lew

Thanks boyz, I thought I'd be OK but just wanted to be sure. I'm not a big fan of painting, infact I'd rather do just about anything else around the house, so I'll do a GOOD job now and that should do me for a few years.........hopefully And Spiel, thanks for that link, looks like some good reading in there.

I've got a bit of painting to do here in the new place and I'm buying the paint today, but a thought just crossed my mind as I was sitting here making out my shopping list, and I'm not sure of the answer. I'm using Latex and in the city I always just washed out the gear with water in the laundry tubs, but now I'm on a septic system and I'm thinking perhaps the paint will harm the system or mess up the natural process that takes place in there ?? Do I find a puddle outside to wash the brushes, or will the septic be OK with a bit of diluted Latex paint being run thru it ??

Mornin Mike, I think that's probably the store where Paul (Tybo) bought his knife when we were down there in October. That knife was a work of art fer sure !!!

They sell fishing gear, fishing clothing, hunting gear, hunting clothing, boats, boat accessories, outboard motors, electric motors, electronics, archery equipment, camping gear, very good outdoor clothing, boots, hiking gear yada yada yada Just curious as to why you say it's "not the one stop shop it pretends to be" and what is it your looking for that they don't carry ?? Actually, I don't ever recall BPS saying they carried absolutely everything an outdoorsman would need anyways, but perhaps I missed that part. As for hurting the little guy, it seems to me that the "little guys" around the GTA that were doing well before BPS came along are still doing well. Fishing World in Hamilton, 2 LeBarons locations, JB's in Toronto, Tightlines in Pickering, Gagnons in Oshawa Sure there were some small Mom & Pops that went under after BPS arrived, but from my perspective, they were the ones that never improved themselves or grew with the times anyways. Same tired old baits sitting on the dusty shelves for 20 years, same old ratty fish mounts hanging on the walls and not many improvements done over the years to attract or keep customers anyways. In my own personal opinion, and for what it's worth, I think the smaller shops that keep up with the times as far as new gear goes, have knowlegable friendly staff and offer good customer service have nothing to worry about with the likes of BPS Personally, I buy most of my musky gear from JB's just because I like the people and what they offer, but I still enjoy wandering around BPS because I think it's a very nice store, almost like a mini-Sportsman Show. As for prices, I bought a 400 TE from JB's awhile back that was $115 LESS than BPS The one thing I DO find frustrating at BPS though is the fact that so many of the staff aren't familiar with the products their selling, but you'll find that in most big stors that hire alot of part-timers. Course, this is only my opinion on the way I see things

Back in '99 I bought a brand new 6 HP Merc 2 stroke to use as a kicker and it did the exact same thing, spewing out that filthy brown slimey mess. I've owned quite a few 2 stroke motors over the years but never saw anything like that mess before. I took it back to the dealer and was told it was perfectly normal. I only kept that motor for one year then got rid of it.

That's some really scary stuff, but thankfully the injuries don't appear to be too serious. Good on Copper to take the reins too.

No offence taken at all bud, infact I agree with everything you said.

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