jgib01

That looks pretty awesome! Had we been in tents, we likely woulda packed it in too. Managed a couple hours fishing yesterday. Caught one beautiful bow, to redeem the weekend. Incredible stonefly hatch on the lower Oldman below the dam last night. Twas very cool overnight (and previous too); furnace in our trailer saw more run time this weekend than previous 3 summers combined I think.

Thanks for that link. Certainly very surprising numbers for me to see, especially given the comments abound on the net regarding the past record of NDP governments across Canada. I think this info needs to be shared more widely, if for no other reason than to give pause to some of the "chicken little" thinking out there.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. Ventured back onto "the other side" of the fishing section at my local store last night, and picked up some good old Berkley leaders. Been a while since I ventured into those parts... sorta felt like putting on an old comfy pair of shoes actually As I walked past the Len Thompsons, had to resist the urge to buy a couple of red n' whites & five of diamonds though... my old tackle box has a few of each still in their package.

Curious what others' thoughts are on leaders for pike. I have seen where some folks make their own (knot 2 kinky, etc.), saw an old thread here with a TFO branded one (do they even still make it, as I haven't noticed it in retail stores?), and have used the Rio Toothy Critter myself. On that last note, I had a 15lb Rio one fail on me last night. Wire broke with the fish at my feet as I was reaching for my forceps & smartphone up on the bank. Made the release less complicated, but lost my $5 fly in the process, and sure that's not so good for the fish I'd like to not have a repeat of that any time soon.

Nice to have a few recommendations of where to start, as the choices can be overwhelming. How the rod feels to you is just as important as any bits of advice or thousands of reviews you could read online. Advantage of buying from a fly shop vs big box store is that you can try out the outfit at a fly shop. I personally love the Orvis stuff, so would second Cutbow's recommends. There's lots of great stuff out there that won't break the bank but will be decent quality (unlike the bank-breaking outfits bigfry has sarcastically[?] suggested... yes my BIIIX is groovy, but is clearly not what hooke is looking for). Surprised no one has mentioned TFO yet, as it has a real following with the Calgary crowd; reportedly good stuff and as the warehouse is there you can walk in to get repairs done locally and quickly. My standard advice as someone who recently walked the path you are on right now... wherever you land on a rod, upgrade to the best line your wallet will allow. My first outfit was a middle of the road Orvis setup, but instead of Access line I went with the Hydros and have never regretted it. My 12 y.o. son's big box outfit was treated to an upgrade to a decent Airflo line we found on sale this winter, with significant improvement noted even by him with very little experience.

Can you get Peilican stuff locally? I've seen Yeti in a few places, but don't think I've seen Pelicans. Great video btw Taco... I might buy one just based on that alone

Great... now I wanna buy a pontoon. The Outcast hoist looks pretty slick. I'm sure you could DIY one, but knowing me, I'd probably screw something up in the process and end up spending $50 on materials anyway for something that works only half as well. I'm going to keep my eyes open for this, as I'm sure given the trajectory I'm on that I'll put it to good use eventually. Looks like it will do 150lbs, so would even work for the Porta Bote I have on my wishlist.

Welcome. You will likely be amazed, as I have, with the level of expertise and (for the most part) friendly advice you can get from the gurus here.

I've yet to visit the infamous Cutty Hut myself, but hope to get to the upper Oldman a few times this year. I hear it is something every member here has to do before your post count will be allowed to surpass 100.

Welcome to a fellow Lethbian. Looks like you are newer to the forum than I, but I am way newer to the sport, having just started last summer. If you haven't stumbled on them yet, you may also want to check out the Chinook Waters Fly Fishing Club on Facebook. They brought a couple films here last year (IF4 & F3T) , and do some other good stuff (beer & flies during the winter for example).

That makes good sense. If you are fishing stillwater with beadheads, you wouldn't necessarily need to throw any additional weight on. My frame of reference was the bit of nymphing I did on moving waters last year, where I found even with beadheads I had to add splitshot to get the fly down quickly enough. Stillwater offers that opportunity to be a little more patient... I can't wait! Question though for any takers... would having some extra weight on when using beadheads keep the fly lower in the water column when stripping? I would envision that the heavier your junk is, the less it would respond by moving upward when you strip. Then again, maybe I need to retake high school physics.

Just re-reading the tail end of this thread, danhunt's post in particular, and was reminded of something Phil Rowley said at his talk at the Expo, which I probably won't do full justice explaining. He said that when fishing deep, if you are finding that you are getting hits and no hook-ups, the fish may actually be on your splitshot/weight... try moving your indicator down your leader to fish a little higher in the water column to see if that does the trick. Also may be a clue as to the colour they are after I thought it was a simplistically brilliant piece of advice.

I've used CarCost a couple of times, and found it was a very helpful tool to get to a bottom line price quickly (I hate negoitiating... just tell me what your best deal is and I will decide from there if I want to do business with you or not!). One thing I did after registering the second time round, I removed my email address from the personal info screen. Otherwise you will find that every report you request is met with email from dealerships (and from some of them, several for the next few weeks). Guess you could just hit the delete button on these email, but I have a tendancy to read most of the email that makes it through spam filters and hits my inbox. When we were looking for my wife's vehicle a couple of years ago, we found that our local Subaru was not prepared to move much on their price. Same thing with Honda.

No camping at Lee that I'm aware of either, but that said there is plenty of camping in and around the Crowsnest Pass. The closest campground to Lee is probably Lundbreck Falls, which has gotta be less than 10 minutes from there (and is on the Crow, so more fishing opportunities). Lee has a day use area at the north end, and lots of private residences around the rest of the lake. Would probably get some good use out of your pontoon, as it is near impossible to do anything from shore there, at least for a novice like me.

Thanks. Thought that was still the 2014 version yesterday, but it is definitely the 2015 ones there too... showing the new zero pike limits for some of our waters down here. When I looked last night at RELM, I didn't see an option to buy the 2015 license yet, but maybe it is there and I just missed it. I'm going to be on a family holiday from April 1-12, so won't need mine til after then anyway. Maybe I'll have my housesitter do it while I'm away so it is here waiting for me in case I want to toss a line late in the day on the 12th Wonder how much of an impact the online option has had on retailers sales of licenses? I'm sure it wasn't a big money maker for them anyway, but bet they've lost some sales of other stuff by virtue of people not walking through their proverbial brick & mortar doors to get the license. Guilty as charged, as I got mine online last year, and will probably do so again this year.

http://albertaregulations.ca/fishingregs-pdfs-2015.html

I think they have 2 yr warranty on their stuff... I was more than a little past that period. Though, I understand that repair costs even out of warranty are pretty reasonable. Because they broke just around the time my perfectly-lasered, 40-something eyes started to wander, I never did pursue fixing them. With my slight prescription again, regular lenses just don't cut it on the waters real well these days. Injury to insult, presbyopia is setting in so it is now getting harder to tie too. I shoulda started this gig 20 years ago (speaking of older, discontinued models)!

No personal experience here. FWIW, Yellowstone Angler has ranked it as the best 6wt there is. And say what you will about YA shootouts, as someone who has "consumed" all things fly fishing since my addiction started last summer, they do some of the most comprehensive shootouts out there in the land of interweb. I think if I magically acquired One, my 6wt Access would hit the buy n sell pages faster than you can say "fer sale".

I think all Maui Jims are polarized. I'd be all over this if I could get by with non-Rx lenses these days. Had some MJs a few years back and loved them. After 5+ years of pretty hard use as pretty much the only sunglasses I ever wore, one of the arms finally broke off.

I see what you're trying to do here... first you & Murray get me into tying at the Expo, and now you're enticing me into rod-building. You lot are relentless

Just ordered Cabela's CGR, 2wt. We have a little pond in Lethbridge that is stocked in early May, where I plan to take my son with hopes of his first fish on the fly. Should be a fun place to try it out!

Love where your thoughts are going with this... increase revenue and subsequently up the number of Conservation Officers out there. From the GOA website: *** The Government of Alberta is currently in a hiring restraint. As a result, we will be suspending or cancelling recruitment to many of our positions. Available opportunities will continue to be posted on our website. Thank you for your interest in employment with the Government of Alberta. *** There appears to be one CO recruitment posting up right now, but with the above caveat, the likelihood of an expanding Natural Resources workforce is pretty guarded. Even if this increased revenue were proposed to offset the cost, I think it would be a tough sell to convince the powers that be that we need more officers right now rather than fewer.

Kevlar for bear-proofing would be good too Our Scout group has something similar, that we have used a ton. I can't imagine tent camping without it. Ours is plywood, which while not as pretty looking, isn't near as heavy as the mdf one our Cub Scouts have. Function over form wins out in my mind for camping every time.

My first setup was a 6wt with plans to get a 4 next (which was officially added on Dec 25th). Meanwhile I picked up a "used" 5wt from a friend, which had never seen the water; probably won't fish it much, as I primarily bought it for a backup. Next up, I need an 8 for slough sharks, and thanks to the fellas here now have a 2wt fiberglass on my shopping list too. After those two are added, then probably another 6wt in a 10', primarily for stillwater. Hence my meme post on superbowl day. All that said, it is tough for me as a novice to tell the difference between an 8.5 and a 9'. Maybe a 9 is a little easier to mend, but even that's a stretch for me to say at this point. I went to an 8.5' for my 4 wt... was shooting for an 8' I think, but the deal on the 8.5' was too good to pass up. Thinking my 4wt will be used primarily on the Crow & Castle, wanted something better suited to some of the tighter spots I'll be fishing there.

I've had Starchoice (Shaw Direct), Shaw, Bell, and Telus over the last 10 years. I don't find one any appreciably better or worse in terms of quality of the TV itself. Currently with Telus Optik, mainly because I have been able to consistently get the best bundling deals from them for the last couple of years. Optik hardware seems to be a little cheaper as well (I always buy hardware vs renting or signing on for long contracts). Bell seems to be the most expensive programming, especially after any initial signup deals run out; was always a no-go in trying to negotiate ongoing deals of any significance with them. When talking to CSRs, I'd suggest you make it abundantly clear that you are considering all your options for providers. You might have some leverage with your current provider to negotiate a good deal on a package once they know you are moving; I always ask to speak with the retentions dept. right off the hop. Not sure about your neighborhood in Okotoks, but I know here in Lethbridge, Shaw had a thing going with the builders in our subdivision where they were offering pretty awesome package deals for the first 6 months, with no contract to sign. Might want to ask your builder if they know of anything similar. All that said, dont know anything about ACN. Edit: just noticed today that London Drugs has the Telus PVRs on sale for $50.