kickingfrog

The link will also lead you to some of his photos. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nation...article1278230/ Mark Hume Vancouver — From Monday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Wednesday, Sep. 09, 2009 03:09AM EDT .For Aaron Goodis, the man who walked himself back to life, the journey across British Columbia's rugged landscape began when a doctor told him his only chance to recover from the ravages of Crohn's disease was relentless, painful exercise. But first he had to get out of his wheelchair. Mr. Goodis, 29, has been fighting Crohn's disease since he was 16. It didn't stop him through his school years from going fly fishing with his dad, Phil, almost every weekend. And, as a young man, it didn't stop him from getting work as a fishing guide and fly-casting instructor. But three years ago, because of the strong medications he was taking to battle Crohn's, Mr. Goodis lost so much bone density, he became confined to a wheelchair. “My back was giving out … I had three fractures in my spine,” he said. He was forced to leave his job behind the counter at Michael & Young Fly Shop, in Vancouver, and it looked like he would never walk again. Certainly, the outdoor life that he loved, stalking steelhead, trout and salmon on B.C.'s lakes and rivers, seemed over. “If you can imagine what it's like to break your back, that's what the pain was like.” Because of the pain, he was becoming afraid to move. He looked like he was dying. But his doctors told him exercise was the only way to recover. They put him on a new drug, Forteo, which is used to treat severe bone loss, and urged him to try walking again. “It was my only hope,” he said. “So I went for it. Essentially, I went from bed-ridden exercises … to slowly trying to stand up … then I tried to walk, a cane in each hand, with my dad propping me up on one side, and a physiotherapist on the other. Then I began walking by myself, with the canes, and someone following with a wheelchair.” It took months, but Mr. Goodis slowly began to walk again. “It was one cane, then no cane. I spent a month walking around False Creek,” he said. Family and friends were with him every step of the way. One day, Mr. Goodis picked up a fly-fishing rod. It felt good in his hands and it brought back a flood of memories. He wanted to fish again, to walk B.C.'s streams, but he was afraid the motion of casting, raising his arm above his head and twisting his back to throw the line, would plunge him into a world of pain. “I was very scared. I hadn't fly cast for two-and-a-half years,” he said. His first attempts were clumsy, which was humbling for a man who had taught casting professionally, and it left his back aching. He cast on the lawn for five months. About the same time, Mr. Goodis began working on photography. He'd had a long interest in taking pictures, using point-and-click cameras, but only got serious after his dad taught him to use an old Canon F1. He bought a digital camera and a backpack of photography gear. “I really loved it. It was a unique way to capture my feelings and … to sort of try and tell a story of what I had been through and where I'd been. … I used that as a healing tool because it motivated me to get out and walk,” he said. As his strength grew, so did his dream of going fishing again. Soon, he was making trips – with a fly rod in one hand and a camera around his neck. He joined a group of six friends on a two-month trip to Smithers, where he fished the big, brawling steelhead rivers that run through the mountains there. As he fished, treading carefully on the riverside rocks and always wary of falling, he was “shooting and shooting and shooting,” with his new camera. “I consider myself a fly fisherman first and a photographer second, but I go back and forth all the time [between the camera and the fly rod],” he said. Mr. Goodis is behind the counter at Michael & Young Fly Shop, on West Broadway, again. He is back giving fly-casting lessons, picking up a line and cast it with precision and grace once more. And he has compiled the collection of dramatic landscape photographs he made, during his incredible journey back to life, in a draft book titled The Recovery Project . He hopes to find a publisher and to use the proceeds to raise awareness about Crohn's disease. “My passion for fly fishing and being outside led me to the camera. With technical help from my dad, I was able to take photos and that is how this started. My point is that passion for something can overcome anything,” he writes in the foreword. “Right now, I feel healthier than I have at any time in my life since I was diagnosed with Crohn's,” he says. “I have recovered 90 per cent of my bone mass. The doctors say that is a miracle.” He's able to go fishing and camping alone now. He's happy out there, listening to the sound of the river, waiting for the light to be just right, standing on his own two feet.

Just like school on Sundays... no class. Nice job Tony.

"Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false." Bertrand Russell

Quote from the web site: "I have to give it to Ryan he held it together all day while we were shooting and never complained. I guess when the show was done and we started heading back it became a little too much." Sounds like Ryan is a real pro. Using a camera is not the way I would want to spend my time on a boat.

Yep. My lesson: Don't combine lots of Mexican food from the resort, with lots of free beer on the bus ride to the deep sea charter and then proceed to sit in the cat bird seat sucking in diesel fumes in 12 foot swells. Second lesson: Working in the back of a low flying twin otter in horrible turbulence, dropping rabies baits that stink like nasty chicken. Fifteen odd years later and sometimes I still can't eat chicken soup.

Thank goodness heinz has nothing to do with peanut butter.

Gill nets do come in different sizes, and those sizes do allow you to target different sized fish.

I think I may have crapped myself. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nation...article1290648/ Ian Bailey Vancouver — From Thursday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Thursday, Sep. 17, 2009 04:06AM EDT .With a grizzly bear straddling him, so close he could smell its “musky, wet-dog smell,” Rory Chapple knew he had one shot at avoiding a mauling or death. The veteran bow hunter, flat on his back after tripping, with the 270-kilogram sow looming over him, pulled an arrow from the quiver on his compound bow and plunged it into the bear's chin. There had been no time to draw the arrow and shoot the bear. Mr. Chapple's only warning of what was to come was a “huff, huff, huff” sound behind him. He turned and saw the bear coming “full charge” at him. He tripped, was on his back, then the bear was on him. But the aluminum-shaft arrow with a three-bladed stainless-steel point did its job. “Those [arrows] are designed to have zero resistance,” said Mr. Chapple, 39, of Fort St. John. “Just like a hot knife through butter, they're designed to penetrate and cut. It went in lickety-split.” He was aiming for the bear's mouth, “but my aim was off,” which was no surprise, as the bear was atophim, although not positioned in a way that put all her crushing weight on him. What happened when the arrow sank in is hard to forget, he said. “Instantly her breathing changed,” he recalled. “I knew I hit the windpipe because she was having a hard time breathing. “I could hear her breathing pretty raspy and gurgly.” The bear withdrew as three cubs looked on “like a little audience watching the whole thing.” She turned and moved away, but her movements rammed the arrow in further before it slipped loose and fell to the ground. Her cubs followed her into the bush. Mr. Chapple said he yelled out to friends in their camp about 300 metres away. They yelled back, stumbling out of their tents. “As soon as I got close to them, I just collapsed on the spot. Tears were flowing. I was pretty much a ball of jelly. “I was just thinking how close I was to dying. Had I not happened to stick that arrow in exactly the right spot, there's no doubt I would have been mauled pretty good for sure.” He suffered a sore back and his pants were torn. All of this happened on Sept. 8 at about 6:30 a.m. after Mr. Chapple left his tent ahead of four hunting buddies, hoping to get an early start on the day's hunting near the Kechika River, eight hours drive plus a three-hour boat ride from Fort St. John. Mr. Chapple has been an archer since he was 14. He has hunted throughout his life, largely using a rifle, but decided to turn to a bow and arrow for the challenge – you have to get closer to prey than when hunting with a firearm. He has taken black bears before, shooting behind the front shoulder through the heart-lung area. He had always hoped to get a grizzly. Jeff Ginter, regional operations manager of the provincial conservation officers' service, said from Dawson Creek yesterday that his staff plan to interview Mr. Chapple for further details on the incident to gather information on attacks for their database and to help decide whether the grizzly should be tracked down. Other hunters may be at risk from the animal, he said. Mr. Chapple and his friends went looking for the grizzly after the incident, but found no sign of her. Mr. Ginter said, on average, three British Columbians are injured by black bears each year, and three by grizzly bears. In the past 23 years, there have been six fatal attacks by grizzlies and eight by black bears, he said. Mr. Ginter said Mr. Chapple's experience is unique. “This is the first I have heard of an arrow [being used] like that,” he said, although he said he has heard of people fending off bears with knives and shovels, among other tools. Mr. Chapple, an auto-body repair technician and president of his local archery club, said a friend is making a glass case for the arrow in question, now bent and twisted. “It will be up on the mantel for sure.”

It is more than 3 hours long Roy. Nice job Randy.

Mustard is the only condiment allowed on a hotdog, period. Having said that, I to am tired of companies turning my condiment dispensers into toys. Ever tried mayo in a squeeze bottle?

The tandem blades put out more thump so it sounds/feels different for the fish maybe? Like with other hot/new lure it may just be a case of the fish seeing something different.

Have you seen how musky posts (among others) go down hill here sometimes? The question of length (never trust a guy about that in the first place) and proper handling are the top 2 reasons a musky post goes sour.

Just in case you may have forgot. Major League Fishing? Professional Angler Dave Mercer to Throw First Cast Dave Mercer Outdoors Inc. is proud to announce that history will be made on September 21st, 2009. For the first time ever in major league baseball, the opening pitch will actually be the opening cast, cast by professional angler and host of television’s Facts of Fishing®, Dave Mercer.

Of course lure colour matters. What else would we spend our money on? Fish at the market? I know colour can make a lot of difference for angler confidence. The lure manufactures thank us. I figure the slower a lure is moving and the clearer the water the more colour can play a role. The reaction factor, as you mentioned. The pressure the lake/fish get can also play a role to. IE How many white spinnerbaits has that bass by the tree seen?

Beautiful fish. Angler

Sorry, double post

In a lot of cases it's not so much how much he weighs but what he does with it. I'd rather have a 300lb bag of nails in my canoe then some 120lb gunwale grabber. The state of the foam would play a large role in the ability of the boat to give you free board. I would think you could find some info on the net to give you some ideas.

Nice fish. Thanks.

I wonder where along the road home he had the "head-slap" moment? They were probably all bass anyway.

As mentioned above, wind. The term for this condition is seiche. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiche Whether or not this is what you noticed on Simcoe? But it would seem to me to be the only explanation for a lake the size of Simcoe to "drop" that much in a short amount of time.

Ya, what Rick said. Also keep in mind that the township of Essa has taxed anglers who want to fish the Notty in thier township. Don't know where you were, but I don't fish (or do the anual clean-up either) in the Notty in Essa any more, so maybe those were Township of Essa signs.

You better bring your camera and a fresh memory card.

Don't no if it is factual or not, but the standard line is that hippos kill more people in Africa then any of the "other" big animals.

Except for the hottest parts of the summer I always have a proper rain jacket with me when I'm fishin', however I also carry a couple of those cheap (<$5) plastic rain ponchos. I've only needed it once, but it saved a cold wet spring fishing trip for someone in our group who had forgot to pack his rain gear. I don't care where you fish, how often you've been there or how good you think GPS is, get a good compass and learn how to use it.

I think the board was having some spam pms getting through a few weeks ago and one way to thwart them was disabling the feature.