John M., Al S. and I are on the water at 11:30; leave town at 9:00. Day starts out sunny and fine. The river is low and clear, emminently boatable. I'm bound and determined to fish streamers, altho in hindsight should not have been so set in my ways :-) Big wind comes up at about 3:00; we book it upstream; home by six. While Policeman's is quite free of ice, things get progressively thicker downstream --- river starts to plug up with ice a couple of miles above the Highwood. Current reports indicate that McKinnon's is not ice free yet, nor is the boat launch at the Hwy. 24 bridge. Snowpack very low this year in Southern Alberta; 35% of normal.