Dust off the rods, this weekend, July 12 and 13, is both Alberta and Saskatchewan's Free Fishing Weekend.

This is a great program that allows everyone in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan to fish without a licence - no excuses for not getting out there! I hope to see a lot of people with some seriously out-dated, worthless equipment fishing poorly this July 12 and 13.

Why? Because those are the people who haven't fished in a while and may just be considering picking it up again. As long as everyone has fun, the weekend is a success.

Fun = more fishermen. More fishermen = better advocacy. Better advocacy = stronger fisheries. Stronger fisheries = fun.

It's one big, happy cycle.

For me, well, I already have my licence, so this weekend is like any other. Which brings me to my second point — the Free Fishing Weekend is great, but in my view fishing in Alberta (where I live) is practically free as it is. For about $26, you can fish as much as you want in practically every fish-bearing water (excluding national parks) in the province for a year. Saskatchewan is only a couple bucks more.

I DARE you to try and find a better entertainment value than that. You'd be hard pressed to buy two tickets to a movie for $26.

I assure you, it costs a pretty penny more than that to fish all the waters BC has to offer.

So if you're an Albertan and you don't make it out to the lake this weekend, go the weekend after. It may not be free, but it's the next best thing.

Fishing - it's good bang for your buck.