kickingfrog

Who would be silly enough to get their rod handle wet??? I don't fish in the rain. And I certainly wouldn't fish with a rod that got splashed with boat spray. And I find that if you don't catch any fish you can keep your hands fairly dry anyway. If it wasn't obvious.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-elliott-nhl-labor-20120902,0,6653644.column NHL good at getting labor negotiations wrong By Helene Elliott September 1, 2012, 6:35 p.m. "I know the league's future is bright, and this will be to the benefit of the game. We had no choice but to get it right." — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, July 22, 2005, announcing the labor deal that ended a season-long lockout. Whoops…. Maybe Bettman and the owners who authorized him to cancel the 2004-05 season didn't get it right after all. The collective bargaining agreement they negotiated with the NHL Players' Assn. expires Sept. 15, and the league is again pushing hard for substantial givebacks by players. No new deal, no new season, Bettman has decreed, leaving the hockey world to face the third league-imposed lockout since 1994. It figures: The Kings waited 44 years to win the Stanley Cup and the NHL will implode before they can raise their banner. This dispute was predictable the moment the NBA and NFL won concessions that dropped players' salaries to 47% of agreed-upon revenues in the case of the NFL and to 50% in the case of the NBA. The NHL, which navigated the recession surprisingly well and generated $3.3 billion in revenues last season, wants to change an equation that favored players by 57%-43% and make it 54%-46% in the owners' favor. The cut actually goes deeper because the NHL, citing higher business costs, wants to exclude some currently accepted hockey-related revenues from what players would share in the next deal. If business is booming why shouldn't players share the bounty? The 57% share they want in the fourth year of their proposal is probably a bit high, but the NHL's offer of 46% of a smaller pie is too low. "We need to be paying out less in player costs." — Bettman, Aug. 9, 2012. Maybe so. But who told the New Jersey Devils to overbid for winger Ilya Kovalchuk, offering a 17-year deal that was reworked to $100 million over 15 years? How could the small-market Minnesota Wild afford to sign free agents Ryan Suter and Zach Parise to identical 13-year, $98-million deals in June? The ink on that "get it right" labor deal hadn't dried before general managers found ways to shred it, principally with front-loaded, long-term contracts that reduced the average annual value and salary-cap hit. Another escalating factor has been the huge jump players are taking from their entry-level deals to their second contracts. That rising tide brought other boats up with it. The seven Canadian teams, helped by their dollar's increased strength and the NHL's return to Winnipeg, continue to account for about one-third of ticket revenues in a still heavily gate-driven league. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens will always be pillars of strength, but one small downturn in the value of the Canadian dollar could create havoc. While Bettman is fond of pointing out that the NHL has increased its revenues from $2.2 billion before the current labor agreement to $3.3 billion, he's less fond of discussing the franchise values of some unprofitable small-market teams. In a story dated November, 30 2011, Forbes reported that Bettman had said three years earlier that no NHL franchise was worth less than $200 million. However, since then the Buffalo Sabres were sold for $165 million (plus debts), the St. Louis Blues sold for about $130 million and the Phoenix Coyotes' sale has become a sad, strung-out saga. Former San Jose Sharks executive Greg Jamison has had trouble assembling the financing to meet the $170-million price tag the NHL set for the Coyotes, whom it has operated for nearly three years. Large-market teams are strong, but smaller markets struggle to operate profitably while meeting the rising salary floor, and they've gotten little help through revenue sharing. That made it comical when Bettman last Friday dismissed the NHLPA's insistence on discussing revenue sharing as "distracting." In truth, he's trying to placate powerful big-market owners who don't want to share much with their small-market brothers. It's clear several markets added through the NHL's over-reaching expansion — and others that have been mismanaged — are causing problems owners won't solve on their own, making lockout threats a certainty each time a labor deal expires. "I hope it never happens again. We're both going to kill each other if we do it again." — Mike Gartner, then the NHLPA's director of business relations, on losing a season to a lockout, July 21, 2005. Sorry, but it looks like deja vu all over again. "We recovered last time because we have the world's greatest fans," Bettman said Aug. 23, and with reason. He has two advantages: Hockey remains best seen in rinks rather than on TV, and he knows fans' bottomless passion will bring them back. Whatever happens over the next two weeks fans will return, sadder but wiser. For the moment, they're just sad this is happening again without much apparent chance of a long-term solution. [email protected] twitter.com/helenenothelen

Groupon (Toronto) has an offer for pleasure craft operator cards. Regular $49 on for $24.

Your thumb is huge.

Given when the photo was taken and that it is of a friend's dad. The length and weight may not be known, or remembered, if taken.

Another thing to experiment with is thinning out some of the guards. If you're fishing sparser weeds you don't as much guard.

Sure does look thick. Show me more show me more.

Hey G-man did spincast tell you about having to clean your own fish???

Nice. I'd love to have some fresh cod.

If the players are locked out the ahl will still play.

The guy in the back is 5' 10" 175lbs and the guy in front is 5'8" and 180lbs.

One of the owners who signed 2 free agents for 186 million dollars was on the ownership comity that asked for the 24% rollback. I wonder how many other owners knew of this rollback request while biding on free agents? I wonder if any of the players knew?

The owners are locking out the players. The owners (none of whom have a significant amount of their vast wealth tied up in their nhl teams) are trying to take more of the revenue from the players. The owners continue to sign the big contracts, while claiming they can't afford to. They are either liars or the worst businessmen in the world. (I pick liars.) The owners want a socialized system of paying the players, while not sharing the revenue amongst themselves. Hypocrites. The owners have never once had someone pay a $120 to watch them work. Who would watch an old saggy azzed white guy sit on his butt and find more ways to not pay his taxes? The owners said they needed cost certainly and that ticket prices would go down if there was a cap. They got it and it didn't. Every beer league bozzo says that they would play for free. blah blah blah Easy to say when you own family won't watch you play for free. Imagine how it would go over if your company was making money hand over fist and they came to you and said "We're going to take 24% of your salary." And we are going to reduce your opportunity to make money in the future even though you are the sole reason we make any money. We can shake our head all we want and say they make too much money but they only get paid what the market will bear, well almost, since the owners have a cap. No one has ever been forced to pay for a hockey ticket.

Plumage?!

A pb none the less.

We (the fans) are our own worst enemies. We've always come back and the owners have, and are, basing their lockout on this fact.

Yes you did.

Not touchy. Just find it interesting how often people will respond and follow a thread that they will claim they don't care about.

Change the station.

Yes. It is what he does and he does it well.

Nothing like a manufacture shaving a half ounce on a rod handle, but then you need to add an ounce of wrap to get the right size and feel. Another example of: Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

No mention. Tomorrow's news may have more details.

More likely they didn't have a web site a hundred years ago.

http://www.cp24.com/toronto-area-men-fine-after-boat-sinks-in-lake-simcoe-1.938823#ixzz25B9n9WWg Toronto-area men fine after boat sinks in Lake Simcoe The Canadian Press Published Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 9:50PM EDT INNISFIL, Ont. -- South Simcoe police say two Toronto-area men are unharmed after their boat sank in Lake Simcoe on Friday afternoon. Police say the men were trolling in the Big Bay Point area when a wave came over the stern of the boat causing it to take on water. The pair did not have time to locate and don their life jackets and were forced to abandon the sinking vessel. Using a set of boat seats and a plastic cooler as a flotation device the pair started to swim the nearly one kilometre to shore. The duo were spotted by a passing boater who took them aboard and drove them the rest of the way to shore. Police say their vessel is a complete loss.