BabyHerc

I like Pro X

Stick with the 2500. 3000 will be too large to balance with most bass and walleye rods. You may even consider moving down to a 2000 size. A little lighter and more compact than the 2500, but still plenty of line capacity. As far as braid goes, 20lb is doable, but I prefer to drop down to 15lb on a spinning reel. Fill the spool halfway with some regular mono that matches the diameter of the braid, then top it off with the braided line. A spool of braid can fill both spools this way.

I would say close to 60 lbs. It's not a fake, but it sure as hell ain't a North American fish. Nothin's changed James!!!

Thanks for the number Setomonkey, I'm calling it in now. And thanks for the tip, Clampet! Funny, my fishing knife bares a striking resemblance to Rambo's "fishing" knife

LOL Roger! Marko, the last fish is a bowfin. You can find them in shallow, weedy waters, where yoo would normally find bass or carp. They are very aggressive, fight very hard, and have teeth that would make a musky jealous.

Yup, the last shot is Toronto in July. WELCOME TO CANADA!!! One of those pics was not taken in the Toronto area (hint: it's the smallie).

Final Four:

Still more pics

More pics again

More pics

Here are a bunch of pics from the summer that I just managed to convert fom film to jpeg. Thanks Roger!

Don't forget Shoppers Drug Mart.

Yup, heart's beating regularly again, thanks Roger. I wanted to report it to somebody, but figured it was too minor an incident to call the police. Anybody have the number for SPCA? Or any other agency that would handle this? We don't need to hear about a child getting attacked on the islands. This the the third time this type of thing has happened. Once at Chemong lake, but the dog was a little mutt, so no worries, and once on the upper Rouge, but the dog was on the other side of the river, and I had my pepper spray on me. A barage of rocks deterred the Rouge dog, which was a very large rottweiler.

I hit the harbour this morning with hopes of tying into a nice pike or two - instead, the only thing I tied into was an angry, leashless pitbull (more on that later). Most of the boat slips were ice-free, but some of the better spots were still impenetrable. Water temps in the open areas were just a touch under 38* at about 10:00. I also had a few new products to try out: a new soft-bodied minnow with a tail-spinner, Vanish Transition fluorocarbon, and some home-made Seaguar fluorocarbon leaders. I managed a follow on a slow, steady retrieve with the tail-spinner, but the fish was probably 30 inches at best. I am also very displeased with Berkley's new Transition line: they claim UV light makes it a bright red, which is accurate, but they also claim the red colouration disappears underwater... FALSE!!! It was bright red as far down as I could see. Although there may be many factors why I didn't hook the follower, or any others, I'm sticking to my excuse of this bright red fishing line . After a fruitless hour-and-a-half on the waterfront, I made my way to the ferry docks to see if the ice had come off the island channels yet. I hopped on the ferry at 11:00, and was very hopeful. As we docked at Hanlan's, I saw nothing but solid ice. Not one to give up, I made the trek, hoping to find an open patch or two. I walked along a hidden path to one of my favourite spots, and, to my dismay, saw more solid ice. I decided to just walk through the islands, taking in the sights and sounds on my day off work. As I entered the clearing from the path, I saw movement to my right; there it was, not more than 30 feet from me, a very large, very angry pit bull, with no leash, and no owner in sight. I knew no one else was aware of my or the dog's presence. I froze, and looked around for an owner of some sort. Nadda. He was just as startled as I, and he decided to make the first move. He barked, and made a false charge about 3 feet forward. I began making my way back to the main road backwards, to keep my eyes on him. He barked again, louder, and with more frequency. He charged again. This time, he wasn't stopping. I held my ground, pointed my 7 foot rod directly at him, and yelled, with all the primal rage I could muster, "GET BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!". He stopped, and huffed again. I walked backwards at a faster clip, through the snow, careful not to lose my balance. He barked once more, and made another charge. Still with my rod pointed at him, I yelled again "BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!". He stopped, looked down, then looked at me, then ran off in the opposite direction. What a relief. Once I got back to the road, I jogged my way back to the Hanlan's ferry, and called it a day. Who needs pike, anyway?

I'll be down there tomorrow. If you don't hear from me, I didn't catch anything.

On my two spools for my medium bass rod I have one spooled with 6 lb Sensation, and the other with 15 lb Power Pro. The 6 lb spool si great for smaller grubs, cranks, and livebait in open, clear water, and the braid is for long distance tubing, or fishing largies in weeds with larger texas-rigged plastics. The Crystal line isn't clear like they'd like you to believe; it's still a braid, and even though it looks translucent when magnified 50x, it's still opaque. At least green-coloured lines will blend in with weeds when fishing largies.

I've been making panfish "drop-shot" rigs before drop-shotting came to North America. I tie them two ways: one, just like a regular drop-shot with a palomar knot to a size 6 or 8 aberdeen hook, or a similar sized octopus hook. I then nose hook either a tube jig, plastic minnow, live minnow, or leech. The second way is to either use a regular sinker or tie a 1/8 oz marabou jig to the bottom, and tie one or two dropper loops up the line. Attached to each mainline is a either a tube jig or bare aberdeen hook. The marabou version works very well under a float as well.

You may already have decided on the Ugly Stick, but I'll recomend the Shimano TDR like many others who replied. It's about the same price and action as the Ugly Stick, but you'll be getting a lifetime warranty with Shimano, as opposed to a 7 year for the Ugly Stick. I would go with at least an 8 footer, but preferably a 9. And, like Roy said, walleye and salmon are very different fish - medium for the walleye, heavy for the salmon, or compromise and go MH for both.

Last year, the Aggressor was $99. For $60, you might want to look into it. Decent rod, and maybe they fixed the problems with the reel. Cardinal 100 is nice, but small. It wouldn't make a good bass, pike, or carp reel. I still haven't seen the flyer, so I don't know what's on sale.

I've wondered the same thing in the past. When it comes to extremely slow presentations, like dragging and dead-sticking, I use a Powerbaits whenever I can. With faster retrieves, like soft sticks, swimming a grub, and swimming a tube, I'll go either way. Having said that, I've caught as many fish on unscented baits as I have on scented baits. I still have the most confidence in Powerbaits, though. In NW Ontario, I doubt it makes a difference.

For the entire event, Fishnsled.

Chartreuse and black/gold.

You bring in any old reel, as long as it works, and you save a certain dollar value off the new reel you're gonna buy. The amount you save depends on the cost of the new reel, not the value of the trade in. The more expensive the new reel, the more money you save. The savings is also calculated on the reel's current sale price; so let's say you plan to buy a Johnny Morris baitcaster: regular price $199, on sale for $99 - you'd save $15 off the $99 price, not $30 (even though it has an original price of $199). You could also buy a cheep reel brand new (Zebco 33 comes to mind) for $10, trade it in, and save $100 off a Calcutta TE for example.

There ya go, FHR gotchya covered. I've never owned the reel before, nor have I had a problem with the spool tension on my baitcasters, but I was thinking maybe it's a problem with a washer? Maybe a washer is either broken, missing, or put in the wrong way?

Can you describe the problem in greater detail please?