Upcoming Film Festivals & Nights

There are a few upcoming video nights, festivals, and fundraisers...

1. Bow R Shuttles is putting on a feature release of “Connect” in mid Jan.  http://bowrivershuttles.blogspot.com/
2. Back Cast FF Film Festival Feb 25
3. There is the TU film festival benefit: http://www.facebook.com/events/236015033121100/ which is the last of the 2011 IF4 film roll.
   Trout Unlimited Canada Benefit Calgary, AB – December 15th, 2011 The Globe Theatre-Doors open: 6:00pm  Show starts: 7:00pm- IF4 and its sponsors are proud to be working together with Trout Unlimited Canada for this special benefit screening. IF4 has covered all costs associated with the event to ensure that every single dollar raised will go directly to Trout Unlimited Canada to further its efforts of conserving, protecting and restoring Canada’s cold water resources. Festival tickets can be purchased in advance through the IF4 Online Box Office, at the door, or at any of the following fly shops in the Calgary area.
4. #3 above will be replaced with the 2012 IF4 FIlms, which  will be shown at the Canadian premier of the International Fly Fishing Film Festival is scheduled for January 26th, 2012 and will be screened in association with the 10th Annual Western Canadian Fly Fishing Exposition at Canyon Meadows Cinema. Tickets will be available in fly shops and through the IF4 Online Box Office on December 16th, 2011.

One impressive river chart

The primary reason we're not in New Zealand already is that we opted to try to avoid the head of the rainy season that often hits in November. Last year was the first year we hit drought conditions in New Zealand - in Nov. But Dec was an onslaught of water. We opted to try to miss that spring season a little bit this year. There's always good water to hit no matter how much of it there is. The other reason we pushed our trip back was to hit a bit more of the back country cicadas come Jan - Feb. We had another taste of them last year and opted to give it another go.
But this week's river charts give a glimpse of what we were trying to avoid! A massive storm hit the coast. The chart below shows just how quickly the rains hit, how hard it hits, and how quickly the rivers drain - they're built to do exactly that. The chart is water depth. In under 24 hours, this large river put on 18 feet of depth and came back to normal. Of course, the gauge is now broken thanks to the surge of water, but it just goes to show how this island handles water - quickly - and how you have to keep an eye on the forecast (if only for self preservation).

Grizzly in a truck

I just got this email from a friend, whose brother sent it to him:
"From my neighbour in Waterton.  Last Monday morning he came out to find the inside of his 18 month old Toyota Sequoia trashed.  A grizzly bear had somehow got a door open (easy considering the way the handles are) and once inside got trapped when the door shut behind him.  Probably the wind.  The Toyota was a platinum edition, all the door panels were ripped off, the headliner torn to pieces, all headrests, the leather seats, the dash shredded.  The steering column was twisted sideways.   Two of the six airbags went off, the other four the bear ripped to pieces.  You can imagine a trapped grizzly being hit with an airbag in  an enclosed space must have figured he was in for the fight of his life.  When the bear ripped off the door panels he clawed all the wiring harnesses out.  Toyota figures every wire he pulled or clawed at resulted in bells, voices or sparks.  The head mechanic at Calgary Toyota doubted if they had the expertise to put it back together.   To add insult to injury the bear took a big dump in the back of the SUV and then broke out the rear window.   Fish and wildlife officers have inspected the damage and figure it was a 3 year old griz.  From blood left behind the are doing DNA.   The vehicle has been written off, cost new over 70,000 they stopped counting repair costs at 60,000."

Amelia on Rosenbauer's Orvis Podcast

http://www.orvisnews.com/FlyFishing/Becoming-a-guide-and-what-it-is-really-like.aspx
The link name says it all - becoming a guide and what it's really like. Amelia shares a few of her perspectives.

New website coming

As Amelia & I wrap up all things on the go before heading to New Zealand, one of the items is the launch of our new website.
We're taking a new direction with Fly Fish Alberta.
In the past, we had the old Fly Fish Alberta Forum and guide site. We really marketed a host of different trips and opportunities, trying to make life interesting. The past couple of years we've let go of the hands on guiding, with a few of our guides hosting trips. We got away from being who and what we are. There again, that needed some redefining.
Amelia & I love sight fishing, love hatch chasing, and love our trout streams. We love to host people on good fishing trips and on beautiful waters. We love to travel to New Zealand and have brought back a lot of knowledge of the 'how to' sight fish. It's a lot of fun and very different from what many folks here do.
When you add all the above together, and add in concise text, some of our favorite descriptive video and photos, you get the upcoming Fly Fish Alberta website. It should be up by the end of the weekend!
The site will reflect who & what Amelia & I are about in not just the guide world, but tie into the fly fishing world's bigger picture. As time moves on, we're going to be launching our JensenFlyFishing.com website as well, which will further what we're about on our productions side. Our sight fishing DVD is done, it is going out to a few folks in the industry to comment/ review and by the time we get back from New Zealand in late February we'll put the wraps to it and get it out there for everyone. We do plan to release one other DVD later in 2012 as well, with the layout well on its way.
And of course, we're just putting the wraps on a new page or two for Fortress Lake Retreat's website. There's some amazing sight fishing to be had at key times of the season and we plan to hilight that as part of the whole wilderness experience at Fortress Lake.
So, stay tuned!
Dave & Amelia Jensen

Dr Laura

Over the summer I was inspired to share this while listening to the Dr Laura Show. Seriously…

I’ve been sitting on this blog post for close to a year. I've waited for opportunity to share. Given my recent posts of sharing some tough Fishing with Friends moments and the lessons to be learned from them, I thought it time. Unfortunately, the negative aspect of recent posts have all derived from the same fishing partner. This post continues on what can be learned from another of my interactions with him. 

If you’ve ever heard the Dr Laura show and truly gotten the intent of the show, you can listen without getting too riled up. Personally, I really like listening. I hadn’t tuned in often in recent years, but I certainly have in the past. I find her a valuable resource in cutting through the chaff in life, examining core issues and protecting what’s most valuable in life – family, kids, and traditional values in order to keep us from hurting ourselves and those around us. Yes, it’s a radio show and is commercial, and I don't agree with everything. But it's a place for me to begin deliberations on how I see things - which is the whole point.

Andrew & I got to listening to her this summer on satellite radio up at Fortress Lake. It hit home just how much I have listened in the past as I knew what her views would be ahead of time, but also was asking the same questions of the callers before she was. So, yes, I think quite the same way, but by no means as absolute as she has to be within the parameters of the time constraints of her radio show persona. If you get that, you get that she isn’t the cold hearted so-and-so some paint her to be. But few look at the bigger picture of what is trying to be accomplished while putting the thumbs to the micro situations.

One of my favourite aspects of the show is you’re calling for her opinion. This lays the foundation that you place some value on her opinion, that there’s merit. I really get a kick out of the fact that the premise of the show is to garner her opinion on a variety of people's life issues, yet some people call to argue their position. “You called me, honey, here’s what I think.” Them’s the rules. It makes no sense to argue at all – she’ll offer her opinion, her viewpoint. Just remember, you called her, and she’s laid the ground rules, so play by them or off you go! If you get that, there can't be much controversy - take it or leave it, apply/use it or not.

So, how does this tie in to fly fishing? On last year's trip to New Zealand, we spent time with friends, spending considerable time trying to find water that they could successfully fish. It wasn’t easy. We fished a few waters together in hopes for a break through for them. Everything Amelia & I did for over 2 or 3 weeks was to try to get them into fish, somehow. That break through didn’t happen. He struggled for days on end and Amelia & I watched his demeanor crumble to the point he was unbearable to be around for everyone. Nothing was going to get him out of his funk but a fish or two - which takes us back to the whole discussion of results based depression. Finally, I'd had enough of his perpetual withdrawing, pouting and utter snippiness perpetuated to his wife and us. I piped up,"I have a few waters I can take you to, but you have to promise not to go back to fish them afterwards, and you can't name them or tell anyone where you were."  Being friends, and having given him countless emails and conversations of fly fishing & New Zealand advice previously, I expected that his agreeing to my request would be followed through. We offered them a piece of ourselves on the premise that they tell nobody, did not share, never named where they were. They agreed and away we went. All was good. Finally, a fish was caught, though it remained a struggle for them. AJ & I had to give way for most of the time we were together in order to provide opportunity. Sight fishing isn't for everyone, not everyone is successful at it. 

Here’s the Dr Laura tie in. About 2 weeks after we parted ways, I began to get emails from several different people that I did not know, as well as a couple that I do, asking why the people we were fishing with were naming the waters we were fishing in New Zealand. Amelia & I had been very specific in our request, both ourselves and our friend Serge (who had guided our friends) had been very specific about this. It goes against the Kiwi spirit to name waters in conjunction with fishing reports and photos. I replied to the emails questioning us that I had no knowledge of our friends having named names. One fellow told me to do a Google search on a few waters. Sure enough, there was my friend’s blog with several blog posts at the top of the Google search. I then did a Google image search. My friend had named his images and posted them on line using the water’s name as a file name. On one particular river he was the only person on the planet to post a fishing image of this particular river. Imagine being the only person in the world to name a river on Google! That says an awful lot about breaking the Kiwi code. (I’ll explain the Kiwi code in a future post).

But there I was, not only having to get my friend to live up to his word, having to grind him on the obvious, but he had put me in a compromising position publicly and I had to address emails questioning me because of his actions. I set my boundaries on both sides, expecting my friend to live up to his word, and to the incoming emails stating both what my friend agreed to and that I’m not him.

I emailed my friend asking him to remove the images, the reference to where we fished on his blog, any reference to us. Instead of, “Hey, you’re right. We agreed to that before hand. I screwed up. I’ll fix that,” I got an email from him telling me all the information is publicly available in books and on line, that if I had valid concerns to email him and they would decide if my concerns were valid and then, possibly, he would make the change. I had to explain that he was the only person on the planet revealing one river, that he was tying Amelia & I in to his actions, that the information might be available but it was not all available in one location on a silver platter the way he presented it.

What I like about Dr Laura is her cutting to the chase. I was direct as well. I simply reiterated what he’d agreed to. I also shared that more people than he realized read our blog and website, and find our information on line. And, very importantly, while AJ & I respect the Kiwi spirit, we expect those that we fish with do so as well which is why we insisted on no naming of the waters that we took them to in hopes they catch a fish. Their actions were reflecting upon us publicly, even though we made it perfectly clear: if we’re upholding an ethic, you either uphold that as well, or we simply don’t fish together, and certainly don’t discuss fishing together. There was no thanks for having taken them to our more intimate waters, just a brick wall of stubborn refusal on our request.  At the end of a few emails back and forth along these lines, I finally, simply said to him, “Look, this is what you agreed to before we even fished together. That should be enough for you to make the changes.” In the end, I had to brow beat him in to changing the file name information and deleting a few images.

My friend didn’t see anything past himself. He didn’t get and didn’t care about the breaking of the Kiwi code. He didn’t care about the compromising position he put me in. He didn’t care I had to reply to emails because of his actions. He didn’t get and didn’t care that I spent 2 ½ weeks of our vacation time, paying good money to be in New Zealand, trying to set him up to fish successfully. None of that mattered. He didn’t want to admit he had made a mistake, much less discuss it, much less rectify it. He saw it his way and certainly became defensive when his error revealed. There was no room for discussion no matter how AJ & I tried. How do you approach that? Gently, but it tells you to keep your cards tighter to our chest in the future.

Our relationship suffered because he did the exact same thing that some callers to the Dr Laura Show do. They miss the point and would rather argue their position and not show vulnerability that they made a mistake, that they didn’t do the right thing, much less take the first step to rectifying it. Another good friend of mine is always baffled by people that would rather argue than admit a mistake. “Davie,” he always says, “my simplest measure of a man is can he say ‘I screwed up. I apologize. Please forgive me. I am going to do everything I can to rectify it. If I can’t, I know this is a strain on our relationship but it is important enough to me to try my best now’.” It’s something I’ve lived by, always trying to look ahead before I take action to ensure I don’t put myself or others in a tough spot. I’m one to explicitly admit my mistakes and apologize with a focus to betterment in the future. The best part of it all is that this all requires good lines of communication, but that’s a future blog post.

The bottom line in all of this is that if a friend puts parameters on fishing together, you either agree and adhere to his or her standard, or you simply don’t do it. Full Stop. Of course, you don’t get the benefit of what he/she has to offer if you don't.

If you don't follow through on your word, are you really a friend, or a self absorbed individual simply using someone else’s talents for your own status improvement, to look good, to feel good about yourself? My friend was certainly in that category and needed to have his photo with a big fish for his blog. He needed others back home to see him with at least one big fish. At the end of our time with us, we found a river choked with fish that they could simply nymph the runs and catch fish. Catching is what mattered most to them but it wasn't going to happen sighting and casting. Of course, his persona changed from snippy, shut off, grumpy, disengaged to elated and over the top once he began catching. And of course, they milked the hell out of that river to ensure they got enough fish photos to give the appearance of an amazing trip.
I am simply using a tough situation to encourage folks to honor each other in this matter. It’s really easy to honor each other, as evidenced by the very next person we fished with in New Zealand. He didn’t name any river on his blog or facebook page, wasn’t trying to be a hero to his friends, enjoyed the quiet nature of fly fishing, and loved the style of the fishing. We shared willingly with him. In fact, the less he shared publicly, the more we shared with him. Funny how that works, eh? In the case of the friend who caused the issue, it’s very difficult for a relationship to come back from a breaking of trust like that, especially given what fly fishing is to Amelia & I. But there again, a true friend would have given that some consideration before his own needs to catch & be seen were fulfilled.
Now, I only have one post left in this series of things to learn from this ex-fishing partner. Not so curiously, it's titled, "You have nobody to blame but yourself". And there's certainly another Dr Laura tie in to that one too!

Pining

It's hitting me today. It's a little under 3 weeks until we fly to New Zealand. We're working hard to wrap up quite a few loose ends - I'm working hard on a brand new Fly Fish Alberta website that will come on line this week or next, as well as laying new foundation to our Fortress Lake Retreat site. It's been go-go-go on the computer the past 2-1/2 weeks with the new sites and a ton of video work - the sight fishing dvds, laying some foundation to a "Real New Zealand" dvd as well as 2 others to compliment a submission to the Back Cast Fly Fishing Film Festival. There's quite a roll of videos to come soon - while having taken their time, are being scrutinized for layout and content , presented in our style.

So here I am today, tired eyes and all. I flipped open Google Earth to have a look at my favorite locations. I began to daydream about a river AJ & I had an amazing experience on last year. We managed to land many dozens of browns in the 4 to 7 pound range in under 5 hours of fishing. Given how far back in the wilderness this reach was, we only had so many hours to fish. As it turned out, we only fished 1.4 km of the water due to the impassable beech forest. We planned to head back there late in our trip but the weather never allowed for it. So, today, I'm looking at Google Earth, zooming a little tighter to see the tiny tribs under the beech forest. I'm looking at the water between where we fished and the lowest take out. While we fished 1.4 km, there's about 6 km of water that is readily fishable - if a guy packs in a small dingy. So, here I sit, day dreaming of the singing, deafening cicadas echoing through the beech forest as we slowly drift though, under the beech forest, Amelia casting at browns and me with the fish eye lens trying to capture the feel of the moment on video, while holding her in position to tag into as many browns as she can. Will we be able to actually pull this off, given how remote this water is? I don't know but the day dreaming makes me pine for the possibilities. And why, when reality was that for a month we couldn't get back to the river due to heavy rains, do we only envision these perfect moments when the sun shines and the fish are easy to catch?

Sight Fishing Fortress Lake

You might have heard me / us talk about sight fishing Fortress Lake's brook trout. We finally put a short video of it together for you. Forming the basis of an upcoming sight fishing lakes dvd, this video shows how successful an angler can be at given times of the year sight fishing Fortress Lake. You need a boat to sight fish - which thankfully guests at our Fortress Lake Retreat get to use. :) See the video at the top right of the blog.
http://www.fortresslake.com/

Radioactive Wolves - the Chernobyl Story through ecosystem observation

I finally found this on YouTube. I saw it on PBS 2 weeks ago and this is HIGHLY recommended. Let this one load in a new browser and watch it when you have the 45 minutes. It's a fascinating look at the ecosystem of the Chernobyl exclusion zone. When you realize that animals simply account for lost individuals through reproduction, whereas humans compassionately grieve, looking at the realities of the region's wolves and other species is very interesting. As far as I'm concerned this is a much watch for anyone interested in this kind of thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6sdQ59g_xg

On Line Petetion Re: Stop Castle R logging

It's time to have your voice heard. Please take the 3 minutes to look at the following site for a quick info session and sign the petition.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/263/487/971/

Catch Magazine

Latest issue here:
http://www.catchmagazine.net/blast-nov11.html