RA Beattie Demo Reel 2010

Much of this footage has been profiled in other pieces RA has released but if you haven't seen them they're pretty cool.

If you can't see the video link go to flyfishingfantasies.blogspot.com to check it out.

Beattie Outdoor Productions Fly Fishing Demo Reel from RA Beattie on Vimeo.

More Great Trout Action From Sharptail Media

Slightly extended version of a piece posted a few days back featuring some very nice trout.

If you can't see the video clip click through to flyfishingfantasies.blogspot.com.

Don't Cry For Me: Trout Bum Reverie from Sharptail Media on Vimeo.

Awesome Water, Sweet Single Handed Casting, Great Camera

Early Season Brown Trout on Dries

I enjoyed watching this dry fly action for trout.  See what ya think.

Wisconsin Fly Fishing Brown Trout Early Season from Arrowhead Fly Angler on Vimeo.

Nice Trout Fishing

I really like the editing in this piece on Patagonia fly fishing.

Trout Bum Reverie from Sharptail Media on Vimeo.

I'm Sorry

Saddened About the State of Steelhead


I watch this release of steelhead from some hatchery and can't help but be deeply disappointed.  An incredible race of fish evolved over who knows how many centuries reduced to being "man made".  They're poured into degraded environments so they may return in decent numbers.  You need only look at the unnatural grassy banks of the release point to understand that this environment has been compromised.  I'd love to see a park that had natural vegetation and trails meandering through it instead of a bank reinforced with blast rock and a manicured lawn.


If You Build It


We've missed the boat and we've missed it horribly.  I become very uninterested when I feel like I'm chasing the hatchery truck to my fishing holes.  Money should be spent on improving stream side habitat.  If you build it, they will come?  Wrong!  If you allow it to repair itself, they will return.  Logging to the banks, no longer okay.  Building homes on the banks in a flood plain, same.


A dream


I love the motto of groups like the Western Rivers Conservancy.  Raise money to buy up lands along river corridors, rehabilitate them, provide access to the rivers for all user groups through these properties, and let the resource heal itself and return to its former glory.  I often talk with fishing buddies about how incredible it would have been to fish our rivers before man's influence.  I'd love to fish these rivers with the knowledge of new techniques and the advanced new equipment combined with an intact ecosystem.


Needs


We all have needs people.  It's been shown that when bank side vegetation is removed, summer water temperatures can become fatally high for fish.  Root systems of large trees reinforce the banks of a river creating natural pools instead of shifting wide open gravel bars.  These same big trees fall into the streams, shearing water in different directions and digging out new pools.  Additionally, those trees provide hiding and rearing habitat for small trout, steelhead and salmon.  A solid buffer zone of vegetation filters pollutants and sediments.  If we want to restore our streams, we need to restore their riparian zones.  Then, we can leave them to their own devices.  Fish numbers are dwindling due to man's influence--hatcheries, harvest, habitat, and hydro.  Let's put their environments back to their natural state and be reasonable with our harvest.


Please Help


Donate to groups like the Western Rivers Conservancy and other like minded conservation groups.

Too Many Rivers, Too Little Time

Trip of a Lifetime--Book Now Before Prices Go Down

For all you folks that've wanted to make a trip to fish British Columbia's incredible steelhead, trout and salmon, buy the ticket today.  Not too many tomorrows from now your backcast may get tangled in the transmission lines and your fly may land on the rocks or on the pipe that's transporting the water that used to run over those bare rocks.  This is BC in the midst of the provincial government's "green energy" plan.


Oogle No More


There are apparently over 600 BC rivers fingered for Run of River Hydroelectric projects.  Having oogled maps of the BC coast since my childhood wondering what some of those remote rivers must be like for fishing, it saddens me to find out the hard way just how good they are.  Heli-fishing guides are now exposing the secrets they've coveted for decades in the hopes of saving these rivers.  George Bush senior is one of the clients shown in a fishing photograph in Bute Inlet.  Something tells me wilderness values are extremely high if former US presidents are fishing there.  Guides speak of sea run cutthroat averaging 18 inches and running to 24 inches.  Trout fishing days of 20 fish landed are mentioned as average.  They also speak of incredible bull trout and salmon fishing.


Cheap Power?


The projected cost of power sounds pretty scary.  BC Hydro is currently in the midst of massively jacking up rates.  BC Hydro produces power at $6 per megawatt hour and residential customers pay $70/MWh.  Contracts signed with Independent Power Producers (IPP's) guarantee purchase agreements for $120/MWh.  BC is also locked into exporting power at $60/MWh so we'll be losing money for every MWh we must export.  As a result, citizens will pay for this.  It's been suggested that over the long term BC Hydro itself may be bankrupted out of the agreements our government has been signing.  Adding to these losses will be the losses of habitat.  Fishers, hunters, hikers, whale watchers, grizzly bear aficionados, and many others may no longer be able to find the animals/habitats they came to see--and those industries may dry up also.  Even if you were willing to ignore the transmission lines and power generating stations, I can't imagine that the fish populations will survive when the power project removes up to 90% of the river's flow for much of its fishable length.


Long Term Jobs


Oh ya, there are basically no long term jobs.  The jobs will dry up once the project has been built.  The power companies will have next to nobody manning the facilities which are nearly fully automated.


More?


Debbie Downer assumes you probably don't want to hear more about this.  If she's wrong, check out the link right here.  It shows the public fighting for their resource and it shows some sweet fishing shots.  Unfortunately, many of these public consultations are just window dressing.  Just ask the citizens and municipal councillors of the Squamish Lillooet Regional District.  They voted the Ashlu River proposal down by an 8 to 1 margin.  The BC government soon passed Bill 30 to take away municipal governments' zoning rights over these proposals.

What you get by joining the fight


If you write to your elected officials about these projects and manage to have them come to their senses, maybe we can get the BC Energy Plan changed.  And maybe you can take advantage of some of the beans these heli-guides had to spill.  Write, email, donate, attend, etc.  Please be active in saving one of the world's greatest river fishing provinces.  You can email Rich Coleman, Minister of Energy, Mines and Housing at EMH.Minister@gov.bc.ca.  You should copy your email to Ron.Ptolemy@gov.bc.ca. You can donate to Fly Fishing Fantasies on our website if you want to help us create video pieces to energize fishers about the incredible fishing opportunities BC has to offer and to energize them to speak up to save them.  In addition to enjoying the incredible fishing BC has to offer, you will find out about some awe-inspiring new spots to cast a line.  Hopefully some of these video pieces will get enough people writing in about the dollars they've spent or that they hope to spend in the future if the fishing is good enough.  Maybe then the elected officials will see fit to change their energy plan.

Spring Steelhead

Some very good steelheading was had by the Country Pleasures Crew.

As a side note,  I've heard you shouldn't hold a fish vertically like the first one they land as it apparently affects their inner organs.  Additionally, was that first fish a chinook?

If you can't see the video link, go to flyfishingfantasies.blogspot.com.

Skeena Steelhead Slideshow

Some sweet fish in this slide show.  If you can't see the video link below, go directly to flyfishingfantasies.blogspot.com to check it out.

Fly vs Guy

Graceful Scott is not.  I think his vertical may even need to be measured with a light metre.  But he "shows up" as most NHL tough guys would say.

There's always room for a little humour in our day.  Check it out at flyfishingfantasies.blogspot.com if you do not see the video link here.

Continuing with the Atlantic Salmon Kick

I posted the companion vid to this one a week or so back.  This one has just been set up to allow embedding so here it is.  Most steelheaders will be keen to check it out.

If you can't see the video link just click on flyfishingfantasies.com to go directly to the blog.

Atlantic Salmon in Scotland

We fish the Skeena with the latest clothing from Redington.  The Scottish fish their rivers and hunt their wilderness with the not so latest from Tweedington.

Montana--trout fishing paradise

Some nice trout, scenery and hatches in this piece.  It's always cool to fish to trout during a major hatch.

More Skeena Steelhead Action From Ubiquitous Water Media

Andrew Hardingham released A Steelhead Family a while back profiling the lives of Bob Clay's family.  Here is another piece on Skeena steelheading from Andrew featuring some nice fresh steelies.

Ron Duguay Moves on to Atlantic Salmon Fishing

Steelhead's eastern counterpart, Atlantic Salmon, attracts many a fisher.  The blonde bomber in this piece reminds me of hockey great Ron Duguay with his flowing locks.