JohnF

Well, let me know if they accept the challenge. I'll be there with camera in hand. Of course, if the constabulary ever ask, the film was defective. I love gentle anarchy when the dicks get burned. JF

I still think it woulda worked much better if you'd called it Spotted Dick. At least the Englishmen among us would have understood. JF

All ya need is an ex NFLer about 280# with a few scars and a short stiff rod with 60# PP and a big treble on a heavy spoon. He can cross and snag all those wrongdoers lines, reel 'em in, cut 'em and defy the guys working them to do anything about it. If they try to reload he just bounces the spoon off them (or into them) a time or two. That would be better than any scrawny little MNR dudes in flak jackets. JF

A good travel agent will be able to tell you the laws wherever you're going. Call yours. JF

Okay, seriously folks, not that Dawg deserves much serious on this forum considering the way he hands out the fun(?) but these freakin' things are art. I just got back from working at my mom's place and started looking at them again and there are nuances of colour and light that I didn't even see before. I can hardly wait to get my artist buddy to give his reaction. I'm thinking he's gonna be knocked out. And this is the guy who has quite a few thousand of my dollars for all the dust collectors on our walls here at home. I only put up with him cuz he's a fisherman and likes scotch too. I tried to get some pics that show the subtlety of the colours but I can't get the light right with this camera. I'll get my artsy buddy to shoot some for y'all so you can see what I mean. I actually feel guilty that I didn't pay more for these. I dunno if they catch fish but the effort & creativity that went into them is enuf to give value. They may only be jigs to some folks but they're up there on a whole nuther plane to me. Pics to follow when I can get Rob to pose them for me. Good job, Dawg. You may have squandered all those years earning a living in construction. You could have been starving as a great artist the whole time. JF

Hah! I see y'all warn't smart enuf to git his X on your'n. Jes' wait till ya see how much mine are gonna sell fer in about 150 years. You\ll be sorry. JF

They just seem somehow too purty to end up in some smelly fish yap. JF

So in the middle of my busy morning my secretary came in to say that I had mail and rather unceremoniously dropped a little bitty cardboard box on my desk. Never one to read instructions I ripped it open and out fell this tupperware container - It looked like shrimp, nicely butterflied and breaded then dipped in food colouring. Hmmm thought I. Qu'est ce que c'est ca? Or should I say "what's this aboot" cuz that's apparently the way some of our brethren from the nether regions think us Canucks talk. Well, upon closer inspection, I noticed that they were in fact not shrimp. Don't ask how I came to this realization, but one of them still has teeth marks in it. Here's what I found when I looked closer - And under the top layer - And one layer later - And finally - Dayum! They looked good enuf to eat. Some of you may remember when we held an auction on line and in a fit of chauvinistic pride I upped the bid when the rest of you let a mere girl outbid y'all. Well, the fact was I recognized this as an opportunity to acquire some real folk art and was cunning enuf to insist that the artist slap his moniker on each and every one of these little doodads that he had contributed. So he did. If'n y'all look closely y'all kin see where he made his mark. Not bad fer a country boy from suburban Alabama, eh? These little jigger are by gum real art, way too purty to sully with a smelly minnow or worm. But I think I will all the same. Then I just have to figger out what the heck to do with 'em when I git the meat hung on just right. Anyone know if these things catch fish? JF

To paraphrase - sometimes the truth is even better than fiction. Would that my own son had a story like that to tell. Waytago Dad! You shake his hand for me, and tell him why. JF

Or yer wife finds out that the fish bits are the reason the tomatoes she likes so well are so big and healthy. Suddenly they're revolting. JF

A friend of mine fillets 'em and buries the leftovers as fertilizer. JF

Nice way to spend a day, but what's that lure she's holdin'? JF

If this is a plastic tank try dropping in a few pennies with the solvent (whatever you use), and tumble the pennies for a while. They'll scrape the crud off the plastic. JF

I've been experimenting with that, using Palomar knots. I knocked the ceramic ring out of my tip guide the other day. I guess I let the swivel sneak up above it. JF

Doesn't TJ get cold swimming under the dock to hook those on for you girls? JF

You let slip a hot spot for gobies. JF

That's what slays me. I get juvenile midgets and tell someone about the spot. They go to it once and get the grownups. Life sux when yer me. JF

When I refer to the Thames I'm talking about water that may be only 15' wide in spots and seldom deeper than 2', but it runs for many many miles through a lot of towns and even counties. It's not too hard to figure out the spots that are popular by the trampled grass on the shoreline but even shorefishing is often not an option. The nettles and now that poisonous stuff (sow weed?) are pretty good deterrents to all but the most hard core. Frankly the spots I like are generally only accessible to waders and I haven't seen many folks on the Thames willing to wet their dainty toes, so even if I spilled the beans (no offense, Beans) it probably wouldn't hurt the spot much. All I have to do is to remember to mention the snapping turkles and the humongous leechs to keep most waders away. The few good secrets I have shared have resulted in pretty happy fisherpersons, which I like to see. In fact in several cases they proved the site was even better than I'd thought, which gave me added enthusiasm to get back there and try it again, or try it diferently. Obviously I don't agree that we need to be more secretive generally, but I can sympathize with the folks who want to protect their good spots in the busier urban areas. It's hard, even impossible, to satisfy everyone all the time. I for one like the little hints that get thrown out. It makes me more aware as I'm travelling through new areas. I'm always wondering if that's the bridge so and so caught all those fish under. JF

He had the volume too high. Ya could hear the suction. JF

Dude. It was too skinny to have any pulling power. You should have been able to reel it in AND eat yer chicken at the same time. JF

Hmmm. I wonder if Dave minds being called a "pit"? JF

I think he was just talking about fishing gear. JF

Did ya weigh it? JF

Gonna have to try to check it out soon. We're only 30 minutes or so from the market. Actually we were there a couple of Saturdays back. JF

Divers are forever trying to quantify this progressive loss of colour (i.e. depth at which it occurs) but it's more about water clarity and distance from subject than actual depth. In average visibility fresh water it's been my personal experience that the red colour starts to disappear as shallow as 15' but that's just a generalization. If the swimmer (or camera) carries a light source that "rule" changes depending on how close the light source and the viewer are to the subject. The important thing is that red and orange are the first colours to be rendered ineffective at depth, while yellows and light greens (like chartreuse) remain visible the longest. JF