Jimbo

A number of opportunities are still available for on-the-water fly fishing instruction with Jim and Lynda McLennan. These include: Our final Listening to the Bow School on Sept. 1 (a learn-to-fish-the Bow school at a private location near Calgary) Our popular Lower Bow Fly Fishing Retreat August 25,26 (two days and one night on the Bow below Carseland) Our first ever Foothills Fall Fly Fling - a weekend of fly-fishing and music in a grand setting near Turner Valley, Alberta (Sept. 11-13) Private clinics for one or two anglers For a summary of these, send us an email requesting our latest newsletter newsletter or visit our website at Visit My Website

If you're looking for a Jon boat, I have a friend who has one for sale. Contact me if you like and I'll put you in touch. Jim

The original large format Blue Ribbon Bow has been out of print for many years. What we have are hard cover versions of the revised, updated edition. The Iron Blue Fly Fishing TV shows have never been released on video or DVD, but some of the fly shops might have copies of them on VHS that they'll loan you (don't ask "What's VHS?"). Jim

If I'm breaking the board's rules by posting this, go ahead and remove this post, but I thought some folks might appreciate the information. Water Marks and Fly Fishing Western Trout Streams are still in print and should be available at most of Alberta's fly shops. Blue Ribbon Bow and Trout Streams of Alberta are basically out of print, but we stocked up before they disappeared and have both available from our website. Thanks. Jim

Neither of those streams are highly regarded as trout fisheries. But about a half hour south of Great Falls is the Missouri River, which is one of the best on the continent. There are fly shops in the little town of Craig (watch for the exit off I-15). They can help you with access, flies, etc. September is a good time to be there. Jim

Thanks to everyone on the board for the nice notes and encouraging words. I'm home and recovering (and trying to peel the sticky stuff off my body that the electrode contacts leave behind). Feeling pretty good and looking forward to getting back on the water and back teaching. I checked my rehab instructions and there it is in the "mild exertion" category - "fishing." Guess I'll have to follow orders won't I? Thanks again everybody from both of us. Jim

Maybe we can clear up another common point of confusion. The front 30 feet of a WF 6 and the front 30 feet of a DT6 have the same weight in grains - they have to weigh the same or they're not both 6-wts. A weight forward line does not have extra weight in the front end, it has less weight in the back end (and yes, that makes it a somewhat misleading name). So the front end of a DT line and the front end of a comparable WF line have both the same weight and the same (or very similar) taper. This means there is no performance difference until the part of the line that is different (the line 30 to 40 feet from the end you're fishing with) is out past the rod tip. DT lines do not give more delicate presentations in the "usual" dry fly range, which for most people is 25 to 45 feet. The diagrams Brent posted are helpful because they show the taper differences nicely. But notice that the third line from the top (weight forward) is thicker than the double taper above it. This means that this WF is a heavier line-weight than the DT. Hope this helps. Jim

Lots of misunderstanding about the difference between the lines. The front 30 to 40 feet of the lines are the same (except for minor differences in front taper). The difference is in the back end of the lines. The back end of WF lines are skinny (this part called the running line) and DT lines remain fat throughout except for the final taper at the end. We fish with the front part of the line, correct? So the part of the line that is different is the part that is almost always on the reel. For casts less than 40 feet there is no difference in the way the lines behave. For casts beyond that the DT will false cast and roll cast better and the WF will shoot better. Probably the most significant difference is that the WF takes up about half the space on the reel. This is the main reason most people use WF lines in 5-wt and up, because they don't need a giant reel for that extremely light weight rod.

This is a good discussion. I agree with Don, that the only thing that matters is how the rod casts with a line on it. You can tell almost nothing about the performance of a rod by waving it around without a line attached to it. A good analogy: judging a fly rod without a line is like judging a guitar without the strings - you're only looking at half of the tool. The only thing I would add is to be careful when somebody generalizes about "all graphite rods" or "all Sage/Orvis/Loomis etc. rods" and says "all graphite rods cast better when you overline them (or underline) them by one line size." Only the caster can make that decision and it will not be the same with all rods. Moral here? Cast the rod before deciding if you like it! When I was working in the fly shop, many years ago Orvis brought out a nine-foot - 4-weight, three-piece rod called the Zephyr. When you picked it up off the rack and waved it around in the shop, it felt long, slow, and noodly. When you put a line on it it became precise, elegant and beautiful. People hated this rod because of the way it felt in the shop, and nobody ever bought one. Jim

Thanks for mentioning this. I'm looking forward to seeing some fishin' folks Friday night. Jim

Small yarn indicators only work with small nymphs (size 14 and smaller) that won't pull the yarn under the water. You can treat the yarn with floatant, or get the stuff called "Strike Indicaor Yarn" which is already treated. Small yarn indicators are not so much "floats" or "depth regulators" as they are simply markers on the leader. They work perfectly well in shallow water - which I think of as less than knee-deep. They also work well as markers on your tippet when you're fishing dry flies that are difficult to see. A tiny (1/4 inch across) piece of chartreuse yarn on the tippet about a foot from a tiny dry fly works very well. Regarding fishing without indicators, I wrote a piece about this topic for Fly Fisherman magazine a few years ago. I suspect it's archived on that site somewhere.

That's great. I didn't know it was you. Keep up the good work. J

When was the information from Robert Benhke obtained? When I did the revision of Blue Ribbon Bow (1998) he was the guy I contacted about the source of the Bow's rainbows, and it was him who said that they were likely steelhead stock, but that it couldn't be confirmed.

Last time I checked the story was that the brown trout were introduced to the upper Bow when a hatchery truck broke down and the fish were released into a tributary (Carrot Creek, I think). Is this new information about a train wreck and rainbows? Also, has the theory of the rainbows being steelhead stock been confirmed? Again, last time I checked it was considered a pretty likely theory, but couldn't be confirmed. Jim