headscan

Hanson's price on the Bauers is roughly the same as the US price. I just picked up a spare spool for my M2SL from him a couple weeks ago for $145 - same as what's listed on the Bauer website. It is a nice reel, but if I got a do-over I'd go with a Nautilus instead. Have one on my 8wt and love it.

My understanding is the cape is from the neck and shoulders of the bird, so the necks you have are probably similar to a cape or the same thing. The saddle is from the back (and maybe part of the sides) of the bird. I think the cape is considered best for dries, while the saddle tends to have feathers decent for dries and also the webbed feathers that are good for wet fly hackle. I have only been tying for a month now, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Since I first posted this I started doing some reading at speypages. So just when I thought I had my rod choices narrowed down, I start learning about these other great sticks like Beulah and Snowbee. At this point I'm waiting until the show before plunking down any cash. Less than two months to go anyways...

Not quite local but... http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=74...s*listing*title

Copy the zip file to Program Files\FlySource\FlySource Files\flys then right click it and choose Extract Here from the menu if you have Winzip installed. The next time you start go to the pattern database in FlySource the new patterns should be there.

Did you extract the files to the FlySource\FlySource Files\flys directory?

Isn't Water Marks the name of the column he writes for the back page of Fly Fusion? Maybe it's a collection of those...

I took a look at the Beulah and Snowbee sites and they've definitely piqued my interest. The Beulah you built and posted pictures of on speypages looks fantastic. For those who haven't seen it: http://speypages.com/speyclave/showthread.php?t=27367

Along the same lines as Haig-Brown, though a little more modern is John Gierach. You can probably find a copy of Trout Bum at any fly fishing shop in the city.

The shop might have "purchased" the rods and registered them for warranty in case they broke while out on demo. I think that since Sage warranty only covers the original owner that's why they don't come with it. Might be worth emailing/phoning Sage to find out.

Thanks for all the great info. Now that I know there'll be some spey gear at the Calgary show I'm going to wait until I've had an opportunity to wiggle some rods there before I make any decisions. Marc

I just picked up a 5wt Shark Skin line for my FLI on the weekend. Can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can field test it.

Thanks for the information Gordon. I'll probably be at the show at least one day if not both so I'll make sure to drop by. Between the snow that fell last night and the cooler weather, I'm not in a rush to get outfitted with some spey gear...

I emailed Rajeff Sports to see if they're bringing any Echo Speys to the show. Heard a lot of good things about them on Speypages. Might be worth emailing a few of the other rod manufacturers that are confirmed exhibitors at the show to see if they're bringing spey rods with them. If they think there's interest they'll probably bring a few at least. Yeah, I've given consideration to the Sage speys as well. Both the Z-axis and VT2 sound appealing and I'm a big fan of Sage rods in general. The lightest VT2 is a 13' 7wt, though, which seems like it might be a bit of overkill for the Bow. Though if I line it with a WC 8/9/10 instead of a 7/8/9 that might make it more manageable. Bah, who am I kidding? I know I'll end up owning at least a couple of spey rods by the time July rolls around...

I'm looking for a bit of feedback about this rod. I'm looking around for my first spey rod that will be used primarily on the Bow. According to the Loomis site this is a medium action rod. My understanding is that a stiffer rod will produce tighter loops and greater distance but is far less forgiving. Any opinions? Should I be looking at an entirely different rod? There are a few others I've looked at, but most of them aren't available locally...

I'll second the Fish Tales kit. Just enough of everything you need to start tying some useful flies. There are mass-marketed starter kits you can find, but they tend to include things you won't necessarily need if you only fish for trout in Alberta. Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple by Skip Morris and The Benchside Introduction to Fly Tying by Ted Leeson really helped me out, although I have to admit I haven't looked at either one since I picked up The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference.

Looks like a pretty sweet outfit. I've always thought those Sage reels looked pretty badass - I'd love to hear a review on it after you've tried it out.

I picked up a Frog Hair fluoro leader for nymphing but haven't used it enough to form a solid opinion. The little I have used it, though, I can't see a significant enough difference from my trusty SA leaders to justify the price difference (about $10). The tip of the fluoro leader doesn't retain memory as much as mono, but the butt section still does on mine. Haven't had an opportunity to try the Frog Skin mono leaders yet. The fluoro tippet works great with mono leaders as long as you use a 4 wrap surgeon's knot to connect them. Fewer wraps seems to increase the likelihood that the fluoro will cut through the mono when you put weight on it (ie. a fish).

I'll vouch for that. Picked up some sinking tip line from Gord on Weds and mentioned that I had never fished anything other than floating line before. He gave me some good tips on how to fish it properly and the next day I caught my biggest fish on the fly to date. I also agree with the Frog Hair fluoro for sub-surface and mono for dries. The only other type of fluoro that I've used was Rio and I had some problems with it that I don't with Frog Hair fluoro.

Just found the story I read about it. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6450.html He'd just have to stop talking about it on the show. Guess Thompson left Law and Order for other reasons.

I think I also read somewhere that he would have to give up his show if he was serious. Rules about fair airtime or something. Probably the same reason Fred Thompson left Law and Order. The whole thing reminds me of that Robin Williams movie - Man of the Year.

West Winds has Sharkskin in stock if you want to buy it locally. Was in there on Saturday and Gord showed it to me. IIRC it was about the same price as that eBay listing too.

If you're connecting fluoro tippet to a mono leader try using a four wrap surgeon's. I had breakage at the knot all the time when I was only using two wraps but haven't had one since I switched to four. The breakage is probably because the fluoro actually cuts through the mono.

I buy all my used and out of print books from Alibris. http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?q...s*listing*title

This is definitely what's happening and I sympathize with them. Having said that, it's also in their best interests to move their stock. If people who would normally have purchased something locally start buying online because of the price difference, then the stock (which has already been paid for by the retailer) will sit. It isn't a good thing for a smaller retailer to have a lot of money tied up in inventory that isn't moving since it limits their ability to bring in new merchandise. Sometimes as a retailer you need to bite the bullet here and there to be competitive and stay in business. And to answer the OP's question, www.cabelas.com might be worth a shot. Their prices seem to be similar to feather-craft and they ship to Canada. I haven't ordered from them myself, but I haven't heard anything bad about them and they are a large, well-known brand.