kickingfrog

I never thought about it much but I never would have though there were browns in lakes in Manatoba. Nice fish.

That looks like I feel after turkey diner.

Mine never have, and Simcoe has some bigins.

Imagine what it would look like if he was using the pro hold? Huge perch.

If you don't find a company to switch to you can call bell and ask to talk to someone about your bill. They can/will reduce it sometimes.

Winter gasoline v Summer gasoline. Discuss.

Smaller augers cut holes faster/easier. A 6 inch auger hole can be tight for some pike (not as much as some would believe though) but two holes side by each and you're good to go. A 6 inch diameter hole will almost be 19 inches around and a 8 inch hole will be 25 inches. Yes ice rods have ratings, although just like regular rods there is no standard so one brands med/heavy is an others medium. If you plan on using set lines with live/dead bait and targeting pike most would recommend not using a rod/reel, but a tip-up with a free spool option. I like braid but it can ice-up if it's really cold and/or you're not in a hut. Some braids do have a "ice-line" version but I haven't tried them.

News says they opened today for business.

Some of the best minor midget hockey players in the province are playing all weekend in Barrie. Admission is free. http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/2012/11/30/showcase-cup-gives-midget-players-a-chance-to-shine-in-front-of-scouts This weekend could go a long way to determining the Ontario Hockey League’s draft landscape for next year. The Barrie Colts minor midget ‘AAA’ team is set to host its annual Showcase Cup at the Holly Community Centre, a weekend packed wall-to-wall with games. With more than 20 contests planned between Saturday and Sunday, it creates an opportunity for OHL brass to get a good look at a number of players at once. “There will be plenty of (OHL) general managers, scouts and agents there,” said Jason Duffy, director of player personnel for the minor midget ‘AAA’ Colts. “They always see it as an opportunity for them, because there aren’t as many games going on (as you would have in a tournament), so it’s easier to see players,” he added. With the event having moved from the complex at the Nottawasaga Inn near Alliston to Barrie’s Holly Community Centre last year, it has become a convenient location for a number of people. “Being in such a nice, new rink where the viewing areas are excellent, not to mention being close to the GTA, a lot of scouts can come up and see every kid,” Duffy said. “If one side isn’t doing much or is in intermission, they can turn around and go to the other side to see another game.” Every team in Eastern Triple ‘A’, as well as an all-star team from Northern Ontario, will be participating, and each squad plays at least twice. “With a tournament, there are four, five rinks going, in different locations,” Duffy said. “That makes it almost impossible for a scout to see every kid they want to. But with this weekend they can, because everyone’s playing multiple games in the same facility.” One of the interesting notes about this weekend is that, save for contests against the northern all-star team, these games are for keeps. “The Showcase Cup, because they are regular-season games, they have a lot of meaning for us,” Duffy said. “There are six points up for grabs this weekend, in a very short period of time.” That means wins will be all the more important for the provincially ranked Colts, who are coming off of a solid showing at the highly touted Silver Stick tournament in Whitby. “Last weekend was a good stepping stone for us, because we went out and beat one of the top teams in the province,” Duffy said. But on Saturday and Sunday, they’ll have to do the same, while trying to ignore the fact that pretty much every OHL team will have representatives there, watching their every move. “The focus has been on playing your own game, and not focusing on anyone in the stands,” Duffy said. “If you’re not playing your own game, those people mean nothing to you. “If you’re doing your own thing and being an individual, the (scouts) are just going to walk away from you,” Duffy added. “You just have to play a (team) game and forget about the people in the stands.” This weekend was one of the stepping stones for ETA grads such as Steven Stamkos, Corey Perry, Michael Del Zotto and Matt Duchene. A number of players in last year’s event are currently playing in the OHL, including Plymouth Whalers forward Zach Bratina, Soo Greyhounds defenceman Kevin Spinozzi, and Mississauga Steelheads winger Bobby MacIntyre. “When fans get to the event, they’ll be hearing ‘this kid will go early in the draft’ or ‘this kid will be playing in the OHL next year’,” Duffy said. “You never know, you might see one of these kids suiting up at the Barrie Molson Centre on Saturday nights next year.” Duffy considers the best matchup of the weekend to be between his Colts and the York-Simcoe Express, as the top two teams in the ETA will meet on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. “It’s the first game of the showcase, but it also features the two (OHL Cup) ranked teams in the ETA,” said Duffy of the fifth-ranked Express and the seventh-ranked Colts. Admission is free for all of the weekend’s games.

And this is coming from a guy from England.

I would never bother on a fly-in and rarely use a net anyway but when I do I use this: http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Gold-Series-Folding-Landing-Net-with-Telescoping-Handle/product/10210368/?cmCat=CROSSSELL_PRODUCT No good for big pike though.

^And now we know why Simon moved to Canada.^

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20543802#TWEET410578 Norway's five million people enjoy one of the highest standards of living, not just in Europe, but in the world. Could the secret of the country's success be connected to the local appetite for some exceedingly smelly fish? Take a selection of over-ripe cheeses. Place them in the midst of a pile of dirty, wet soccer kit. Leave for a week. Now you have the nose-numbing smell of rakfisk, one of the great Norwegian delicacies. I am in the small town of Fagernes, about three hours from Oslo. There is snow, spectacular scenery - and that odour, ever present, hangs in the air. Rakfisk is trout sprinkled with salt and fermented in water for - depending on how smelly you like your fish - up to a year. Some people like the aquavit more than the rakfisk” As the dark sets in and the weather turns cold, Norwegians flock to a festival here in Fagernes devoted to this most, well, captivating of foods. "You eat it raw, and then swallow a glass of aquavit," says Havard Halvarsen, full-time local firefighter but also the so-called "Rakfisk General", in charge of running the festival. All around us people are eating little cubes of the fish and knocking back quantities of drink. "Some people like the aquavit more than the rakfisk," says Havard. "The drink can kill the smell." I try a few pieces. If you can avoid passing it under your nose, it is not bad - not unlike a slice of sushi that has been on rather a long bus journey. Rakfisk is a product of very different, poverty-stricken times in Norway when, pre-refrigeration, fish was soaked in airtight barrels of water and salt in autumn. Then in the depths of winter, well and truly fermented, it is taken out and - no doubt with the senses knocked out by alcohol - eaten. Rakfisk is sliced but not cooked Only a generation ago, thousands of Norwegians were forced to leave their country in search of work, emigrating mainly to the US. Now the population is expanding fast - more than 13% are immigrants, attracted by plentiful jobs, high wages and a comprehensive care system. People from Sweden, the old rival and not so long ago far richer than Norway, stream in to work. Rakfisk is seen as signifying something important, a vital if rather smelly part of Norway's past. It is among the more expensive dishes you can buy. But then everything is expensive - a small glass of beer or a sandwich knock you back £9 ($14) each. Norway does not often make it on to the global news agenda - and most seem to like it that way. People here are still loath to mention by name Anders Breivik, the right-wing, racist extremist who gunned down and killed 77 men, women and children last year. Instead, the shootings are referred to as "the July the 22nd incident". Norwegians find it very difficult to believe that in their peace-loving country one of their own was capable of such brutality and murder. The growth since the early 1970s of one of the world's biggest oil and gas industries lies behind much of Norway's present-day wealth. "But oil is not the only reason we are doing so well," says Anna our waitress, handing round trays of maturing rakfisk and, with her long blond hair and startlingly blue eyes, the image of Nordic well-being. "We are a - how you say - prudent people." Her English, like that of most people here, is flawless. "We are not very showy, we do not like ostentation." Norway has handled its oil wealth very carefully - all but a small percentage of money from the industry is invested in a special fund for the benefit of future generations. Potato is a popular accompaniment When everyone else was throwing around money they did not have, in the years leading up to the global financial crash, Norway kept its purse strings tightly bound. "As long as we can ski in winter and go hiking in summer we are happy," says Anna. "And eat rakfisk," she adds with a carefree laugh. I stand in the snow and queue for something to eat - I have had enough rakfisk. Now an elk burger is certainly something different and rather succulent to the taste. But in the evening, it is more of that smelly fish. The hotel I am staying in is one of a number of venues hosting a rakfisk dinner where guests vote on the best - or perhaps the most nasally challenging - fish. There is a live TV link up to a compere in a bow tie surrounded by plates of rakfisk. It is like the Eurovision song contest. "What score do you have for the best fish up there in the mountains Thor-Juergen?" "Here are our points, Havard." There is clapping, laughter. A man falls off his chair, perhaps overcome with aquavit. Or maybe it is the fumes from all that fish.

When I bought mine on sale last year there were a few guys on here that also bought them so you should get some more feedback.

I've only had mine for a year but no issues. Jacket and bib-pants. I went with non insulated as well. Watch the colour selection "midnight black" is blue and black.

Powerful images.

Does it have winter tires?

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/2012/11/28/foul-play-ruled-out-in-hitch-house-blaze-officials Foul play ruled out in Hitch House blaze: Officials By Lance Holdforth, Special to QMI Agency Wednesday, November 28, 2012 5:06:42 EST PM ORO-MEDONTE TWP. — When fire ripped through the Hitch House on Highway 11, Tuesday afternoon, staff did everything they could to save the building before it was engulfed in flames. Office of the Fire Marshal investigators were on scene Wednesday morning piecing together the events leading up to the blaze in hopes of determining what caused approximately $2 million in damages. The OFM's Mike Ross interviewed witnesses and staff who tried to extinguish the fire after it was located in a recreational vehicle (RV) in the building's main showroom around 2:30 p.m. A cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but investigators have ruled out foul play. "Personally, I think (staff) did everything right. At the time it started, it wasn't a raging inferno, so they acted with fire extinguishers and tried to suppress it because at that stage of the fire it wasn't an advanced fire," he said. "When you talk about fires in an advanced stage, it's incredibly hard to put it out with an extinguisher," Ross added. "If it was a very advanced fire (at the time) they never would have been able to survive anything like that." The next step, he said, is to determine the cause of the blaze and what resulted in it spreading so fast. "We have to interview all the people who witnessed the fire and evaluate the unit itself through a process of looking at and seeing what's there," he said. "You can tell it was an advanced fire just by the damage it caused." Salesman Mike Barton was sitting in a fellow employee's office when he heard a faint smoke alarm going off in the showroom. When staff followed the sound to an RV in the main room, they noticed fire had broken out and filled the motor home with black smoke. "I turned around and the Travel Supreme was facing me and the inside was full of black smoke," Barton said. "In the rest of the showroom there was nothing. You couldn't smell it, but the whole thing was full and all the windows were shut." Within moments, staff entered the motor home with extinguishers, but once they thought it was under control, the fire flared up and began consuming the RV. "We grabbed fire extinguishers and we thought we had it out. The smoke started to clear and we thought it wasn't that bad and then it started to come back again," Barton said. "The smoke got so bad that we couldn't stay in there anymore. "At that point (staff) were all evacuated, so there wasn't an issue with getting everybody out." Evacuation orders were announced over a loud speaker and alerted staff to exit the building and meet a designated spot outlined in company's fire safety plan, which is credited for saving the lives of more than 35 people. A black plume of smoke rose from the 35,000-square-foot facility in Gasoline Alley as employees exited the building with nothing else to do but watch the business go up in flames, Barton said. "All the staff was out of the building where they were supposed to be. Everybody knows where they have to be because we have safety meetings all the time," he said. "To be quite honest, when Ashley paged for all the people to leave the building I thought it was premature at first, but man was that the right call." The Hitch House, which has been around for more than 30 years, sells recreational vehicles, such as motor homes and campers, and is a well-known sight along Highway 11. The business dates back to 1969, when David McKee resigned from the Canadian Forces and rented a Fina gas station on Highway 11. McKee expanded his property and facilities between 1973 and 1980, purchasing almost nine acres in 1973 adjacent to the Fina station and built his first facility. Two more acres were bought in 1978, and by 1980 the building was enclosed and insulated as a year-round facility. A 7,500-sq.-ft. showroom was added in 1997. The smoke alarm was a key element in saving the lives of staff and ensuring everyone got out of the building uninjured. "There was a smoke alarm in the RV itself and that's what alerted them to the fire and that goes back to whether it's an RV or a residential house, the importance of smoke alarms is key," Ross said. "If that wasn't in place, who knows what they might have been up against. In this case it was key in those people not being injured." The smell of burnt plastic filled the air surrounding the rubble and bent steel beams as Ross described how the fire may have spread through the building. More than 50 firefighters from Barrie as well as Springwater, Tay and Severn townships attended under local mutual-aid agreements and had to pump water from a stream on Line 1 North. "It was obviously in excess of a couple hundred degrees or even a thousand degrees for sure, based on fuel load, and once the windows decided to fail, then obviously that's what turns a smaller fire into a larger fire and more intense," Ross said. "When you talk about a secondary element, you have these RVs that contain upholstered furniture and the combustible nature of the stuff inside itself and are a substantial fuel load to a fire." According to provincial police, emergency crews were on hand until around 1 a.m., Wednesday. Eight RVs in the showroom were destroyed and portions of the building collapsed. Ross said there was still the issue of possible flare-ups, too. "When you're talking about gas or propane, obviously those things are very volatile and when things start getting more enhanced and developed you get a bigger fire," he said. "With the type of building construction where you have tar and gravel, that holds the heat in, so they're going to have to get that out." The OFM continues to investigate. [email protected]

I'm not interested in catching, I like fishin'.

It floats, but you could doctor it just like the originals before the suspending husky jerks came out.

Looks similar maybe (it is a minnow imitation after all) but it's balsa not hollow plastic.

I can't imagine what it would be like to see your business, or place of work, burn to the ground.

A 10 pounder jigging would be sweet.

Sure looks like a smelt.

Interested in the new BX minnow. Wondering if anyone in has seen it in stores in Canada. I want to see it first hand before buying.