crappieperchhunter

Simon my neighbour smokes salmon on a regular smoker and I think it turns out better then the cold smoked stuff you buy. It is that good. The texture is not the same as cold smoking but the flavours are fantastic. He starts brining his salmon at midnight and starts the smoker in the morning....then calls us over at around 9 for breakfast. And he never has to call twice If your serious excellent results can be achieved with a regular smoker. Also if you enjoy the salmon and bagels lots of places sell the smoked salmon frozen. We get ours at Costco and it is packaged 10 portions in a box for $19 I believe. Each portion 75g...will do 3 bagels. Just throw a frozen package in the fridge before you go to bed and your good to go the next morning.

Thx Mr Topwater. Maybe it's the morning caffeine rush...but I found that hilarious.

I'll bring the caper's, cream cheese and good jewish bagels Cliff. When you want us to show up? Have fun with your new toy. Our Caygeon neighbour has smoking down to a fine art and is thinking of getting a cold smoker as well. If he does and he master's it like he has his other smoker I will try and get some tips to help you out.

Good point. But I'm not really sure how you go about mentally preparing for something like retirement. I do however have my folks to look at as examples of how to handle it. My father does nothing. A weekly hi light is grocery shopping. My mom gets out with other seniors all the time for cards or whatever. Volunteers at the hospital. Drives her senior friends around who no longer have a license. If you phone there house my dad answers the phone 99.9% of the time because my mom is off doing something. From watching there retirement unfold I have a pretty good idea what I want to do and not do. But how that is going to unfold in our own retirement reality....I really don't think you can prepare ahead of time for that. It kinda unfolds on it's own and you either have a lemons or lemonade retirement.

That depends. Our house, although not huge , is way more then we need since the kids moved out. Our cottage is under 700 square feet with no basement. We are seriously considering retiring to our little place. We love it. Easy to clean/maintain...cheaper too. Taxes alone are $2900 a year less then our home. It just needs a garage for some extra storage room. We wanna give it a try living there for one whole winter before we make a decision.

Thx for sharing Joey....loved them all.

The OP was asking this question with regards to people being close to retirement. I'm 44 months out so I guess I qualify. I have a question of my own to throw out there as well. Recently my wife the banker has been asked when we plan to retire. Her birthday is in May and mind is July. So we where looking at retiring Aug 1st. She has been advised to retire at the start of a year. The reason being you will have less income to claim and can potentially save thousands in taxes. Haven't looked into this yet to see if it will really make any kind of a difference. Being the cheap so and so I am I got no problem retiring Jan 1st instead of Aug 1st if it means more $$$$ left in my pocket. Anybody out there know more about this?

I agree with Tomcat. Pay yourself 1st, get rid of debt ASAP and TFSA's are your friend. I also agree with Old Ironmaker. Real Estate has worked for us. Having tenants is not for everyone....but it sure is nice having someone else pay your mortgage off for you. Our son has jumped into that pool now as well. Got a place 3 years ago when he was 22 and has 3 tenants. The first 2 years he was working part time and going to school full time...I really don't know how he managed all that on his own. His entire mortgage is covered by his tenants. Now he's full time and making a decent wage so he is really paying down his mortgage fast. Made a lot of sacrifices...how many 25 year old's still don't have there first car...but have a house? Very proud of him.

I have a local guy in Bobcaygeon who I get all my fin-s fish,shads and jigheads from during the summer. I stop in on the weekend when I'm up at the cottage and order from him what I want, then he orders it from his supplier and 9 times out of 10 it is waiting for me the next weekend when I 'm up there again. I used to order direct from Lunker City, great company to deal with...no problems at all...but I get it much cheaper from Mark's in Caygeon. Check out your local shops. Maybe they can/would do the same for you.

Congratulations Now get out there and enjoy it

Priceless Wayne. Have the camera ready and share that kodak moment with us all when she opens her gift

You're not stealing my top secret 4 ply self wiping toilet paper idea are you Brian?

Exactly what I was thinking...

LOL Terry. I was counting on someone making a post referencing a $2 increase.

Have been on the water twice when I wasn't sure if I was going to get back to shore. You are absolutely correct...it is zero fun.

Nice shot Brian. Totally unrelated but the frog in the ice reminded me of a rare thing I saw a few years back chasing chrome in March. A huge snapping turtle crawled out of Oshawa creek and plucked down on a big chunk of blown out ice right beside my buddy and I. It was a bright sunny day so I figure it was just trying to get out of the freezing cold water and warm up. Epic fail however running out of gas on a block of ice

Only 12 inches from the skis to the bottom of the tub...wow...in the pictures it looks like a lot more Brian. After getting a better height perspective I really don't think you will have a problem. Give it a workout this winter and tweak whatever your not happy with. Regardless thx for sharing your build with us all. I really enjoy these Macgyver posts

I really like your tying on of the pull ropes Brian...I might steal that idea Your construction looks sound...I wish I had the same stuff handy to myself. Obviously I don't know how heavy it is just by looking at the pictures....but the pictures leave me with the feeling that you might have some problems with it tipping over on a windy day. Give us all another report after it gets out on the lake!

Almost certain they would be 78's Joey.

Bruce,my folks loved Duane Eddy. So much so my brother's first and middle names are Duane Edward. I don't remember any of the music but I do remember seeing Duane Eddy, Ventures & Telstar album covers. Wonder if they still have any of the old vinyl kicking around?

Just a new toy to play with. I'm under no illusion that I will actually catch more perch. I'm hoping the bigger reel will also eliminate some of the icing up problems I get with some of my small ice fishing reels. On a side note a reel failed on me at the cottage this spring so I went to Lindsay and bought the cheapest Lew's spinning reel they had to get me through my weeks vacation up there. It has become a new favourite. I'm looking forward to how it performs in the cold. Very impressed with it so far. My next reel purchase will probably be another Lew's spinning reel, but I'll upgrade to one of there more expensive models.

Thx Wayne..last two seasons checking out inlines in the oshawa area I have not seen any lefties. Maybe they have the black betty this year...don't really need anything so I haven't been in a local tackle store for quite awhile.

I have always had a swivel about 16 inches up my line. A jigging rap dropped down to 25 feet will spin for maybe 10 seconds tops before it settles down the way I rig. Never had any problems but I don't fish deep either. For perch/bluegills I actually think the swivel is an added attractant. Fishing shallow and looking down the hole I couldn't tell you the number of times I will have 3 or 4 bigger perch all eyeballing and even hitting my swivel, especially on those tough days when they are not aggressive. I would still like to give the inlines a try though...but I have not seen any in my area that are made for lefties?

No I don't Beansie. Most times they never have anything I'm interested in anyway. A few years back my daughter got me into doing Sudoku puzzles, so now if I have anything that involves sitting around I grab a Sudoku book and bring it along.

Our family doctor is someone I really trust. She has been very good with everything Debbe and I have had to deal with for ourselves and our kids when they where still at home. She is not a "pill pusher" at all. When I developed my type 2 diabetes she recommended I start getting a flue shot. She never bothered me with it before that. I took her for her word and have been getting it since then. Debbe on the other hand has been getting it for years. Working at the bank and dealing with the public and there dirty money...our doctor talked her into it a long time ago.