crappieperchhunter

Seen the trotters in Kitchener in 74 or 75. Our school, Elora senior Public school got tickets and a bus load of us went. Had known about them since I was little. Everyone knew who they where. It was a great show and I truly think everyone in the building went home happy and feeling they got there monies worth. RIP Meadowlark. You made a lot of people happy.

Fishing wise glad to see 2015 go. Last winter I had foot problems that limited my time on the ice. Then because of the way the trent severn lowered the water this past winter my usual go to spring crappie and gill spots just didn't produce like normal. Then this warm late fall/winter has produced no ice for me to fish on in December. That has never happened before. But my son did finally get promoted to a job he deserved and is excelling at, and has finally found a soulmate to share it with who Debbe and I both adore. Heading into our countdown years for retirement Debbe and I still have jobs we enjoy and people we enjoy working with. And my daughter's family with our 2 grandkids love to spend time with grandma and grandpa as much as anyone else. So fishing wise I would rate 2015 a 6 out of 10...but the stuff that really matters I would rate a solid 9. So for 2016 a better fishing year would be great...but really I could care less. The stuff that makes me the happiest seems to be rolling along just fine.

AWESOME I may be on #10 heading up to Caygeon. Between Cavan and Caygeon lotsa hills to slalom Be able to give it a real test.

Came out yesterday morning to a flat tire so decided while it was getting repaired I'd finally throw a set of snows on. Never owned/driven with them before so this winter I will finally be able to see if I will continue with them or switch back to all seasons. Many descussions on here have helped me make up my mind to give it a go and helped with my decision on what to get so a belated thx to all who have helped out with this. With my usual luck this will of course mean we will pretty much be snowless this winter...just thought I'd throw this on here so everyone waiting for snow would know who to blame

My folks cottage on Larry's Lake on the upper Bruce was off the grid....didn't even have water. Grew up with it...loved it and miss it. Propane lights, fridge and heater and stove plus a wood burning stove to help warm it up fast in the winter. Got water from the lake with a bucket for dishes and showers, brought our own for drinking. Had a shower curtain rigged up at the back porch door. Climbed a ladder to mostly fill a 5 gallon bucket with water then topped up with a big kettle of boiling water from the stove. It would do for 2 seperate quickie showers or one nice long shower. Styrofoam under your feet to stand on if it was winter out. During summer we did 90% of our evening meals on a grate over a fire in a nice bricked pit my dad made. Really miss the flavour of cooking over a fire and the timing involved to get it just right with everything ready at the same time. Propane was off when we where not there, so when you showed up it would take a solid day in the summer for the fridge to really cool down before it kept things cold enough. So we had a huge plastic tub that was filled with water and frozen in the big freezer at home. It would last almost a whole week in the fridge at the cottage so if we went up for only a weekend we never turned the propane on for the fridge at all, just threw the big tub of ice in the bottom. It was a lot nicer then digging your stuff out of a packed cooler all the time. With todays technology and more options like solar and the use of generators if I had a small place and it was a viable option I would be off grid for sure.

Always wanted to check out the Lindsay drive in when we are up in Bobcaygeon for a week....just never made it. The last drive in I went to was in Oshawa and it's been gone for years. There's a Sail and Walmart there now

It really is worth a stop if your interested in seeing old Movie stuff and anything period wise Lew. You don't even have to see a movie. You can pay less for the museum rate and just wander around the halls and check all the old stuff out. He really has put an effort into making it interesting.

We get better coverage through our TD Gold Visa and it's free. And it has been a life saver a few times over the years. Have locked my keys in the car twice. Phone the number and keep fishing until the dude shows up to unlock it for you. Have had my old VW Golf have the diesel gel up on my twice so the car wouldn't run when I returned to it from a day out on the ice fishing. Phone the dude and get a tow back to civilization. Blew a rad hose once...phone the dude. Debbe drives to Sudbury a few times a year without me to visit family. Having that little card with the dudes phone number on it is pretty cheap/free peace of mind.

X2. Make it a point of trying to catch a movie there every summer just for the experience of going through the place. When Debbe's mom passed away we found some cool older stuff that she had saved...magazines newspapers and the like. Gave a few things to Keith for his show cases in the halls. He was very happy and gave us some free passes for that summer. Not a movie goer at all but I make an exception for Keith's Highland Cinemas in Kinmount. If you are a movie buff at all or appreciate any collection of older things this is worth a visit. Pretty much the whole theatre..5 actual theatres... are furnished with seating and decor from old torn down movie houses. The halls between the theatres are lined with old projection equipment and movie posters, many with little descriptions of the age of the stuff and where it came from. Show cases of magazines books and anything popular from bygone years. Love the place.

That has been my experience with the few things I have purchased. Something would really have to change for me to even look at anything made by them.

The credit card I mentioned has no fee. And we pay it off every month. On top of that as I mentioned it earns me $250+ a year in free groceries. So essentially it is the same as your banking card you use to purchase your gas at Costco, except I earn free stuff when I use it. I don't see any down side to this at all.

We have a PC Financial World Elite MasterCard purchased for the sole purpose of getting cash back from grocery purchases. We do 99.9% of our grocery shopping at there stores be it Loblaws, Canadian Superstore's or No Frills. We where getting about $250 a year to use towards "free" groceries. This past year they changed a number of things on the card and you get weekly customer only deals online that you load on your card at home. Just yesterday we got over 7000 points which is $7 on our No frills $104 grocery bill. So if you load your weekly deals and keep an eye on things you can get a good return like ours that was basically 7% yesterday. It's looking like we will get closer to $400 this year on our card which translates to about 3-4 weeks worth of free groceries. The card also gives points for all purchases made with it but I can't tell you what it is because we only use it to buy groceries with.

In both our "worlds" 2nd hand smoke is a very real health concern.

Really. I'll have to have a look here tonight when I get off work at Midnite. Never tried crawlers through the ice. Might give it a shot this year if I can pick some worms. Thx for posting that.

So your trying to say no one had outdoor patios before 6 years ago and that they where only built for smokers? Didn't know that

Being a none smoker I agree with this 100%. My old man had a 3 pack a day habit. Spent lots of time sitting in a small boat with him or having a BBQ in the back yard with him puffing away right beside everybody. Any law that gives the public a break from second hand smoke I support 100%...and I'm pretty sure the majority of the population feels the same way.

Most aren't making enough $$$ to keep them afloat. Changing times Brian. Nothing more nothing less.

I am a 4 season angler Brian....still itching for hardwater though.

Just went and dumped wood ashes from the woodstove on my veggie garden. It is so warm and dry I almost fired up my tiller to work them in. Never had a chance to do that in December before. While out there I noticed yellow dandelions in my yard and my clematis vines are budding which probably isn't a good thing for them. I'm getting real itchy for some ice fishing but I'm not minding no snow to shovel.

Don't know how you guys with real water problems deal with it. I got my foundation cracked this summer when my neighbour installed a pool in his backyard. Just afterward when we got a good downpour I would have water running down the wall at the crack. Thankfully my basement is unfinished so the water just ran down the wall and across my basement floor to the drain. Spent $100 and injected the crack from the inside and the water coming in has stopped. We will see how well it holds up before I have to do it right from the outside. But that feeling of dread every time the clouds open up...like I said I don't know how you live with that. My brother has sumps that run pretty much all the time. They have failed twice in 20 plus years on him. 2 times in 20 years is pretty good odds if you ask me but the grief he has had to go through both times it has happened...well I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Like others have mentioned I'd be selling and running away. I would go mad if I didn't.

Dec 31 2016. I'm good for another year....but thx for the heads up.

It's not an age thing Lew. He died at 48 so he was 4 years younger then myself and I never heard of him before yesterday. Just goes to show how much music there is out there and how we all can find something we like and get comfortable with it and not really give anything else a good listen. Regardless, sorry to hear the news. 48 is way to early.

X2. My must visit thread when I get home from work at midnight. A photo of the group hugs when you all kiss and make up would probably make me cry.

Heavy handed....absolutely. Did it get the point of the law across? Don't know...but I'm willing to bet for this one individual it did. Leave the darn thing alone when you are behind the wheel. Really how hard can that be?

I started fishing the bog through the ice in the 80's. Back then if you where in an area holding walleye and you had half a clue you could get your limit pretty much every trip out. And all you had to fish was 30-40 minutes as the sun was going down in the evening. It was that good. 10 plus fish at dusk was pretty common. Some of my best fishing memories are from the evening walleye bites through the ice out from Goreski's. By my observations, 4 things have changed drastically since then. First thing was way more people started coming out. Within a 3-5 year span I would say winter fishing pressure doubled...at least. I blame this on 2 things. The internet and the invention of portable huts. Second thing crappie started to show up. I have read several things published about how crappie are a very heavy predator on walleye fry. Take from that what you will. But when word got out that the Bog was producing some awesome crappie catches that also increased the fishing pressure again .....a whole bunch. And many of these new arrivals targeting crappie where not really fishermen at all IMHO...just meat hunters...plain and simple. Third thing I noticed was weeds. Way way more weeds. Some areas I fished became unfishable. You could cut 8-10 holes before you found an open area where your bait could actually get to the bottom instead of being hung up in weeds. Fourth thing I noticed and this happened pretty much at the same time as the increased weed growth was a huge increase in dink perch. They became a big nuisance. I would suspect the huge number of perch has to have an impact on the walleye in terms of competition and predation. These are my observation's and I believe these things all combined are a big part of the problem. Others have talked about loss of spawning habitat and poor recruitment. Not being a biologist I can't form an opinion about these issues. But I have seen how much Trent Severn has messed up the spring water level fluctuations so I'm sure there is very good and justified reasons for concern. Through all this the walleye have suffered to the point that the decision was made to close the winter season. A decision I agree with and support. A decision that should have been made 20 years ago IMHO. Is it too little to late? I think so...but boy do I hope I'm wrong.