CLofchik

I just glossed over the rant post, think I missed the "horse" bit. Immoral, shame, lies.... I'm assuming Mykester is pissed at Ontario's Atlantic Salmon program but I can't be sure?

The brownies and rainbows start hitting in the harbour right after ice out. Right now guys are hitting chinooks and browns from Grimsby to Port Weller, 10-30fow, planer boards & long lines, hot bite has been on red & orange stickbaits. Find coloured water, find the fishies. There's a secret brownie bite from the Skyway along the Burlington waterfront, shhhh don't tell anyone

Tax shelter. Somebody probably wanted to create a "Deerhurst North", because of Canuckistan's convoluted tax system if somebody uses that as a primary residence for a year before turning it into a commercial enterprise they basically pay no property tax, along with a pile of incentive programs and dodging development fees. The logic of creating what appears to be a high end exclusive golf resort on Temiskaming and it's aesthetics are another story.

How did that new Frabill hold up? Like the Hideaway, neat no clutter but I wasn't sure how it would hold up with bigger fish.

Refill indefinitely. They're popular with the uber lightweight backpacking & canoeing crowd. Instead of straight up fibreglass which might have some knarly binders in it, muffler packing works. They don't work that great in the cold.

Blackenend Cajun Grand R. kitties, done in a cast iron pan on the grill...... Pan fried works the best for me, my low cholesterol, arteries full of plaque, can't have fat bro-in-law tried grilling them straight on the bbq once and that didn't work out too well. It takes a bit of practice to get the skinning right, but fish under 10lbs are tasty enough it's worth it. Have tried smoked yet, mmmmmm

Sunfish (bass) are nothing but forage for real fish.

PP, and Spectra braids in general, main (only?) weakness is they are very prone to abrasion compared to mono or flouro. One nick and you loose half your strength. Essentially they are a cable, and once you cut one strand it starts to unwind rather quick. Anytime I'm drifting or bumping bottom I use a long tippet of mono or flouro and don't have any problems except getting my knot small enough to slip through the guides (Albright's Knot).

As noted Brava is/was brewed at Lakeport, which at one point was Ontario's largest independent brewer once Sleeman was bought out. I wonder if they're going to do the closeout sale (again). Case of Steeler for $18, 8 case maximum There's been alot of somewhat decent domestics started there, then ofcourse moved. It was the line of Dave's Hard Lemonade coolers that pushed Lakeport above 10% market share for a few years. Sin taxes suck.

Fixt

Dang, I fished the ones around Parry Sound for an afternoon but I didn't know they already had pens in the North Channel. There has to be a little bit of everything in on that smorgasbord!

Hee hee, I grew up in Ancaster and when we first moved in I saw my first portable classroom... "Look Dad, there's a trailer park in the school!" "There's no trailer parks in Ancaster son" "Well where do all the poor people live then?" "Dundas"........ It's actually turned into a nice little part of town, though I almost miss the days of the country & western dive bars and somebody trying to burn down the hotel every other week

Sorry, my Ojibway is a little rusty.

Jeez, I didn't think Dundas was THAT bad. Wasn't Solo originally from there too? Apart from chemical spills every few years is it that bad that everybody who lives there hates going home? VW & Audi are the two marques I'll never own, just for reliability reasons alone (forgetting inflated prices, questionable build quality, hell even the OIL that is mandatory has a 150% markup). I still know people who keep insisting on driving them, but darned if I know why, latest is a friends GTI that was parked for 3 weeks last summer waiting for an ECU to be flown in from Wolfsburg. If you ask him he'll still tell you his VW is "pretty reliable" with a straight face. I dunno. There were only two vehicles in the last decade that had every component manufactured in N.America, the Toyota Camry & Crown Victoria. So if you want to be a patriotic motorist, get busted for street racing in your Camry and hauled away in the back of a Crown Vic Hybrid Camry's use powertrain components from Asia, but with your mileage they might be worth looking at. The newer ones are huge inside but still get great mileage if you use a light right foot.

I'm guessing there wasn't much going on? Stopped by walking the dogs later in the day and there wasn't a whole lot of anybody left.

Alot of people don't realize that Algonquin was originally setup as a logging preserve, and not a bastion of S.Ont "wilderness". Logging is still the primary revenue stream, with the Park more to protect prime harvesting areas from development than anything to do with wildlife preservation. It's a little pricey for unserviced sites, the trip to the park is reasonable enough and unlike alot of parks in the US the locals outside the park aren't there to gouge travellers to death. See above. Depends on the use, for hiking trails & stocked lake fishing yes. Yes, but if you're not starting a trip on Opeongo distances from desired entrances make it more practical & affordable to rent equip locally than at the park. No, the only occasions I visit Algonquin anymore are only day trips. Lot's of fun biking roads around the park, playing chicken with a moose on a motorcycle will get the blood pumping. Discombobulated, unorganized clusterfrack is the only way I describe the new Ontario Parks company. Whichever politician & appointed swivel servants that received kickbacks to switch to the new "service" should be made to run the Golden Staircase in a loin cloth, in May. Never ever will I ever interior camp in Algonquin again. Atleast not until Ontario appropriates (steals) the remaining Crown Land in S.Ont. Non of the above, groomed marked trails are not what I'd call rugged, I've tripped through Boreal woods so my bug scale might be slightly skewed, if there's more miles of logging roads than portage trails it's hardly untouched wilderness and crowds are thicker at Massassauga. Sure, why not? No. Because any marketing budget will simply mean hugely inflated fee increases, lot's of under the table dealing and a few more $ spent on audit hearings into financial abuse. This is a gov't operation afterall.

Nah, the trick is you put up a "fish on fire" post for a spot you're NOT going to hit the next day. "OMG pike are on fire in Frenchmans Bay"...then go fish the Islands. Won't see a soul

Heh I remember seeing that pic for the first time in 1994 when it took 7 minutes to download off a newsgroup using Gopher running a 2600b/s modem. I think I remember the guy that swore he caught it in Hamilton on the old Zoo board, he also caught a blue cat out of the Grand and thought the pinks running up Grindstone had ulcers from coal tar.

Jeez you guys sure like your baits pretty, but do they catch only pretty fish? (Youse got a purty mouth......) May I present, the FuglySpoon™, the lumpiest, fugliest hunk of bargain brass ever to be flung off the concrete.

The stretch of Lake O shoreline between Dalhousie & Jordan is warming up, longline minnow baits between 20'-40'FOW for browns & the odd salmon. If you have planer boards run those right up shallow. The SCG&F ramp is open.

Do you still hear the screaming of the lambs Clarice.....

Why can't there be "ice bans" the way there are fire bans in the summer? I still can't believe there's still people trying to get out on Erie, and this happens every season. My personal fav are the guys that ask the helicopter to come back in a few hours, they still have bait and just found the school.

Hammy Harbour is open after all the ice grinding action over the last two days (there's more ice in the trees than in the water tonight!) This is the year I'm getting that 36"er...oh yes, I am. Got all my baits doctored up, there's some Esox goin' DOWN!

Have you used many XPS badged baits? I usually steer clear of the knock offs but the last few seasons I've been a big fan of their XPS minnows, best bargain in stickbaits going. Their quality kicks Rapala in the slats, at almost half price. Then again if non-fishing relatives didn't give me gift certificates as presents I probably wouldn't go in there much, Le Baron's has better non-sale pricing and smaller specialty places have better selection on specific items (trout fishing, Angling Outfitter's; trolling gear, Grimsby Tackle or Shortwave; Pete's & Bronte Tackle have a little bit of everything).