Bob

Yeah, we got away with a lot of stuff that would be verboten today. I remember getting on a Gray Coach bus with a shotgun in a case to go hunting numerous times and no one gave it a second thought. Try it today. There were no safety checks for cars or breathalizers for people or cars then. My first car cost me $25.00. No one cared if you had paper for boats and there was no such thing as a fishing license. Remember the year they sold fishing licenses and then gave everyone their money back because administration costs were too high? I never claimed my money back and still have the license.

Nice photo, Wayne. I caught my PB wally just on the downstream side of that dam. Way before yesterday, believe I was driving a '57 Pontiac at the time.

Yep! That's the one. I poked back a lot of those at the Mansion House on the Danforth.

Amazing how things change. In the time and place where I grew up, no real man would ever touch any kind of lager beer unless he was handing it to his wife. Lager was considered a ladies drink and a man drinking lager was considered a sissy. Real men drank ale and that's all there was to it. Of course, I can remember the day when if you were in a bar and asked for a "Blue", you got a Molson Stock Ale. Had a blue label with an anchor on it I believe.

We use frozen smelt here all the time and I've never heard of anyone questioning it. We buy them at No Frills here in Elliot Lake. It's the cheapest bait around. Especially good for lake trout from shore in the spring when the trout are looking for easy pickings. They're usually available whole.

Not an introduced species but an invasive species. The first nesting pairs were recorded on the Great Lakes less than a hundred years ago at the west end of Lake Superior and they hit Lake Ontario in the thirties. Here's what environment Canada has to say, it's a long read: http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/factsheets/fs_cormorants-e.html

I've just recently attained the age where I no longer have to worry about a fishing license. I will, however, keep my card current, just in case I want to walk the bush with a shootin' iron.

Hottest summer I remember here in Northern Ontario was back in the mid 70s. We had a heat wave in the high 30s with some days hitting 40C. Oh yeah, that was back when all the headlines and magazine articles were crying about the coming ice-age. Same year I was pulling logs out of the bush through the coldest winter I ever saw. Go figure! After the last couple of cold wet summers, I'm enjoying this one. We haven't seen anything above 30C here. I'm talking real temps, not humidex.

Lost Channel is likely the better fishing spot, it's part of the Pickerel River system. The small reptile display at Lost Channel Inn is just a gag, a wooden box down by the gas pump that's labelled "Baby rattlers, open carefully". When you lift the lid, you see a handful of plastic baby rattles laying on the bottom. I did the music for their "Midsummer Bash" last long weekend. I don't usually travel that far for a gig but my sister is the manager there and I've known Russell, the owner, for the biggest part of 40 years so what do you do when it's family and friends?

Could be an escapee, there are grey singing finches that are kept as pets. Doesn't look like any local wild species that I know of Joey. That would be my best guess anyhow.

The short thick bill would preclude phoebe and mockingbird and the mockingbird has a really long tail that's very distinctive. Can't really tell you exactly what it is but the shape of the bill would suggest one of the finches or grosbeaks. What would you estimate the length to be?

Wife and I were walking through the mall a couple days ago, holding hands as usual, when a friend stopped us and asked, "How come I always see you two holding hands all the time? Aren't you a little old for that?" I said, "Yeah, maybe, but if I let go of her, she shops!"

Check out the recent Montanas and Uplanders, a van that looks like an suv. Two weeks ago, I picked up an 07 Montana, 3.9 litre, 240 hp, pulls up to 3500 lbs with 300 lbs on the tongue and I got it for $6500.00. Right place at the right time.

I've been a trucker, a miner, a logger and a roofer. I've been a carpenter on housing construction and I've worked highway and bridge construction. Basically, when one type of work started to bore me, I moved to something else. When jobs became harder to find, I bought some equipment and transformed myself into a KJ (karaoke jockey). Now I drink and sing and party with a bunch of good folks and at the end of the party, they pay me. Doesn't get much better. Been doing this now for 15 years and I party 3 nights a week. I'm a local celebrity. Ever hear the song "Kansas City Star"? That's me only in Elliot Lake.

The frog on the stump looks like what we call a spring peeper around here. There are a zillion of them in the marsh out back but you have to look really hard to find them. They're loud but nearly invisible.

Anytime I've been lucky enough to find one when I'm fishing, it goes right on the hook. Trout love them.

Sportspals are lightweight and stable and fairly easy to repair with aluminum sheet and pop rivets. If you hang a motor on them, they're wonderful but if you plan to use paddle power, they're terrible. That's why they build them with oarlocks. I used to build them many years ago. If you enjoy paddling, get a real canoe.

First thing you learn is: you're looking at a long nosed gar. No relation to a pike. No such animal as gar pike. There are several different species of gar and the most common in Ontario is the long nose. They're reported to be more primitive than the pike family but not genetically related at all. Want to start on pickerel/walleye now?

Very good advice to hug your parents. Often and at every opportunity. When I was a young buck, my Dad was the dopiest dude I knew but somehow, the older I got, the wiser he got. That's likely not the way it really happened but it seemed like it at the time. Yeah, I was a serious rebel and a black sheep for a long time and don't know why Dad ever let me in his house but I saw the light eventually and realised what was really for real. He was a smart guy and he loved me. When he retired and moved here to Elliot Lake, we got real close. We fished together and hunted together just like brothers or best friends. Lost my Dad in 93. Lost my Mom in 03. Got to hug them lots in the later years and I take consolation from that. A lot of you know that I run a karaoke business and one of the best nights I can remember is dancing with Mom and singing her favourite song to her at the same time. It was about a week before she died and the song was "Unchained Melody". Hug your parents and your good friends often.

Granted that newbies should do some practice before attempting to launch a boat, how many with a new boat have patience to do that? They want to get it in the water asap. Instead of crabbing, why not offer some advice or even offer to get in and show them how it's done? Some will get defensive but a lot would accept help graciously and what would it cost you? Things would get done faster and smoother and a whole lot of folks would be grateful. Charge by the minute? Gimme a break! Grow a little charity.

Yep, check spaceweather.com, it'll tell you about solar activity. Best show I ever saw was one night in the 70s, walking from Port Loring to Loring at about 2 AM. It was almost as bright as day and every colour in the rainbow. I've seen some pretty spectacular shows here in Elliot Lake but none like that one. Once in a lifetime show I guess.

A spinner or jig with a worm up river by the pilings will get you walleye. Pike are all over the place, Boomcamp Bay, Vance's Bay, the bay by Brennan Harbour resort or the lagoon in back of the southwest tip of Green Island. I've always had good luck trolling Rapala type baits for pike. Troll fast! If you're fishing outside the mouth of the river, keep a sharp eye on conditions, that Whalesback Channel can go from flat calm to eight footers in next to no time. Talk to Becky at the marina (Vance's), she'll tell you where folks are getting their fish.

They haven't been bad here yet. Due to the almost zero runoff this spring and the fact that blackflies need running water to breed, I don't anticipate a bad season for them this year. Again, due to little runoff, I can see a lot of the swamps drying early and an easier skeeter season unless, of course, we get a lot of rain.

It's been years. I don't know. I'd have to ask if there are still records that go back that far. I remember Canadave and he whose name mustn't be mentioned. I believe it was the original board I signed up on. I remember a frequent contributor photo spread that really wasn't very large. I've always used my own name. Is the old photo page still around? Anyone have it saved? It would be fun to see it again.

I like it right here. Innumerable lakes within minutes, reasonable places to shop for stuff, ten minutes to a decent hospital and 40 minutes would put me on the North Channel of Huron. Been here thirty years already, ten of those in semi-retirement. Lakers, rainbows, specks, splake, smallies, pike and walleye within 20 minutes of my door and almost anything that swims in freshwater within an hour, including muskies, salmon, sturgeon, you name it.