bigfish1965

In Rice Lake you can keep 300...sorry, I know thats not much, but its all we got.

Here's some help

I have a Gibson Epiphone...great sound and great to learn on. Action is a little high out of the box, so an adjustment makes a big difference,].

Damm...I have something for you, too Wayne. I will have to post it on here later tonite then.

Getting excited now! I am soooo psyched. This trip came close to falling apart on me so many times but finally have everything together. Won't have the boat (damn full leak!) , but a good friend is taking care of us and may rent a boat for one day too. Bring a new batter witch with me too Not sure what cottage Kevin has us in, but don't care. Fishing, relaxing and a ton of pictures!!! Be there Thursday around dinner and leaving Sunday about lunch. Weather looks decent so far!! http://www.theweathe...ather_savedcity

Come to Lakair and I can pretty much guarantee it...lol. TJ usually ends up half naked wrestling someone or something.

Welcome Teressa! I met your father 25 years ago (we getting old Cliff) on the French River on my first trip there. My buddy and I got shut out and Cliff told us of Flat Rapids Camp and we fished for many, many years there after that and caught lots of great fish., Your Dad is one of the good ones, and the apple never falls too far from the tree, I hear .

Minks and their cousins, river otters and weasels are not uncommon in the area where there is habitat. They are more common further north, though.

Here is an actual trail cam pic from a family of badgers in Southern Ontario taken a few days ago. Location is undisclosed to protect them, but it is southwestern Ontario. This was sent to me yesterday by Josh Sayers, head of the project.

Put in a query with the guys and tell them this...if we have enough reports here I will also get them to monitor the thread. Thanks walleyejigger.

Please put in a report on their website. They are doing well in the KW area and one of the techs (Mike) lives that way I think. If you can get them a few pics and a GPS coordinate that would be bonus, but a general area description is pretty good. Should we start the bail fund for you now...lol...

Was out with a guide on Lake O that did that. Every time he saw a fish on the sonar, he'd get one of us to bump the bottom with the canon ball...every single time the fish hit. It was quite the trick!

The general idea is to transfer weight of the motor fromt he transom to the trailer frame directly. If you have a smaller motor and can travel with it in the down position, its not a big deal. If you have a heavier motor or one that needs to be tilted up or if you travel nasty back roads, it is money well spent. The motor bouncing puts unusual stresses on the transom which can twist and bugger things up.

I have had the pleasure of working lately with the Ontario Badgers project. They are working hard at trying to find and document burrows and populations. The badger is on the endangered species list and its return to Southern Ontario is important. Right now the migration appears to be from the extreme southwest (Windsor) though to Niagara. Please take a moment to make yourself familiar with the signs of badger activity and report any possible signs to the project on their website. http://www.ontariobadgers.com/index.html I am awaiting DNA confirmation on my first burrow find....which was only 300 meters from my house!! Contrary to their reputation, badgers are docile and somewhat secretive. But i sure wouldn't want to tangle with one!!!

The noises we heard were from the trees and seemed to move so it points to either some migratory owl or other bird. I remember the noise, similar to a screech owl but more 'throaty'. They were around for a few weeks and camouflage very well, whatever they were. Worst noise i have heard this year so far is from what I assume was an owl snatching a rabbit into a tree and having a hard time killing it. Now i know why the predator calls work so well.

Give them a call, Tristar. Even if they have nothing, we always manage to find space for everyone 1-800-381-5145

Not unusual and i would suspect we will see another die off soon. With the lakes increasing in temp so fast, thermal shock will take many of them if we get a storm strong enough to roll up the colder waters. Alewife fall victim to this almost every year.

Sorry for your loss, Jamie. My deepest condolences to you and your family.

The Lake Erie fish is a more prolific spawner but does not reach the size of the Quinte strain. I am starting to see Erie fish here..you can tell the difference by the hump that the Quinte fish get. Those stocking NY side for some reason have been using Erie fish. Since it is a shared waterway, it is in our best interest to maintain the current natural strain. Giving them the eggs they need is a small sacrifice on out part.

Increase base license fee to $40 per year and abolish conservation license. Licenses would be the same for resident and non-residents. Introduce tags for trout/salmon and for musky ($10 per tag) to increase funding for stocking each. Use increased revenue to add 50 new CO's and 200 deputy CO's and 25 biologists. Decrease sunfish limits to 275 in zone 17....just to get me name in the paper. Give New York State as many Quinte strain walleye eggs as they want to prevent them from using Erie strain as they are doing now to stock Lake Ontario. Enter into agreements with adjoining states allowing licenses to be valid in each others jurisdiction, Pressure federal government to buy out native netting rights and buy out commercial licenses on Lake Erie. Allow all college and university students to use current student ID in lieu of license. Create 40 HP and under zones as well as electric only zones. Increase fines to municipalities who impede with angling or restrict angling opportunities. Introduce "Assumed Risk" laws releasing all land owners of responsibility for angling injuries/deaths except in cases of negligence or malice. Enter into agreements with US states restricting great lakes diversion

I would not say that good management means taking over the role of predator. Sharing the role, certainly, but being exclusive predator...bad idea. There are too many over lapping areas where hunting is permitted and not. As far as S. Ontario goes, we need those predators. Where would the rabbit and rodent population be if not for the coyotes? What farm damage would occur without a 24/7 predator about. Sure they take sheep and chickens, but the primary food for them is rodents. The population tells you the food source is good still. They are healthy, big and have no mange. We will see in the next few weeks what the litters are like. Now the biggest thing...the coyotes are here to stay. You cannot kill them off. There are too many areas where hunting is not allowed..any attempt at a cull will drive the coyotes deeper into the city and increase litter sizes. There they will adapt to us..thats when it gets bad. It is only a matter of time before the bears get here. I hope we learn by then that killing off animals just because we don't know what to do with them or because we are afraid of them is not the answer. You cannot eliminate a species without a massive campaign that will never,ever get public approval. This is not Germany. They have done so much to destroy their wolf population that an abundance of deer and other wildlife was inevitable. The provinces animals got along just fine before we got here. The ideal is to have as little interference as we can. A return to the natural and indigenous animals has always been the goal of the plan for Ontario. BTW....watch the tick population do a massive explosion this year...I mean massive..on a scale we have never seen. All the ingredients are in place. The only thing that can alter this wildlife swing is a hot and dry summer.

Just like training a dog is actually about training the owner, wildlife management is more about managing the people. The first step in any plan is reducing incursion via non-destructive techniques. Having a balanced system is more important than providing hunting opportunities because achieving that ensures good hunting. Good hunting is the result of a good plan, not the goal.

Wow...what planet did that response come from?? First, wildlife management plans are not killing plans, they are plans to deal with the inevitable. Lets break this down a bit further...I will relate this all to St Catharines since thats where I am. The beavers first came back about 12 years ago in very small numbers. Then successive years of heavy rain created a massive population increase, not only here, but province wide. You CANNOT GET RID OF BEAVERS. You can adapt. Niagara beavers do not make dams. They are bank beavers. Yes, they eat trees but since we don't have a forest management plan in place and since we artificially suppress forest fires here, the beaver may actually improve the over all tree health. The natural ecosystem is always the best manager. They do not eat trees more than 50 meters from the waters edge, so we can plot their likely movements and population threshold. The coyotes-- the same rainy seasons brought an exponential increase in rodent and prey populations. We have few predators here. The hawks have probably increased their numbers by 4 times. But it was not enough. This opened the door for the formerly rural coyote to move in. Since St Catharines has a nearly perfectly aligned connection of green spaces and parks, the coyotes marched through. They adapted by going nocturnal. They multiplied rapidly due to the huge food source of rabbits and beaver and other rodentia. The coyotes in southern Ontario are all wold/coyote hybrids (or more accurately descendants of same). They habe the genetic code for greater adaptation and size. A cull is a total waste of time. It simply creates larger litters and since the mating pair rarely put themselves in harms way, does nothing to stop reproduction. Now, if people do not stop doing things like feeding pets outdoors, not cleaning up dog feces in parks, not using animal proof garbage containers, etc, there will be a big problem should the natural foods die off. They are already getting accustomed to us. If we do not ready the people for this, there will be problems. The badger is a VERY recent returnee. It is endangered and may not be meddled with in any way shape or form. The return of these animals is NOT artificial. It is adaptation and new found habitat and we 'green' more areas. They are simply coming back to where they were and are reacting to climate change as well. BTW...if you don't think we have a big ecological and climate shift here, walk through a conservation area in your shorts this weekend. You will be picking out ticks for a week. Ten years ago there were almost none here...now they are every where.

There has been a massive shift in the last ten years in S. Ontario. First the beavers, then the coyotes, badgers and now bears. The moose are as far south as Guelph. We have to get used to it and know that we just can't kill them as they show up. Dogs kill more people every year than bears. We are setting ourselves up by ignoring the fact that we are creating the problem, not the animals. We are still acting like the animals are not here and are now creating coyotes with little fear of man living right in major urban centers. Municipalities do nothing. I am in the midst of a big Urban Wildlife program for Niagara. We have coyotes, badgers and beavers. We didnt have them 10 years ago....but as their population increases we are becoming a food source. This is setting us up for confrontation. It is very simple. We must adapt before the animals do...if the coyotes and bears see us as food suppliers, things will get bad very fast. The growth of these animals is far beyond anything seen before. A Niagara coyote at 75 lbs is not unusual. There really needs to be a massive education campaign to teach people who don't see these animals other than on TV what to do. I don't know enough about what happened in London, but I do hope the cop gets a reprimand for the trophy pose. It was a terrible kill according to the report, taking several hours. There is a difference between a hunt and having to dispatch an animal for safety. The latter should never be celebrated....ever! The animals are coming back...so we might as well get used to it.

Both landowners and the outdoors public must be reasonable and respectful in exercising their rights and obligations. Lets end it with that line, shall we??