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Unless ya cant go to your fav lake there and it's opened up for 2 people to bid. I could go in with someone to top that bid. Jury is still out on whether 3M is in the mix as we haven't spoken to the landowner yet........Will post when we know.......

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Specail Item 26. TECUMSEH MOUNTAIN FISHING HOLIDAY This 3 day guided fishing package includes, 2 nights accomodations, for 2 guests, at the "Tecumseh Mountain Guest Ranch" in Blairmore, AB, compliments of owner/flyfishing guide, Kia Eckhardt. http://mountainguestranch.com/ Explore the many wonderfull fishing opportunites the area has to offer with your Host/Guide Brian Peace. Enjoy the comfortable accomodations at the end of a long days fishing, in a beautifull mountain setting. -Starting bid: $1,200 Awesome!!!..............What a great donation!!---Thanks Brian!!...........Hope we can see some wild and crazy bids on this one!!

Ouch!!.........

Thanks bhurt, I feel soooooooo much better now...........Finally some respect!!

And all the old farts, lets get things changed before it's too late. catch ya' Don I wish everyone would stop calling me old!!

R&B, we'll find some 'gators for ya!!..........Lunch will be good too..........Maybe you need to up your bid to $350 just to make sure you don't miss it!!!

. SENIORS HALF DAY WALK & B.S., on the Bow River, with Host/Guide Toolman. I resemble that remark...........Uncalled for!!

Where should we send the cheques........Dryfly/mine is "in the mail" as soon as we get an address...........Thanks TM....

O.K., Dryfly and I are $300 for Toolman's walk and wade..........Do we need to be blindfolded before we go??..........Do we have a chance to catch any of those "exotics" that get bandied around this Board from time to time like tampons, diapers, coconuts??

Toolman is the guy running the auction........I sent him a PM but I think he's away for a few days...........When he's back, we'll get the donations/auction sorted out so everyone has a better idea of what's up for sale, who's bidding and who's successful..........We'll put some timelines around it and it'll all be good............

I have a 3 and 5 wt. trion and an 8 and 10 wt president..........All good........Only real difference is the trion is what I'd call a mid-arbour and the president is a true large-arbour..........Happy with both.......

I have a Little Chief that gets little use.......Comes with a good smoker recipe book ........You are welcome to borrow it....... Al.......

Thanks a bunch for doing this TM..........Just to remind everyone who donates to the auction that if you submit an invoice with your donation marked Trout Unlimited Canada--S. Alberta Streamwatch a tax receipt will be issued.....Invoices that accompany the donation can be forwarded to me, TM...........Thanks again.......

LS, if you have contacts that could donate the binocs, camera or gps we will be more than happy to issue them a tax receipt for the full retail amount.........All they need to do is give me the retail price sticker when they send the item and I will see they get the tax receipt..........Thanks for your help.......

Nicely done Andrew........Big Earl was indeed a worthy contender........

But let's not waste a lot of time and effect tying to purify all of our waters back to before the European invasives got a foothold. Cheers! Clive Good idea but "we" are already consumed with that in our national parks........Used to be some decent fishing in Jasper but with the "natives only" philosophy not so much any more......Agree the original stockings there were not in any way scientific (Quebec Red Trout??) but the rainbow and brookie populations should have been sustained through stocking which doesn't occur any more...........

Hey, if you think you can buy a cast, go for it!!..........Or, maybe you can practice more with what you have and save the money!! :P

Just sending this to get it back near the top of the Board before it disappears!! :P

I'm with Taco.........In golf the saying goes "it's not the arrow, it's the Indian"............Or "you can't buy a swing".........The guys who fished silk lines with horsehair leaders are rolling over in their graves.........

For those who may be wondering about the Streamwatch concept, here's a note from Don Anderson which I think is bang on........ Guys, For those with a short life span in Alberta, When I was a kid every forest officer, truck driver or grader operator working for Forestry could and would issue you a ticket for breaking most any kind of law. Things have changed. I've heard that we are now down to about 60 or so F&W Enforcement types most of which reside in cities and concern themselves with lost dicky birds, exotic wildlife and the like. So what to do - well the East Slope Angling Regulations helped some. That added some protection but the other 90% of the equation was enforcement or education. OK - Now what? the Fish and Gamers taught us a lesson. They've been asking for more enforcement for 30 years and the trend has gone down. So if the Gov't won't do it directly, perhaps a private/public partnership would work. Get the money and hope the Govt kicks in. Well Streamwatch in Central Alberta did just that. The Streamwatch folks fund about 50% of with the Govt kicking in some $'s + inkind contributions trucks etc. Of course, there were concerns that the Streamwatch person would become a glorified secretary or get caught up in dicky birds or playing with tourists. To this point, such fears have been unfounded. Ceertainly there have been occasions where Streamwatch folks were used for other than OHV and fishing infractions but by in large, they have kept their noses pointed firmly in the direction of what is important to our fisherries. As far as Govt doing it alone. Forget it. Taint important!! Thirty years of F&Gers' pounding their heads against a wall taught us that. Now if we could just get F&Ger's to recognize their plan hasn't worked and help Streamwatch along, things would/could be a tad better. I know in meetings with Govt that they are reluctant to give up the reins on anything where they have responsibility but on the other hand don't have the resources to do the job and further rarely want the private sector to do the work for them. A Catch 22 if I ever saw one. catch ya' Don

Thanks Lynn.........We're hoping that the O&G's will be the ones to take on primary support for this initiative as they have a big stake in keeping people happy with what they're doing in the area..........Got any contacts you can pass on???

Funny Don, when I fished with Barry in the fall he gave you some of the credit!!...........I guess he's just a nice guy!! ......At any rate, you guys in Central have done a great job of getting it up and running.........Makes our job easier now there's a blueprint........ Hey, MikefromSundre put a post on the "saving the Livingstone" thread and maybe you have some thoughts.......He's wondering if Streamwatch will ENCORAGE the gov't to pony up more resources for enforcement or DISCOURAGE them from doing so if it seems the anglers are getting it done.........Whatcha think???

The Oldman River Chapter of TU will be working to have a Streamwatch student CO in the Upper Oldman/Livingstone area starting in May......For those of you not familiar with Streamwatch it places a Student Conservation Officer in a designated area who is repsonsible only for monitoring, educating and enforcing angling and stream violtaions such as misuse of quads, violations by industry and other environemental infractions.........Student CO's have all the powers of a policeman except the power to arrest.........They report directly to and are supervised by the local F&W CO but have responsiblities ONLY for doing the stream work---i.e aren't called out on bear patrol, etc. etc...........The program was started on the Ram and Blackstone rivers by the Central Alberta TU chapter (Barry Mitchell/Don Anderson) and has been very successful..........It has also been expanded to the Edson, Sundre and GrandCache regions........Many of the fines levied under the program have been channelled back into funding the Streamwatch program....... To put a Student CO in the field from May through September csots approximately $25,000.......This pays for wages, accomodation, vehicles, fuel, sat phone, etc......Funding is raised through corporate donations and individual donations as well as fundraising projects such as raffles, auctions and dinners, and TU National helps with some funds as well as administers the program and provides tax receipts to donors........ A number of folks on this Board have already pledged to help with donations.......If you are interested, you can send cheques to me---Allan Caldwell, 137 Coachwood Point, Lethbridge, T1K 6A6------and cheques should be made payable to Trout Unlimited and clearly marked "Southern Alberta Streamwatch".....I will hold any individual cheques "in trust" and in the event the program doesn't raise sufficient funding to put a Student CO on stream in May, your cheque will be returned....... The success of the program ongoing is through coporate funding.........If you work for, or know of, companies who have an interest in improving the quality of the angling experience in the Oldman/Livingstone drainage, please send me a contact and I will be glad to discuss the Streamwatch program with them and how they can help...... Long term, we would like to see the program expanded in S. Alberta to also include the Carbondale/Castle drainage but we believe the prioity should be the Upper Oldman/Livingstone first..........Anything you can do to help will be appreciated......

"Back to original thread idea. The key is enforcement. The laws governing off road vehicles are there. It is the law that you have to be licenced and wear a helmet. How many do? We have laws about crossing streams. But we do not have the man power to enforce. Ever driven QE2 or even the Deerfoot? We do have laws about speeding. We have laws against poaching -yet it happens all the time." My point exactly Mike........We don't need new rules, just enforcement of what is already in place........That's why Streamwatch can work......The Streamwatch CO's have only one responsibility-----to patrol, educate and enforce regulations concerning the area to which they're assigned........fishing reg's, environmental breaches all fall within their responsibility..........There simply are not enough CO's out there to get the job done and they get pulled all over the place with bear issues and other things that don't keep them on the streams......... Hope you didn't think I was trying to hi-jack the thread.......

Thanks a bunch FT............All help gratefully accepted...... Al..