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Hey guys, Thanks for checking up on me! Been trying to keep myself busy; rented a small apartment up in Noelville for a couple of months and spent a lot of time with the kids. That, spending time with my brother, and life in general has kept me pretty well occupied for the last several months. ?

This year I sold my pop up hut, and started running a 2 man flip over. The things must weight 150 lbs loaded with gear. Even empty, it's very heavy. It has the fold down bench seats and heavy metal poles. Throw a 20lb tank and a buddy heater, 2 fish finder, 15 beer, etc..... It was such a pain in the butt this early season lifting the hut on and off my old wooden Smitty. So I designed and build a folding Smitty. Build it last week at work with a few long nights. And was able to test it this weekend. I would say it's a success!! Just pull to detent pins, and the entire hut drops down on the ice. Put your foot on the ski, and lift one side up, and it swings up almost effortlessly. Sure will make the run and gun faster !!!

There was an assembly at my granddaughters school today. It was to honor students for good deeds. From grade 1 to 8 I had no idea that she was part of this. She was awarded for courage. She stood up for another student that was being bullied. The child she helped,told the teacher what she did.. She is only 6 yoa. A young girl that is being brought up by a single father. Someone is bringing up this child right.

Hi all, My son Jack is suddenly taking a keen interest in making his own videos. Actually, it has become apparent to me that he has been watching me very closely over the years doing my editing, as he knew exactly what do with the editing software with almost no instruction. He told his schoolmates I had a Youtube channel and that he was in a lot of the videos, but because of the weird spelling of my Youtube channel's name, his friends at school struggled to find it when they looked for it, Jack told me that some of the kid's called him a liar. So Jack is even more pumped that he has his own Youtube channel to show off now too, we are still working on the layout together. One of the coolest things was we got into a discussion about how the editing process can change reality and manipulate emotions, he is one thoughtful kid, very proud of him. Anyway, here is Jack doing his thang, hope he sticks with it, i'll do my best to encourage it.

Nice, but should have done a Pumpkinseed.

Took my son on the big tuna yak a few weeks back for some perch fun. It was slightly choppy so we decided to stay close to shore to play it safe, around the 8 feet mark. this depth worked out well. Lots of little dinks caught but we got a few delicious keepers for some perch tacos for dinner. I dont usually keep fish but simcoe perch are hard to resist!

All the MNR has to do is announce they are a special strain of panfish and they're protected. They'll be gone by spring.

It's a sting operation!

Trading Kapanen would be a huge mistake!!!!

I want to wish all my Canadian friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year - for us old guys who have lost their spouse things are a little sad around this time of the year - I look back at the time my wife was here with me and the kids were small - those were the real good days - but life goes on - for you young guys who have a family make sure you cherish the season and their company

Here's from a few weeks back at Port Dalhousie

My son was killed 12 days before Christmas back in '04 and Christmas has never really been the same since then. The pain diminishes but never really goes away.

If its out on the water the first thing people say is "catch anything?". Close second being "what are you fishing for?" If its online, "where did you catch that" Would be #1. People want your spot, they don't want to work for it.

There is a business case for the closing. You just can't compete in Canada in manufacturing. Tossing more money after bad is not going to help. GM can close the plant as they said.. but I think they still own Canada a bit https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/loans-canada-account-finance-auto-sector-bailout-2009-gm-chrysler-1.4722529 Don't let them take one piece of hardware to move it to Mexico until they paid back our Money. As for the loss of jobs. I have known a number of companies getting rid of employee's and not a word from government but when its the auto sector its different? Ask someone in Alberta how the Feds are helping them https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/100000-jobless-energy-workers-struggle-for-a-place-in-the-new-economy Job losses are going to be the new norm for a few years to come until Canada starts acting like a country and standing up for the middle class. This is not a USA / Mexico / Canada / China issue. It's we just need fair policy and environment to compete. This weird notion that the high tech sector will save us all ended in 2001 when they figured off-shoring was cheaper than workers in Canada. Until our leaders realize that you can only hire so many new government workers before you run out of money expect more of the same.

weird timing, Trump has backed off tariffs, NAFTA is sorted out, CDN dollar is pretty low??? before your next purchase you GM guys should consider the mantra "you don't build here, we don't buy here"

Go out there catch some fish and show us some pics.

Trying to go easy this year and just cleaning up some dead stuff.. LOL.. 36" maple and a 28" Ash. Made Leah a love seat, coffee and end table!

I always figured if a fish couldn't catch up to my bait he wasn't worth catching LOL

Hi all, Let me introduce (or reintroduce) myself. I was an old member of just about every Ontario fishing forum a long long time ago but have fallen away from the online fishing community and even fishing itself for some brief periods but this last year saw me diving head first back into this sport I love. I moved to the Hamilton area a year ago and have been looking for some sort of community outlet to talk fishing since my wife is starting to get frustrated hearing my "theories" of why the fish aren't biting. Hopefully this great forum will provide this fix and may help to save my marriage In the meantime, I figured I'd share a brief report with photos from a trip I took with my father this month. When he turned 60 last year he asked me to plan something that we could do together since he has growing concerns that soon I will have kids and forget to make time for fishing with him. Over the last few years we have fished together only on a semi annual basis and I thought this the perfect opportunity to spend some high quality time together. I almost exclusively fly fish and my father enjoys this style as well despite being a little rusty so we chose a destination that provide some guided fishing and some DIY fishing. We chose Fernie BC as our first destination and it truly did not disappoint. A few thoughts on the fishing in this region... Cutthroat trout are typically given a reputation of being non selective near suicidal surface feeders. This was actually not my experience as frequently I would cast to rising fish with the same pattern I had success on the day prior only to get refused. A few fly selection changes later would usually bring the fish around but to call these fish unselective is insulting to the trout. That said, they certainly were focused on the surface and if the hopper pattern or beetle pattern didn't get a rise, a small may fly or ant likely would. The cutthroats are quite large in this region. It was rare to catch tiny trout with the average cutthroat being around 12-16 inches and very thick due to the powerful currents of the systems in this area and prolific bug life. This is no place for your 6x tippet. Routinely we fished 3x and only went to 4x for smaller flies when needed. A note on the Bull trout. These fish are known as voracious predators and while that definitely is true, When I arrived at the end of July the fish I encountered were at the very beginning of their run upstream. First thing in the morning they would chase down large streamers and crush them with reckless abandon however as the sun crept in the sky the fish would shut down and become lethargic or "zone out". Despite being able to see large fish in the crystal clear pools I found the inactivity of the fish to be reminiscent of spring time great lakes steelhead and preferred to leave them be when they were clearly not active. Unfortunately, even in the mountains, many anglers find the temptation of these impressive fish too great and end up foul hooking them. Local guides informed that it is becoming an even larger problem of anglers targeting these fish later in the spawn when they turn colour and move up onto the reds. Sad to see this behaviour in such a pristine location. On a more positive note there is incredible backcountry fishing throughout this region and it was not hard to find some DIY locations if you had a 4x4 vehicle and a can of bear spray. While I enjoy guided fishing in new locations nothing really beats going exploring on your own and finding success at the end of the journey. I am already planning to head back in a year or two as I have only really scratched the surface of this amazing place. Lastly if you are fishing in BC the classified waters regulations are something very different that we have in Ontario. Some of the best rivers in this area only permit a certain number of non resident anglers per day and must be booked well in advance. Advance planning is needed and I'd suggest doing your homework if you want to fish these popular rivers and you are not a BC resident. To conclude we had an absolute blast fishing for 5 days in this part our beautiful country; however, we were not heading home just yet. After our time in Fernie we moved on to fish near Missoula, Montana. A bucket list destination for me and what I have always considered the epicentre for fly fishing (think A Runs Through It). I will put a post together sharing some of my experiences in that great state next. I have attached a few photographs below that I hope you will enjoy. I posted a heck of a lot more on my instagram if you'd like to see more i'm at @nickgoesfishing. Im always looking together to connect with others from the province so shoot me a message anytime. Anyway thanks for reading, Nick

HH

Thanks guys for wishing me good luck, Well it was a cold day we got on the ice and set up our shack and started rigging up our rods no holes couldn't be drilled until 8am so me and my partner had breakfast and some coffee once the clock struck 8am it was go time we drilled about 15 holes and got right to business my first drop down the hole and i had my first crappie on i thought to myself today might just be a good day and it turned out be just that we ended up with 15 crappies by 1 o'clock and weigh in was at 2 o'clock we sorted our crappies out and put together the biggest 10 for the weigh in oh i forgot mention i also caught 2 very nice walleyes so we make it back to shore and weigh our ten fish 6.46lbs not bad we thought and said to ourselves we might just be in the race we pack our stuff in the car and head inside for the ceremony we sit there patiently waiting of our names will be announced Well from 5th place to 2nd place we didn't hear our names but we did get to hear our opponents weights which were all under ours it was then we knew that we actually won this thing! It felt great hearing our names announced as winners and even better knowing that me and my buddy will be taking 600$ a piece home! It was a fun exciting and amazing weekend winning my First ever ice fishing tournament

Seems like the prices of boats has gone way up....Was looking at 18' aluminum boats from all major brands (Lund, Crestliner, Alumicraft, etc). All the boats in the 18' range were north of $60,000.....And obviously higher the bigger the boat got. Makes it hard to buy a new boat now. Boat costs more than my vehicle lol.

Don't over think it too much. I'd run braid then change up your leader when conditions call for it. No way I'd run a flouro mainline, the stuff is just awful.

As quirky as the show was,he made me laugh. Im sure others as well.

Why are you busting my cojones? It's Spiel's dish. Onions sound good to me.

I saw a bunch of Simcoe Whities at the candlelight Christmas Eve service praying for warm weather. See, there is a God.

Nice. Thanks Wayne for pointing this out!! Just testing it out with a few pics!

Please no specific locations or illegal practices posted here. As we all know Canada does not allow pistols or open carry so discussing it from the USA point of view will do nothing but get this locked. I am sorry that fishing in some areas is dangerous not from wildlife but from our own kind. If you identify an area and enough people call the police it might get extra patrols or surveillance to calm it down. You should check with your local jurisdictions and see what personal protection is legally available to use in a dicey situation. One of the first things taught in crime prevention is to be aware of your surroundings and avoid areas that are considered dangerous. If you do go into an area that is dicey go with friends and have a phone handy to call for help. Thank you Art

"did you say we're leaving your place at 4:30 am???!!!"

Hey, folks, for those of you living close to Simcoe "Don't try this at home"!!?

Talking about heart attack on a plate, was in Costco Saturday AM and they had pork belly. About 25 bucks for 5 lbs or so of nice meaty pork belly. So my wife made slow braised pork belly with rice and veg. Sort of Chinese style with star anise, soy marinade and honey. The pieces get roasted for a bit to crisp the outside and take off some of the fat and then braised/basted in liquid for an hour or so. Wow. Not as greasy as you might think, but definitely "rich" with fat. I probably shouldn't eat for a few days this week.

Hi all, We have had fishable ice here for about 3 weeks now but this was my first outing by quad. Only about 4" of snow on the ground here so chose the quad over the sled, better on gas. The lake I went to is accessible from our shore across the lake and through the bush/skidoo trails, always a fun ride. Had to be a bit mindful when I got there as early ice can vary from place to place. We have 12" on our lake and I'm taking the ice road to work now, but the lake in the video is a different animal to Wabigoon lake. It is deeper and tends to freeze later. Also with the North/ South orientation of the lake it tends to freeze first at the access point and up to a week later in the main basin where I fish. After some checking turns out like most of the lakes here it froze over in one night as the thickness was 8"-9" of clear black ice at the landing and in the main body. Fishing was good and I got a limit within an hour and a half, lots of missed bites too, good fun.

Early freeze up this year shutdown a lot of smaller tribs for me me, but opened up other oppourtunities on larger systems. Here's a few pics of some late fall spoon-fed steelies!

The first thirty years of my life we were in a period of " Global Cooling " culminating in some pretty horrific winters in the 70's and some pundits forecasting a " Nuclear Winter " , next we entered a period a " Global Warming " with some pundits forecasting the melting of the polar icecaps and rising ocean levels, looking back on almost 70 years I see it as weather. ?

Here’s a easy diy to make line holders for your spools. All you need are headbands, beads and a glue gun. Hope this helps you out.

port-ly 1. having a stout body; somewhat fat. 2. ARCHAIC of a stately or dignified appearance and manner. Seems appropriate. Headed up North on Friday night and did some shore fishing for walleye. Got a couple of nice ones including one real tank - looked like it belonged in Quinte. No pic pics as it was snowin' and blowin' not to mention dark. Knowing we were going for brookies the next day, I said to my buddy "wouldn't it be something to get a trophy walleye and a trophy speck in a 24 hour period?" Well wouldn't ya know it, as I was standing on shore facing straight in to the gale force winds contemplating how much longer to stick it out, I got bit. I missed him the first time but he gave me another shot -thank the Lord. I've seen bigger specks but they don't come any more handsome than this fellow. You'll have to excuse the hero hold but I was tryna keep my pants clean. It seems he was happy to see me too lol.

Sure, but shooting a coyote dead and this are completely different things. These kids have issues.

I personally don't care what my anchor looks like

Sharing a little of what I've been up to lately and daily. Lots of rod work when I'm not cooking. These two builds showing reel seat to grip designs created by me were recently featured on CTS' FB page.

Should move pretty nice with a 60 horse on the back. Love the 6 rod holders.

Atlantic

Look at how tough the fishing is on many Ontario lakes and ponder, if it wasn't for the widely accepted catch and release principles being applied over the last 30+ years, there'd be no fish to keep. Nothing to see here accept some no-name science dude trying to make a name for himself. Catch and Release WORKS. Hunting is proof of that...not one duck I ever shot ever had trouble eating again.

Being a tire dealer I`m going to try to stay impartial here. There are distinct differences. The All Weather tire is really a hybrid of All Season and Winter. All Season tires have a relatively straight uniform tread pattern designed to provide a good ``all `round`` performance in dry and wet weather. The tread pattern also helps to keep down road noise. These tires have the hardest compounds and longest life. All Weather tires are relatively new to the market, perhaps 5 years. They have a much `blockier`tread pattern, and softer compound. The blockier tread and softer compound provides better steering and stopping performance in wet weather (and slush) however the compromise is they are noisier and have shorter life. Winter tires, I think most are familiar with. They have in general a uniform block tread with a much softer compound. They offer significant improvement in grip, steering and stopping distance in ice and snow however they are noisier and have much shorter life. If you are buying Winter tires spend a few hundred dollars more and get a set of dedicated rims. Your tires will last longer not being taken on and off twice a year but the changeover is significantly less expensive. Just a note on Winter tires. It is not the air temps that kill them it`s the temp of the road so get them on when the road temps have had a chance to cool down and more important get èm off before the roads heat up! I have had customers drive to Florida on Winters stay for a few months and complain when they get back that their tires are wearing too fast...

I think we all knew what the final outcome was going to be. I'm glad the family has some closure now. Big loss to the fishing community as a whole and definitely to OFC. It sucks, no other way to put it.

Black crappie are only considered delicious

Sign onto Facebook and look up Tufts Lab. Or simply use this link : I found this quite interesting and informative. You will see video captured of Gobies eating baby bass at a nest. This can be a big issue. It may be great for larger bass to eat the Gobies and get nice and big ... but the threat they pose on the success of the reproduction of the bass population may be a serious problem. In time I believe there could be potential for the opening of Bass season to be delayed so that the guards of the nests are not disturbed (as that video shows).

Like pushing a rope

You will never back it down with 2 pivot points

he has one!