LeeAB

Took a drive to scout out water conditions and maybe throw a line, line stayed dry. From Longview west and north at least a couple, sometimes 5 vehicles at every pull out. Picnic/day use areas had the parking lots full with sometimes double the number of vehicles parked on the access roads or highway, seriously. Cat Creek had over 50 vehicles scattered around. The water was high and off colour anyway, so didn't take the gear out. Went over the Pass and all the ponds were packed as well, people about 20 metres apart along the shorelines of Wedge Pond, Mt. Lorett Ponds, Sibbald Meadow Pond and Grotto Mountain Pond. Lots of canoes, kayaks, hikers, etc. Was anybody in Calgary on Sunday? Anyway, I'm healthy, so is my family and I have a job, things could be worse. But I really do need to catch a trout on a mountain stream with only the rustling of leaves in the background soon.

I remember catching a 10" male Grayling at the Belly River Campground in Waterton in the early 1990's. Another note here, I have never heard of a Grayling showing up in the Trout Unlimited Fish Rescue on the Belly River either, that said I participated in only a few but one would think you would here of a Grayling if it occurred. My understanding is that the Montana Grayling were plants from the Au Sable River in Michigan which are now extinct.

For those of you who missed it last year (even with 2 showings), here is a link to get your tickets before it is sold out, again. IF4 Got my tickets already!

There are tickets for the February showing. Wonder why they don't go to the land of Connor McJesus?

The festival is now sold out. Anybody willing to give up their tickets?

Sorry to bring a negative topic up here but yesterday at around 11:00 am a blue jeep pulled into the passing lane after being parked by the bridge, I had to swerve partly into the ditch to avoid hitting them or we all would be dead. Point is, if we want access to the river we have to be responsible. I could be a non-fisher and take this to somebody else and the next thing we know there are concrete barriers up and nobody gets access. So blue jeep driver and anybody else who drives and parks unresponsibly around the access points, DON'T!!! All it takes is one to ruin for the rest of us. Sorry for the rant. Season is finally open, gotta get out.

Not Aotearoa for sure. Landscape, vegetation and the fact that when the angler was driving in, he is on the "right" side of the vehicle.

It would be nice if some of those Coho could have been caught on the fly and released before they ended up being bonked but everything seemed inside the rules. No habitat destruction, no lower food chain destruction,.....looks like they are doing a better job than what's happening in our Eastern slopes. So how is that fracking and coal bed methane extraction going these days? On a side note, saw about a hundred Pinks bonked and on the shores of the Campbell this year at the Sandy pool. Same as last year and the year before and the year before.

I got one last year and have already picked this years up. Funny how on my home stream I used to end the day with a bit of long face sometimes if I had caught a Brookie knowing that the STD of mountain streams was infiltrating my territory. Now with the licence, when you hook into one of them, the feeling has changed from helplessness and 'doom-n-gloom' to a sense of empowerment and relief that one less Brookie is in the system. Strange....... I'm going to mail my Brookies to Taco.....hope the strike doesn't last too long!

If you want to get rid of them all, you need to get rid of the breeders; Queen. So as mentioned in some of the previous posts, buy a product that gets taken back to the nest and has a residual effect, not just a contact insecticide. When I worked for the Pesticide Chemicals Branch of Alberta Environment, the one which was effective and common is chlorpyrofos. Many brands have it as the active ingrediant, just look on the container. Worked great at my place for those pesky little red ants. They were all gone after a couple of weeks.

Don't want to pop your bubble but the fly fishing on Oahu is less than stellar and there aren't any flats for Bones, etc. The only island with any type of flats is Molokai and the Bone fishing is not flats fishing like the Bahamas, etc. Yes you can cast into the surf around structures and pick off some reef fish with small Deceiver patterns, etc but it's a lot of blind casting for little results. Your best bet is to go for the pelagics and if you are lucky enough to run into schooly Mah Mahi, keep the Cow/Bull on the line near the boat and fly cast to the followers who will hang around. Sorry to rain on your vacation plans but thought you would be wanting to hear how to maximize time/money/fishing on those ever so valuable holidays.

Things are going well Taco, thanks for asking. The Stewardship Licence covers you for multiple streams and sections of those streams (eg; upstream of 940 on the Highwood) and are all listed on the single licence. Hopefully in time, things can expanded to more areas and start to branch over to some other species as well. Some day the rainbow/red-band/cutthroat thing may get cleared up and progress can be made in that direction down where you are. Have a good one, later.

Taco, I don't know where you were fishing and don't need to know but if you talk to Jim Stelfox or Jenn Earle you can get a 'Stewardship Licence' (ID test required) and start to take care of the Brookie problem. I got one to keep the Highwood clean. Lee

Think it is Vince Wilfork standing over Chris Rix, could be wrong, fact is it is a 'Cane dominating a Semenhole that counts.

I have various Orvis rods, all of which I am satisfied with. I do have a 5 weight Orvis and it's a gem, great for the Bow and Crow. Like someone said earlier, they have a return policy that is slick.....son broke the tip off of one and I got a whole new T3 rod mailed to me in a couple of weeks. Can't beat it.

Nice Avatar!!!! Notice who is on the ground in mine???? Go 'Canes!

Anybody got a line on what is worth fishing in the Comox to Campbell River area for freshwater stuff for the first couple of weeks of April. Any lakes or streams worth hitting?

Does anyone think Butler can get past West Virginia or Duke?