David Chong

It's another beautiful painting! Great job! Dave

Doug & Dax, It was my pleasure! Nice to meet some fellow OFC'ers, thanks for the business! I'll help out OFC'ers with any camera purchases whenever possible! Cheers, Dave

My sincere condolences on your Grandfather's passing, as long as you fish his memory will stay alive! Congratulations on 25 years of wedded bliss! Keep on trucking! Dave

What's wrong with Grenadier Pond? I grew up in the High Park area and spend many days cycling down to and fishing Grenadier Pond. Over the years we've caught Large & Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, Black Crappies, Yellow Perch, Bluegills, Pumpkinseeds, Brown Bullheads, Common Carp and even Glizzard Shad. Great fishing area especially in the middle of Toronto! I still like to get down there and walk around. Cheers, Dave

THANK YOU TO ALL OFNer's who attended and supported the BASS TALK 2007 seminar sessions! Thanks to all who entered our contest, I trust that Ann and David enjoyed themselves at the Humminbird Bass Talk held at Fishing World in Hamilton. It was nice to meet you if ever so briefly. In the end we raised a total of $6790.00 that will divided amongst Dave Mercer's "Casting For a Cure!" campaign for the Canadian Cancer Society and the Big Brothers/Big Sisters "Take A Kid Fishing" Event being held June 23rd in the beautiful town of Orillia. Thank you to Doug Brownridge(The founder of Bass Talk), Melanie Frost(Bass Talk's Event Coordinator), Harrison Sillen(Bass Talk's IT & AV Guru), Chris Tieber(Bass Talk Roadie), the emcees, all the lecturers, the hosts, sponsors and attendees. It was a great year, we look forward to an even bigger and better year in 2008. In order to make things even better we would appreciate any feedback/suggestions that anyone in the OFC community might have. E.G. Would there be interest in a "Walleye Talk" or a multi-species session? Thanks in advance for your input! Dave Chong

Humminbird actually has a few units that offer this technology. The most economical being the 797c2 SI at about $1200 yes, it is not cheap and yes, it is just a tool but what a tool! SET HARD! SET OFTEN! Dave

Today's Side Imaging from Humminbird is totally different from previous Side Finder units! Please check out these images that were taken by Derek Strub!

Humminbird has come a long way from the early days. I've personally used a Side Imaging Humminbird since 2005 and it is a fantastic tool! It cuts down the amount of time looking for insolated cover, it works in shallow and deep water. The imaging is unbelievable I'll see if I can get a image of a wreck on Lake Erie from Derek Strub to post. But like everything else it is only a tool much like your sonar, you still have to catch the fish! Dave

Another issue with NiMH rechargeables is that they don't hold their charge as well as lithium-ion batteries! Keep your batteries on your charger until just before you use them! If you charge them and take them off the charger they start draining. Lithium batteries are the longest lasting of the non-rechargeable battery types. Good luck! Dave

Great independent bass club! Super bunch of guys! I'll be there speaking on Mon. April 16th, I'm sure that the boys wouldn't mind you dropping in to check it out! Regards, Dave

OLYMPUS FE210, 7.1 MP 3X Optical 2.5"LCD AA Batteries! Feel free to contact me either thru PM or at [email protected] This is my business and again I will offer all OFNer's the best price out there on any current digital camera! Thanks to all the OFNer's who have recently purchased cameras from me! Thanks, Dave

GO RAPTORS GO!!!!!!

Well written as always, Charles! It was a sad day for tournament fishing up in Canada! I also don't buy into the "Ohh, we're only Canada we can't have what the States have" attitude! I do believe that we can have the potential to have a truly elite series up here in Canada, I do believe that the Super Series proved that! If I'm not mistaken the Co-Angler side was being held at 50 with a waiting list. Maybe we won't have a B.A.S.S. Elite Series or the FLW but we can have much better than we have right now! What we need is the right combination of organizations/sponsors posssibly working in partnership with the pros to grow a bigger better circuit! Just reading some of the posts by OFNer's who have tried or had interest in trying a Pro-Am(Angler/Co-Angler) event tells me there is a market there! Keep the faith, I'm sure that something will happen shortly! Just my humble opinion, Dave

Glad to see that you're enjoying your new camera, Raf! Pigeon Troller & all OFNers out there looking for any type of camera equipment, I've been in this business for almost 30 years I will get you the best price possible. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] The Canon S3IS and Panasonic FZ7 are both great cameras and you couldn't go wrong with either one! The new Olympus SP-550UZ looks pretty awesome with a 18X optical zoom, just ordered one for myself. Regards, Dave

I've been playing with the Daiwa Zillion for a couple months now, feels awesome! Can't wait to burn some spinnerbaits with it! Cheers, Dave

Cisco, great points and that's one of the reason why we work with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization! Many of these kids come from single parent households! And everyone is right, it's not about shoving fishing down every kids throat but it's about providing them an opportunity to at least experience it so that they can decide if it's for them or not! CTFO, great ideas, we're actually working on some projects along that line! It's all a matter of getting government or corporate support! JPD, Kudos on the kids' ice-fishing days! Competitiveness is part of human nature & nature, period! At what level is again an individual choice! We'll have the boat on the water soon! Cheers! Dave

Frank, You know my take on kids & fishing! We have to take every opportunity to take a kid fishing! Especially kids who would normally not have a chance to do so! That's the reason that I organize an event every year on opening day up in Orillia, the Fish Hard! Dream Big!-Big Brothers/Big Sisters "Take A Kid Fishing" Day! We arrange for a group of tournament anglers/TV hosts to take Big & Little matches from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization out for 4 hours of fishing. The kids get to come in and weigh in a fish just like the pros do, it can be a perch, bass, pike, rock bass whatever, we have prizes for all categories! If you could see the smiles on these kids' faces, it's amazing, they love it! We also make sure that we send everyone of them home with their own Daiwa fishing outfir and a whack of tackle so that hopefully they keep going fishing! Extreme Angler TV will be out to film this year's event so watch for it next season! As for the competitive issue, every child is different, not everyone is a Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky or Kevin Van Dam. If a child enjoys the competitive side of the sport then encourage him/her and nuture that interest! If not oh well, the great thing about fishing is that you can enjoy it on whatever level you wish. In a canoe, in a river, on shore, in a tin boat or in a high-powered bass boat, each to their own! We're all anglers, here there's no point in judging others because it's not the way you enjoy fishing! Some on the hottest young anglers on the tournament trail these days started when they were very young, Barry Graves, Laura Bates, Cory Johnston and his youngerr borther Chris just to mention a few! If you're lucky enough to be a pare,nt there is absolutely no better way to spend quality time with your child then fishing! It is the best! We as adults sometimes get too wrapped up in the pressures of everyday life that we forget to stop and catch the odd fish here & there! Fishing and competitive fishing is going to change drastically over the next few years in Canada! We have the Bass Pro Shops in Vaughan, there is a Cabela's opening in Montreal we now have the WOW factor! WFN is going to provide a lot more media coverage, it is a exciting time to be an angler, competitive or not! The best thing that we can do is support each other as fellow anglers! We'll see you on the water soon! Dave

Nice Trip! The Cabela's in Dundee is great been there a few times! Good choice on that 997c SI unit! You'll love the side imaging! Cheers, Dave

Spiderwire Stealth on my baitcasters & Fireline on my spinning outfits! Looking forward to trying the new Spiderwire Ultracast, apparently it is virtually impossible to get a wind knot with it! Cheers, Dave

Granted, sometimes it's the luck of the draw! Competing against and knowing most of the guys on CFT Super Series tour, I can tell you that there are not many slouches! The competition gets tougher everyday and I think that your chances of not learning anything is somewhere between slim & none! Somedays, you might learn what not to do as much as what to do! We look forward to seeing anyone who has any interest in competitive fishing on the tour this summer! Cheers, Dave

I have one of each combo and can't describe to you how incredible they feel! They feel so good that you almost don't want to get used to handling equipment that fine! The baitcasting outfit weighs 9oz., yes that's both the rod & the reel! I can't wait to throw a jig all day long with this combo my elbow going to be thanking me big time! Cheers, Dave

Steez is a (new to North America) Daiwa rod & reel line-up! Un-believable equipment but not for the light in the budget crowd. The baitcaster has a magnesium body & weighs in at an incredible 5.5 ozs. No problem casting with these all day! Check them out on the Daiwa site! http://www.daiwa.com/ Cheers, Dave

Hi Minnow, Daiwa are available thru BPS & Cabela's down in the States but I find with most reels that you are better off buying up here! They are available at BPS-Vaughan, LeBaron's, JB's Fishing Depot, Rock'n Reel etc. No one can argue with Shimano's service, it is definitely top-notch. Daiwa is working on it's repair issues hopefully there will be an annoucement soon! Cheers, Dave

The Stradic & Energy are both good reels. I've own & used them all at some point! Daiwa as far as I'm concerned makes the best spinning reels. Do yourself a favour and have a look at the new Daiwa Tierra! They sell for around $129.99 mark phenomenal reel! Unbelievable for the $$$ Eight bearings including CRBB's, Digigear design, Air Bail, Sealed water-proof drag system & Twist-Buster line twist reduction. It also includes a spare aluminum spool! BTW, nobody makes a better drag system than Daiwa! My 2 cents, Dave

This was on the way to blast-off at a Everstart event on Vermillion Lake in Minnesota!