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Today marks 35 years since I married my fishing and hunting guide.. lol.. and on this auspicious occasion I took what is considered to be the rarest of rare photos. A jiggy sunrise. Yes I had to pee.. and yes I went back to bed.

Stopped into the pyramid Bass Pro in Memphis and was blown away. This is the location where Tyson lost to Lennox Lewis in 2002. They charge $8 US for the elevator ride to the top where you can walk outside on a glass floor.. its free if you make restaurant reservations or stay at the lodge overlooking the store..

I've been to that one...just absolutely crazy the way Americans create a retail shopping experience. The original BPS in Springfield, Missouri is another incredible store..

I have a Lund 1625 Fury XL with a standard Merc 60 4-stroke (not Bigfoot). By myself, on a flat lake, I've touched 36 mph at 5500 rpm. I'm not sure how the added drag of the larger and deeper lower unit on the Bigfoot will affect that number. Bigfoots are designed to provide greater torque at lower speeds with a larger diameter prop. With the higher gear ratio it may be difficult to find a prop that will give you top end speed without over-revving the motor.

My Lund is rated for a 60hp motor.

First question, what is the boat rated for. No point in putting a saturn 5 rocket on a Sopwith Camel.

A real keeper. Not so sure about the pike though

Best drive-to Walleye (quantity & quality) fishing in NW Ontario is Lac Seul. Although the lake is huge, it fishes "small" due to the number of protected bays and myriads of islands. You can fish all day and not see another boat. Our group of 4 often catches over 100 Walleye a day, with lots of 26" to 30" fish in the mix. In fact, after a day or two, we get bored and just concentrate on the big toothy critters...world class Pike and Musky.. If you're looking for a "remote" experience, take a look at Lac Seul Outposts. It's a boat-in (bring your own, or they pick you up at the launch) camp with housekeeping cabins. If you want the full American plan with meals and an easy drive, look at Silver Wheels Lodge.

As it turns out.. I'm a saint......

Another experiment for me that will certainly be on the list for each year from now on. This should appeal to all the garlic growers in particular. I am now down to growing 100 hardneck garlic a year. Each year I'm always looking for something to do with my garlic scapes that I harvest in mid June. I store them in plastic grocery bags with some wet paper towels in the basement fridge and they last a real long time. So with around 75-80 left I decided to experiment and make a spread/dip with them and it turned out great. So far I've had it as a veggie dip, on crackers with smoked oysters and smoked sardines, mixed in pasta after draining it and before adding my Puttanesca sauce and garlic shrimp and today as a spread on a sandwich with some fresh from smoker pulled pork I got from a local food truck called the Smoke Box that I swapped for a bag of smoked bread crumbs. So out of all my scapes I ended up with 4 cups of trimmed and chopped. I took 2 cups of that in the food processor down to a finer grind, removed it and then added 1 large vidalia onion and a over a cup of chopped wild leeks and ground them down before adding them to the mix. Then I took a half pound of feta cheese, a block of cream cheese, whipped that up and then added a good grind of black pepper and a good 1/4C of EVOO to the mix, enough to soften it up so it will just flow off a spoon at room temp. Then I added all the garlic/onionmix and whipped that for a couple of minutes. Out of the fridge it's definitely thicker. Did up the other batch today as I needed more cream cheese. Very happy how it turned out with a very unique flavour profile, my daughter found it quite strong but still liked it, my only hope now is that it will freeze well as I'll be vacuum sealing at least 10 of the containers and putting them away. In the meantime I'm sure I'll find some other uses for it, I've got some smoked chorizo burgers in the freezer that come to mind. Might make for a good salad dressing base too. Cheers