Danubian

Indeed I have my lucky hats and my not so lucky hats - which I decided to wear anywhere but fishing. The funniest thing is with these 2 identical hats - I bought one, then on a trip I forgot it at home so I stopped to the first store and I bought another one, identical. Well, the first one always brought me luck, where her sister should spell SKUNKED on top. I ended up placing them in separate corners of the house.

In my neck of the woods: - never wish "good luck" to someone that's getting to go fishing, unless you want to hear some profanity in response. - if you stepped in crap by accident, that would soon bring luck to you, in general. - if a cat -particularly a black cat- crosses your path, better turn around, because that is omen. Or, for the brave, step back 3 times, spit 3 times over your shoulder and hope that you'll get well through the day. - one from the very past: if you cross path with someone carrying an empty bucket -from the water well, I guess- that would mean a dry spell on you. If instead, the person carries a bucket full, that's a sign of good luck and you should toss a coin in the bucket. I wonder how many other cultures have simillar if not same superstitions.

Thank you every one for your kind replies! Here are some more pictures, this time without the flash. Two little ones: I found intriguing how the pattern on the Panther Martin looks so much alike the trout's pattern - and that's the one that produced most hits. Cannibalism? Quite possible. And a snaping turtle - looks like a creature from another world:

Hello everyone! I just spent 2 of my most glorious hours of the season: trouting the Credit. The weather was perfect - a bit of a chill, and felt brutal for "wet wading" - and the water swarming with fish. Little trout, mostly... I guess they are little steelhead, but I'm not sure. (Wonder where their older brothers might be.) [Drumroll...] Two or three skinny dudes like this one, in the first 10 minutes: Then three to four missed hits, and then nothing. Time to move on and admire the scenery... Changed the spot, but some guys were fishing in my favorite, so I kept on going, back and forth. Tried some "wet wading" - COLD! - but worth a tiny dude: Moved again. Meanwhile the guys I met before have left, so let's give it a try. Wham! Lots of hits - pretty much 3 to 1 - lots of pictures, but kind of out of focus, and most of them dudes quite tiny. One in beter focus: (The poor dude was bleeding a bit, altgough it was just the lip pierced.) This one is the largest, about 100 times smaller than my carp, but such a "prrrecious": A little trail walk and a bath of fragrance: All the fish were released quickly to [relative] safety. I was a little concerned about the one bleeding, but he took off quite fast once released. (Others were playing dead for a minute or so.) I lost the count at some moment, but I think I landed about a dozen, lost and equal amount, and got about 30 or 40 hits. BTW: Does anyone know what are the wild flowers from my pictures? The yellow ones look like some sort of trillium's cousin, but don't have any idea about the purple ones. They smell like violets, but they're much taller. The pictures are a bit unfocused and for the close-ups I shouldn't have set the flash, but I wasn't sure if the light was enough. Still learning... Danubian

When I was single, I was fishing whenever I felt like going fishing. Not too often, not too much, but I was going. Then, when I met her, we were fishing together, almost weekly, and she seemed quite enthusiastic about, except for removing the fish from hook or cleaning it. It was great times and she always caught the largest one. I tought it as a good sign. I still remeber how happy she was when I bought her own fishing rod and spinner, on her BDay. Marriage came along, and all of a sudden fishing became a big "no-no!": too much money, too much time wasted, why don't you learn instead to install hardwood flooring or renovate the master bathroom? (I'm a freaking computer dude, bunny. The fact that you saw me once planting a tree, or fixing the fence doesn't make me Mr Handy Man, 'mkay?) Today, I fish an average of 5 times a week; that says all about my marriage, I guess ... Little piece of advice - when the better half tries to rob this little hapiness from you, be reasonable and tell her that a vice always gets replaced by another: you're ready to give up fishing for say...humm... gambling?... or womanizing? If she's smart, she'll buy you a new set of lures. Fishing lures.

I just filet it, and there weren't that many bones. It tasted not that great. Indeed the smaller ones taste better (1lb..6lb); I ate them before. Anyway, the fight was much higher enjoyed than the taste. Line: I think it was a 10lb or 12lb line -the gear wasn't mine, my buddy's- and the fish put up a lot of fight, with splashes and all. Once hooked, they usually head in for cover - like dive in, or get in grassy areas - but for this one it wasn't any close by grassy patch, the water was shallow, so basically it was: give'm line, reel it back in, give'm line, reel it back, again and again until I managed to bring it close to shore where my buddy netted him. My only concern was to not get spooled, particularly that I didn't know exactly how much line I started with. On a brute force confrontation, even with a stronger line, such a "beast" may win up breaking your rod or snapping the line.

Hello Everyone! This morning I went with my carping buddy North of Toronto, not very far away... Got a couple of little ones - 1-2 lbs - but first was a large one, 10 lbs+, which almost pulled my rod in the river - tight drag reasons . Without my buddy's help, I wouldn't have managed to land the "monster" so it'll be him posing for the kudos. Later on the heat set in, and very little action whatsoever, so before 10:30 am we were back. This time I'll try to eat my catch. Have good weekend, everyone! Danubian

Thanks Jen and thank you all! With a decent zoom lens, I would have posted the pair of loonies - can I call that a toonie? - that surfaced about 20 meters from my fishing spot. I snapped a picture, but they rather look like a ripple on the water. However, I enjoyed their mating ballet; I hope that's not tagging me a perv ...

Hello everyone! Just came back from a wonderful long weekend, although I managed to get skunked for three solid days. I traveled with a bunch of friends and fished from the shore along hwy 60 on Lake of Two Rivers, and later on tried several spots on Oxtongue River, while they were doing trails, but no luck. I was somewhat tied on my friends, because I didn't drive my car, so I had to stay within walkie-talkie reach, more or less. Got some nice pictures, though... Here are some, for you to enjoy

It's like a profile of an old man, Terry. (Actually, the original has the right contrasts, but when I uploaded, it's either the browser or somthing else that flattened the contrasts.) You can see the nose - to the right of the rock - and the scorched and wrinkled cheecks. The eyelid is kind of heavy and swollen. Anyway, I'll better trace it... Here...

At The Rouge... 20 pound "monster".

The Wise Old Chief. BTW: Why all my pics are always reduced? Is there a setting I should change?

Thanks for all your nice words! As for Keswick, that's a shame of what we hear or see there. Indeed, a whole platoon of COs wouldn't be enough to straighten things up. (So if any CO is reading this, then here's a tip to top-up your quotas... :-) ) I've been there a couple of times in the past years and always left with a bitter aftertaste. Most usually it was related to the "white bucket squad", but is not the size of the squad, or the bucket, it's about the lack of respect for rules and for the nature and her gifts. :-(

Hello everyone! How wonderful this weekend was... I hope everyone had lots of fun. Saturday I went near Brechin and fished from the pier in the Marina. Lots of perch, although most of them small size, but constant action through the day. On average, 1 in 5 was a keeper, and ended by keeping about 20 of them, 3 jumbos. Early in the afternoon a crew of one OPP and one CO paid a visit and checked thoroughly everyone that had a line in the water. Nice guys though, and it was good to see our tax money at work. Danubian

So that's the mystery of the floating coconuts in the Credit... I kind of thought of that, and once I've even seen people doing some "sort of ritual" laundry in the river - I mean, not cleaning their underwear, but laundering some sort of a veil. Dude, tell you what's the moral dillema: if they were ritually discarding ashes of the departed into the Credit, then they must know that sometimes I urinated - more or less ritually - into the same river. (And I can bet I'm not the only one...) How would they take that, metaphysically speaking? How would a particle of them ashes cleanse when surrounded with my pee? I mean, no disrespect, but just a fact of life... On the other hand, ashes -human or not- is a good fertilizer and unless we speak of mass cremation, a bowl tossed here and there wouldn't have a serious impact. I'd be more concerned of people tossing bicycle frames, worn-out tires and shopping carts, than of ontarian Hindus. My 2 cents...