SnaG05

Ive been using Maui Jim's for a couple of years now. They make great glasses. They are light, stick to your head like glue (without giving you a migrain), have multiple choices of lenses, and the polarization is second to none. One drawback, they do scratch relatively easily. Although I do not presently use prescription glasses, that day is at hand and Maui Jim does prescription lenses. I can't give you a dollar figure but I am sure their prescription lenses are gonna be expensive, as their cheap sunglasses start at around $190. I'm thinking of purchasing a prescription pair exclusively for fishing because I like mine so much.

I'd have to say Sage Z-Axis 490 with a Sage 2540 reel. I love mine, ive caught 26" browns and bows with it on the Bow, fishing drys and nymph rigs, and Ive caught 16"+ browns with it on Stauffer Creek fishing tiny drys, nymph rigs, and streamers. Not least of which is Sages replacement service rocks!! I broke my XP 586 last fall and they had a new tip to me in 8 days. If this is your first rod, you may want to consider a 6 weight version of this combo as it probably will allow you to fish a wider variety of locations and conditions. Once you become infected with the fly-fishing disease though, you will want to have specific rods and reels for every occasion, and fly boxes, and boats, and 4X4's, and GPS, and pack trains, and guides, and.....................

I would have to say that one of the reasons I buy good gear is because I expect it to get wet. Some routine maintenance once in a while is all that should be needed to keep good gear in top form. How much water gets in your reel when you are fishing in the winter and there is ice on your line? Good gear is meant to handle being soaked, as long as you put it away clean and dry it will be fine. SnaG05

Perca flavescens Yum

Excellent link, lots of good info. SnaG05

Drifting the Bow with Fishead...again. Where do I pay?

I'm not sure about this whole thing, what I do know is I have watched Fishhead put his whole line out with no hauls and only a false cast or two. In fact under his tutelage I managed to break my XP 586 last year after 2 false casts got about 75 or 80' of line out and the ensuing shot to the shore popped it about 6" above the ferrule. Timing is everything baby!! More precisely, One-Up, One-Down for 60 to 80 feet and then mend. SnaG05

OK I'll probably get to row the boat, play with the jet thingy on the back and get the CJ impossibly stuck sometime next year. But since this is for a good cause I've gotta bump the bid for #9 to $525. I hope someone will top this as a day on the Bow with Fishhead is well worth it. I've drifted with him a lot of times over the last 18 or so years and have become an obsessed fishead myself as a result. I can think of only one or two trips where I came up empty handed either due to my incompetence or downright foul weather. He consistantly gets me into trophy sized fish when no-one else seems to be having a lot of luck and his shore lunches are to die for. My last trip in October last year was the best fishing day I have ever had. I caught fish on nearly every cast, broke my 586 XP and took home a shitpile of good memories. Oh and he is really adept at taking large stimulators out of the side of my face with only a modicum of pain being inflicted. The only drawback is that we are both going blind as we get older, tieing #22 tricos on while sightfishing is getting rather comical what with both of us getting our reading glasses out to see the fly let alone the fish. SnaG05

I'll go $475 for #9. I have had the pleasure of Fishheads friendship, generosity, patience, and curmudgenly attitude for a number of years. Fishhead you ROCK!! buddy. Whoever wins this bid is in for a great trip. Fishhead and his wife are excellent hosts, with serious knowledge of the Bow River and many other waterways. If I win this bid though, I want to paddle the boat!! Oh and that jet thing on the back, I want to play with that too (not a lot; just when we're close to cattle). Oh and that Toyota FJ, I want to play with that too!! SnaG05

Fishhead, I know who she was and willl vouch for you, for this feat of unprecedented musical fishing!!!! The 80's & 90's are memorable. SnaG05

Now I know why you would not let me take pictures of those 2 Muskies (and the Tuna that broke my XP-586) while fishing with you on the Bow last month. That Gaff hook worked great (I think we revived most of those fish? right?).