lew

Corey Haim and my daughter have been friends for many years and she told him waaaaay back that if he didn't try to straighten out his life style he may not last too long......sadly she was right.

Good having you back on the board Dip, you always offer some good perspectives on things. You'll remember back in the day when I used nothing but Stringese wire for musky and swore by it. Their excellent leaders, but like any wire they'll kink once a fish thrashes around and being very fussy about things like that, I'll discard a leader as soon as it kinks. Trouble is though, at about $5 apiece it got pretty expensive, specially if it was a good day with 3 or 4 fish and I had to toss every leader away. JR got me onto fluoro a few years ago, and I never looked back. I use 130 for all applications now & love it. GOOD wire, fluoro, or even mono are excellent, and as you suggest, different strokes.......just as long as folks don't cheap out. As for the new trend in the extra long musky rods, I haven't made that leap yet and don't really think I will, not in the immediate future anyways, at least not for my jerkbait rods. After close to 40 years of musky fishing it's kinda hard to break old habits I like to work jerkbaits with the rod tip coming right to the water without touching it, and the rod pointing nearly straight down, and on the Crestliner I found a 6' 6" St. Croix was the perfect length, at least for my height of 5' 9". When I bought the new Skeeter last year, which sits higher outta the water, I moved up to a 7' Compre. The 7'er definetely imparts far better action to the baits, specially twitch baits, but that brings my tip right to the water which is exactly where I want it. Any longer and I'd either be changing my rod action.......which I don't want to do, or have the tip hitting the water. For casting, all my other rods are 7' 6" which again is a personal choice and something that works well for me. Besides that, the rod locker under the front deck of the Skeeter holds the 7' 6"ers perfectly and if I went up to longer rods I'd also have to buy a bigger boat again, and I'm not sure how I'd splain that to the Mrs

Best of luck Jack, you've got alot of buds here pulling for ya !!

Absolutely outstanding trip Rob, thanks for taking the time to tell us the tale !! Must be an incredible feeling to be face to face with cariboo, muskox & grizzlies in their natural setting, specially being charged at by one of those brutes. Sorta makes the deer in my backyard pretty tame by comparison Awesome report !!

Afraid I don't have any say over what the neighbors do Wayne

Some days really put us to the test Randy, but it sounds to me like you handled it very well. I'm sure your pal felt at ease at the end though, knowing he had you as a friend.

Another great edition TJ, really enjoying the "Off The Dock" cartoons by Phil & Maureen

The 522 is sposed to be a very good unit and it seems really strange that all 18 would go down the tube in the 1st year. I'm wondering if there was some how a bad batch of units all produced at the same time and you got a whole shipment of them. If nothing else, they should all be under warranty Definetely a call to Lowrance would be in order.

Sunny, warm & gorgeous up here and I've been workin outside in shorts & T-shirt the last couple hours. Sure am glad I moved away from the banana belt

37 years worth and I sure don't miss it

Nothings changed Norm, I've been up since 2:30 A.M., it's the deer that are the sleepyheads around these parts And TJ, the neighbor puts out a couple pails of grain twice a day and it's like ringing the dinner bell for these guys.

Always nice to have company for breakfast...taken from the patio door 10 minutes ago.

Great pic of a beautiful bird Roy !! I had one of them kill and devour a pigeon in my yard a couple years back and there was nothing left but some blood and the 2 wings.

The news reports now that the officer has died of his injuries.....so sad

Thanks folks, that picture will always be priceless to me. As for Joey and what she did for me, well, they just don't come much better than that Lady !!

Couple hundred $$$$ to beef up the suspension is alot less $$$$ than a new truck Rob

I used to have a Riviera that squatted in the rear when I towed a heavy trailer so I had a set of air shocks installed and they worked well. They ran the air line up and attached it beside the rear license plate for easy access. Anytime I was gonna tow the trailer I'd just hook up the compressor and pump up the air pressure, then decrease it again when I was finished with the trailer.

Mornin boyz and thanks once again for all the nice comments. I'm just sitting here watching 3 piliated woodpeckers in the tree outside the window and 12 deer in the backyard, infact 3 of them are only 50' from the back deck. Funny thing though as I never thought of deer as being aggresive or nasty before, but these guys are like a bunch of kids fighting over the last chocolate bar. The neighbor puts out 5 gallons of some sort of seed mixture a couple times a day and the critters pass thru my place on their way to the feast, but rather than everyone picking their own pile of goodies they'll fight over the same one. They get right up on their hind legs, nearly standing up-right and almost box with each other. Once the vittles are all gone though, their all buddy buddy again and wander back into the bush to digest their grub

Isn't it sposed to come in 3 installments over a year or something ?? And I'll bet we have to pay income tax on it too

Many of you will remember this picture, and for those of you who aren't familiar with it, my only brother was a member of this board for a few years but sadly died of cancer a couple years back. Ed and I were extremely close and fished together all the time and his death really hit me hard. After his death and totally unknown to me, Joey from this board got hold of a favorite photograph of mine of Ed and I fishing the BOQ, then got a group of OFNers to VERY generously donate some of their hard earned $$$$, and then they contacted another board member, the very talented artist, Pamela Dallaire, to paint the portrait. As I said previously, I knew absolutely nothing about any of this until one evening Joey & her husband Paul (Tybo) showed up at my house in Toronto and presented me with the painting. I was totally floored by the gesture and to this day can't believe the kindness and generosity of the members of OFC This is the painting And I just wanted to show those generous friends that I've now got the painting hanging in the den of my new home for everyone who comes to visit to see as they walk into the room. The kindness of OFC will never be forgotten. Thank you once again to everyone involved

Strawberry weighted Sledge and a Double "D" repainted with a spray bomb in Bumblebee are 2 of my go-to baits that always produce. Boo-tails always work well too. The one on the left is what they look like new and on the right how they look after many many fish have chomped on them. Believers & Jakes for trolling and a big old #950 Grim Reaper in orange and black for cranking down thru the weeds.

Thanks for all the good wishes folks, we're really enjoying this place.

Hiya guys, haven't been around lately while we've been getting settled in our new home in the country. We moved in over the weekend and things have been pretty hectic for the last few days as anyone who has moved knows all too well. Hard to explain how fantastic it feels to finally be living in the country after a lifetime in the city. Were about 15 miles north of Peterboro and a mile down at the end of a dirt road and maybe 100 yards from Clear Lake. The only sounds I hear are the trees rustling in the wind. Here's the view from the front veranda with the sun rising over Clear Lake this morning And every morning & evening the neighbors wander into the backyard for a chat. This is from the back deck this morning. Right at the back of my property is a mile of bush with a trail leading right past my place that the critters use as a pathway. Just as I'm typing this right now and looking out the window, 3 deer walked down the road, up the driveway and into the yard Were gonna luv living here and it's a huge change in our life style. Anyways, I just stopped by to say hey and test my new Rogers Rocket Hub. This thing is just as fast as Hi-Speed which is great as I was afraid I'd be stuck on dial-up. I don't think I'll be around too much as I'm gonna be enjoying the great outdoors for everything it's worth. Have a good evening everyone

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Kinda surprised to hear you make this comment Garry as I honestly don't think I ever recall you commenting on anyone elses fishing reports either, course I coulda missed it too. I'll be fishing Stoney alot this year, maybe I'll see you up there.