singingdog

Another vote for the spoon/fly set-up. It can be tough to cast, but is a definite fish catcher.

City folks! We purposefully keep the cell-phone coverage sparse up here just to keep the density of 416/905ers to a bare minimum Really, no need to abort an adventure because we cancelled the spring bear hunt. In all my time crashing into backwoods trout lakes I have never even seen a bear. Any time I have seen a bear at other times of the year, it's a brief glimpse of them running the other way as fast as they can.

Another vote for spinning for weightless plastics. I have thrown them on baitcasters and see no benefit.

still plenty of ice on lakes with no flow. Where there is any flow at all - Mountain Lake is a good example - the ice is going as fast as I have ever seen it.

Should have picked up those Compre's last season - I know I am kicking myself for not doing it. The prices have gone through the roof on them this year.

Yep, solid and thick on the main body of lakes, getting thin where there is flow. I am still seeing pickups on the ice on Koshlong.

Wrap some braided line around the base of the R, then add a spot of super-glue. The only time I do this is for Musky/Pike. Otherwise, I tie directly to the fram.

This is way bigger than a dam on the Rupert. It could fundamentally change our access to any river that isn't deep enough for commercial boat traffic to navigate. One of the biggest potential effects of this legislation will be access to small streams. Right now, navigable streams are considered public property. Under the changes, any stream with less than a meter of draft will no longer be considered navigable and may lose it's status as public property. This affects a huge majority of recreational fishing and canoeing streams. Private land owners will be allowed to make modifications, bridges, small dams, and fences across streams that right now are open to canoeing, wading and fishing.

T2's are great spinnerbaits, especially at that price! They use slightly cheaper components on the T2's, but they still catch fish, and they still stand up to abuse better than a steel-frame spinnerbait.

PowerPro works great on spinning reels. I have a couple of reel with 4 yr old Power Pro on them, still going strong. IMHO pure flouro and spinning reels are not a good mix: too stiff.

20 minutes won't do it for weight loss. As several folks have mentioned, long, slow exercise is more effective for actually buring fat than short, intense exercise. You have to be exercising aerobically to burn fat. As soon as you go anaerobic, you are just using the glycogen stored in your muscles. Aerobic exercise is way slower/easier than even experienced athletes think. If you can't carry on a normal conversation, you are probably going too hard for an aerobic workout. If you are after weight loss, an hours walk will do more for you than 20 minutes of heart-pounding intensity. The other upside is that long, slow workouts build endurance better than short, high-intensity workouts.

IMHO, put either one in front of a hungry fish and they will produce. I put all those plastics - hula grubs, craws, creatures, beavers, otters - in the same category. Fish them either on a bass jig, or T-rigged on a wide gap hook. I would use them to target fish holding to cover or structure.

I'm very surprised to hear that someone thinks the Hybrid is "crunchy": that isn't my experience at all. I find it very limp, very low memory and incredibly strong for it's diameter. I was turned on to it by some hardcore smallmouth fisherman down south. Maybe I just got a good spool of it?

IMHO it is the best hybrid line out there: great knot strength, very soft, abrasion resistant. It's about the only line I use beside braid. It works so well for me that I actually downsize a line with it, using 6 lb test where I would normally use 8. Bass Depot, just outside of Pboro definitly carried it this fall.

My guaranteed formula for catching musky: tie on an expensive jerk-bait (LCs work, but anything that you spend a lot of time picking-out and more than $15 on usually works) or pretty much any other bass lure that you are loathe to lose (make sure you don't have a leader on), go to my favourite bass-spot and WHAM! Musky. Honestly, you need to get up this way. I can put you on lakes where the issue is keeping medium sized musky - up to 36" - off your line while bass fishing. I don't do it from shore, but plenty of folks in downtown Haliburton catch musky from shore while targetting bass or walleye. If you're fishing for the monsters, specialised tackle and lures may be necessary. I have landed dozens on MH bass tackle, 20 lb braid and white/chart spinnerbaits.

I agree with you about car/handheld units. There is a difference in some higher-end handhelds in terms of sensitivity, and the ability to pick up reflected and distorted signals. Something like the 60cx will get a good signal in places that cheaper units may not. Not an issue on the water, but great in terrain or thick trees.

Coopers. The round/square tail shape is not the best field mark for distinguishing between a coopers and a sharpie: tail shape is quite variable in sharpies. Wing shape and overall shape in flight is the best way to distinguish between the 2. Sharpies have a very "hunched" look: short neck, immobile head, and wings held slightly forward in flight. Coopers look like a crucifix in flight: long, mobile neck with straighter, narrower wings. The difference in neck length, and mobility, is a good guide when the bird is sitting. A coopers hawk can look almost 180 degrees without moving it's body, and will "crane" it's neck to look at the ground. Sharpies have "stiff necks" and must turn their body or drop their shoulder to look behind them. They tilt forward or "tuck their chin" to look down. Plumage is tough between the two. There is a difference between the streaking on the breast: sharpies have wide streaks, coopers thin streaks. Sharpies usually look "dirty chested" compared to Coopers, but that takes lots of observation which is hard with these 2 birds that are seldom seen. The best plumage mark is the Coopers' broader, whiter terminal band on the tail: it is rarely visible on a sharpy, but quite obvious on coopers.

I would definitly add a spinnerbait to your arsenal. It is great for targetting the edges, and over the top, of weed beds. Some folks don't have confidence in them because they don't look like any kind of bass forage, but there is a reason that virtually every boat in a tournament will have spinnerbaits tied onto at least one rod. You can burn them fast over the tops of submerged weeds, fish them slow along the edges, and drop them into pockets in the thicker stuff. Texas-rigged plastics (tubes, craws, worms....) are another great way to fish the weeds. If you have enough weight, they work just like a jig. Ohiofisherman describes is well: think of the entire weed bed as a "forest" and think about where the bass will be waiting to ambush food: under the canopy, along the outside edges, and along any edge (at vegetation shifts and pockets) in the thick of the "forest".

Down: less hook fouling and the tail moves better at slow speeds and on the fall.

Bingo!

The Trent/Fleming agreement is a good one....one of the best college/university partnerships around IMHO. I teach at the Haliburton campus of Fleming college. My advice is going to be more general. Look at programs that give you the most options. One of the main reasons to go to college or university is not so much the specific knowledge you will gain, but to immerse yourself in the 'culture' of your area of interest: the people, language, and possibilities that make up that field. You will learn a ton about the field just by being exposed to that 'culture'...open yourself up to it. You seem to have an idea of what you want to do....ask yourself the question "why do I want to do that?"....lifestyle (being outdoors)?....commitment to enforcment/preservation of the resource?....love of nature?....love of applied science? Each one of those answers can lead to other paths. For example, if you are pursuing fish/wildlife because of the lifestyle - being outdoors, interacting with other like-minded outdoors people - then another career option might be tourism. Really interesting things are happening in the traditional hunt/fish camps as they broaden their customer base. A great program for that is the Algonquin College Naturalist Adventure program. Good luck!

Faulty logic? Ontario's bass regs just don't hold up to scrutiny when compared to other jurisdictions with very similar conditions (northern states with very similar lakes and seasonal conditions). There are lots of places where bass are targetted much more heavily than here - more fisherman, more tournaments - that have year-round seasons and maintain very healthy fisheries. In this area, trout and walleye are targetted by way more fisherfolks than bass, and they are open for hardwater season.

OK...I don't like it as well as PowerPro. I don't think it handles as well and seems a little more finicky for knots. I would take it over Vanish any day, but I am not a Vanish fan. I can't think of one advantage Vanish has over line costing far less.

I only see one person "squawking", and it's not smalliefisher. If you see this post every year, and it irritates you every year, then why not stop reading it and keeping it alive by constantly responding to it? Good on ya smalliefisher for bringing it to folks attention. You'll notice that it's almost always bait containers, rarely lure packages.....hmmmm something about live-bait fisherman

All the problems described in the original post are user-related, not line-type related. If spooled properly, braid does not slip. As well, braid is LESS abrasion resistant than a good hybrid or even many monos. Around rocks is the only place that I will put a leader on braid.