Old Ironmaker

I love your eternal optimism. Anyone who's folks are from a place that is dark 23 hours a day had better be. Remember I spent a month in Oulu one week.

Yep 2 years ago Mr. Bunk. We all drive to Florida in November to fish and golf with the boys and call home and it was in the high teens here. Still had a great time regardless. The fishing was fabulous, golf not so much. Nothing like fresh stuffed Sea Trout on the Q the same day as caught.

I think we put far too much into the details of the painting of lures. Fish aren't art critics, just hungry hopefully. I think we have all caught fish from our favorite lures that had most if not all the paint peeled off it. I know I have. There is a Husky Jerk I have retired that is basically all white now after all the Pike and hammer handles I have hooked on it from the Ottawa.

Fall? What Fall? It is usually my favorite season of the year, especially that Indian Summer we usually get mid October. We all get together for Thanksgiving out here and for the last few if not more than a few years we were all in short sleeves tossing Horse shoes before dinner. Not this year. It was August then with a blink of an eye it is snowing. I had the A/C on the week before Labour Day and the next week on went the furnace.

Yes, and not just hockey. Winning teams have 2 things in common. They either despise their head coach or love them. Example In the NFL, Mike Holmgren was not well liked (hate is a strong word) and Mike Tomlin is still loved , both won it all. It is said Holmgren went an entire year without speaking one on one with Brett Favre. Some coaches like Tom Cofflin went from despised to loved and won the Super Bowl. That happens more often than one might think. You guys can fill in the blanks for the NHL coaches.

I was never into Country Western but Roy Clark was my favorite. That rendition of Malaguena gave me chills. That was one of Moms favorite songs. It's more than a song, it's an anthem for Spanish guitar.

Whatever they are running I can smell it where we live, and hear them some days. I ran into Neale Armstrong yesterday at the hardware store in town. He was driving the truck he pulls his 300 MPH jet powered race car, it uses jet fuel I would think. I know it's 300MPH because it says so on the side of the truck. He's the GM at The Toronto Motorsport Speedway in Cayuga Ontario 2 hours from Toronto with zero traffic. I was working security there one weekend and a nice lady from Ohio asked me how far it was to the Dome because they had Blue Jay tickets for that night. I told her if they left now they might make it for the 9th inning, she was not pleased.

Pissano mio. Boat, what boat? A 747.

I went out today. I stopped counting the cars in the ditches. 2 in the same ditch. Less than an inch of snow. It was slick though. I had to put her in 4 wheel. I almost joined them and locked up a few times through a stop and put the front wheels through the shoulder onto the grass turning,,,, too fast.

Shell V power, yep. Sunoco was the hi test we used in our sports cars way back when. 360 I think. Hey I'm getting old man, give me a break. I just got my application for my Old Age pension. Can someone come over and fill it out for me please? Nice homemade Italian pasta etc. lunch included.

Akri, he may have grown up in the 30's or like me was the son of 2 that did. Mom grew up during the depression in NY in the city, farmers fared much better food wise. Dad during the war in Italy. I couldn't imagine what they had to go through. They could squeeze a nickel out of a penny. I picked some of it up but fight some of the silly stuff. My wife calls me cheap, I call it smart. For how little I have been using the boat I have used Esso eth. free the last few years. I hope the last tank was because I didn't go through a 1/2 tank in 2 years. Now it won't start. Off to the marina tomorrow to check it out. Due for a carb service anyway, have to look at the positive in a negative. Don't be too hard on him. It isn't his fault.

Bootis Lacemupis. Common in Hamilton Bay of the cementitious variety.

Buddy picked up an older FishHawk at the Hamilton swap meet last year cheap. You have to get there early though, just in line behind HTHM.

For the little difference in price for our little gas powered toys err tools, I can't fathom why guys won't spend the extra pennies even bucks for hi test ethanol free fuel. I'll put a splash of 2+4 in each tank though, when I remember. At least at the end of the year. Call me lucky. Many don't run the carbs dry like in the boat engines. Treated or not wouldn't the gas sitting in carbs all winter not gum up?

Yea, a funny thing happens in the country every winter. And each and every year many are surprised. We have a family in town that are hosting refugees from Africa. We got a dusting Tuesday and they were flipping out. Never saw snow first hand in their lives.

The hydraulic bypass screw is a rather large flat head. You can't miss it, around 3/4". You can manually tilt it up to move the boat at least.

Thanks for your service Sir.

Has anyone noticed guys are using riggers less and less. Not on Ontario I imagine due to deep fish. Erie much less until the end of the migration of Pics.

2015?

Anyone out on this side of the lake would be suicidal with all this wind. All the Marinas, all 3, are empty of boats now. It has been an early exit this year. I haven't been on the lake since Sept. 1st. I even remember the Baseball tourneys we had there. We even played a few games in between sampling the sponsors products. Funny how we were always out by Saturday afternoon. No one was going to play on a Sunday morning after Saturday night. A rookie actually stole home for a run and I thought the old guys were going to beat him senseless. He was bewildered until told why.

I actually like them. Even the Evinrude's when they started this trend. If I could afford a new power plant I wish Merc would offer something other than black. Maybe they do now. Like Henry Ford once said "You can get any color you want as long as it's black.

Bill, when I get a Salmon casting from the beach here on Erie I will say they are everywhere. I have seen everything imaginable in fresh water fish off the shore. No Musky, no Salmon. Even a Sturgeon was caught some years ago down the road, it was massive, made the Haldimand press, over 7' and over 300 lbs. Maybe more washed up than caught as it was on it's last fins.

I have always used a spray of good quality lube, that's it. I have a 2 /30 year old Shimano 1500 spinning reels. These things go for 25 bucks then. Spool is not removable. Used it in Florida and just left it at the condo for anyone to use. They still work, the kids use them at the cottage. Imagine what it looks like inside that spool? Ewwwww. But they cast and drag works.

I always wonder if some of these incidents where intelligent people go out in freezing temps and bad weather, no PFD's in a small craft may be suicide. An accidental death can leave the survivors debt free with many thousands or more in the bank. Hard for insurance investigators to prove otherwise without a note.