JohnF

D'ya think? JF

My haircuts cost $14 but I always give her $20, "her" being the operative word. Call me a chauvinist pig if you will, but dayum, she's cute. JF

It's a conspiracy to get you. JF

It's not a "they", it's a law. Here's the "they" http://www.sse.gov.on.ca/mcs/en/pages/default.aspx Go nuts. JF

Consumer Protection Act JF

How do you thing Big Cliff feels? He can't even catch one. JF

Ask a realtor. Some real estate offices double as cottage rental agents. That would let you do everything with one call. JF

You need to meet my Mom. She's 93 now and sold the store years ago but after spending some time with her and talking to her neighbours you might rethink your cynicism towards business people. Guys, you've gotta trust someone somewhere along the way or life's gonna be a big unhappy mess for you. Sure there's unscrupulous business operators, just like there's crooked lawyers, unethical doctors, irresponsible teachers, corner cutting labourers, and lying salesmen, even sneaky realtors. But by and large most working people in any trade or profession are inherently honest and responsible. The worst most can be accused of is laziness. We risk turning them all into cheating cynics if we're too judgmental of these people. A certain amount of cynicism is healthy but when you let it become your basic philosophy you've lost the game. JF

Here I am again pushing realtor services. If I had that decision to make I'd check out the local realtors and cottage rental services to ask what the rent should/could be and what management services would cost. That takes away all the hands-on stuff and leaves it in the hands of professionals for a nominal fee. The benefit is, besides eliminating personal involvement, is a better vacancy rate and better screening of renters. At the same time ask a realtor for a CMA, a market value estimate that tells you what the property should sell for. None of this has to cost a penny if you approach it the right way and you'll have made an informed decision instead of guessing. JF

Nice pike. Jeez. I might be a tad intimidated coming eyeball to eyeball with pike that size up to my chest their water. JF

I'm pretty sure there are lots like me who would really like to experience some new scenery but have no idea where to start, or are just a little shy about blundering into unknown territory. I've had a great guide introduce me to my area so that now i know all the places I can and can't, or should and shouldn't go. Hint. We don't get trout up this way but I understand there are streams down southeast of here that hold some brook trout. You know anything about that? JF

Are there any out there who just get tired of their local creeks and would like to visit some other guys' wading territory? I tend to hang out in a 4 or 5 mile stretch of the Thames near Stratford and frankly, the bass numbers are limited but the fun is still there. I can't imagine a few newcomers is going to spoil the fun for us locals. I seldom run across anyone else already in any of my creek spots but then I tend not to stay in one place. I like to move, sometimes pretty good distances, looking for the smallmouths in little holes that catch me by surprise. None of my water is overly deep and viz is usually good so there's not much difficulty involved in wading. It's more about balance on the tricky rock bottoms. We do have a few nice flat bottom spots though. I'm not suggesting it's worth anyone's time to drive a long distance for what our area offers but the creek tends to be fairly small and isolated from roads and can be quite pretty in many spots. I hunt smb's, pike and the incidental carp or sucker. There's always something to see. Deer, beaver, wild mink, snapping turtles, bottom dwellers and assorted creek life. Sometimes I just get a kick out of the big carp and suckers swimming around my feet. I'm always entertained even when I don't get into fish. Lately the bass are running bigger than normal. Since opener I've caught 3 18 inchers which is pretty good for the river. The pike tend to stick to their own areas so I pretty well know when to use leaders and when I can go straight hook/line. The water's shallow so topwater is good, twitched floating minnows, or shallow crankbaits. I lean towards tubes and wacky worms. For gear I like light and simple. I carry my tackle options in a small shoulder bag with an adjustable strap for deeper water. I use the lightest rod/reel possible as I'll often go for hours without leaving the water. Spinning rigs make the most sense although I've been playing with a 6' casting rod. I'm determined to add flyfishing to my bass repertoire this summer. I usually wear waders but wet wading isn't a stupid idea. I recommend a pair of river shoes though. I have extra waders or boots for those who don't like to get wet and most prefer to use them the first few times out at least. I realize this is dicey sharing creek knowledge but I like to think of it as simply trading. I would never spill the beans on someone else's spots. When I get someone new out on the water I just play it by ear about how much I share with them. Like I said most of the spots around here aren't that much of a secret. It's more a case of who has the will to wade for hours to find some fun. Sometimes we just jump in the car with our waders on and drive to a different spot. So there's an invitation to folks from close by. If you want to see the creeks I play in let me know and we can arrange a g2g. I won't promise huge numbers of fish but you'll see some nice country from the water and hopefully get a few bass and/or pike. I always like meeting new OFC friends. Haven't been let down yet. JF

Is it possibly about fishing water too shallow for the depth of the lure? It's tempting to bottom bounce but for some lures the lip is gonna take all the stress. I bottom bounce weighted tubes all the time but there's no lip to break off. JF

I mentioned this in another thread but perhaps it's worth a separate thread. I've been noticing since bass opener that the Thames locally seems healthier than I've seen it for the five years I've been fishing. There are far more minnow schools, loads of baby bass, lots of bottom dweller fish like sculpins and the rocks are crawling with crayfish. I'm thinking that it may have something to do with the fact that we had little spring flooding this year to wash the fishies down stream. Last year for bass opener I couldn't get in the water it was running so high and fast. Of course the downside is I suspect there's too much easy forage for the bass so they're not hungry for my lures. For some reason I'm not catching the dinks like other years. The bass that I'm catching are fewer in number and 3-5" longer than average and I'm catching them in different water than other years. Just wondering if anyone else is noticing this in their water. JF

Seems to me that with the rising cost of fuel these days, the environmental protection movement, and the push to get active in the out of doors there'd be a growing market for canoes. I've tried sea kayaks for two and I think I'd take a canoe any time. It seems people are getting bigger all the time which kind of works against the kayak theme. Canoes should be gaining popularity. JF

OK. When I wuz a young feller I couldn't bring myself to be an Elvis fan so I combed my hair (I used to have it) like Perry Como. He did pretty well for a barber, huh? JF

I've been told that the glare off my scalp frightens the fish. There's no way I'm smearing mud on my head to make my friends happy. JF

I have never seen as many crayfish as I have this year. Today was probably the craziest number. It's nice prowling the creek. I'm sure some folks think I'm nuts to keep going back for the occasional small bass or pike but there's always something to look at when the fish aren't playing. The other day we found a tiny little sunfish of some kind that we've never seen before in the Thames or Trout Creek and we grew up with this water as our playground. The little guy was already dead but it was the kind with a lot of green and the little black ears. Wish we'd taken a pic. I'm guessing Bluegill. JF

Ya mean I coulda stayed on the bank and the bass would have come looking for me? JF

It was a surprise. JF

Waytago. JF

Sounds right. It's a popular spot for the shore fishing access. If you look very carefully in the one pic you can just see the roof of my Flex down past the bridge. For those of you worried that we're divulging some great secret here, this is about as popular a spot between Strtaford and St.Marys as there is. It's been over fished for years and I seldom bother with it. The few times I have gone there's usually some yahoos show up with a cooler and some worms and start splashing over our lines in the pool where the rivers meet. This morning was just luck and I had to get away from the shore fishing area to find the fish. It's a nasty water hike to get where I went so I don't think a lot of folks are interested. I had better luck south of town just at the end of the pavement. You'll probably know that spot as well. Watch out for pike there though (use a leader). JF

It's a great incentive not to run accounts receivable. I don't know what sort of business you're in but won't you be saving on the increased ITC's now, not to mention doing only one tax remittance instead of two. JF

Took the new Shimano rig out this morning. Here's where I went. The walking is treacherous. The rocks are all tippy and loose and the weed growth on shore is too dense to fight thru. I started off in a well known pool where two rivers meet but saw nary a hint of bass. After a few casts I started moving upstream over the rolling rocks. I guess I've got my river legs going again as I was actually moving quite nimbly for an old fart. This area is so bad that it's the only place I always carry my cell phone just in case. I've twisted an ankle pretty badly in there before. Normally I hike well upstream to the next pool but some spirit moved me to be stealthy where I never would be usually. It's a very shallow rocky run that's no more than 12" deep. Here's what it looks like. I was sneaking along, hopping from dry rock to dry rock wherever possible so I didn't spook the pool. I was actually admiring the number of minnows, crayfish and baby bass I was seeing. The numbers of crayfish was particularly outstanding. The river looks the healthiest I've ever seen it with more life than I've ever seen. Here's a pic of a few crayfish. I just stopped, aimed the camera down and snapped. I can see at least two in the pic and often I'd see as many as 6 or 7 all scuttling around. See if you can find 'em. There are two pretty much in the centre of the pic. As I was taking note of the number of baby bass I started seeing impressive numbers of dinks scooting about in the rocks so I started paying attention. Sure enough there were some bigger ones in there as well. It's not the kind of water I expect to see smallmouths in - 12" deep and exposed to the bright sun - when there are deeper pools only 100' away. I figured I might as well give it a go so I started working a lightly weighted weedless hooked white tube all over the pool trying to emulate a crab as much as possible. The weighted tube makes a pretty good bait for covering a lot of water pretty fast. With the weight I can fire it out 75' or so and get lots of bottom time on the retrieve. I'd only made a few casts when I got something on. Sure was a great fight. I wasn't too familiar with the new Stradic so I was playing with the drag a bit. What a nice smooth reel. So I got the smallmouth in and it turned out to be an 18 1/2" fish with decent size. No wonder it gave me a good tussle. Here's a bad pic but what are ya gonna do standing in the water on tippy rocks balancing a rod, a fish and a camera. My arms are only so long. That fish must have been bellyrubbing on the bottom cruising around that shallow area. That was the only fish I caught but it was a nice one. I had a few worm pickups but they didn't take the hook. I was really pleased with the Stradic/Cumara combo. Nice and lite, easy to cast without taking a big swing, sensitive. The weight is really what I was looking for. A heavy rod and reel gets really heavy after 4 or 5 hours of carrying and wading. This rig feels noticeably lighter than what I'm accustomed to. I was a little disappointed in the short crank arm on the Stradic at first (it's the 1000 series) but then I discovered the arm gives me exactly the right pace on the retrieve with all the different baits I tried. I have no complaints at all with the reel and I understand why a lot of folks cringe at the idea of paying that much for a spinning rod/reel but remember that I'm an old fart and deserve a few luxuries. I don't really splurge on much any more so once in a while is okay, isn't it? As for the Cumara, if I'd had another hand or two I'd have snapped a pic of the bowed rod during the fight. It's pretty. That's my fun for this Sunday morning. JF

That's the key point that a lot of folks don't understand. I believe the government is saying it might take as long as 5 years for the system to catch up with the already paid 8% tax which sounds like a handout to business to get them onside from the gitgo. The truth is that many businesses will see it as an opportunity to pad an extra 8% margin into their pricing as long as the government is taking the heat anyway. We asked the minister what the government was doing to pressure the business world to be fair about reflecting the tax savings in the end user pricing. His reply was naive at best. JF