Getting with the times

So every boy and his dog has a blog. Every boy but me it seemed. Well I figured it was time to get in the game. I tried the Facebook thing but it took to much of my time to do absolutely nothing. All I did was add little applications to my facebook and think of little messages I should add to my friends accounts. I deleted my facebook account after three weeks and never looked back, just wasn't my thing.

As far as this blog, 90% of it will be fly-fishing related. The other 10? Well who knows?

Since this is my first blog post, I'll tell you a little about myself. My name is Mike Monteith (AKA Doc). I'm the owner of the information web site Fly Fishing Edmonton, owner/guide of Edmonton Stillwater Adventures, owner of two fishing message boards - Alberta Fly Fishing Forum and The Fishin' Alberta Message Board. I am also the Editor/Publisher of the information web site Float Tube Fly Fishing although the information on this site is great, the site seams to be frozen in time as I don't have access to it or Ed for that matter.

I started fishing at the age of three in CFB Chatham New Brunswick and received my first fly rod at age four. Here's the picture of that day but I don't really remember it.

I guess (according to my father), I caught fish on that fly rod but I only remember still fishing for sea trout. My Father grew up in Fredericton and started fly-fishing at an early age. My Grandmother used to tie flies and sell them in town as well as supply my father with what ever he needed (she never actually fly-fished though, just tied). When my father got station in Chatham (he was in the Airforce), he guided American's on the famous Miramichi River which pretty much starts right at Chatham.
When I was five, we moved to Winnipeg and we lived there 'til I was nine. I remember many more fishing trips in these four years of my life. A few took place with cousins and bicycles on the Red River but most of my fishing memories took place fishing from our green cedar canoe up in the Duck Mountains of Manitoba. I also remember having our heads checked for wood ticks at school in early September by our teacher. And I remember how bad the horse flies were, jumping around flailing my arms, looking like a complete idiot on the beach trying to get them to not bite you, then jumping in the lake as a last resort and watching them circle the surface of the water waiting for you run out of air. Man, when they bite, that hurts so bad. My Dad showed me one day how slow they were, once they land just slap them and kill them. After that, I didn't spazz out any more but every once in a while, if you didn't feel them land, OOWWWW!!!!
We moved to Edmonton in 1977 and I've been here ever since. I'm 40 now so I've been fishing these local trout lakes around Edmonton for 30+ years.

Edmonton continued on next post.