jgib01

I've been looking around at fins lately, as I hope to do some float tubing this spring once the ice is off, and came across these Outcast Power Kick Fins, available from Cabelas's and a few other shops right now. They look like a bit of a rip-off of the design of Force Fins, but for much fewer $'s... about half as much actually. As I have no experience with floating, wonder if anyone else would venture an opinion based on the look of them. Or better yet, if someone has sen them in person! Too early for reviews I guess, as I haven't come across any on the net.

On the positive side, looks like the restrictions are good news regarding reaction to what is happening in those bodies of water. Of course, the bad news is that these are mostly reactive, in response to species being in trouble there in the first place.

Hmmmm... Thought my next rod was going to be an 8er for pike. Maybe I should be going the opposite way and looking for a 2wt glass.

I wonder if they are going to discontinue the reels soon too, now that the rods are gone? Still there on their website.

A little bored this Sunday evening... not much of an NFL fan.

As Freddy Mercury once said "I Want It All". First time I have had a hands-on look at the 3-Tand reels; they look and feel pretty awesome! As someone who has yet to tie his first fly, all of the fly tying stuff was very intruiging. I loved watching the Norvice guy... he makes it all look so easy. Gotta walk before you run, so think I will stick with my cheap Cabela's vice for now.

I'm sure he would be happy to Peter... once he fills the orders from his father and uncle first. Not sure why I would bother learning to tie, if I could just get him to do it for me

A huge thanks to Murray for showing my son how to tie his very first fly today. I think my boy did an excellent job, and is now officially ahead of me by 1 in the tying count. Also appreciate Murray's efforts to teach me how to whip finish... my boy is better student than I. Was nice to get to meet a couple of the forum members face to face. I whispered to my son as we approached the booth, "there's the SilverDoctor; he's famous." Lornce overheard, and said, "not famous but maybe infamous" Great job to all the volunteers... there were many happy kids as a result of your effort, time and skills. (Edit to add a pic!)

From Phil Rowley this morning at the Expo. Instead of a leader wallet, he just leaves in original packaging and connects them together with a binder ring

The rubber band hack! Great idea. Only a matter of time before the debate here starts about the virtue of the materials in Alliance versus Dixon brands

I've been too busy buying bonafide overpriced fly fishing gizmos this past 6 months to get to the hack stage. I'm sure that will come, as I love a good hack. Can't wait to find some time to build my tonneau cover rod holder.

RunnyD, that looks great! Is that ABS pipe that you used, or something else?

These look purdy, and from the sounds of it are a great functional reel. What do spare spools cost? So far I've been a Lamson fanboy, but these look like a great "step up" alternative.

As Norman Maclean said, sometimes there's "no clear line between religion and fly fishing." Me and my son will be attending Expo on the Sunday as well. Not sure I can convince my daughter though, even if it means skipping church.

I bought my first pair of wading boots at Canadian Tire, on sale for under $50. They were actually a nice lightweight boot, with decent ankle support and fairly good upper construction. They offered pretty good traction with a soft rubber sole, but that same soft sole unfortunately didn't stand up all that well. I gave them away to a buddy when I bought my first "real" pair of boots in October after deciding I'm in this thing for the long haul. In hindsight, I maybe should have kept them to wear as an occasional wet-wader. Combined with the MEC neoprene sock that Pete (Überfly) put me on to, I think they would have worked well that way.

As I've done a fair bit of online reading this past half year about fly rod manufacturing, the emergence of lifetime warranties, and rising costs of rods, it's hard not to conclude that consumers need to be careful what they ask for. Seems like the inclusion of "no fault/ no questions asked" warranty on rods has substantially driven up their prices ( http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/flytalk/2013/09/rethinking-fly-rod-warranties ). Though the North American rod-buying public has come to demand lifetime warranty, I wonder if it was an optional add-on to the price, just how many folks would actually bite? I'd bet too that a limited warranty with an included extra tip (at a lower cost to the buyer) versus the higher priced unconditional lifetime warranty, would in fact sell substantially better. That all said, I wish you well in dealing with Loop. I've yet to break a rod tip (in my whole 3'ish months of fly fishing), though it is surely only a matter of time. When I do, I'm sure that I will be thankful that my Orvis' and Winston have unconditional warranties

I was briefly using an old Canon G9 this year, before I took a swim and ended up with a big waterspot on the internals of the lens. I have an Android Moto phone that I carry with me (mainly for GPS) that takes mediocre photos. I'm hoping to pick up a decent waterproof point & shoot (maybe boxing day?). I love the idea of an DSLR for photo quality but not crazy about size factor, and just can't see my clumsiness disappearing any time soon either.

Awesome! What do you use for a camera? Love the colour and clarity of some of those close-ups.

Thanks for the info everyone. Think I might try the bifocal approach, at least for fishing. Neither my close nor distant vision are horrible... just a slight correction for both has crept up in the last 2 years. I had laser surgery done several years ago, so once the distance vision stabilizes again I might get a touchup, and then something like the polarized Guidelines or Sunclouds would be the way to go.

It was inevitable I suppose... In my mid 40s now and told by my eye doc that I could benefit from progressive lenses. When I was speaking with the optometrist's assistant about glasses afterward, and mentioned that I started fly fishing this year, she suggested I consider traditional bi-focals versus progressives. She said that for fly fishing (very close and very distant being paramount), progressives are not necessary, and might even be a hinderance (especially with peripheral vision). She said for office work, and when in the public eye progressives would do nicely, but not on the water. Any older eyes like mine care to comment?

My scenario is similar to yours, in terms of my property. I have a 24" Ariens, which is great. Also had a Poulan in the past that was rock-solid as well. I find that most light snowfalls, I still tend to shovel... it's only the big dumps that I use the snowblower for, and am glad on said occassions that I have a 2-stage unit. It takes my neighbor 2-3x as long to do his driveway with their single stage Honda when we have big snowfall.

I'd love to see some examples shared here (Excel or whatever), if anyone is prepared to do so. I have a very basic one right now, where I am recording general location, flies used, any hatch noted, catches (hopefully), and a comments section. In the comments I am putting things like where I was more specifically at what time of day, where/when I was when seeing any bugs, and typically (as a rookie to the sport) approx how many I lost. For me, at this stage of the game losing fish is actually one of my signs of success

Thanks y'all. Much more productive day today, using a sink tip and chucking cross-river versus upstream.

Of course Pete... yours was the final push I needed to jump into this game. Can I blame you the next time my wife registers a formal complaint about a) $$$'s spent, or, b ) time devoted to learning said passion?

First a little background on me... brand new to fly fishing this year. After a couple of early summer outings on a little lake in Lethbridge, I started my moving waters adventure with a lesson from Lynda McLennan, back in late July. Since then I've got out several times, on a few Southern Alberta rivers. I have fished streamers very little so far, with the majority of my success coming on nymphs and a few on drys. Was out to a spot, where on my first trip there several weeks back I had zero luck on nymphs, hopper/dropper, stimmies, etc. So, first fly on this time was a medium-sized beadhead streamer on floating line. Casting was admittedly a bit of a challenge, but started not too bad for a windy-ish Southern Alberta day with my 6wt tip flex . But that was really when my confusion set in. I have watched a ton of stuff online (maybe too much), including the Orvis vids, Reds Fly Shop stuff, and several others, and really didnt even know how to start. I was quartering upstream, letting it swing with a little mend here and there, and then jigging a few times before starting to strip toward the end of the swing (à la Reds video on youtube). Struggled with this as the current was rather slow and getting lots of slack at times in my line. I managed a rather aggressive strike midway through one of my better swings, and had a good sized bow on for a solid minute (before I panicked about getting it to the reel, screwing up in the transition and losing it). Then struggled some more with the wind coming up and messing with my cast resulting in even worse examples of slack line swinging. Had another one on for a few seconds, which I quickly lost probably due to a very late attempt at a hookset. Who knows what other strikes I missed altogether due to my poor technique. By the time I thought to switch things up, I think I had sufficiently spooked everything in the stretch of water I was on. So, I moved upstream a bit and tried some casts perpendicular to the opposite shore, and a few in a more downstream direction with a more immediate active strip, but didnt get any more action. What would your best made-in-Southern-Alberta streamer advice be for a rookie like me? I hope to sneak away maybe once or twice more before Nov 1, and thinking this time of year streamers might be my best go-to for those cooler days ahead.