SkwalaStonefly

Does anyone out there have info on whether small creeks flowing through private land are public and accessible, as are rivers? I believe that they are (unless the land owner has special provisions in their deed), but would like to see it in writing somewhere but have not found a source for this.

Nice catch Lornce! When shall we go?......

The hearing in Calgary Court of Queen's Bench is to begin Tuesday, Jan 19 see https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/court-coal-peter-lougheed-sonya-savage-david-luff-1.5876772

I was out fishing down south yesterday and found a wireless remote shutter release on the river bank. Looks great, clean and dry, so I don't think it was there for more than a few days. If your remote shutter release is missing let me know (PM me) where you were and the make and model and we'll get it back to you. Skwala

I must admit to being stunned by Jayhad's post on using a jet boat on small streams and that more are coming. Now we won't be able to fish in peace and quiet even on small streams. I would much rather have barbed wire running across the stream than have jet boats on it. Funny how things can change in a day - I now like the idea of barbed wire across creeks. Maybe I'll start volunteering to help ranchers fence across streams running through their property

During early season creek fishing it seems like I am encountering more and more fences across creeks. I thought this was illegal, but I don't actually know the land laws on this issue. I thought that the collective wisdom on the forum would be the quickest way to get educated on this. Is fencing across a creek legal? Can it be done to keep livestock from escape? Are creek bottoms public land in Alberta? Is there a size limit (do they need to be navigable?). If not legal, who does it get reported to? Encountering barbed-wire in a stream is not pleasant, especially if you don't see it.

Yes, I know the spot Lornce. For the upcoming season I will deliver a fly to the perfect location with a small drone

Study shows precipitous decline in population of adult rainbow trout in Bow River Trend could jeopardize Calgary’s world-famous recreational fishery, University of Calgary scientists say See https://www.ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2018-11-26/study-shows-precipitous-decline-population-adult-rainbow-trout-bow-river

A few years back a friend with a drift boat and I spent a day learning how to handle it with Jim McLennan on the Bow. We had a great day learning and of course fishing. Not the cheapest way to learn, but probably the best.

Very Cool Lornce. I look forward to seeing it when the white stuff finally retreats and the rivers thaw. What other treasures do you have hiding in that Man Cave?

Hardy has been bought by Pure Fishing. I needed a replacement part for a Hardy reel a few months ago. I called and spoke to a receptionist (sounded more like an answering service rather than the actual company) and also left a message on their web site. Took about a week before I got a response. I finally got what I needed but it was anything but fast and I shudder to think of how long it would have taken if I had to ship them the reel or a rod. To their credit, they did send the part by courier so things did move fast at the end. Maybe just growing pains for a new company, but not what I would have expected from Hardy. I will think twice about buying Hardy again, in spite of loving the reels I have from them. The experience was very different when I broke a rod tip and called Sage. I spoke directly to someone who helped to get the repair moving immediately.

Almost perfect - the only thing missing are the "old ladies".

I had a few photos I wanted to post and thought it would be a simple chore to just paste a few files of less than 100 kb. However, even that simple operation did not work and after almost an hour of trying, shrinking, changing file format, etc, I just gave up. Posting photos on this site is pretty pathetic, which is too bad as there have been some amazing photo posts and I'm sure we are missing many.

Proper use of a wading staff to cross fast rivers - it can make a big difference: Put the staff in your UPSTREAM hand. You will then be leaning your weight upstream into the staff. Should the staff slip, the river will help to hold you up. If you put the staff in the downstream hand you will be leaning in the same direction as the current and if the staff slips the combined force of the current and your weight, in the same direction, will likely result in a bath, or worse. Using the approach above means that you need to switch which hand you use when crossing the fast stream, depending upon whether upstream is on your left or on your right. Safe wading!

Maybe we should back up the train here for a minute. All the Alberta municipalities I am aware of require dogs to be kept on a leash except within specified off-leash parks. Here is the listing from the Mountain View County by-laws: 3.03 (a) No person who is the Owner or Keeper of any Dog shall permit such Dog to run at large within the corporate limits of the County. So, if you are out fishing with your dog running loose, you are really no different than poachers, people who ride ATVs through the river or those who camp where they are not allowed to. The above actions are all a result of people choosing not to obey by-laws. This is not about whether your dog is well-behaved so you don't need to obey the law. It's about obeying the laws where we live. We don't get the option of picking and choosing which laws apply to us. As good citizens we are responsible to obey ALL the laws, including the ones that we don't like, whether that means not fishing when the streams are closed or keeping our dogs on a leash.

I am not anti-dog, however, the only time I have ever had to use my bear spray while fishing was on a large agressive dog who refused to listen to his owner. Many dog owners think that because their dogs are friendly towards themselves, that they will be friendly when they meet someone on a trail or on the river. I am fed up with meeting poorly behaved dogs while out fishing. I believe that the rules are that dogs should be kept on a leash. If you don't do that you run the risk of having your dog run off and bring a bear back to you - or of having a hiker or fisherman use bear spray on the dog if he gets nasty with them. There are lots of complaints on this forum about poachers, people who tear up rivers with ATVs, people who random camp where they shouldn't, etc. If you take your dog fishing, keep him on a leash. If you don't, you are no different than those just mentioned above who decide what rules they will follow and what rules they will ignore. It's often easy to spot a friendly dog, but not easy to know whether an agressive, growling dog is going to take the last two steps and lunge at you. Fishing is supposed to be fun, so for all you dog owners who like to take pooch fishing, please respect other fisherman (and others, particularly kids) who you might not expect to meet out in the wild, by keeping your dog on a leash. It might also save you a lot in vet bills.

No one should even think about streams like the DogPound, Fallentimber or Little Red Deer. They are not fed by snow pack and are extremely low. I have not been out that way to check temperatures in a month but they are likely warmer than the mountain streams and they should have been closed a long time ago. I don't know what things are like further north, but any river whose source is in the foothills rather than the fed by melting snow or glaciers is going to be very low and warm.

I have a Hardy Ultralight DD4000 and I love it. But you should know that this is a series of smooth quiet reels. If you like to hear a lot of noise while a big fish is unwinding line from your reel, then this is not the reel you want. But if you like a smooth, quiet reel, check one out. If I were to buy another reel tmw I would consider the Hardy CLS series (http://fly.hardyfishing.com/en-us/products/reels/performance-reels/ultralite-disc-drag/). They are also Ultralight, large arbor reels and come with 3 spools and ID pins so you know which line is on which extra spool (in case you can't tell In essence you get 3 reels in one without having to spend a hundred bucks for each extra spool. That is a really nice feature and I have heard good things about them, but never tried one.

The increase in the number of ticks is not surprising with the warm winter, however the nasty little beasts can carry a variety of pathogens, including those causing Lyme disease and Powassan virus. Ticks found while out in the wild can be submitted for identification and testing (see web sites below for Alberta and BC with insturctions). Knowing what types of ticks are being found where and if they are infected is incredibly valuable information for us all, especially in view of climate change and the resulting appearance of infected ticks in new locations. http://www.health.alberta.ca/health-info/lyme-disease.html http://www.bccdc.ca/dis-cond/a-z/_l/LymeDisease/overview/Lyme+Disease.htm#heading8

All stunning! Thanks for posting.

This issue is particularly important to us fisherman as the courst case is related to fracking and water contamination. Perhaps the government will start thinking seriously about requests for fracking near rivers and aquifers.

I'm in my 60s and have been wearing progressives for 15 plus years. I have had no issues with them for fly fishing. For sunny days I have a pair of Maui Jim progressives that are awesome. Having progressives allows you to wear the same glasses for whatever you do - no extra glasses needed for fishing. If you get regular bifocals you will not be able to see any closer up or any further away than with progressives. The only difference is that bifocals have an abrupt change from near to far vision while the progressives do it gradually, allowing you to see intermediate distances as well - on or off the river. One issue with bifocals - either kind, is that they are made for reading distance and sometimes they are not great for close-up work. There are times when you need to get your tippet through a small eye on a fly and you need to be closer than book distance. Or you may have a knot in your tippet/leader that needs close vision to remove. For that, us old guys get a pair of "Hat-eyes": magnifiers that you can flip down from your hat when you need to see really close. I can also do it by just removing my glasses altogether, but best not to be doing that on the river.

Base Camp is made to interface with your Garmin GPS. You can get FREE govt Topo maps of all of Canada that you can load into Base Camp and into you GPS (Ibycus Topo - http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/). I have used this system for several years. Easy transfer from your computer onto the GPS and vice versa. Other expensive maps are available and Ibycus may not be the best - but it is very functional once loaded and the price is right (a bit quirky to download and install, but after that never a problem).

I prefer to use a short furled leader (4-5 feet), which still gives a beautiful gentle turnover. I add 5-7 feet of tippet. This allows me to shallow nymph with a small indicator or as a dry-dropper rig, when the fish are not too interested in dries. It also provides some room between the fly and the furled leader. Some will say that the fish don't mind furled leaders (and a lot of small medium sized fish don't), but I think that a furled leader near an experienced big spooky fish is not much different than a fly line near the fish and will spook some. I buy mine from Quigley's [http://www.twistedleaders.com/Furled.html]. Cost is $9.25 and you can get them in lengths of 4, 51/2 or 7 feet in a variety of colors and weights. One of those leaders can last me close to an entire season, but I do spend more on tippet than I would if I were using a 9 ft leader. Don't forget to put some muselin or paste floatant on the furled leader before your first cast as they will otherwise soak up water and not float well.

One of my favorite rods is a Winston Passport (~$220) with a Hardy Ultralight 3000 large arbor reel (~$200). I love the rod and reel. When I bought the rod I went to Troutfitters and we took 3 Winstons out to the park - the Passport and two others with costs of about $450 and $750. I bought the Passport because it cast as well as the more expensive Winstons (which are made of higher quality materials and fittings). The Passport was the best bang for my buck and I have fished it for two full seasons. Maybe a pro can benefit from the $750 rod but I suspect most will not. I also second the Greys. I have a lovely 4 piece, 6.5 ft, 3 weight XF2 Streamflex I bought last season. Great for smaller streams. They come in a wide variety of sizes and are great bang for your buck.