DougC

I've used mine several times this season and really enjoy it. I got the 11' Iwana because it was the smallest and lightest model they had. It is really enjoyable for fishing tiny streams, but it is a bit limiting because of its shorter length. If I had to do it again I would go with the 12' model as it will still work fine on the smaller/tighter streams, but will enable you to get much better and longer drifts on more open water. I often find myself wishing I had that extra foot or so to get better drifts. I find Tenkara's are a nice tool to have even though I dont really fish traditional Tenkara flies or technigues with mine. I'm usually on tiny headwater cutty streams and just pick the little pockets that I could never get a decent drift through with my 0 or 1 wts. For flies I just use my standard small dries and foam attractors that I would would normally use. I have been using a 10'6 furled thread line with about 4-5 feet of 5X-6X tippet and it seems to work alright. The furled leader is perhaps just a bit too heavy and is probably harder to control during the drift than a fluoro line, so I'm going to start playing around with those. I have a feeling those lighter lines will work a little better with the 11' Iwana. Tenkara's are definately easy to use and a lot of fun, so RobertB if you access to one, by all means borrow it and give it a whirl. You do not have to use it with the tradional flies and techniques - regular dries work just fine too. They are definately a superior tool for fishing small mountain streams and pocket water that you could not get a drag free drift through with a regular line and leader. I'll never be a Tenkara "hipster" and I'll always have a place for my regular rods, but I liked my little Iwana so much for the fact that it opened up so much new water to me just ordered a 13' Ayu for fishing some trickier current seams on larger streams.

Congrats, it doesn't get much better than that for your first on a fly.

Well, for the average price of the houses I may as well just buy my own piece of land on the prairie and stock my own pond. It would probably be cheaper. The same size house I own now in Riverbend is about 65-70 grand more in Arbour, and I like my neighbourhood better - rainbows, browns, and pike . So there are seriously no openings for memberships anywhere?

I had a chance to fish a private lake last year and have decided I would like to sign up for a membership to one. Apparantly the one I fished has about a 20 year waiting list so I'm looking for any others that may have openings for this season or even just a shorter waiting list that is more attainable. Any PM'ed info pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks.

Ya, that one is pretty good too but really small - better for just grabbing a couple on the go than sitting down to eat. I buy all my tortillas there, but if it is really out of the way for you they also sell their tortilla's at the differnet UniMarket locations in Calgary.

Thanks for the tip. Good mexican is hard to find in Calgary, I'll check it out this weekend.

I haven't heard anything since last fall, so does anyone know if the issues TransAlta was having on the Spray last year have been resolved? Assuming runoff ever ends , are we going to be dealing with the same high silty flows on the Spray this year as we were all of last year or has the issue been resolved?

The one in his hand is a just a prosthetic. His actual Johnson is the little one beside it.

It is a public access but the locals put a locked gate there and plaster the surrounding roads with no parking signs and harass anyone who dares go near it. Your best bet would be to launch a jet boat in Cochrane and motor your way back up.

I ordered mine from TenkaraUSA and they apparantly have a Canadian distribution center in Vancouver. That's where mine shipped from and there were no duties or customs fees to deal with. I think that's about as "local" as you gonna get though, I'm not aware of any actual shops that carry Tenkara gear in Canada.

The ultimate stealth rig. Do you use one of those new invisiswivel's on that rig as well.

Oh ya, how could I forget about Macgyver!

Old The Fall Guy Simon & Simon The Dukes of Hazzard Night Court Hilarious House of Frightenstein Fishing The West New Boardwalk Empire The Walking Dead Game of Thrones Eastbound & Down Family Guy I really want to like Hell on Wheels, butit tries way too hard to be politically correct. Deadwood was much better.

I'm pretty sure that it is not allowed by law, but having said that if you were to stay on the east side of the island at the Southland dog park nobody would even know you were there, likewise for the island at Carburn park. It would also be possible to stay right on the eastern shore along the southern edge of the Riverbend/Quarry Park/Douglas Glen area - there is quite a bit of bush along that stretch that not many people head into. I know there are quite a few fire pits and open spots to pitch a tent in there.

Anybody have one? Opinions either way? I'm interested in picking one up, but I'm more than a little put off by the price. Are they really that good?

Yup. He almost saved himself for a moment there. I did the almost identical move at Oyster River falls last spring.

I was fishing for bulls one spring a few years ago when I pulled in what I thought was a clump of weeds hanging off the end of my streamer, as I brought it up closer to pull it off I noticed that it was actually another bunny strip streamer that I had hooked directly through the eye. The guy I was fishing with was there with his friend the week before and confirmed it was one of his friends ties that he had lost on their last trip out. I thought it was pretty amazing just to hook it, but to hook it directly through the eye the odds must have been astronomical.

If you have no luck finding the gloves, most fly shops have or can get in strips of latex sheeting for you. Hareline "nymph stretch skin" comes in chartreuse. http://castersonlineflyshop.com/index.php?...roducts_id=1806

Nice shots. I especially like the powerbait fly in pic #2.

I'd be mildly interested as well depending on the date, and would have a spot for 1 other angler in my 3 man NRS if a larger party could be organized.

Sitting inside today, trying to recover from the flu, and dying of boredom, I stumbled across an old bookmark for TenkaraUSA and finally bit the bullet. I've always thought Tenkara rods would be a pretty usefull tool on some of the tiny meadows creeks I like to fish for native cutts and on my favorite Athabasca rainbow stream. Its impossible to make a cast in many spots on them because they are so narrow and choked over with willows the only way to catch anything is by dapping, but creeping to within a standard rod length of a decent pool often spooks them because of the deep undercut banks. I ordered up the 11 foot Iwana because it is the lightest model they offer and I'll primarily be using it on tiny headwaters creeks. Anybody else have a Tenkara? and any thoughts/comments on them? I'm looking forward to trying mine out next season.

As if we were not already hit hard enough by the saddle hackle shortage! Better start stocking up on your holographic mylar too... http://www.hairflairs.com/Ordering.html $50 bucks for 400 strands! Get it while you still can.

Awesome shots. Just out of curiosity, how close are you getting to them? It looks like you are a braver man than I would be!

I just read the article the other day and it's not about alternatives to hackle, its an article about alternatives to saddle hackle. All the patterns in the article use neck hackle which is still realatively easy to come by compared to the saddles.

There may be some light at the end of the tunnel! I just bought my first neck hackles in over a decade and WOW have they ever come a long way. I picked up a couple Whiting silver grade necks when I was in Fernie and they are almost as good as the saddles now. Many of the feathers on these necks are easily half as long as the Whiting saddle feathers and some almost 2/3 the length, all with nice thin stems and uniform barb length. Ton's of feathers sized from bigger than I ever use all the way down to the 20's on each neck. If you are like me and have not bought a neck hackle in years check them out now, they are sooo much better than what they used to be and are still somewhat readily available and affordable unlike the saddles.