DougC

It's supposed to open in May according to a hiking forum I'm on. I'll believe it when I see it though...

You need to make some shallow slits in the body with a razor blade. Check out this video.

I've used my Aire raft a few times on lakes in a pinch but have only just rowed, never tried a trolling motor. I honestly can't recommend a raft for stillwaters, in fact I can't think of anything that would be worse. It's really not a fun experience at all.

I blame the NDP.

Redbeard - if you picked up the 2wt as well (assuming you did since you posted about looking for a 2wt reel) that Redington Zero 2/3 will balance it perfectly.

I picked up the 2wt and 7/8 wt CGR's as well. They just arrived today and I've only test cast it in the yard, but that 2wt is sweeeet! Even with the shipping and exchange rate you can't go wrong with the CGR's.

I think the sites are a good idea. Permission on private land is not anywhere near as easy to get as it once was and the release sites give a lot more people the ability to access pheasants. If it wasn't for release sites I for one would never even have the opportunity to try pheasant hunting. I think instead of not publishing the release dates they should make them clear as day and also have no hunting allowed at those sites within 24 or 48 hours. Once the birds have a chance to get into cover they're actually pretty clever and can stand a sporting chance. Being able to hunt them straight out of a release truck is no more sporting than paying a farmer to open his chicken coop and blasting away at them as they walk out the door.

I hunted a release site for the first time on opening day last year. Trust me, there aren't any coyotes getting fed off these pheasants! Most of them were dead before they even realized they were out of the cage. We even had a guy shoot one over the top of our Jeep as we were driving out of the parking lot in disgust. We drove to another site about an hour away and watched the truck release the pheasants right on the highway between two pieces of private property half a kilometre from the supposed release site. I'm not sure if they dropped them in the wrong spot by accident, or if they did it on purpose when they saw the dozen guys with shotguns waiting in the parking lot. I may try for pheasants again this year but it will definately not be on opening day or even remotely close to it. Seeing the slaughter in the parking lot kind of turned me off the release sites for the rest of the season an we never went back again. I'm hoping the experience isn't like that all season long.

Loop Booster comes in both floating or intermediate. I have and use both. Rio Outbound Short is another good one that has not been mentioned yet.

Nice pics, but please don't place your fish on the rocks under the water. :-)

I would love to post a link but I want the authorities to be able to take a look at it first before it gets taken down or the facebook profile settings are changed to private. I saved a few of the photo's but could not figure out how to save the video off facebook. I don't know any of the people involved and passed the link off to another forum member who has some connections so as of now he knows just as much about it as me and hopefully he'll be able to get it in the right hands. I don't really expect to hear anything back about it but at least I know I've done what I could.

Thanks for the response's and PM's, hopefully the images and video will make it into the right hands and there will be enough to go on. On one hand I feel kind of guilty for trying to get somebody fined but on the other there is just no excuse anymore for pleading ignorance. There has been so much attention brought to the issue online, on TV, on the radio, in the newspapers, at trailheads, and backcountry info kiosks for so long that you pretty much have to know what you're doing is wrong but you don't give a damn and are doing it anyways. I'm getting pretty sick of seeing all our watersheds and trail's turned into giant mud bogs. Once the ATV's get done with them they are unusable by any other user group, whether on foot, horseback, or two wheels. Venting complete - that felt good... :-)

Just curious, a thread on Facebook showed up on my news feed (friend of a friend) of a group of people ripping up and down and basically doing donuts in what I assume is the Clearwater river in their ATV's all weekend. I clicked on the original posters profile and she's got a bunch of videos and pics documenting themselves all weekend and it's pretty disgusting. Is there an email address that this can be forwarded to in hopes of charges getting laid? I couldn't find one on the esrd site. She's got all the evidence right there on her facebook page, so it should be a pretty cut and dry case. Thanks.

The voting would have gone the same! The PC's needed to go and if people voted WR they would have just formed a coalition and stayed in power. The results for the next election could be very different but there was no other choice this time around. A party that only serves the interests of a small part of the population only got a small percentage of the votes. Not too hard to do the math.

Well, I'm on the other side of the coin. I have 2 watermaster's (for the wife and I) and love them. No, I didn't get them because the cool kids on the google machine had them, and no, I didn't get them for free either. I also didn't pay full price and probably wouldn't, both of mine were lightly used demo models from dealers in BC and still going strong. As for quality I also have an NRS raft with frame and the watermaster's are ever bit it's equal. I originally had pontoon boats but sold them after I got the first watermaster. They are fine for drifting rivers but like others have said not great (slow) on stillwaters. I feel much more secure in whitewater than I ever did on my pontoons, I love all the storage and the fact my dogs can come along with us, and I especially love how much lighter they are and more compact they pack up. Not a big deal if you are only going to float the Bow, but it's awesome being able to hike them in and float sections on other rivers where drift boats and pontoons can't go, or just short floats through productive stretches that all the waves of other boats have either not passed through yet or have floated through hours before. If the price is right I wouldn't hesitate to take a look at ArtVandelay's boat when he posts it up.

I prefer an inflatable while I'm in my kayak for maximum freedom of movement. Every other life vest I own is just too uncomfortable/awkward in a yak. A loaded neck lanyard holds everything I need.

I wasn't able to make it, any updates?

Very cool if it actually works out!

I had a fiberglass 6wt back in the 80's that I loved casting but was ashamed to be seen with. I've kept it in the basement all these years hoping to refinish it one day with some decent components. With that always in the back of my mind and all the recent talk about fiberglass, I just picked up a 7' 3wt Butterstick this afternoon so I'm looking forward to playing with that this season. If it rekindles the old memories I may finally get around to redoing the old 6wt next winter.

Very nice.

That's cool, I had no idea those books existed and I can never get to any county offices during their open hours. I may try pick one up this weekend.

Yes.

Well, I thought it may be the start of many washouts again but the website is still listing it as the only one. If it stays as just the one it should probably be fixed pretty quick I would imagine.

http://www.albertaparks.ca/livingstone-falls/advisories-public-safety/no-road-access.aspx

Sorry I'm not sure what happened to them, I just remember watching them years ago.