Don Andersen

Dipper, Word is that it takes upwards of 80 hours to catch one lake trout. Maybe several hundred for a brown. Don

Ian, Just so you don't feel that there is only one cane site, here is a representative sample of the sites out there. Lots of stuff. Good stuff. http://www.bamboorodmaking.com/index.html http://p205.ezboard.com/bclarksclassicflyrodforum http://www.powerfibers.com/ http://www.rodbuildingforum.com/index.php?showforum=2 Don

Ian, Here is a monster site for the bamboo guys. Don http://www.canerod.com/rodmakers/

Guys/Gals, As part of the regular maintenance of the quality angling found at Stauffer Creek, some of the beaver dams are to be removed. This work bee can be attended by anyone interested in preserving the angling. Contact Don Andersen dmanders@telusplanet.net or Mike Dell mdell@telus.net. Who – This is project is organized by the Central Alberta Chapter & Edmonton Chapters of Trout Unlimited. Anyone can attend and give a hand. What – Beaver dams impede flows, increase silt uptake and drown both bugs and spawning areas and therefore are removed as necessary. Dams that are not creating spawning migration problems or drowning spawning areas are generally left intact. Where – Stauffer Creek [ North Raven River ]. When – July 24/05 How- the beaver dams are removed utilizing hand labor and “beaver dam hooks”. How do we get to site? – We’ll meet @ the Stauffer Community Hall located directly south of the Stauffer Store/Café @ 10:00 AM. From this central location, work groups will be directed to areas requiring attention. How Long will it take/ or will I have time to fish later? – The project will be expected to take 3>4 hours depending on the number of volunteers. Addition items: Lunch, water and work gloves will be provided. Wet weather gear and waders are the responsibility of the attendees. Don has extra sets of waders.

Guys/Gals, As part of the regular maintenance of the quality angling found at Stauffer Creek, some of the beaver dams are to be removed. This work bee can be attended by anyone interested in preserving the angling. Contact Don Andersen dmanders@telusplanet.net or Mike Dell mdell@telus.net. Who – This is project is organized by the Central Alberta Chapter & Edmonton Chapters of Trout Unlimited. Anyone can attend and give a hand. What – Beaver dams impede flows, increase silt uptake and drown both bugs and spawning areas and therefore are removed as necessary. Dams that are not creating spawning migration problems or drowning spawning areas are generally left intact. Where – Stauffer Creek [ North Raven River ]. When – July 24/05 How- the beaver dams are removed utilizing hand labor and “beaver dam hooks”. How do we get to site? – We’ll meet @ the Stauffer Community Hall located directly south of the Stauffer Store/Café @ 10:00 AM. From this central location, work groups will be directed to areas requiring attention. How Long will it take/ or will I have time to fish later? – The project will be expected to take 3>4 hours depending on the number of volunteers. Addition items: Lunch, water and work gloves will be provided. Wet weather gear and waders are the responsibility of the attendees. Don has extra sets of waders.

Flyfish, Looks like a CL [ that's short for Catatonic Leech]. Like you, I've used them with success in a number of none lake situations. Both lightly, med-heavy and heavily weighted. One thing I really like about fly tying is the diversity of flies is only limited by imagination and the fish. Forget the pocket book! As I catch most of the fish on a olive, that is what I generally suggest as a starting color. While I hadn't had a lot of luck on black, I suggested it wasn't a good color. After getting my butt kicked by a angler fishing a black CL, opinions change. I've tie and use CL's in olive, brown olive, bright olive, summer duck, grey, black, with or W/O flashabou, with flashabou overback and on and on. Have about 100+ in the PB @ anyone time. As far as fishing them, depending on water depth/fish , from 1.5>30' are within the target zone. Move them or not, rip them or not, sometimes still works or not. Your choice. Have fun, Don

Flyfish, What is the "light/regular" green tonic? Never heard of either. Mind you I haven't bought all the magazines on the stands for years and my reference books only number in the hundreds. I'm stuck! So, fess up. How's it tied and how do you fish it? And the C. Leech is for those the don't like to watch paint dry but want to catch a few. Alford Lake a couple of years ago was a good example. Twenty three anglers fished there when I did. Seveteen fish caught, the C. Leech got 16 of them. catch ya' Don

Mike, Don't do it. They can't handle the success. The interent will fail due to bandwidth of pictures flowing forth and back from all the large fish caught . Turkeys will be become an endangered species [ that is where marabou come from - can't shoot marabou storks any more - they are too busy packing babies around]. Olive green dyes will be sold @ premium prices. Ye Gad!!! No fish will be safe. catch ya' Don

Guys, You want to modify behavior - take a mesage from the whack and stack crowd. Bet you'd only have to whack about 1/2 of the little monsters before B/E's and other crimes would disappear. And then you could spend your money on useful things. A B/E into my garage cost me only $400.00 to increase the security. For the cost of a bullet, problem is solved. Wife generally gets pissed @ me for pointing out it costs $40,000/yr. to keep one pecker-wood in jail and $ 4,000 to keep a kid in school. Whack a percher-wood and 10 kids get free education. Sounds like a deal to me. Don

Guys/Gals, I would like to thank all the folks who made the show possible. I had a great time. The information & presentors were first rate. I've been to a number of shows over the years and this was in the top 90% of them all. Learned a lot of things about bugs/lakes/trout. The venue was just the right size, every presentations were clear, you had a flat spot to take notes, the presentors were available for one>one chats. Even Chans & Rowley's books that I own were signed by the authors [ personalized as well]. The hotel we stayed @ was first rate and close to the venue, the grits were more than just passible. Even the weather was great. And I sure would have liked to see more young folks there. A lot of white hair in the audience. Further, I will enjoy both the line & rod I won in the raffle. The line will be spooled and fished. The rod will go to some fish crazy kid who can't afford one c/w a used reel/line from the basement stock-pile. My thanx to all, catch ya' Don

Tim, You can stock all the browns you want - just imagine - 40,000,000 browns in Cow Lake and even them they wouldn't go hungry. And after I looked over the site on rotanoe, saleable it is. After all, the natives in South America use it for fish gathering. They grind the root underwater between 2 stones, capture the dead fish and eat. Looks like a great plan. And from the site provided, the only safety concern was not swimming in the water within 4 hours. This stuff is less toxic than Power Bait. catch ya' Don

Fishman, Overstocking of lakes have caused the disappearance most insects. Nearly all the lakes in Alberta are overstocked with trout and for that reason, the growth rate on trout in these lakes is just plain lousy. For example a 3 year old fish in Struble Lake SW of Rocky Mountain House is 11>12". In contrast, Beaver lake 1 year old fish is perhaps 13>16". The fish poision usually used is Rotanone [ or Rotonane depending on author ]. This web site deals with most if not all of the concerns that might/could be caused by using this type of treatment. Web site is: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/InfoCn...e/Rotenone.html And if we don't control the perch soon, we will have nothing left of the trout lakes. Growth rates will be measured in 1/4"/yr. Cow Lake near Rocky has virtually no insects left at all. The only bio-mass left is perch. They eat each other. The bugs are gone. Stocking trout in the face of this massive competion is a waste of trout. regards, Don

Guys, I wrote a couple of letters to F&W today asking them if they had solutions recognizing that whatever they were doing to this point wasn't working. Having said that, - I would expect that a poison control program is the only answer. Lets talk it up amoung the folks we meet here and there to get "buy in". Sure wouldn't want some well intentioned angler saying - but they are "natives" and shouldn't be destroyed. catch ya' Don

Doc, I think it's safe to say that perch are hauled from place to place by people. If it was by birds, the whole province would be infested by the damn things. The infestation in Rocky started 15 years ago. Prior to that , no perch except for Burnstick Lake. If there were going to be perch anywhere, Birch Lake located with 2 miles of Burnstick Lake would have been the first victim. As it is Brich Lake has been bypassed mostly I think as it gets very little attention for the bait dunker crowd. Now we got them, what are we gonna do about it? If we let things continue @ the present rate, every lake around Rocky will be infested within 5 years. catch ya' Don

Doc, Stocked - well it may have been by the Gov't but in the lakes around Rocky, that is very unlikely. Mostly stocked by people using perch for bait. And I heard yesterday that Phyllis Lake is no longer "perch free". Guess that means the little basss**** is gonna have to work harder, he's only screwed 1/2 of the lakes. And what are we going to do about it. Don't see the Gov't hot on fixing much. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, At the last count, we are now up to 4 of what used to be trout lakes that have been "stocked" with perch. These would include: Cow Lake Struble Lake Twin Lake Tay Lake So far only Tay and Cow has the effect been profound with growth rates of the trout dropping although Struble does seem to share the effect with 3 year old trout now about 11" long. Cow is no longer stocked with trout due to the perch infectation [except for brood stock which aren't really trout ] . We only have another 1/2 dozen or so left that are not yet effected in the area. Two questions: 1] How many lakes in the Edmonton area have been effected? 2] What is going to be done about it? catch ya' Don

Dennis, Could you point me towards any information that suggests that birds are carriers of either fish/vermin eggs. I've heard for years that fish eggs get transferred by birds. You'd think if such a thing was possible, that every little pond in the province would be infested with perch. From pond > pond, at least in my area, the minnow populations vary. Their eggs should be smaller than perch but the minnos don't seem to get transferred. Help, catch ya' Don