hydropsyche

Everyone of them fish are footballs, and I'm not talking wimp nerfs. Thems grade A pigskins.

"Good Luck, Mr. Peace."

I've read that to be called a fly, you have to be able to tie a line to it. I can't see an eye on that hopper. Luckily, the same article said an attennae can be considered a place you can tie a line to. You'd loose it on the first cast, but it would be a fly. Nice flies, Guys.

Are those snails the result of a stomach sample? Anyone got a good snail pattern? Talk about having to dead drift.

I don't think I've ever had the bottom fly come off a barbless hook. You'd think it should happen, but it hasn't for me. I lot of times I'll go eye-to-eye when I think it will result in more hookups, but most of the times its off the bend.

Excellent advice, Brian. I went fishing on thurs too and I wish I read this before I left. I would have went looking for better water. I fished fast choppy water but did manage to land two bows on a size 20 black midge (the birds were going crazy at the time). It must have hit them right on the nose. Got one on a 14 copper john and only one on the worm. Overall, a very slow day. ps. I like a bitchcreek in dirty water but I did't try it that day.

Those are wonderful. Professional quality without a doubt. I especially like the depth of field that mirror lens puts on the Goose. And I bet you didn't even have to photoshop them!

There you go again. I will refrain from pointing out your ignorance about my understanding of the word ignorant. I took exception because its inflammatory. in·flam·ma·to·ry –adjective 1. tending to arouse anger, hostility, passion, etc.: inflammatory speeches. I suggest you stay away from the Global Warning debates, or the use of nets debates or a myiad of other debates that goes on in this forum. They are packed full of ignorance, by your definition. Since there is no "definitive position on this issue", I reserve the right to believe what I believe and feel the way I feel. I hope you will respect that without making inflamatory statements. This is the last posting I'll make on this subject. I promise. Respect.

Like you say: "respect and courtesy". It goes both ways. I will respect your opinion and will try to refrain from suggesting ignorance. Please do the same.

Dying to read the other thread. Anyone have a link?

I hate to say it, but it was beginners luck. A 26in brown is a very rare catch indeed and a lot of veterans have yet to catch one. The only problem you're going to have now is to trying to beat it. Congratulations.

Agreed but I wouldn't call it a misconception. A misconception is something that is proven wrong and I think the jury is still out, is it not? Roderick Haig-Brown (Fisherman's Fall) references Dr, Black "The high level of lactic acid in the blood are not necessarily the cause of death, though they coincide with death. It is known that a distrubance of this magnatue reduces the power of the blood to combine with oxygen and carbon dioxide and the capicity of the heart to pump blood. The real significant point is the buildup of the contrentration continues in fish over a period of several hours after violent exersice, whereas with mammals it ceases with the activity and recovery begins immediately. So a fish released prompty, in apparent excellent condition, almost certainly has not reached the full state of exhaustion brought on by it struggles." Humans have dropped dead from exhaustion, so it doesn't make sense to me to purposely fight a fish to exhaustion when it can be avoided. In other words, better safe then sorry. ps. Sorry for the hijack.

Congrats on making the finals, guys. I can't wait to see how you will out do what you already came up with. DBT, will you be posting a summary of who tied which flies when this is all done?

I believe that to be true. I get a bit pissed when I see someone playing a 16in fish for 10 minutes before releasing it. Its usually someone who hasn't caught a fish all day and wants to make the best of it. I do agree that the bigger the rod, the quicker you can land a fish and that is my goal. I lot of times, to my dismay, I LDR a fish because I'm trying to bring it in too fast. I've learned to live with that risk.

Are we forgetting about the tippet? That is the ulimate determinator as to wether backbone can be applied, is it not? Either the rod breaks or the tippet does. If I was fishing for stealhead, I wouldn't be using the 3wt but I also won't be using 4x tippet or a size 16 fly (and I wouldn't be fishing in Alberta). And you guessed it Tim, I do have an under rated 3wt (Dancraft FT - fast) and compared to that, the 6wt is a moderate action (Five Rivers).

It was healthy both times, believe me. First pict, it was dreary, hence the rain suit. Second pict, it was sunny. To those who know fish habits more then I, I imagine this fish goes to spawn. Do you think it travels to do that and then comes back to the same spot, or could there be some nice spawning ground near by and therefore didn't have to go far?

Just rambling some thoughts out. The weight of a rod is designed to toss the appropriate weight fly line more so then how big a fish you plan on catching. I can land a fish just as fast on my 3wt then my 6wt (they will both have the same size tippet on the end). Within reason. I wouldn't want to catch a 26in Brown on my one weight (fear the rod would break). So what determines which rod to use, for me, is how windy it is. I'd rather cast a 6wt line in the wind then a 3wt. Or how spooky the fish is (dry fly = 3wt), or how much gear I'm chucking (sjw rig = 6wt). Or how far I need to cast, etc. As you can tell, my vote is for a 3wt and a 6wt (and a 1wt for those dinks).

When I was a kid, I tried to kill one by stepping on it (on the sidewalk, even).... ..it just reared up and hissed at me. They've given me the creeps ever since.

Nope. I didn't write down what I caught it on the first time but my log says "nothing on the worm today". So it must have been a small nymph of some kind. This year it was on a size 14 hare's ear type softhackle.

That is great. You must be a photoshop wizard to throw this together so quick. Do you still have it full sized? I'll send you a PM. What? Burt? Hate me? Na. He likes me so much he comes to say hello every year.

It was the same run. Most likely, the exact same spot but I don't know for sure.

I was telling my fishin buddy how you can tell if a fish is the same by the spots. This guy is my lucky charm. He helped me land three of my biggest Browns to date. Each of them one year apart. Well, we were wondering if there was any chance any of the Browns were the same fish as the year before. This is the brown I caught last spring (sorry about the finger in the gill plate, but as you will see, it survived). Taped at 25.5 inches. This is the 27 in Brown I caught this year. Look at the spots. I'm pretty sure its the same fish. Caught 1 year apart and 1.5 inches larger. What are the odds? I can't wait til next year!!

I've never text messaged before in my life, but I don't get it. Text, compared to audio, is minuscule in size. Each character is 8 bits. "I luv u, q-t pie" takes a fraction of bandwidth to transmit over text then voice. I just don't get it.

Don, somehow, I don't think you and I can be classified as "laid back".

Yeah. but when you just landed that once in a season fish, don't you just gotta know?