bigbuck

What a journey!! It certainly makes you thankful for having good health and the importance of it. Jen, you are a remarkable young lady and I wish you all the best in your life.

My condolences. My heart goes out to you and your family.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your little bud.

Nice boat!! Enjoy it and I hope it's all stinky next summer with lots of fish slime.

GBay, all the way. You can catch pike, walleye, bass, crappie, perch, etc... etc.... etc.... It's a good multi species fishery. I'm sure you can set her up in Penetang Bay somewhere.

Jeez, now I'm really thinking about doing my PAL/Hunter's safety course now. I'm hoping to go for Moose or Elk next year if I can get the courses out of the way and get halfway comfortable with my rifle again (I haven't done any real shooting in over 10 years, I used to shoot sub MOA at 200 yds with my .300WinMag). Nice Moose, pike and walleye. Isn't the far north nice???

Have her go out and get a couple of written estimates. Then she can have whomever she was the most comfortable with fix it. I've heard service advisors telling women that they needed a new flux capacitor and that it was a very expensive piece of safety equipment that their vehicle could not do without. I know a few guys that are Service Advisor's and whenever someone comes along that does not have a clue about cars, they see $$$$$$.

Enjoy down there Lew!! I hope you nail a couple of nice fatties.

Rock auto will have them to you usually within a week, I had some parts in 2 days and some took 5-6 days. I can live with the wait since I'm saving large. If it can wait, definitely go with them. Remember, this is coming from someone who has a good friend with a shop and pays HIS price for parts, not marked up for the end user. I ordered an ignition coil pack for my car a couple of years ago that was $465 here (shop price), Rockauto had it to my door for $270. Guess where I got it from??

RockAuto.com all the way. When you check out, all taxes, duties and the like are included.I've bought parts from them with great savings and success.

The public launch is at the bottom of town by The Dock Lunch. I'm not sure if the town charges anything at all. To get a map of the area, go to one of the local marinas, they will have it in stock. If you stay between the markers, you'll be fine. I'm not too sure of what's on either side though.

Great report!! Beautiful colours on those 'skis!! You guys are brave, that's for sure. Too bad about your boat trailer. Hopefully you get it repaired fairly cheaply and easily.

Great report!! I hope to take my girls out on fishing trips when they are all grown up too. Looks like the 3 of you had fun and it helps that the weather cooperated.

I know you've heard it but I'll say it again, save up and buy a good reel, generally, you will need to spend $125 and up for a nice reel being blown out to make room for the new versions. If you get an inexpensive reel, you will only frustrate yourself with it having casting issues, drag issues, reeling issues, etc... The internals will be made of plastic and won't be durable. Buy a good reel ONCE, if you buy an inexpensive one, you'll be replacing it soon enough with a good reel. You can't go wrong with Abu Garcia, Quantum, Shimano and the like.

Thanks everyone!! She sure was a nice fish and it's unfortunate that I didn't get a pic but I did measure her (mind you, I didn't pinch the tail). It dispelled the stories I have heard that the big girls of GBAY don't fight too much. I'm really stoked now and am hoping to make it up for one more trip in the next week before I pull the boat out of the water for winterization and storage.

We didn't bail out our banks, our unemployment levels are significantly lower than the US. I would just like to know what exactly they are protesting. I think it's just a bunch of rabble rousers and agents provacateurs stirring up trouble.

I have 2 friends who bought F150's with the EcoBoost engine this summer, both are amazed at the power and the fuel economy.

I'm now a member of the 50 inch club!!!! I went up to check on my mouse traps at the trailer and to get out and do some musky fishing. Left Oakville at 11:00am and it was nice and sunny. By the time I got up to Honey Harbour, it was raining and windy. Checked my traps (caught one nice fat mouse) and grabbed my gear and headed down to the boat and it wasn't at it's normal slip, the wind on Sunday did a number on many a dock in the area, the chains were busted, anchor piles moved, a fair bit of damage. The boys out on the barges sure were busy yesterday repairing docks in the area. Got out do some trolling since casting was out of the question due to the winds and rain. Trolled for a couple of hours with nothing to show for my efforts and pulled into a buddie's place for a hot coffee and a visit, trolled back and had a big hit that felt like a snag, checked the sounder and I was in 25 feet of water, IT'S A FISH!! I put the boat in neutral and started the battle, she peeled some line and I tightened down the drag a bit and she was still pulling drag, IT'S A BIGGUN!!! I fought her for a couple of minutes and got her close to the boat when I noticed a barge coming right at me and I was blocking it's path, so I loosened the drag a bit and moved the boat closer to shore. The barge stopped and watched the fight, I got her up to the boat, got the Stowmaster ready and off she went again, she did that 2 more times before she was ready to be scooped up. While getting the net under her, she thrashed and rolled and spit the hook which was pretty much straightened out now and managed to hook the corner of her eye socket to my horror, thankfully, her eye was ok and the hook was only in the skin. I got a quick measurement of length, 50 INCHES!!! and she was fat and heavy, I figure around 40 pounds or so. Nice and clean with no scars or markings, really pretty fish!! I was going to try to get a pic but my hands were covered in slime and blood and the back deck of my boat looked like an ax murder went down and I was not going to make a mess of my Blackberry which would have took a lousy picture anyway so I slipped her back into the water and she went off like a shot with no revival necessary. The guys in the barge were hooting and hollering when they saw the musky. I figured this spot would produce and have heard stories about it so this was the first time I fished it and it produced for me. It took about an hour or so before the adrenaline rush subsided. GBAY may not be a numbers fishery but it sure is a monster producer.

What exactly are they protesting. There is no clear message. It's just angry people grumping over their hard luck and some professional protesters/agitators there to cause trouble. Don't wallow in self pity, do what immigrant groups did when they came to this country, work 80 hours a week doing low paying jobs to get ahead. It's still possible, just people are too lazy and complacent to bother. Very few Timmies don't have a Help Wanted sign out front. I feel for a lot of people who are down and out but that only lasts for so long, go out and get a job, any job instead of collecting welfare.

Are you factoring in the trailer as well?? I think you are closer to 2000lbs fully loaded. Small pickups will do you fine. Even a small SUV. Also, the extended GM minivans will pull 3500lbs. I get 27-29mpg (us) on the highway with mine using a light foot.

Sorry to hear about your little buddy. It's very difficult to lose a family member. Take care.

It came down hard last night here in Jokeville. I can't get into the backyard to clean out and dig up the veggie garden, waaaay too mucky.

Drop some Stabil in it and it'll be fine for next year. If you want to use it, 5L at a time in the car will be fine, the oil would become so diluted it won't harm a thing.

Good to see you made it safe and sound!!! The water on GBAY was gorgeous this weekend. We managed a little cruise on Friday afternoon and it was great. 150 gallons of gas, not too bad considering the distance you travelled and the speed you went. Must have been purrty nice out there.