jgib01

I would agree that the compulsion for guides to be stewards of the resource is significant. They should be promoting adherence to the regs, invasive species risk reduction, and good fish handling techniques. Part of their role is not only education on how to get fish into the boat, but also educating their clients to do their part to ensure those fish are there the next year when that client (and others) returns.

Frogg Toggs? Their stuff seems priced well. I've only tried them on in store, but seem pretty well made. Haven't purchased one, so am limited on what I can give for testimonial.

I've encountered a piece of water a couple of times this fall that has perplexed me. It is an area on a river where it widens out, slows and takes a large sweeping turn. It has areas of varying depth, and fish can be found rising just about everywhere in it depending on the day. Typically, if there is little to no wind, this water can be smooth as glass. Were it not for foam, bugs and other particulate on the surface moving, it would be hard to tell from stillwater. You really have to be in the water to get to the seams and foamlines, and the fish here seem to be super spooky... so very tough to get into position. I have found myself "giving up" on it after an hour of creeping and casting to rises, in favour of some slightly rougher water upstream. Any thought or considerations for approaching this?

Maybe an opportunity for the Fishin Hole to expand to secondary markets like Lethbridge? There certainly is a ton of commercial space down here right now (and lots of eager college students looking for work), so am sure they could keep their overhead reasonable.

While likely an important contributing factor, I don't think the big box brick&mortars was the whole story. I'm sure online shopping took a heavy toll as well. Guilty here. I've purchased several things online for tying in the past year from Cdn Llama, Flymart, and the Fishin' Hole. I've bought camping gear online from Amazon, MEC, & Live Out There. I imagine there is a robust online retailer group for hunting stuff as well. Wholesale's online business was decidedly lackluster (at least for fly fishing & camping gear); if I couldn't find it in store, I didn't ever find any broader selection online. As for supporting Canadian companies, if there was one in my town after December 28 with decent selection of tying materials, I'd happily do so.

Yes you are correct. Jumping to the "deals" end of things is a little callous, so apologies for my part in that. The impact will be significant on those who have been loyal employs for a number of years... some great guys & gals at our local store. It really leaves a gap in the consumer market too, especially in places like Lethbridge where we have no other option for tying materials & fly gear locally. Will have to drive the 2+ hours to Calgary, or 1.5 to the Pass, unless something moves in to fill the void.

Lukewarm deals at this stage. Tying stuff 10%, rods/reels 10%, boots/waders 10%, clothing 20-30%. The best deal I saw was fly line at 30%.

Looks like as of this morning the fire is incredibly close to the townsite, with images of fire on Mt. Crandell and Bear's Hump. On the north end, the fire has left the park, and now there are states of emergency declared for M.D. of Pincher & County of Cardston. Evacuations of portions of those areas and a portion of the Blood Reserve have occurred (closest to Waterton; only portions evacuated, not the entire MD/County as some news outlets are leading people to believe this morning). Best source of info on the evacuations is www.emergencyalert.alberta.ca, and there is some decent coverage on the Calgary Herald webpage. This image from the wee hours of last night https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJgiR0RVoAAESwt.jpg

Just heard that they have issued an evacuation order for Waterton National Park. They have been under alert for several days, so perhaps either the Kenow fire has jumped into the park, or they are just being precautionary in anticipation of the winds in the forecast. http://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/waterton/securite-safety/feu-fire-kenow

You're pretty crafty.. make some coasters...

Looks awesome! Those are some great photos. Looking at them though, my lungs hurt I've still not recovered from my wife dragging my arse up Turtle Mountain this past weekend. Bad thing about it was there wasn't even a lake at the top... I clearly have to plan my hiking destinations more carefully.

I've used the Fishpond ones. They are robust, but I prefer retractable to the coil material. Put my nippers on a Dr. Slick retractable last year (has a steel cord), and haven't had a single failure incident so far. I switch it back and forth from my sling to my float tube a few times a year, and even the pin-on clip (which looks to be potentially the weakest link) seems to be holding up well.

A good portion of Waterton trails were closed as of yesterday (only limited ones, mostly in the townsite area, remain open). Crandell Campground, Red Rock, and Cameron Lake (visitor use) are closed. Forecast is for scorching hot temps all week, so can only get worse from here.

X2. I'm just really starting to scratch the surface on what mine can do, and hope to start doing more underwater stuff soon. Took a couple of underwater videos at the beach this summer in Nova Scotia that were kinda cool. Tried some underwater of a bull I caught a couple weekends ago, and had my settings wrong (panorama instead of underwater, which completely frigged things up $#&!). The TG-5 is just out I think, so one would expect prices on the 4 to drop. I believe the 5 has a better sensor, faster continuous shooting, and is more robust; but other than that I think the 4 still stacks up well. I see there's a 4 for sale in the trading post.

Question for you Bow guys and gals... are the levels/flows any higher now than they were then?

Water temp on the Crow was 62F today. Nights are definitely showing cooler for the next while on the forecast, and daytime highs not nearly so scorching. I think we are past the worst of it. Water levels are very low though.

I'd be quite happy with "sometimes" versus the "every time" streak I seem to have going Seems I have more money than brains (or talent) these days. I started using Rio Powerflex Plus leaders and tippet for my dries this year. Pricey stuff that doesn't seem to be paying dividends for me yet. One of my fishing buddies who has been at it for over 40 years ties his own leaders, and has spools of Maxima some of which I'm betting he's had kicking around for more than a decade. He consistently outfishes me, and often shakes his head at what I spend on "doodads"

I was already reasonably heavy... mostly 4X the first couple of nights, and some 3X on the third night, in the Rio Powerflex plus variety. If you believe what they say, it is 20% stronger than regular tippet too! I think if anything, I was maybe a little too heavy for the size of flies I was using at times. I'm not usually one to be out there with 6 or 7X like some guys... I'm simply not delicate enough... I find it harder to dislodge flies from trees when tied on 6X

Here's my M.O. After a lifetime of spincasting and trolling primarily for pike and walleye, I decided a few years back to pick up a fly rod. This is my 4th summer season fly fishing, and while I still consider myself very much a novice, I am hopefully getting a little better with each year on the water. I primarily fish medium sized rivers in the southwest portion of AB, targeting rainbow and cutts. I had the good fortune to be out for three evenings last week, and was getting into some OK numbers of fish. Good dry fly fishing, with a number of little guys, and a few healthy & feisty 16's to the net. However, each night I tagged into at least one (sometimes multiple) fish that were from my estimation, over 20". Not including the ones that were lost pretty quickly but still appeared a good size, I'm batting 0 for 5 on them. I've lost them in all manner of ways. A couple of breakoffs; one rather quickly after 20 seconds or so, and another after several minutes complete with several acrobatic leaps. Lost another couple after decent fights in close, but then getting past me well downstream before they bobbed, weaved and then spit my hook. Another was hooked and fought from well away from me for several minutes, and then swam toward me at a speed I simply wasn't able to keep up with on the reel.... then slack line. The only fish over 20" I've landed this year was on stillwater, but I'd like to change that before summer is done. Part of what makes this game so interesting is that no two scenarios are exactly alike in my mind. Given that, my question is confounded by a lot of "what ifs", but here goes anyway. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on improving success landing what I consider "larger" trout. What are your top tips?

I've had good luck so far with my Orvis Encounter waders after one season of moderate wading (more than 10, but probably less than 20 times in the water). No sign of any wear on them yet. They are a good entry level product, probably retailing for a little less than the Simms Freestone, but a little more than Redington lower end stuff. I fished with a fellow a couple years ago who had the Reds Crosswaters, and he said for the price he loved them; fished them a couple dozen times with no problems from what I recall him saying.

Photobucket. Only hosting site that works consistently here from what I've experienced. That won't resize pictures automatically though, so if they are too big to begin with, you are pooched without resizing it first (I've never had the site tell me a pic was too big). I think you can resize within photobucket. Never used their app, only on a PC, so not sure how it works.

This is what happens when you try to use Dropbox...

Them's fightin words. I'm surprised Pete has let it go as long as he has. Very nice photo Deb!

Drove past the Crow and into B.C last night taking my son out to a Scout camp. With the daytime temps we've had this week, the Crow (and on the other side, Michel) was pretty high and dirty. I think the snowpack has started to diminish... it looks like less snow through the Pass already compared to last weekend. Guaranteed, no matter what happens for weather we won't have a repeat of last year, as there is still a significant amount of snow up in them thar hills. I think temps getting into the double digits from time to time with occasional rain over the next few weeks means a more "typical" runoff this year.

Whoops... I woulda bet a small sum of money you said Core, but pretty clear from the thread title (AND the third post) otherwise. The middle aged brain works in mysterious ways.