SilverDoctor

Just an idea but go to Canadian tire and chek out their over the boot ice cleats for ice fishing. Might be somethig that works.

When I sat in on the Fisheries round-table last week, a 0 limit is in the planning for many lakes withing the next couple of years.

I take it no one uses a Whetstone? Still haul out one of those my Arkansas every now and again (it's an oilstone). The Arkansas came with a nifty little device that you tighten onto the back side of your knfe spine and sits there keeping an angle as you use the stone. Have a few Whetstones (water) that Dad used, that still work great, Stones are about an inch by 3 or 4 inches. Very handy pocket-sized,

Would like to thank all our members here who participated and gave of their time to teach fly tying. Thank you all! I am hoping we can get a few more of you involved next year to pass on some good will and have fun in this way. Life can be rewarding by giving a bit, and this is a worthwhile effort. The show itself was great and very enjoyable. Lots of great speakers, cool products and local shops. “Tyers Row” had extremely talented people that where free with their advice, and where else can you pick out a top brand fly rod and cast it at the same time getting professional advice about how to use the product. . Thanks also to the Fish and Game members who where fielding questions and with their display. What a great way to break the winter doldrums and to be surrounded by fly fisherman. As Murray said we taught over 300 kids and adults how to tie their first fly, a simple Wholly Bugger. A big vote of thanks also goes out to Superfly who donates great colorful materials each year and all the other sponsors involved who donate time and equipment. If you can wind thread around a hook shank you can teach kids. I have to say every time I get involved its rather selfish because of what I get out of it. These kids are amazing. The intensity of focus really blows me away. Its like when superman uses his x-ray vision. When you get a little girl or boy that stares intently at what they are doing in that way it is really something. No whining or complaints just marvel at each step in the process. Some are naturals some stumble along but every single one wants to be there and wants to learn. The youngest we had tie was a four year old that did well. The other thing is the beaming parents and the child walked away from the bench clutching their hand made prize walking on a cloud. I had several come to me, who I had taught that where now competent tiers. We had several instances of a kid tying and then a parent sitting down and saying, “teach me”. Something a family can do together. We also had a adults, men and woman that wanted to experience tying. It was neat seeing the light bulb go off and a mind suddenly say: “so that’s how its done”. Some really stood out. I taught one lady of a spry 85 years who wanted to use her husbands vice who had passed on. A very shy young lady who stated, “This is the first time I ever made something by myself”. A fly fisherman who loved to fish but was curious about adding tying to his love of the sport. Plus a lady who didn’t fish but wanted to explore the art. We where so busy Saturday that I didn’t get a chance to grab a bite to eat, but it was worth it. Just talking to such a wide variety of people who all value not only our sport but also all the little things that make it up all in the same place is special. Keep well all Lornce Didn’t get a chance to take to many pictures especially the line-ups’s

We have a booth again this year at the Expo, along with tiers at the booth we have members that have kindly donated their time to help kids tie their first fly. Drop by the booth or the fly tying corner and say hi if you are at the show. It's a great break for the winter doldrums.

I would certainly look at BC for a first choice, between salmon fishing at the coast, interior lakes or steelheading up north, the balue would be better

Wonderful pictures, thanks for posting, good on you for buying one of Don's rods. They are masterpieces.

Laid off so no holiday for me

I have a Lansky that I use for really dull knives, or if I want to change the angle, to keep up sharpness I normally use a Rapala Ceramic Sharpener from Can Tire. Has a rough and smooth ceramic side, really cheap and works great. the one on the left has the two sides. You can carry it in your vest or hunting coat easily.

Not prescription but I have been wearing Cocoon's for years. Comfortable, easy to slip on and off and you can wear your regular glasses.

Actually the heron on the bottom flutters nicely out of the way to the sides and the fly tracks straight.

In the end any staff can be a good staff, can't count the times in my youth I used a sturdy stick. Old ski poles can be quite serviceable. Don't forget you fishing buddy. Locking arm in arm or arms over shoulders can provide a steady 4 legged base with combined stability for safety. Gramps last outing was at a spry 101. Very unsteady but with the above arm over shoulder technique he crossed a small BC stream with confidence. and spent a day out fishing me. In addition be sure to use common sense, look for a good crossing, know when and where not to cross, cross angling downstream. Be conscious of your safe depth and water speed. I've been swept away a couple of times, (not counting quick dips), always when I put my better judgment or staff aside. Keep safe out there

I sat down and put together a how-to on posting pictures. Hope it makes sense. There are certainly other ways but thisis pretty much a standard till someone can come up with a simpler method. It works for all the forums I belong to. http://flyfishcalgary.com/board/index.php?showtopic=23281

It is a good model, there certainly are other options that have been listed by others and more than likely other models that are cheaper that are also quality, I bought mine during a clearance sale. Just look for a staff that you can put your weight on. Before the convenient collapsible staffs came out I used several ski poles cut down to the proper length (see Dons post). Don't let cost hinder safety.

Seems like it would work as it makes 2 flat surfaces to tie onto. I usually just grab em and tie em down. There are really 2 things to keep in mind, you are trying to comprss the fibers like an accordion and as you tie them in they will want to roll on the hook, a loose wrap or 2 and then an upward pull I found will keep it in place.

Fantastic pictures, love em, thanks for posting. You have a great eye for composition.

I'm sure a few can chime in on this one but it is exactly like tying on a slip wing (top wing) on a wet fly with a pinch hold, except that instead of holding the wing material on top of the hook, you hold the Mallard slips so they tent over the body of the fly slightly and make an upside down "V" then cinch it down with a loose wrap tightening upward. Ps, stay away from glue hoping it akes sense.

Should you want to include a picture in any of your posts, here are some directions for using Photobucket for your image hosting. I follow up with how to get them to show up in your posts on this (or any) forum. To post a picture, first create yourself an account (free) with Photobucket: photobucket.com I'll assume you have a cell phone, or digital camera you take your pictures with, and upload them to your computer to "My Pictures" on PC or Photos on Mac How to get your pictures into Photobucket Once your Photobucket account is created, you'll see a menu to the left of the screen titled ALBUMS. Underneath that there will be a link to "Create an album". Just decide on a name and click "save". Now, you can upload directly to the page you'll see in front of you once your account is created. But if you keep all your pictures on that first page, it gets unmanageable. So I suggest making sub-albums. When you've created an album it should automatically take you to that albums page after creation. In the center of the screen will be a huge button that says "Upload Images and Videos". This will bring up your PCs file folders. I think the default place for Photobucket to look is in "My Pictures", if it's not - then just travel to the folder that has the pictures you want to upload. You can upload one at a time or many (if you want to upload more than one, click the first picture then before you click another one hold the 'Ctrl' key down while you choose all the others). When your done release the Ctrl key and click on "Open" - Photobucket will automatically begin the upload process. You can also drag your photo into Once it's done it'll take you to another page where you can label/tag your pictures. I've never found this useful and it's time consuming, so I skip it. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save". Photobucket will then go back to the album you placed your pictures into the click to upload area. On a lot of computers teh save is automatic. Posting the picture from Photobucket to this Forum When you're ready to post a picture here, have the thread open and a reply box ready to go (you can also use the "Quick Reply" box). Type your text (or just post the picture if you have nothing to say then go back to your open album on Photobucket. When you scroll over each picture a 'drop down' menu will show up with 4 fields with different links you can use. Choose the share link for the picture you want to post, you can also click on the photo and the share links will show up on the right. Here's an example of what you're looking for. I circled the Image link to copy in red. If you click on the drop down share link Click in that field and it should highlight the entire text of that box. Right click and choose 'copy', then come back to your post here (or any other forum) and click on the image icon and when it opens hit paste, then OK. That's it! You won't see your image until you hit "OK". It'll just be the code of the image. It looks like a lot, but really it's not. I'm just wordy. Hope it helps a first time user.

With most forums out there the procedure is the same. Use Photobucket or another sharing site, copy the url provided once you upload your phot to the photo site. Click the image icon and post past the url. If you are getting frozen browsers it's not the site. You should try to trace at a software problem on your machine. Been meaning to do a tutorial about doing it. Try to get it done this weekend. Hope this helps if not email me the photos and I will post them till you have it figured out. Lornce

We had a lot of fun last year showing kids and a few adults how to tie.

Beauties

Ron Scharmin It’s with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of Ron Scharmin, known to all here as Flytier. I fished and tied with him when he was able and he was a great guy. He selfishly served this forum as Administrator for many years giving of his time and knowledge to make this a better place and passed along his knowledge to many neophyte tiers. In recent years his mobility has kept him from his beloved Fly Fishing waters and eventually his vice. His passing diminishes us all. I’ve included a link to his Facebook page for any personal comments along with any you might make here https://www.facebook.com/rscharmin Lornce

Ukrainian Christmas is coming...