crappieperchhunter

I grew up in Fergus and GSW was one of the places most wanted to work when they got out of school. If you got in there you where "set" for life. Many of my high school buddies got in there in the 80's. Both my grandparents retired from there in the 70's. I know Fergus is not the same small town it was when I left in 82...but I'm sure many will still be effected by this. It saddens me to hear this.

Sounds like we are both getting ready for the softwater season Cliff. I did a big basement clean out Saturday. Then I got some of my fishing stuff ready to go. Gotta go and get some new 4LB line to spool a couple of rods for crappie and perch. I hope to get the yard raked and the boat on the trailer and ready to go this week. Come on spring!!!

Well not knowing Randy whatsover I would have to guess that in the metropolis of Sturgeon Falls your employment opportunities are really not that great. You gotta do what you gotta do.

2 years ago my bank account was cleaned out of over $2400 in a 24 hour period. My debit card had been compromised. The bank 's credit people phoned me early on a Saturday morning to ask about recent card activity. No problem getting it all back. However it took over a month. My wife is a bank employee so they really look into everything before you get your money back. This is more common then I ever would have believed. A co-worker of my wife has had it happen to her 3 times. The chip cards are supposed to slow down or stop this. I will have to ask Debbe if it has helped or not.

For $100 I would not drive around southern Ontario and possibly risk my position at work or with a union. I'd just do my best to avoid the situation being repeated. However I agree with your statement to a point. Every situation has to be treated with your best interest in mind. My dad always says "pick your battles". I agree with that statement more and more as I get older.

For $100? My advice would be let it go...whatever it is...and move on. Life is to short and time is to precious for me to waste it like that. Please take no offense from this Rich, as I mean none.

Great to hear my friend. I'm only a phone call or an email away if you need a hand with the docks....or more importantly if your looking for a fishing partner. Enjoy your extra free time. You earned it.

Beauty day out there for sure Bruce. Glad you got out. Still lots of ice up here. Fished a Kawartha lake today and took 34 cranks with the hand auger to get through. I'm guessing 20 inches of ice still. Trucks and SUV's ...but not mine...still driving out on it. Came home with a sunburn and an assortment of perch, gills and crappie No monsters but enough for 4 bags of fillets for the freezer.

The last Houseboating I did was almost 20 years ago and you couldn't get it for that price way back then. $600 for 4 days in peak season just isn't going to happen.

Trips planned...no. Fishing everyweek...yes. Life is good.

Nice harvest Shayne Thx for the pictures. And thx to all the people on this thread who have shared your syrup experiences. I can only imagine the sense of accomplishment that must come from this labour of love. It must be awesome.

It sounds like a great family activity Shayne. Thx for starting this thread as I have enjoyed it. If you have any pictures to share I'd love to see them !!! Growing up an old farmer down the road tapped trees. We would have a few sips out of his pails on the way home from school I was buddies with his grandson so I even made it out to the sugar shack a few times. He strictly used wood to boil down the sap. Grandpa Watson is long gone and so is that Sugar bush. Right now it's a sub division...with not one of them Maple trees left standing

Nice looking neighbors you have Lew I life in the city and rabbits have always been a problem but they only eat my peas and beans when they are small plants they have never eaten anything else. I just stake up a 2 foot high chicken wire fence around them until the plants are in flower. For some reason once they have grown that much the rabbits will leave them alone.

I saw a walleye maybe 10 years ago at the dam in Gamebridge off Simcoe. Stopped to show my son the walleye below the dam. I have seen 14's on Quinte....all I can say is that it was MUCH MUCH bigger then those fish. I tell everyone I saw a 20LB walleye. Purely speculation but I believe it really was.

Thx for posting Mike. I always enjoy your posts and pictures. Some nice looking fish there. Now take a deep breath, dig in and beat this mother down once and for all. Then get back out on the water and share some more pictures and reports with us

Thanx for sharing that. Being in Oshawa I like to fish over there...just haven't made it yet this winter. I hope your day was a success. Went to Bobcaygeon yesterday and it was overcast here but beautiful and sunny up there...even hit a fairly heavy snowfall on the 115 on the way up before it cleared. Too bad you couldn't have had there sunshine down here for your tournament. Loved the little ladies mittens

I think it looks fantastic Lew. It sure is nice when a home reno turns out well. I bet you are spending a lot of time just looking at it. I know that's what I do when something gets spruced up and makes the place look better. Careful though...cause now it looks like the walls might need a new coat of paint. You know what they say....give a mouse a cookie...

When I did the commute from Oshawa to Mississauga my fav part was looking for deer along the 401. There always seemed to be a concentration of them around Lakeridge road on the north side of the 401. And another spot... Rouge valley I think. It always seemed special seeing them heading into the big city for work. Now I live and work in Oshawa. But I still look for wildlife when I'm heading to work. Tuesday night on my way home from work at Midnite I actually hit a Possum down near the lake. And I see lots of Coyotes and the odd deer too.

Good job Emil. I know it's finally winter when I start seeing your laker/whitie reports

The only HH I go in is the one in Bobcaygeon when we are at the cottage. Small town with a small store so sometimes they just don't have what you want. IMHO the best staff I have ever encountered in a store. Pretty much all of them will go out of there way to help. One fellow in particular seems to be knowledgeable on everything concerning tinkering around with stuff at the cottage. I always hunt him down when I'm in there. Couldn't be happier with my experiences in there.

Now that made me laugh

About 20 years ago we had one outside the place I work here in Oshawa. It sat up on the hydro wires right across the road from us in an open field. It was there everyday in the same general area for about a week. Then it was gone and it never returned. I would sit in the lunch room and face the window just to watch it while I was eating. Beautiful bird. I could not believe how shiny white it actually was...almost seemed florescent. Thx for your post....it brought back those great memories for me. I hope your bird hangs around for awhile so you can enjoy it longer.

So you also torture them before you eat them. Never tried that. I might give it a go this weekend. Does this by any chance make them taste any better

I go out on early ice and have never been rescued either. I take it pretty seriously Shayne and I think you know that. I however think everyone needs one freebie because stuff can happen. I could be out on marginal ice and some idiot could pass between my shore access on a machine and weaken the ice or it could just crack and shift on its own and I could go for a swim when I'm trying to get off. I understand where your frustration comes from with regards to people making really bad decisions. However that's what these services are for. Say your not very handy but you decide to do some home renos. You end up having an accident with a power tool and have to call for help. At the same time some kid dies because they came to help you instead of going there first. Or your a smoker and you fall asleep watching the TV and your butt starts a fire... and while the fire crew is at your place another accident happens somewhere else and someone croaks because there dealing with a fire set by a moron who fell asleep with a lit cigarette. Do you see my point? I just can't see how you can enforce payment for a rescue if some are deemed good rescues and some are deemed bad based on people's poor decisions? I think the only way they could do it fairly would be to make every rescue pay...and that is one big slippery slop. That is why I made the suggestion of one free rescue and then you pay and lose your license. To me a repeat offence demonstrates your unwillingness to take proper safety measures. A first offense might be an honest mistake or a poor decision...but a second offence...clearly you didn't learn anything the first time around. And my suggestion for a license removal is to try and keep this idiot from passing this behavior onto others. You are correct and it might not stop him from going out...but then again it might. I try to respect the law and I know if I had my license taken away I wouldn't be going out again. At the very least maybe the bozo will disregard the law and fish but maybe he will have enough decency to go alone rather then take someone else which would also keep them from passing on bad decision making. It's a complex problem for sure and I'm not in a position to change anything. It's just unfortunate when this stuff happens.

I was out there Dec 29th..all the way to the island. Solid ice and no slush anywhere I walked...except for the triangle crack that always seems to form out from the right tip of the island. Although I admit it was a little thin. I was with a friend who came up from New York. We stayed together and took all the precautions. There was no open water anywhere. It was overcast with little wind that day and it was -4 or -6 for the daytime high and our open holes where freezing over if we left them too long. Also we got there first thing in the morning and there was tracks from people who had been out the day before and a group of 4 was already out in the 22-24 depth of water. The next day the temps warmed up and I have not been on Cooch since. Not sure what point your trying to make Brian.