Hahaha, nice Shane...thanks for that.
Ahhhh my apologies for not responding to this sooner. I did see it was here during a late lunch this afternoon, but there was no way I could take the time to respond then, please accept the delay as a matter of circumstance and nothing else.
So Reeman, first off, you must know that Prof and I are good friends, we speak with each other quite often, and fish together too from time to time, (albeit not as often as we might like). Regardless, we are friends, but this does not always mean we agree or see eye to eye, sometimes we just agree to disagree. I guess I should have known if anyone would speak up, it would be him, and I had expected that aside from you, someone else might speak up at some point. My post was fully intended to break things up a bit and give pause for thought. I had anticipated it might illicit some emotion, maybe anger, maybe even agreement in some regard. Rest assured it was meant as a good strong haul on the reigns even though you did not hear me call Whoa...
It is interesting how people take things. One person might respond with righteous indignation, another maybe with details of how great they are or how much they have done in their time on this fine earth. Others still might laugh it off, ignore things altogether, respond in kind or start a fight. What's even more interesting still is each person's vantage point and perspective, the cogs turning their thoughts so to speak. These are what are revealed to some extent in each response and the focus of it. These are both a reflection not only of them and the thoughts behind their response, but also of the person at the end of the stick which did the poke that drew the reaction in the first place.
As such, It is important that I make sure it is understood that it has never been, nor will it ever be my intention to discourage or quell ideas or passion on this site, please do not mistake my interest here as such. We might all hold the stick at any given moment, I hope that in fishing and what it teaches us we all show the humility to temper our use of it with patience, purpose, and care. To temper our human nature with the realization of the weaknesses that go with it. Pride, glory, ambition...these are many of the things that might sully the messages we intended in our good will, it can be hard for each and every one of us at any given time to acheive what we intended because of this.
I will respond mostly now to your post Reeman, but at least in part this should also satisfy Prof's post also. I hope you read very carefully and don't mistake my intent here for something it is not. You've popped no bubble on your beef, there's no surprise here, I read all your posts from the start. Your focus on responsible angling practices, ethics and environmental stewardship are exactly the subject and focus that this website has promoted all along. My sense was and still is that you would fit in quite well here. I think if you take the time to get to know the anglers in this community you will quickly realize that many of us are of like mind and ideals. Many are not only skilled and competent anglers in various disciplines and styles, but also thoughtful and conscientious in their promotion of the sport. Gary is worried I'll have a beef here...I don't per se, not in the way you or he might think. My concern is more the parts of your message that strike a chord with me, might be lost on many of the other members. You see, those that know me and Prof, and many others here at BCFR realize that we are all quite straightforward and to the point about angling ethics, responsibility, etc...we drive it home over and over again and don't give up...but there are others, the public, the less die hard anglers that don't live it like we do that you lose right away at the least bit sign of disfunction. This talk of fingering people as they drift by, the pretending, and the bitterness of it all...we understand why it is there, we even know it first hand in some ways, but for those who the message really needs to get through to you lose them right away when they hear that. Suddenly all they see is the bitterness and the personalized argument, rather than think and buy into the facts and the reasons behind what you are telling them. They see a flaw instead and the message is lost. It was my hope to point that out somehow, to say hey, whoa, in your zeal, in my zeal, in prof's zeal, we may do more harm than good when in fact we were the very best candidates to do good in the first place, and that would be a shame.
So I extended an invite to introduce yourself a while ago and there was no response, and I did again here in the hopes you would and see that BCFR is a collection of anglers with much more to offer than you might have thought...anglers of like mind and ethics who want to evoke change and make a difference. I see your comment about my avatar and I ignore it because you do not know me well enough to say otherwise or how that fish was handled but the message was good besides that, similar to those others here have given in the past. I see also your comment that I moved this thread here to this section into oblivion, but in truth, as you get to know BCFR, you will see I moved it here so that more people would see it. There is a demand here for this section and that is why it is here in the first place...we want that message to get across, and the members do too, but we also want it to get across not in the fashion of the nut holding the sign and yelling from across the street, but in the manner that gets everyone's attention and makes them read, makes them think, and has a positive effect on our fisheries.
It does not matter when your first steelhead was or how old your are. Someone half your age, or half mine for that matter, who hasn't held their first steelhead yet might hold the same ideals and have the same heart and care for our resource as you do. It doesn't matter if they can't fish like you, or if they would outfish you to such extreme embarrassment that you would never show your face on the river again, they might be of exactly the same mind you are and deserve immediate respect for it. We cannot belittle their experience or tout our own in front of them, to do that is to automatically lose at least a percentage of them. It is anglers like yourself that can make a difference, anglers like Prof, like you, like the member reading this right now that can evoke positive change, ethics and responsibility in all the newer anglers following behind them.
I see you have finally responded now and introduced yourself in the member intro section and I am glad to see it. The internet is a strange place to talk fishing, but it is a worthy effort and has potential beyond what anyone would have expected. I hope that all of us that care about it will remember that and give a damn to do it well so that the change we effect is good and worthy, and not diluted by interpretation and misundertanding instead.
I see your friend Jack had a great impact on you, and he was clearly lucky to have you as a friend. I believe that in addition to the things he did out there to impact you and those he knew, he would have done great things here too and I hope the same for you. We have anglers here that are as keen as you or I have ever been and they are willing to listen if we say it right. There are scientists and teachers, students, fathers, mothers, children and such...professionals, laborers, fish bums and the like. I think no matter who you are or how long you have fished they will listen, it's up to us to ensure the message is sound, and soundly delivered too.
I hope that this message is received well by you and all the members of BCFR who read it. I know that despite whatever differences any of us have at any given moment that we have similar values and care for the same things every day we live. I know for sure that if we were to meet each other on the river bank we would get along just fine and fish in peace, anyone who knows me well enough would know that much is true.
So in the spirit of the title of your thread, and since I have been allowed my suggestion here, all boat designs aside, what designs do you think might be good for the steelhead fisheries of the Skeena and why, specifically but not exclusively the Bulkley and the Morice...?
:cheers: