Scouting Stauffer's

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and you could just barely smell a hint of spring on the unseasonably warm breeze. Fishing open water in the middle of February in Alberta means only one thing: The North Raven River.

This pre-season trip was about making sure we were organized and prepared as a team for the trips to come. It was about honing our casts and elevating them to an art form. It was about sharpening our minds and our eyes to catch that fleeting glimmer under the surface that would otherwise go unseen... We managed to get all that out of the way before we even finished packing the truck, which left us the rest of the afternoon to lazily chase the brooks and browns that skirted their way through the creek. So thank you to the land owners who make this little gem available to us; it was a perfect start to the 2012 season.

While navigating our way back along the river, we came across a moose carcass that had clearly been harvested within the last couple months. I was tempted to make a sarcastic remark about somebody making a shore lunch out of it, but instead I’ll just say this. I hope it was harvested legally and with the land owner’s permission. We are lucky to be living in such an ecologically rich country and to have opportunities to explore and enjoy it. So I’ll take this opportunity to stress the importance of respecting the regulations, the environment and the land owners. We’ve all been tempted to keep one that isn’t quite big enough, or to start the season a week early or to squeeze in one last trip in the fall after the season close… and we all know why we shouldn’t. The footprints of your boots should be the only footprint you leave behind at the end of a trip. Anyone that practices this is a friend of the R.F.A.

(Photo credit goes to Scott Wilson)