Villageidiot

Don't get overly concerned with mending. For pike, you'll never need to mend. For salmon/steelhead, a mend is pretty easily done with any rod/line so long as you stop high on your forward stroke and mend immediately. Skagit heads are shorter than 30' typically... some as short as 11 feet. How do you suppose spey casters mend their lines when they've shot 90' of tip + skagit head + running line out the rod tip, especially when mono running lines are an even smaller diameter than floating lines? Dont mean to come off snide. Just something to think about.

Outbound short is likely my pick for your 8wt line. I fish an 8wt no problem for pike in Northern Manitoba. The Outbound Short is a great line for throwing bigger pike flies, as well as moderate single hand skagit casts with lighter tips (think versi/polyleaders). You'll have no issues overhead casting salmon/steelhead flies + tips with the outbound short line as well.

Yeah, you can't use a gas motor on many AB lakes. Nor can you on lakes in the national parks except minnewanka. So that doesn't solve the problem. But my 4hp Yammy on the back does put me up the bow nicely when i want to re-fish some banks.

Ray, curious about the battery bank setup. Pls Pm me.

winston BIIMX 490-4, Sage one 390-4

Sure is. You'd never think that 30lb of thrust up from a 55lb would make that much of a difference but it sure does.

I run the 85lb, 24v thrust traxxis on my XL low profile. Pushes awesome. Besides the fact you need 2 batteries. Perfect setup for tearing around or if you need to get up the k lakes or maligne.

I'll admit, they are comfy and nice to get in an out of. If you're a guy who likes to do minimal walking/hiking and sit in one run on the bow, or in your drift boat. They're great. Downside... replacement kits. I replaced a set, and the next trip I had the replacement set go. You can't get them tight enough for proper hikes and "real" wading, and when you do get them tight enough, they snap the next time you do a severe bend at the ankle.

Extra low profile drift boat is what I have. I wouldn't give up on a NRS fishing raft. Especially not for Alberta. Too many waters without boat launches that are floatable with an inflatable. If you have a trailered drift boat/skiff you're pretty confined to the Bow, OM, RDR and perhaps a few others.

i would imagine just sizing down in a jimmy legs or your favourite stonefly dry would do the trick.

It's absolute horse *hit. The biggest issue we faced last year, was the uncertainty of the allowance of aerators on lakes, so instead of stocking them into the lakes they intended to (Muir, I believe Beaver were among the top on the list, quality fisheries) they dumped them into black nugget because they had a higher chance of "surviving" the winter. But then had a much higher chance of being whacked by idiots. However the bloody morons who decided the stocking location couldn't even scrape together the idea of putting them into East Pit instead, where history has shown capability of over wintering big trout even with a 5 trout limit, where motorized crafts aren't allowed, and its actually impossible to launch a boat. But nope. Throw them in Black nugget, its fine. I dont care....

Voluntarily catch and release still is pathetic. People can keep as many as they want because they still aren't a bloody game fish... Good "conservation" stocking strategy. Most expensive trout to produce and if you know what you're doing you can take out a few dozen mud tasting trout each time out. Excellent use of the tax payers money.

Another thing to consider... The new skagit max trout heads and the OPST Commando heads are a little too much fun with a SH rod. In a 6 or 7wt would be perfect for swinging vancouver island/summer steelhead/small stream stuff. The 11' 250 grain head on my 690 one rips with a sculpin and 2.5 int/7.5' t-11 Imow tip. As far as an all round steelhead spey. I've always leaned towards a bigger rig (575-625grain window), because you can always size down with tips or lines to fish dries on a heavier rig, however if you're ever in the scenario you need to fish something heavy in turbulent water, a heavier rig will manage the necessary head and tip/flies, better than the lighter rig would.

I never considered that, but that does make sense. I've always found when water temp is colder the fly needs to be on the bottom if not bouncing on it, almost dead drift. Its rare that i've had bulls rush to chase something when air temps are below 5 degrees celsius. Typically the rivers I fish Nechako, Fraser, Athabasca, Smokey, aren't fishable until late fall, or early spring when the sediment clears and I always thought going to t-14 being the heaviest possible tip would get me the closest to the bottom. But what you've proposed does make sense... Now I have to experiment. That being said, I dont fish the bigger systems come May->Early Aug, instead fishing canyon rivers / secondary streams, where i've never found the switch/spey to be beneficial.

Yes, looking back, i should retract the ridiculous statement of 1000 grain head. However it was more of an exaggeration because the flies I fish for bulls are true 7-9" long monstrosities, and trying to spey cast them would require some ridiculous set up to get the fly out of the water on the forward cast. I've begun to pursue the switch/compact DH rod for bulls, as there is some mainstems of systems they will work well on. Specifically those with long tailouts/runs that just aren't manageable to fish with a SH (Athabasca, Smokey, North Sask, Lower Oldman, Kootenay, Columbia, Fraser). I will be running my 8110-4 Z-axis with a skagit iShort 575 grain head with 7-10' of t-14 and hopefully devise a fly similar to a bucktail profile that will also swim that is castable and will cover the scenarios. I could not see the need for swinging flies to bulls on rivers like the sheep, elbow, highwood, wig, upper oldman etc. Pressured bigger fish will not like the anchor set up and rip. Edit: I should also note, I got a few bulls swinging sculpins as bycatch swinging for rainbows.

sparkle minnow

Haven't encountered it full on. But trout do remember the adults about a week or so after the hatch. Confirmed it on the RDR this season.

But then ESRD has to dump walleye into it by the boat loads to try to re establish them, and out compete the pike and bring the pike sizes down a couple notches. Not to say that's the only problem with Wabamun right now, because it is facing other issues than just the intense walleye introduction. For example, another reason we're seeing pike growth rates slow, is with the warm water discharge being cut back, with one of the plants being practically shut down, the lakes temperatures have changed. We used to be able to fly fish in the winter up here in Edmonton for trophy sized pike. That must have been fun. Many factors did help it gain "trophy" status, however the warm water discharge leads me to believe that it was an likely an anomaly. Catch and Release did help though.

It'd be useful if the moderators didn't just delete and ban those who speak up.

God forbid you mention anything about properly handling fish on that forum.

the new redington prowlers are the cats ass. Super comfy, lots of support!

buying a leader wallet and filling it with your indicators, leaders, split, gink, tips. Keeps everyone together in one little package.

guaranteed you break "8lb" 3x tippet before you break 8lb pline. fish don't care. 6lb pline is fine for smaller nymphs. I've never had issues.

Pline Fluoroclear. The big spools will last you years and save you a ton of money on tippet. 6lb-8lb Nymphing. 12-15lb streamers. Still working on spools from 2012-2013 I leave the tippet you buy from fly shops for dries, and even then I'm hesitant, usually going no smaller then 4x, which is rare that i even go that light. I dont believe that fly tippet ever breaks at its marketed breaking strength

Winston BIIMX 490-4 is my favourite stick.