snuffy

Lacewing. Must have been a good year for them as they were getting into my house every night all summer long and I've never noticed them before. I'm thinking of an extended body using green para-post foam with a sparse antron wing and a few turns of grizzly hackle over green dubbing for the thorax

"If you can't see your fly it's because you can't cast!" That guy is hilarious, obviously doesn't sugar coat things. Great shop if you're in the area

It's recently come to my attention that stripping line from the reel while casting is a bad habit, because I've managed to put line-shredding grooves in several of my reels. I blame learning in Cypress Hills. Are there any brands that are more or less susceptible to this damage?

"foot care is of the UTMOST importance" Yes it is. I work in a hospital lab and if I had a nickel for every toe and foot dropped off in the middle of the night, I'd be rich. Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but glad to see you're thinking proactively.

This might be it: https://www.flyfishfood.com/products/spanflex

Brown

Seems like I'm out of date and this stuff isn't available anymore. Anyone have a substitute? I'm thinking another company is probably selling the same thing with a different name.

I was out last week. Livingstone was 48 at 0930 and 55 at 1500 on the 18th. Everything else I measured was similar. The restrictions on the Bow make sense, and they're probably a day late and a dollar short on the St Mary's, but taking a single datum from the lower Bow and extrapolating it to the entire eastern slopes is absurd. That said, they got moody once the heat of the day really kicked in.

Me too - particularly this one day with my wife when the rain brought out the drakes, made the fish stupid and kept all the other fishermen at home. I just didn't tell anybody about it!

I think the sport's growing popularity pretty much killed the fishing reports. No one wants to talk about Frenchman's creek.

Back in the day when I was perpetually flat broke, I had a lot of experience with ultralight waders - all of it grim. They fall apart so fast as to be a false economy. The corollary to that is that they will fall apart in the middle of the trip you've been looking forward to all year. Save yourself the frustration.

Aluminium makes a big difference.

Every campground in the mountains is going bye bye?

112s is ridiculous. It has to be a pretty special fish to warrant a shot at all and even then, you keep it in the net, lift it and get it away. It shouldn't take more than 10.

I've never heard of it winterkilling, but ever since they Rotenoned it a decade or so ago it's been nothing but tiny trout and huge suckers. I think the idea is that the Tigers will eat the later.

Once upon a time, I was very excited about Korkers because of the ease of swapping soles. In the end neither of my pairs lasted long enough to be resoled and broken Boas led to some long and awkward walks out of the bush. I've moved on to the Patagonia River Tractors, which have incredible all around traction but are quite heavy, which gets old because most of my fishing is long walk and wades. My wife reports that her Vibram Simms boots that I maxed out the Alumabite cleats on have, like the River Tractors, much better traction than felt. That soft aluminium is magic. I really want to get my hands on the new Simms Ultralights with Alumabite cleats. Have any Calgarians noticed them in stores? I was hoping to pick up a pair when I'm up there at the end of the month.

Maybe he's still using the old site? Last I checked, it was still up, but frozen in time.

Anyone have a favorite? I find myself living 300k from the nearest shop and, despite stocking up before the move, am running short of some things. So far the only thing worse than the websites has been the service.

Have you considered XC skiing?

Yeah, check out what I found when I googled your name for it: http://www.backcountry.com/montana-fly-company-jakes-gulp-beetle-6-pack $3USD is a lot for any fly, but for THAT one??? Nice tie Doc, kinda like the love child of a beetle and klinkhammer. I might tie some up and inflict them on cutties.

I take it back: yes, but I came up with the exact same thing independently!

I haven't named it, but it's a basic pattern with a peacock ice dub underbody and midge floss legs. It's my go to fly on the small spring creeks with heavy brush I frequent. I lose a lot, my friends lose more, and many more get chewed to bits. It lands with a satisfying little plop that gets their attention, but rarely spooks them - kinda like what Jensen was doing with his beadhead in his latest video. I'm hoping 210 get me through the season!

I am officially sick of making beetles!

I've been using the Boa system on Korkers boots for several years now and I don't recommend it. Depending on where you fish, it can get really jammed up with clay. The boots never really get tight and need to be re-tightened several times at the beginning of the day. I had one break deep in the woods near Water Valley and the walk out was horrible. As noted above, streamside replacement pushes the envelope of practicality. The initial attraction was the swap-able soles, but Sticky Rubber soles are worse than old running shoes. At least it's easy to pull the soles off and bleach, but I'll be going back to laces when these wear out.

Thank you all for your input. Truly, these are first world problems and, yes, she is a keeper 100 times over. Roast - steel is real! I got so sick of swapping to my back up frame and playing warranty tag with Drek my last few years of racing that I bought Ti and put the warranty frame on ebay.