BowLurker

Hi BrianR, There needs to be a bit more clarification. I get that you have been emailing with shane@gov.... dot dot, but I can't really tell where your post starts and his ends..? Quotes around the emails from shane@ would be great. |

How did Montana and Idaho fare after their battles with WD? I hear many different stories, some on podcast, some via 'the big 3' youtube videos that are out there. Some ( a lot ) of the local podcasts from the area seem to feel it's over down yonder, but always present. There are other scientific guests that say it will always be around and bleach is your friend. Is it more enforcement? More manpower? For someone that hears a lot about a mostly cyclical lifespan, not withstanding the terrible side of this parasite, how did they recover down south? I'm sure that the two states have mostly the same problems with tailwater drought/flood as we do here..?

Just received an email from RELM...sigh. Grab yer thermometers folks!

I trust we can get to this sort of place for our beautiful Alberta streams and rivers. Here's hoping.

Hey folks, No matter how everyone feels about the Euro-nymphing style, the technology has really evolved over the years. I am not someone that calls out a specific brand or manufacturer, in fact I dislike doing it. In this case, I feel I must mention it, but I will not type the name. I will put up a blurred pic. This leader was supposed to be 2X at 30 feet long, or 8.8lbs test. The leader comes with a double-colour sighter piece of mono integrated into the 'front' of the taper, along with a tippet ring. This sighter snapped off within two days of medium fish and a baby snag. Second time, no heavy duty snag, just walking backwards to pull inline, bam! 2 feet up from the old sighters, again, no big deal, lost a couple flies. Today, I did have a fat 20+ Whitey on, then a big fish on with head shakes, but I'd since lost some of the leader already, hopefully I was truly into the 2X...? Nope, lost the whole works, including tippet rings, swivel, two beadhead flies and my sighter mono. The opaque white mono was visibly stretched from 2X to around a 4.5X close to the break. Geez,...I hate losing hooks in fish out there, but the whole rig? Barbless, and smaller...sigh. I was fishing with no drag and was alert for the strike(s). So, if you catch a fish with a bunch of euro gear in its mouth, my bad. I dislike this very much. Sorry folks. But, I didn't think I would have to worry about a friggin' 2x leader from a reputable manufacturer. I have had the same problem with opaque white mono from another manufacturer as well. Here we go: As stated, every situation is different, but over the years. this opaque white mono is just wayyy toooo brittle methinks . I won't post about the other manufacturer. Oh well, nothing I can do, barbless and bigger (Sz 12) so hopefully this fish will be able to work out the hooks and strings. Cheers, -Mike

I've very much enjoyed the journey this forum has taken over the years, and I have learned so many things, not only from its patrons but especially from you. Thank you. Best of luck in BC, and I wish you tight lines, easy wading and happy, happy fish. Thanks, Doc! Mike

I was fishing below the 'moon pool' at the SHP side channel and just started my wade. I noticed a gentleman in a kayak upstream, maybe 200m away. I kept swinging soft hackles and stepping down. A fish hit my hackle really hard, but came off and I was stuck with a really difficult tangle, so I moved out of the lane and proceeded to try and get untangled. All of a sudden, this gentleman in the kayak was coming down the outflow from the moon pool and proceeded to yell 'HEY!!' at the top of his lungs right behind me. I was quite startled and instinctively jumped and yelled back 'What the f*** is the matter with you!?' He answered back with 'You're what's the matter! You guys are all wrecking it! This river is mine, nobody should be on my river...' blah blah blah as he drifted away from me. He was yelling at the top of his lungs and shaking his fist all the way down and around the corner back towards the main. This was weird, almost like he swapped his shopping cart for a kayak!

I find if the threads are waxed from the factory, the Loon does flake off. With waxed threads, the Solarez seems to turn yellow, but it holds. Some of the Loon gets very yellow, and almost rubbery. For some reason, the red is very soft. I’m sold on the Solarez thin for sure. If a UV laser is being used, the resin doesn’t seem to hold up as well, almost like it cures too quickly. It also smokes up like crazy!!. If I use the UV laser on the Loon, however, it seems to be bulletproof. Weird. The Solarez instructions say to use a 3-step method with a ‘traditional’ UV light, ( 6” away for 5sec, rest, 3” away for 2sec…etc. ) but a long soak with light layers of resin has worked for me. I’m sure getting sensitive to the ‘ Loon stink ‘ however, so moving away from their non-water based products.

There can be fish in front and bugs all around, and they rise once in front of you…right after you have broken down your rod. Sigh.

Whoo Doggie, yes @dwday...yes! We need more focus on the 'before parts'. It sounds so simple.. you take a course for a Hunting License...hopefully. Why not some education about vulnerable areas and licensing changes in the Parks ( for example ) as a prerequisite for fishing? Do any of the Tourists/ New Canadians ever buy a license?

I simply posted some new ADVISORIES for said areas. Whewph..even true Science is getting run-over these days! Didn't want to start yet another diatribe about whether we should fish or not...etc..etc... . Deep breaths, everyone. YES I am the OP! I simply wanted to notify folks that might not know about the new areas. If one is reading the Forums for the first time, and trying to learn about the difference between 65ºF and 73ºF fishing here in the Bow Valley...in-fighting is pointless, and 3+yr-old studies of another watershed does not equal our Valley. I respect your posts @toolman and will continue to do so. If I'm able to get out there and fish, with all of you out there too, I'm in!! Let's go! They are sluggish here in Calgary, so get geared up with heavier tippet and get them back quick! Stop photographing our fish to death! Get out early and have some fun! The last posts I made about creating a new ' ES1 - Alpine ' zone were serious. Maybe it's time to separate the Carseland measurements from the Alpine? We've had numerous folks come into the shop, younger, maybe fly fishing for a couple - 3 years... didn't even know about the new advisories, let alone the ES1. Sigh.

This is a new change/correction that involves ES2, PP1 and NB3. Angling advisories remain in place for parts of Alberta including southern portions of ES2, PP1 and NB3, where declining river flows and hot weather can result in warmer water temperatures that can cause stress to fish. Anglers can help support the health of our fisheries by following angling practices that reduce impacts to fish: Fish only in stocked ponds and lakes – avoid fishing in creeks and rivers Fish early in the morning when temperatures are cooler Using slightly heavier tackle can help you reel in a fish quickly, which helps reduce exhaustion and improve recovery Keep fish wet at all times and minimize handling time Use single point, single hook lures or flies (example: no treble hooks or multiple hooks on a single lure or fly). https://mywildalberta.ca/fishing/advisories-corrections-closures/default.aspx

I do a wee bit of double-handed casting, but have never been back to the 'Olde Country' to launch some lines....yet! No offence to the Irish, I would start in Scotland first, it's called 'Spey' casting for a reason! Not hard to believe this was a series from 1988. So much Tweed! If you have ever watched Klaus Frimor (Loop rod development) doing modern Spey lesson videos on YouTube, he has a small bit of comedy about 'Traditional Spey' fishermen.. 'from Scotland'.. mentioning the Tweed, rubber waders, hand in the pocket admiring one's work... and a wee nip of Scotch! ( You'll have to search for videos from Klaus! ) Here is the actual film, re-mastered onto YT. Thanks to the Glenn Smith channel...there are more. Skål !!

Nicely done @Coffee! I’ve never seen one in person, just going by what the owner at work has told me.

Haha I guess it's the luck of the draw @mrspratley, I got 4 years out of my Redington waders! The neoprene finally flattened out in the heels, and no amount of shoe goo could help it.

Run away....run AWAY!! It is SO full of 'watchmaker' style parts, that it bumps most fly reel techs.

I understand @matt1984 it probably was a perfect water day for the fish. We cannot have it both ways! Obviously, there is more to the closures than just making life inconvenient for Bow River anglers, one example is dead fish on the Crowsnest...another is an angler (me!) getting a 66ºF / 19ºC at 9:30AM in a riffle ,which was a shocker for the NW! One more example is a person coming into the shop and bragging about a football Bullie, showing bloody TikTok videos, fought for 30+mins on a 5 weight, then breaking the rod...? I asked if they knew the water temp... The examples are endless, and IMO the Daytime was at least 10 days too late. Is the temperature measuring station at Carseland the only way to shut down an entire region? As anglers, do we need to push for a separate 'Eastern Alpine Slopes' region that is based on another few stations out in the woods? As anglers, do we shift to lakes and other regions, if possible? This year has been epic, and hopefully the Daytimes won't have to be extended with hot weather on the horizon again. I had called a CO already, @matt1984 and I don't call in on a whim. I thought the CO folks were probably super busy, so took a short walk to speak with the angler. IMO, it was the right move. Fish on everyone! If the local Calgary shops can adapt to the early-bird hours, I'm following suit..now where's the coffee grinder that doesn't have dubbing in it!

Just read the email notice I received over again, and all the reservoirs on the Bow River are also affected, so Ghost - Bearspaw - Glenmore - Bassano and the St. Mary's bodies of water are also under the TOD restrictions. Sheesh...we need a lot more manpower to cover all of those as well! I noticed someone casting in the Bow on the way home from work, I parked and took a quick walk down to the angler. He was an older gentleman, that didn't need to buy a licence anymore, and didn't sign up/wasn't aware there were emails or forums that would notify him of shutdowns. He mentioned he had enough fishing/tying materials to last his life and hardly ever went into a fly shop anymore...so how do anglers such as this ever find out about closures? At any rate, I saw him walking along the bike path with his rod broken down, probably heading back to the car - turned out for the best on this one.

Okay, time to revive this thread! Weird things over the past year...hmmm., well, one big one is that I hardly see any Ospreys around the Bow River anymore. Coyotes are really strong swimmers, a big Beaver can look just like an Otter and Minks can catch pretty durn big fish! Last weird one: I was fishing river-left, and there was another angler who was fishing about 150m away, also river-left, and I was slowly nymphing up towards. We were both heading upstream. Really rocky / slippy banks, narrow canyon river and raining hard. I got fairly close to this person (!!) with no response or eye contact from them. This angler had to have seen me. I finally spoke up loudly, 50-60M away from them and asked if they would mind if I went around them on the bank and continue on past....this is where it gets weird. This 'angler' literally jumped away into the bushes and was gone...Ohh--kay!? Well, I kept fishing on up for no more than a minute or two, and literally the same distance away from me upstream as the last time, was this same angler...? Again no response... it happened one more time and I spooked for real and quickly headed back to the car. There is no way this 'angler' could have covered that much ground in 1-2 minutes, and not been breathing hard. Cool as a cucumber...but always wearing dark sunglasses in the Pacific NW rain....hmmm. It was a really weird one!

Spoke with a guide on the BC side of the Rockies that fishes around Fernie - Elk River, and they have opening day on the 15th of June. He cannot remember the last time all the waters they are able to fish will actually be fishable at this time of year. Most years, the water is too high and silty with runoff, and they must wait at least a couple weeks, and they had 80% of average snowpack for the area this past winter....eeesh. Get yer thermometers out, folks!

Thanks, Lornce. I'm pretty sold on the new hooks...now to convert some more fish!

Keel - balanced rubber band grub, Sz 12, using another style of hook from the new brand. There is no barb, the hook point is angled out from the factory. Can't wait to get this one wet!

Olive pheasant rump / peacock eye nymph with a rubber band abdomen. Sz 10, using a new brand of hook.

DM'd...and no I don't know how. I can point you in a direction...

Saturday soft hackle. Sz 12, purple holo tinsel, peacock herl and Partridge feathers from a local Alberta hunt. Caught a couple with this guy today. Cheers!