bigbuck

I'm going to be in for some tix as well. I spent some time talking to Big Jim and he's one heck of a great guy. I sure hope he beats this.

Just remember to take it all with a grain of salt. Always read the message boards to see what everyone is saying about a particular item. Most of the magazines get their equipment for free in exchange for constant plugs. I can't wait to test drive my new Calcutta TE400 spooled with 80lb PP. That was my first E-Bay purchase and it was well worth it, I saved about $150-200 on it depending where you shop. Now I need to save up for a St Croix Legend muskie rod to pair it with. You can't go wrong with a Calcutta, that seems to be the consensus. As for Daiwa, I've heard some bad stories about their service. Abu makes a decent reel but for everyday use, they tend to wear quickly. For a weekend warrior, they are fine. Like Lew says, "Abus are like a Chevy". They work fine but are not fancy. Penn reels are tough to find here and what do you do for service?? St Croix reels are made by Daiwa so they are essentially a Luna that has been changed a bit. As for rods, they are all pretty good, St Croix, Shimano, Thorne Bros (I've heard some great stuff but once again, service......???), Daiwa, Quantum, Fenwick, etc.... I'll stick to what I can buy locally because at least at a local store, you can always exchange or have them send out broken rods/reels for service. Actually, what looks interesting is the Okuma line of muskie rods, they start at under a $100 and look to be quite stout and are very, very light. I'd like to hear what folks have to say about them. Fishing lines are all in the eye of the beholder, there are good ones and even they have the odd bad batch and there are those that just plain suck. Either a good braid (PP or TuflineXP for me) or Trilene XL mono, that's all for me.

Shaun, Please tell me that you had a chance to wet a line, the walleye fishing right now should be fantastic along with the big pike fishing. I don't think the 'eyes have moved out of the secluded bays yet. The Canadian Tire in Kenora for those of you who have not had the opportunity to visit has an incredible sporting goods department. They sell St Croix and top end Shimano including the reels. There is even a halfway decent selection of Muskie baits for those bitten by that bug. The hunting section has a bigger gun selection than Lebaron's (which is very very good in it's own right). I remember when the store was by the lake, you could dock your boat and go shopping there and the nearby Safeway for your groceries.

Shimano Sahara for under a hundred bucks would be a good choice. A comparable Daiwa or Quantum reel in the same price range would also be good choices. 2500 size would be perfect spooled with 6lb test.

Real Inflation is much higher than the gov't cares to reveal, go grocery shopping and actually look at the prices of EVERYTHING. Many economists estimate it to be running at over 10%. That is scary, wages have not risen that much to compensate. I reiterate an earlier post, Re-evaluate your debt load and decrease it as much as possible, sell off STUFF if you need to but don't carry too much debt or you will sink. Save till it hurts and then save some more. Oil probably will not come down in price very much, the era of cheap energy is over. Get ready for $200/barrel and $2/litre for gas. We are in a bigger mess then our elected leaders care to admit. My personal belief is to be conservative with your investments (I am a financial advisor) and don't make a lot of big ticket purchases unless they are a necessity and are bought with cash, not credit. There is a recession looming that could very easily become a depression. Our high dollar and high cost of fuel is choking the Canadian economy, raw commodities command high prices but our manufacturing sector is dying quickly. They are fine out west but here in Ontario, we are hurting and the federal government is watching with glee. It sickens me to see how Canadians (yes I said Canadians) out west hate us from Ontario. I saw it in Vancouver a few years ago and I was amazed at just how pervasive it really was. I guess PM Harper is finally getting to build his fence around Alberta like he's always wanted. That's enough ranting, I could go on for days.

NICE!!! A free cot, now you have the $100 that you were going to spend on the cot burning a hole in your pocket - dinner with the colonel or a few brand new muskie baits - hmmmmmmmmmmmmm......................

Try and read up on fishing and spend a few more bucks on a halfway decent combo from WalMart or Cdn Tire. If you plan on doing much fishing, that cheapy combo won't last too long but it's better than nothing. Some bobbers, small hooks and some worms and you'll be good to go for perch, crappie, rock bass and the like.

Off to Bracebridge for pike with the boyz on Saturday, got a wedding on Sunday and yardwork on Monday. Hopefully we slay the pike, whenever the weather sucks, we have nailed some really nice ones.

That's right, all fishing licences are is another tax that we have to pay. Like gas taxes which were put in place to build and maintain roads, the money goes into the general revenue account and gets spent by our elected officials and civil servants on everything BUT!! I feel we need probably 4-5 times as many COs as we have now. With all the money made by the fishing tax, there should be more than enough as well as dough left over for aggressive stocking programs. Our problem is that we don't bi---tch and moan enough to our elected representatives constantly and not put up with their constant Bull explanations. Bottom line is the MNR brings in more money but has had it's budget slashed over 50% over the past 15 years or so.

Go 7 feet. If they don't have one put together, ask them to do it for you. Med/hvy would be a great general purpose rod for you.

Have an awesome summer and I hope the fishing on Temagami is great for you this summer. Enjoy!! Cheers B

We need Turkish prisons here. Wake up each day to a beating and eat bread and water for a couple of years with a hole in the floor to do your business, somehow, I don't think there would be much of a problem for repeat offenders and for them, the Chinese 9mm in the back of the would be nice. Parents are way to easy on their kids these days. I don't get people. If I had the police show up on the doorstep when I was a kid I would be begging them to take me away, jail would be preferable to the shots my dad would have given me.

Off to Upper Buckhorn tomorrow for crappie and walleye on Saturday am. I'm also going to be scouting for muskie territory.

My wife sleeps next to Darth Vader. I've had the CPAP for coming up on 3 years now. It takes a while to get used to but once you do, you'll realize how tired you really were all of the time. You'll wake up in the morning feeling pretty good and not like you went the distance with Ali. Good luck with it.

There's got to be more to this story than that. Tim Horton's is a great organization, I know, my best friend and his family own 9 of them. What they do in the community is unparalleled compared to other corporate citizens. I've noticed that the news these days tends to omit facts and information to twist things to become newsworthy. Take this story with a grain of salt.

I'm there this Friday for crappie and Saturday for the wally opener. Hopefully saturday night there will be a fish fry.

Wait for your buddy to do it for you. That way for the price of a couple of beers you will learn how it's done as well as any other maintenance that may need to be done. Impellors take quite a while to wear out.

Oh yeah, cleaning reels is tons of fun!! Last week I cleaned my first fishing reel, my 30 year old Shakespeare that had 30 year old grease inside of it that was hard as a rock. After that exercise, I figure I'll take my reels in for service every few years (I don't spend as much time as I would like out on the water) and any light lube I can do myself.

Lew, from what I know about electrical, it's ok to go with a bigger guage wire but not ok to go with a smaller one. A bus bar is a good idea to try to neaten things up. What about some flexible wire covering to help clean up the birds nest (oops sorry, i meant professional overrun........LOL).

Look around but in total, you should expect to pay about 1200-1400 bucks for the lawyer and related fees. Things to remember, is there a recent survey of the property?? If not, maybe try to work that into the deal. Also, a home inspection with you hovering over the inspector asking lots of questions should be a must. Depending on how old the house is, aluminum wiring, knob in tube, sump pumps, age of roofing, windows, plumbing, kitchen, washrooms etc... etc.... etc..... Lots of factors involved. Having been in sales for 11 years, I believe that the past few years, real estate agents have had it easy. Listings that sell in hours don't justify the fees that are charged, but, in sales, take it whenever you can get it.

Make sure you catch a biggun for him.

Encourage him to take the treatment, he'll have a fighting chance, I'd take 50/50 any day if it meant being able to watch my kids grow up and have their own kids. Be strong for him and be there for him and your mum. If you are going to lose it and break down, don't do it in front of them if you can. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Just make sure you get something bigger than you currently need, that way you can fill it up as you visit local tackle shops and buy more baits and the like.

I'm trying to set up a pilgrimmage to the Cabela's in Dundee Michigan one of these days to check it out and give my credit card a workout. Good to hear you saved a bundle.

Ditto on you get what you pay for. A reel that goes for $80 + will last you for years if you maintain it, and that's the key, keeping it clean and lubed and you'll have no problems. The number of bearings is not as important as the quality of the bearings and gears.