solopaddler

Nice pic's Douglas. On a side note you wanna fish steelhead this weekend?

One thing I've learned, and my daughter is only 5, it doesn't matter whether she shares the same passions as me, time spent with her is precious and the memories last forever. Nice to see you get out with your girl Dave, the smile on her face says it all man.

Very nice, thanks for posting!

I ran a Stradic MGFb in Alaska last week when throwing hardware and it performed flawlessly. Super smooth and an excellent drag, definitely as good as the higher end Daiwas I fish with. I'll be grabbing another one over the winter...

What an epic trip! It's going to take me awhile to put together a fitting report and sift through the over 400 photos, but here's a little preview of some silver salmon on the fly:

Great read kimosabi. Your new name is now Dances With Seals.

The simple answer is just fish and learn for yourself. Experience is the best teacher lad.

That was awesome buddy! How about switching gears a little. Metallica perhaps?

Have no idea bud, but they've been around for awhile and are pretty common. Any retailer that carries Raven products could likely order one in pretty quickly.

Great story Roger thanks for posting.

Pay whatever it costs to ship it to Manitoba, I've done it several times over the years and always received a replacement rod. Can't believe you wouldn't. Do it yourself, much faster that way and still a lot cheaper than buying a new rod.

Yeah but you've got what, 10km of roads up there? .

Without getting into the mechanics I'll say this: properly manipulated a centrepin reel will land fish much quicker than a spinning reel. Personally I rarely if ever apply drag by palming with my left hand. It's all done with the pinkie finger of my right hand which is holding the rod. Once you're adept at applying drag it's impossible to achieve the same kind of control with a spinning reel. As far as why you're having problems, I'd wager a guess your rod just doesn't have the bones to turn a chinook. A lot of guys myself included are running spey conversions for early chinooks and steelhead in large rivers with heavy current. There aren't too many stock float rods with that kind of beef out there. One of the few that does and isn't overly expensive is the 15' Raven IM9...

Looks great! Dude, if you put the same effort int your studies you'll breeze through school!

Very cool, and you're right, if only that lantern could talk eh?

Wow you don't waste any time! Looks good bud.

Do what I do bud, go to your local furrier and ask/beg them for their scraps. They're throwing them out anyway. No bucktails but lots of other cool stuff like rabbit, fox, mink, etc... Been doing that for years.

Lorne's clearance has been going on for some time now, for those in the know. Just scraps left now Definitely too bad to see those guys close up shop, they've been a part of the scene for a long, long time. They'll be missed.

They're coming for you buddy!

Hey man that's really cool, check your pm's!

Sorry 'bout that Lew. Couldn't help myself though for some VERY good reasons. Still, I probably shouldn't have said anything. Post edited.

Hey that's great bud, glad things worked out for you. Jerry and his son Colin are both great guys and very helpful. Looking forward to seeing the finished product as well.

Mainly floatfishing and flyfishing, but yeah I've got a box of spinners and pixie spoons just for fooling around. Only single hooks allowed in AK though...pain in the butt to switch everything over to siwash. Nope, not too many greens/chart for sure. I'm fishing with a friend who's been doing this trip for a bunch of years, he pretty much told me what to use.. Believe it or not it's not going to be that expensive, we're doing the whole trip on our own... (and yeah, Maxima rocks ) Thanks Rene, and good guess, we'll be fishing the upper Kenai and a couple other lesser known rivers further down the peninsula for steelhead and coho. Right here bud: http://troutbeads.com/Products.html Oh it will be pic heavy. My fillet knife was actually in the pic I posted. I'll grab the lemons when I get there

Alaska. Rainbows, Dolly Varden, Coho and Steelhead.

I mailed them ahead a couple weeks back. A lot cheaper and safer than putting them on the plane .