CLofchik

Pssst, there's always some trout around. They're not a very bright fish so they get lost alot and forget they're supposed to be in the lake. And egg loops aren't a very strong knot, just useful.

The only time I see carp in moving water is when they're spawning. I don't know the area you're talking about but there has to be some pools or backwaters somewhere, go try there for the carp.

Wow that must be the light, the first fish looks really dark.

Any pike? I never really hit the bass much in the Bay, but always picked up fish missed by others Carolina rigging straight worms or lizards on deep weedlines & edges. There's plenty of deeper water accessible from shore starting at Bayfront and putting the legwork in.

They're on the lower end of the scale, but still hand laid fabric canoes. Retail new is in the $1k range so if it's in good shape that's a fair price.

Dude I live in Hamilton, I can't even let my dog swim in the water let alone eat anything from it.

And then Fishmaster never got anymore in......ah my unrequited love of the Spro turned to blind lust as I found myself driving truckloads across the border like some sort of immigrant smuggler. I still haven't seen a pearl Spro Crank25 for sale in Canada anywhere else.

He asked the MNR the wrong question. There's a differance between "one barbless hook" and "single barbless hook". Single barbless is indeed one single hook with no barb, not a treble. Ofcourse that's not the regulation in the area you were talking about, where "one barbless hook" is required. One barbless hook can be a barbless treble. Yay for common sense laws!

If you're not catching fish in Hamilton Harbour you need to try harder.

Yeah I was talking more about their spinning gear, but Okuma trolling reels are pretty much universally panned. I've had my fill of junk Shimano's for lighter casting gear, pretty sure they just got lucky with how great Tekota's are

What he said. The type of line could also make a differance. Years ago everybody used braided Dacron line, and the type of spool that handled it best had a wide diameter but narrow spool. Then along came monofilament and that type of spool like on a Mitchell 300 twisted mono pretty badly, so the long, narrow spool evolved. Now that braided lines are coming back the need to tame line twist isn't such a priority, so deep, narrow spools are starting to show up again. I've got my order in for one of these, looks like the cat's meow for pier casting.

What colour is the sky in your universe?

It's an Atlantic! Heh The Super Hornet and CF-18 may look similiar but they are essentially two different aircraft, the Super Hornet being much larger and the aircraft that was built as a stop gap measure to replace the F-14. Different shot of the same bird, heh it was in Paris a month ago, ah the life of a fighter pilot Now my favourite Hornet pic, San Fran Fleet Week a few years ago:

Never used their rods but their reels are about on par with Shimano's at half the price, that is if you don't stress them they'll last awhile. A few trolling guys I talk to don't care for the Magda's, apparently they blow up fairly easily, but the Convectors are much much better.

Could just be the time of day too, I've been casting off piers for salmonids and seen schools that were in the hundreds. Would only eat right at daybreak, once it got past 06:00 they wouldn't touch anything. Then there's the days where's there's been a good onshore breeze for a few days, tons of warm murky water. Trout are all gone but you can't keep the bass off baits. I don't know how pressured they are, there's hardly anybody out there fishing during the summer. Clear calm water is just hard to turn neutral fish.

Princess probably deserved it, but buddy looses points for bawling like a baby. I like this one better.

Spro & Kopper's make great baits but their lineups are limited, I'd rank them up there with Lucky Craft.

Shimano now owns & distributes Loomis. Yes, quality has suffered. Go with St.Croix, though for the money Fenwick HMX's are a heck of a rod.

I have yet to see a Reef Runner come out of the package and run true, they ALL need tuning right from the factory. And the hooks are crap. Stupid tough baits though, and they work.....that is once you get them working. Yup, though after Normark initially tried cheaping them out too they received a flurry of bad press and mail and seemed to have gone back to the originals and staying with the status quo. The 1st year batch of bad baits got sold off at bargain prices, these are the ones popping up at Dollarama's and Bass Pro's Spring Sale in the jon boats out front for $1. Hot'N'Tots with plastic lips have the same longevity as Rapala's, that is about one day. Probably made in the same factory as Rapala's now. My list of fav crank names (I've been off Rapala for awhile and too cheap to buy Lucky Crafts): Salmo -- The quality baits Rapala's used to be. I have Hornets that I've ground 1/8" off the lip bumping the bottom for so long and still catch fish Cordell -- Best of the budget baits, use Spots & Redfins more than any other cranks nowadays. Change the hooks. XPS -- Bass Pro did a really good job on these, nice action, the suspending baits actually suspend neutrally, and I've caught chinooks on the 4" minnows with stock hooks. Still early to fall in love with them but they get Rookie Of The Year honours.

CBC did a program on them, interviewed some former door-door scammers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVmnHSLZMGg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axZtZLj33QI...feature=related

Weeeeeeee........... Oh we're not even talking Lucky Craft here: Salmo Bomber Cordell Matzuo Grandma Baits Hell even Bass Pro's XPS line are putting out better cranks than Rapala nowadays. The new made in Vietnam & China and assembled in Estonia plastic Rapala's are JUNK! Not just worse than they used to be, they're JUNK! Just from my own box, I have half a dozen of these XRaps that are useless now, but this one is what really turned me on Rapala. And yes I got the same form letter as the OP. See that chip, that's from a 25" pike, the only fish landed by this lure. A not even 5lb pike flexed their cheap arse plastic so bad it made that large a chip and it cracked on the seam between halves, letting water into the lure and making it unusable. Well, just let it dry out and patch it. See that's what I was going to do, only the weights & rattles inside the lure are made of MILD STEEL. Who the heck puts MILD STEEL in anything designed to be immersed in water? A cheap crap company, that's who. The whole thing is full of rust internally, sticking all the weight in the back which kinda ruins the whole "suspending" deal and it runs in the water like crap. Junk. All that after one fish. Rapala's are now junk selling at an inflated premium price. Then there's the J13 that had the rear hook pull out. Again a new plastic lure, yes even the old standards like the Floating, Jointeds & Husky minnows that used to be made from balsa are now all being made by cheap Asian plastic companies and badged as Rapala's. Junk. Rapala's are now junk, get over it and try a Salmo. Now compare the junk Rapala's (have I used JUNK enough?) to this, the king of longevity in my box(es), the ol' standard hollow BRASS Canadian Wiggler that hasn't changed (thankfully) for eons. Brass? In a lure half the price of a Rapala? Nah, can't be! Landed well over a hundred Kings, faithfully retired with honours after a long service.

It's alewife spawning time, they're like a big shad. They come up to the surface in pairs and do quick circles, about 6" or so long but tiny mouths.

Well seeing as a few guys have kings on the brain, and infected me as well, here's a fun story on late night salmon fishing. Fishing kings years ago the river mouth was having a quiet night. It was one of those Indian Summer evenings where everything was muggy & still, not a whisper of wind and the fish were definitely not on the move. Well over on the other side of the swim one of the marshmallow brigade rears back on the rod "Fish ON!". There's not a whole lot else to do so everybody just watches, there's a bit of weight but it sure ain't running like a salmon, hmmmmm probably a carp. Fight keeps going on for a good five minutes of slow give & take, a carp would've been done by now....dang it sure looks bigger than the fight it's giving, this could be good.....the guys buddy stands by with the net as the line comes in closer & closer. Finally its up on the surface, net man goes in for the scoop......then pauses at the moment of truth. Their mutterings carried all across the rivermouth, piquing everybodys interest even more. Heyyyyy, what is that..... What the hell....... HOLY CRAP IT'S A FUGGN' BEAVER!!!!!! Yup, one of Kraft's finest has become lodged in the armpit of a now very irate beaver. Now there's two very important things about beavers that become very relevant if you've ever had to remove a hook from one: 1) They are larger than you think. 2) They are alot meaner than you think. As these two guys are just standing there staring doesn't this damn beaver charge up like a 40lb. ball of brown fur fury and start chasing these two down a gravel road at a good clip, dragging buddy's rod behind him and screaming a blood curdling beaver war cry, WHEEEEECHEEECHEEECHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. After 50' or so another angler grabs the dragging rod, snaps the line and the Beaver Of Doom then waddles off and quietly slips away with one last tail slap to let everybody know who is the boss of this particular stretch of water.

Rig up a longer, fast action rod with glo spoons & cranks and head down to river mouths & estuaries when the gun metal kings are first coming in. Leave the river boots to guys who can't hack big fish when they're prime..........y'know, pinheads After your first 100 yard run drifting a 10' wide pool just doesn't do it.

No, they USED to make high quality mass produced lures. Now they just produce the same Chinese injected plastic crap as everybody else. Actually the longevity on new Rapala's I've used has been worse than almost every other lure I have. Find an old Rapala box, if they're MADE in Finland or Ireland they're the good, hand assembled tank test lures that Rapala built their reputation on. Find a new plastic Rapala, they're ASSEMBLED in Estonia.....but built by the boxcar somewhere in SE Asia. That little bit of semantics is the differance between garbage & gold. I've got half a dozen XRaps that have holes in them and are junk. No bouncing off rocks, pike have just punched holes in the soft crappy plastic they use, with one it only took ONE 25" pike to ruin a lure. I got the same letter saying "damaged in use". They're junk that is selling for a premium price on their reputation alone. I'm more impressed with Bass Pro's XPS minnows, which have pretty much supplanted Rapala's as my everyday crank baits, hell even the hooks are half decent and don't need to be replaced. Unlike Rapala's. For bouncing off rocks try to find an old Storm metal lipped Hot'N'Tot, great little lure. That is until Normark bought them, replaced the metal lip with plastic and turned it into junk that separates the same way as the OP's DT. Storm received so many irate letters and broken lures they went back to the old moulds & metal lips. So writing in may get Rapala to improve their crap in a few years.