smitty55

So I'm stacking some firewood on the rack beside the wood stove when the phone rings. It's my SIL who wonders if I'd like some fresh Specks as he's on his way back from a very successful morning trip. Well of course I will, right on Allan. So he comes up the driveway and I go out to meet him on the front walkway. He hands me 4 10 -12" beauties and we chat for a bit. Then as he's about to leave I notice this light brown blob on a lilac branch 10 ft away. WTH? So I walk over closer and it's a Saw Whet owl sitting on the end of a cut branch, so cool. I run in the house to grab my camera and Al pulls out his cell phone. Well I knew they were pretty tame but I had no idea how much. I grab some pics and then decide to see how close I could get. Well I get within touching distance and it just sits there opening his eyes the odd time. Well just so happens I had taken some squirrel out for a snack so I go back in the house and cut a strip off to see if the owl would take it. I put it on a stick and hold it out 6 inches in front of it. No reaction so I move it in even closer and he spooks and flies 5 feet away on to a spruce branch beside the house. So I put the strip of meat on a branch below him, he looks at it and ignores it. Then I go back and grab my camera again and take a few more pics and the last one through the kitchen window when I go back in. No idea how long it was there but it's still there an hour later not even paying attention to all the birds around as I have my feeders right there. And all the chickadees aren't even worried and have no fear being 3 ft away from it. So cool, made my day.

Watched 21 Bridges last night, if you like a good cop action movie it was pretty good. One of the last movies made by Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) before he died from colon cancer.

Sinker there's an awful lot of variation among Splake, they can look more like Specks or more like Lakers or a combination of both. None of them have a forked tail like a Laker. Also male and female look different and the age of the fish makes a difference as well. I agree that's not a Speck or a Laker, which is why I say Splake.

I've caught more Lakers than all other trout combined and I've never seen one ever that had a tail like that with so little fork in the tail. Hence why I say it's not a Laker.

I wasn't going to bother commenting but when it was called a Laker I just had to lol. The one main characteristic that separates Greys from other trout and hybrids is the much deeper forked tail, which that fish does not have. Nor does is have a true enough square tail to be a Speck so my vote is Splake. Looks just like these and plenty of other pics I've seem guys post on some fb fishing groups I'm on.

I'd forgotten about that site, tks for the reminder Dave. My bandwidth sucks, specially at night so I just let it load and then watch later. Cheers

Pork loins were on at a great price last week so I picked one up. Looking to try something different this time so I decided to try making my own schnitzel and I'm sure happy I did. I ended up with with 14 slabs that after trimming I put in a gallon ziplock two at a time and pounded them down to 1/4" slabs with a rubber mallet. Spiced up the flour with salt, fresh ground pepper and my own smoked paprika. Added a bunch of worcestershire to the egg and milk mix and then used my own smoked bread crumbs. Added fresh rosemary sprigs to the oil/butter mix on low heat for a few minutes and then removed them before cranking the heat up and a quick fry at 3 minutes one side then flip and 2 minutes on the other side. Boy did they ever turn out good, tender and moist with great flavour, store bought ones have nothing on these. 8 of them are now vacuum sealed in 3 packs and frozen for a quick meal in the future. So I got 14 of them for $8 worth of meat, can't beat that for quality and value. Didn't take a pic of the finished product but they turned out with a nice dark brown crispy coating from the smoked bread crumbs. Definitely will do again. Cheers

I learned how to fish for Lakers using lead core and gang trolls. Still my favorite way. First reel I bought was a 209 which I still own. Problem was that it would only hold just over 8 colours which of course meant I couldn't reach deeper waters. So I bought a 309 the next year that would take 13-14 colours, if you recall the lead core spools back then came as 2 attached ten colour spools that the store could separate. I also have a Penn #49 deep sea reel with close to 20 colours on it, no level wind on that one you just tilt the reel as you reel in. All of my Penns I always make sure to back the drag off after use, they still work ok.

I've seen lots of guys posting about using those driveway markers as replacement poles for pop ups. Cheap fix. Lol I just went on a fb ice fishing group and one of the Admin just posted the instructions using those fiberglass driveway markers. "Measure twice and cut to size. Remove old pole. Cut off and drill out the pole from the hub portion. Add two part epoxy and insert the pole. Pop it up and let sit till hard. So pole doesn’t twist after setting. "

The only way to get around that is to phone on the weekend, or at least that's how it used to be. Also the best way to get any results from bell when there are issues is to ask to speak to customer retention, that usually gets their arse in gear.

Last batch I did I used some apple cider in the foil, that worked real good. I've also used mustard and once mayo as a light layer on the ribs and then a coating of spice rub and let sit overnite in the fridge. Made for a nice bark.

I'd always heard of the 3-2-1 method, but use more of 4-2-1. it's about the different cooking times. 4 hours in the smoker, then two hours wrapped in foil with or without liquid which steams the meat so it doesn't dry out and then one last hour unwrapped again to form a crust. My Big Chief doesn't get very hot so I finish in the oven. Brian just stretched it out, and yea they look great. Edit: Oops, looks like I'm late with that response lol.

That lad knew Quinte very well but was still in an area known to be sketchy in early season. Apparently he was wearing a flotation suit even but the current in that spot did him in. Don't know if he was carrying a spud. That's part of the problem with social media. I've seen plenty of nice Walleye taken from Quinte this year posted already, problem being is that it gets folks all wound up to get out there and sometimes safety takes a back seat to common sense even if you are careful. No fish is worth dying for. I'm surprised the ice is that bad up there. Guys are fishing everywhere around here, back lakes for trout have been frozen over for at least a couple of weeks now, again tons of trout pics on the 613 Ice Fishing group on FB.

Get yourself a VPN, they're not just for businesses. All your data is encrypted and encapsulated and you can appear to be from servers all over the world so geographic boundaries can be bypassed. They are a must if you want to do any torrenting. Most the top rated rated providers also keep no logs whatsoever so your privacy while traveling the web is assured. I just signed up with CyberGhost for $2.25/mo for the next 3 years on a promo after being with PIA for the last few years. That covers up to 7 devices so you know that your phone data is secure as well. Can't get better value for your internet security.

I get no popups, I use popup blockers, adblock, script blockers and always use a vpn for the last few years now so my IP addy could be from anywhere in the world. I also don't ever use google as my search engine anymore with their censoring of search results among other things.

I worked for an airline and we got them from an aircraft parts supplier so the quality was top notch, likely milspec.

I would look into environmental splices like are used in the aircraft industry. There are two styles, one uses a butt style crimp and then has the shrink tube with a sealer on each end. The other style like I've used on engine harnesses has an integrated solder ring in the middle of the shrink tube again with a sealer ring on each end that melts and provides a much better seal than standard shrink sleeving. In your case I would think that the solder connection would be preferable to a crimp. With larger wires I've found that it helps to tin the wires first. You will need a quality heat gun that will melt the solder and is generally used with a U shaped attachment on the end of the heat gun so that it reflects the heat on the backside of the splice at the same time

Pretty neat rig Dan. The one thing I would be worried about is the wear on the rod itself. How does it look after 3 hours?

Most folks aren't too quick to give out trout spots. I would suggest using Fish-on line to find trout lakes in your vicinity and work from there. https://www.lioapplications.lrc.gov.on.ca/fishonline/Index.html?viewer=FishONLine.FishONLine&locale=en-CA

Hulu carries it from what I've read.

So I d/l the first two seasons and watched the first 3 episodes. I though it was hilarious, best laugh I've had in a while. Basically an R rated comedy that doesn't need a laugh tract to convince viewers it's funny. I had no idea what to expect so it was all out of the blue, so many one liners. I wouldn't call it vulgar, but certainly crude for sure. I'm not a fan of sitcoms but I'm looking forward to catching more. Seasons 3 and 4 on the way.

Yea for sure get a hammer drill, they are made of much tougher internal components. Just don't use it in hammer mode.

I've never watched it, maybe I should give it a shot. Please tell me that it doesn't have a laugh track I can't handle them anymore.

To think that we grew up using that strength of deet. It sure does melt plastic and removes dye. Pretty sure I have one of those light green bottles of Muskol in the bottom of an old tackle box. It sure does work better and for longer than the 25% stuff we get now in Canada. Good for the girls. I know Jeff at YIG has a temper but I wasn't aware it was that bad. Cheers

My fishing up that way has all been March ice fishing since back in the 80's and 90's. Mostly at Sunny Hill but we had some great years at High Country Snoasis while they were operating. Their main Shacks in March were located on Bark lake in a spot that is known as The Piers. Think fishing in 15ft of sandy bottom clear water with a current in the original river run that the smelt still follow as they migrate toward their spawning grounds. Some years that channel opens up late March and is even accessible from the shore out across some ice and you are literally casting from "shore". We also had some good times fishing several back lakes for trout on the west side of 523. Check out Fish on-line I would say that you picked an excellent area overall.