the licence plate number and to get a picture of them if possible. I rip home grab my Camera, fly back but they're gone. But i see a faint pair of wet tracks leading up the hill and across the Dam, so i mantracker them into the back corner of the spillway. At this point they are trespassing and in a super dangerous spot. So i called the regular cops and let them know the three poachers lives were in danger. They detained them and their bag of fish till the CO arrived, plenty of charges to go around. A buddy showed up and we watched it all go down from a distance. Lots of dudes just don't care what the regs say. These dudes were just plain dumb. Poacher bustin for fun and profit!

The Moffitts just sent me the package in the mail and i am excited to try it out. I have read the Moffitt angling system online data, and as far as i can see it makes alot of sense. The primary tricks of the system are the circle hook, the tying of snell knots, and hookless flies. My opinion is that it is not snagging, but may be regarded as snagging by definition. It's worth checking out the website. The package looks good and the concept is sound, the flies are very real feeling and would be simple to recreate at home. If it does indeed hook more fish with less impact, i will be impressed. Might be a good idea for use as the trailing hook in a multi fly setup. Once i get out and fish it for a day i'll let you all know how it works. If i even hook one fish anywhere but the mouth, i will discontinue the experiment. We will be filming the process for an upcoming episode of the Humblefisherman series. It does take some extra work as far as rigging and knots but they include a snell knot tool and also do a how to on the website. I will reserve judgement until i've fished it, should be trying it out this week sometime this week on private water south of town.

i've posted the links to a couple of my tying vids. The blood worm pattern has been working very well as of late. The bright orange ones as well as the green. The Double bunny vid is a weird one, it was made to put people into a trance state with a subliminal suggstion to tie flies. The backgound music will stimulate theta brain waves so make sure you blink and pause it part way thru to avoid! the bloodworm the Double bunny hope you enjoy, The Humblefisherman

hmmm, don't know what to say Rick, just checked it and it's working fine from this end. Anyone else having problems? oh, by the way, I found your gps chip and left it in front of the Bass Pro Shops Fish tank. Happy fishing!

Hello fishing friends, I just finished another vid, this ones called shades of Brown. The Browns of the Bow River are one of the most beautiful fish in the fall once their true colors begin to show. This is also a time when the hoppers are at their largest. The big browns will sit in a spot just down from a grassy bank and feast away every time the wind picks up. We found such a fish but he avoided capture, those large foam flies can be hard to hook up with. With the rest of the day ahead of us i turned to dragging the bottom with a black leech to find the hog, it paid off. A beautiful specimen was brought to hand and was the only film worthy trout we caught all day, so this films a shorty. hope you all enjoy the latest movie in the Humblefisherman series at this link watch the rest of the movies at: http://www.youtube.com/humblefisherman the season has begun, remember that many lakes fish very well along the edge at ice off. the bow also produces some real monsters this time of year. Get out and fish. thanks for watchin everyone! the Humblefisherman

Thanks bhurt, i'll give it a shot. Alway's looking for ne programs to spice things up!

I am using a bit of ulead, some adobe, and some good old fashioned movie maker. I've never been able to find a program with all the features i need yet. I find the editing a unique and welcome challenge. Looking forward to 2009. Good story about the cooners Rick, doesn't surprise me the way they were picking the eats off the rocks and flippin stones.