JohnF

I just scrounged around in my toolbox and found an old pair of Gray sidecutters - nice small ones that my Dad must have had years ago (50's). I tested them on the thickest gauge hook I have in my kit and it clipped it off without a hint of hesitation and very little pressure from me. I'm now carrying these at all times. If any of you have access to some older tools check it out. JF

When I think back to all the dumb go-faster stuff we did in boats in our younger years I have no problem travelling on the water now sans pfd. The law says I gotta have one on the boat. Cool. But the law of averages says I'm bulletproof now. The reality is I'm not likely to ever do anything as stupid in boats as I did as a kid. The only time a pfd might have come in handy was the time as teenagers (old enuf to know better) we head-oned two boats whilst jousting (don't even ask) and one of the guys went over the bow at full tilt, whacking his skull on the other boat's gun'l and sinking to the bottom unconscious. We were there immediately and went in the water after him (it was only 5' deep) and had him back in the boat within seconds - literally. He was unconscious from the whack on the skull but breathing fine so we took him home to his momma. She went batshit on us, but it was fleeting as she wanted to get him medical attention. We just stayed away from his dock and house for a while after that event. She chilled eventually. He went on to an enviable career as a high school teacher near Barrie, etc etc etc. My point is that I'll take me chances with a device somewhere within reach on the boat that will keep me afloat for that improbable occasion I'll need it. I really don't wanna be burdened with gear that isn't adding to my fun while on the water. I've survived over 6 decades now with that attitude so I'm willing to take my chances from here on in. By the by - I'm purty durned comfy in the water. I've floated several miles off shore innumerable times in the Atlantic and the Caribbean while scuba diving. I don't recommend this same cavalier attitude to those a little shakey on the briny deep. There's no shame in respecting the dangers of water. Just be aware of your own limits and comfort levels. If I had any concerns about my own ability to survive in the water I'd probably be a huge fan of self-inflating devices, but I can buy a lot of really cool fishing crap with $200. Your mileage may, and probably will, vary. JF

Be gentle. Monique will explain it to him. JF

Yup. Been noticing it for a few days now. JF

Metoo. We can't change it here. JF

Guys. When life turns crappy, look for the good in it. I know it's hard to just ignore the crap but keep reminding yerself there's good stuff out there, too. Keep smiling through whatever life dumps on you cuz one thing's fer sure - something worse is gonna happen one day and if you've used up yer worst frown, yer screwed. Going fishing is good. JF

Okay. So nona these guys are racing ya. Horsepower is a goodness. Waytago!!!! JF

That would be a woody. Do fishermen (and I use the men part advisedly) call that a finny or a claspery or something? JF

It's no big deal. I grew up with a river in my back yard. Could go out any time I wanted and score suckers and rock bass. Oh, and we had mud puppies and runaway mink (nasty little bastidges) ...... and huge snapping turtles ...... and carp ..... and brown trout (the kind without fins - this was before they got fussy about what was dumped into the waterways) .... Okay, so Simon's got a better deal. JF

With some guys there is no such thing as upwind. I can introduce you to a guy who can .... well, never mind. Just trust me. There is no upwind when he's polished off a dozen Black Labels and a jar of pickled eggs. He could clear the Air Canada Centre on a given day (almost any Saturday or Sunday morning). I've cleared a small cottage on occasion but he's a master blaster. JF

Are there hills in outhouses? You guys really get into some rustic locations, doncha? JF

Buck doesn't look so damned disinterested in that shot. He looks more like he's tryin' to decide which end to lunge at first. JF

I didn't mean to cast aspersions on Buck. I like him. I relate to fat hairy guys. I think it was the combination of Buck & Vu that made the boat seem very small at times. I liked your complacency when Buck made one of a number of trips overboard. By then I was inured so I was pretty nonchalant when I mentioned to you that "Oh, by the by, Buck's overboard again." as if you were likely to miss the splash. You were like "He just needs to take a poop." or whatever. Sho nuff, he swam to shore, scrambled up the rocks, and then went out of sight for 10 or 15 minutes. We could hear him crashing around in the trees (deerstalker he ain't) until finally there was a SPLASH and there was Buck stroking for the boat like we hadn't moved 100 yds along the shore. He knew exackly what we were doing and where to find us. The boat had been wonderfully peaceful for a few moments but then Vu threw a hissy fit, hollering at Garry and the world to "SAVE BUCK, DAMMIT! HE"S IN THAT WET STUFF AGAIN." Of course he was speaking Dog, not English. JF

I just received an email saying my teaching assignment for June is cancelled, which apparently frees me up for the G2G if there's any room available. I know I'm late but ya can't blame a guy fer tryin'. I still need to confirm the cancellation. It may well be re-scheduled or something like that but I'd sure like to get after those Nipissing fish, especially of the green trout variety. I guess they'll have transmogrified into bass by then, huh? I can sleep in my over-sized SUV if I can park on a corner of a campsite or get a site of my own. I don't mind paying rent. Then there's the problem of getting out to the fishies. I have no boat. I'm a good durable swimmer but not with a rod & reel in hand. JF

Be careful what you wish for. JF

You don't know the half of it, young fella. JF

Puppy????? Once upon a time I wuz fishing with Garry, Buck and Vu. Vu is a little white hairball that reminds me of the little critter in the cartoon that was forever bouncing around his big doggy bud yapping away incessantly. Buck is the great hairy bass monster who ignores the yappy little sidekick. His role in life, at least when on the bassboat, is to get BASS!!!!! The first time I hauled in a fish on Garry's boat I misunderstood when Garry kept telling me to "Get in in quick, and keep it high." I thought he meant to horse it in and keep the rod tip up. Silly me. He really meant "Get the damned thing on the boat and keep it away from Buck." As I calmly reeled him boatside and knelt to lip him this gold furred behemoth flew by my shoulder, causing me to jerk the rod tip, displacing the fish just enuf that Buck's snapping jaws missed it as he splashed into the lake - Buck splashed, that is. Thereafter I learned to sneak my bass up to the boat quietly, feigning interest in an imaginary bass circling the top of the farthest tree, thus keeping Buck's attention away from my real bass long enuf fer me to get him in, get him off the hook, and return him to the water. Most of the time it worked. Buck, once he realized he'd been had again, snuffled around the boat in a huff for a while, occasionally following the lost bass overboard to paddle around with his head down in the water searching for the fishy. There was one moment when I was almost sent overboard by a careening Buck, Rock Bass clamped firmly in teeth, escaping from Garry's reach to the rear of the boat. Of course once he got to the back of the boat he stood there head down, not sure what to do, so he dropped the bass and gave it a baleful doggy stare till Garry sent it back to the waterworld. Fishing with Buck is an adventure, kinda like white water rafting without the raft or the white. JF

That muskie kinda reminds me of Tybo - in a rather excited state. JF

Out again yesterday to a local pond looking for pike. No pike to be found so we ended up jigging for sunfish under bobbers. Hey, it's still fishing. Doesn't matter that I have stickbaits bigger than the sunfish we caught. JF

Artistic license. Cleveland was the same as ever. I visited Dick's and Gander Mtn and loaded up on supplies. After learning what to do with some of the lures (from you guys) I picked up about 30 of them - Rapala, Storm & Cotton Cordell. X-Rap, DT, Shad Rap, CD, lipless, Big-O, some shallow for my creek, some deep for the next time I get to big water. Also got a Rebel Bumblebee that I saw some guy catching a lot of bass with on WFN. The hooks sure look small for bass though. I checked for Musky rods for you but they don't seem to be carrying much in the way of decent rod/reel products. Seems to me they used to have better stuff but mebbe my standards have just changed. JF

The boat wasn't in so we figured you were on a charter. JF

Mike, You definitely have a problem, and with yer whole life ahead of you, you should deal with it now, before it drags you down into the fishing sewer with all these other guys. You're bright and articulate, with a future too promising to be wasted on a bunch of smelly fish, and even smellier fisherpersons. The only way to properly nip this in the bud is to push away from the table, so to speak, cast off all the trappings of fishing that will tempt you back into that sewer. The safest plan is to send all the trappings (the gear) that might lure you back far far away, at least as far as Stratford, for instance. That, coincidentally is where I live, but it's only a coincidence. But that gives me a great idea. I'd be willing to let you dump all that gear at my house and I'll risk the temptation of it myself. Hopefully it might go unnoticed in amongst all the other smelly crap I've accumulated. I'd be willing to do that to save yer immortal soul, just cuz I'm a helluva guy, and modest about it. Assuming of course that you concur with the wisdom of my magnanimous gesture, is there anyone out there willing to teach me the ins and outs of float fishing, and carping, and how to use all the other fun - make that seriously debilitatingly soul stealing - toys of which he'll soon be divesting himself? JF

I've found that to be typical of all my experiences with OFNers. Must be something about the internet culture that attracts good folks. Had the same experience with my online scuba pals. JF

That might attract a few big ole catfish. JF

So one day last week HometownHandyman & I got to go out to play on Garry2rr's bassboat in Dunnville. We dropped the boat in at Fishmaster's ramp and headed out to troll for the morning. Garry, being the great host he is, drove the boat and read the fishfinder for us. HTHM & I washed an assortment of lures as we ran upstream and down. He caught a really nice tree branch and I snagged some scales that had evidently been attached to a fish recently, but sadly, no fish. We broke for lunch at a marina restaurant up some side creek and then started back to trolling. The best action we had trolling was me losing a Shad Rap, but the ongoing tutorial from Garry made it more than worthwhile. You old hands at this fishing game may not appreciate having a walking encyclopedia of angling with you but for a neophyte like me it's better than having a Google search engine on hand. There's no better way to fast track to really enjoying fishing than on the job training from someone like Garry - and he's great company to boot. Well, Garry's a great teacher and raconteur, but it turns out he ain't so hot at keeping track of the gas. On one of our downstream (fortunately) passes he says something like "Uhoh - what's up with the motor?" just as it sputters, shakes and dies. "Probably the tank's empty." says he as he ambles rearwards (sternwards?) and begins messing about in the motor well. "Seems to me I remember filling this other tank a while back. Sure hope I'm right." More subdued clattering and slidey noises, then "Oops!" I turn and look downriver and can just barely make out Fishmaster's off in the distance - a helluva long way to paddle a bassboat, even downstream. Garry, ever the optimist says "We got a full battery anyway." and off we went, buzzing right along at max MinnKota speed. We swung into Fishmaster's harbour and tried jigging for Crappie to no avail so we drifted back out onto the river and started working the shoreline casting an assortment of lures. Garry was the one who caught the first fish, a nice Walleye on a lipless crankbait. Must be something to this presentation nonsense cuz I was using exackly the same lure and casting to the same places but catching bupkis, not even scales. HTHM apparently figgered that Dunnville Walleye were kinda effete as he was tossing a hot pink Rapala. Guess he was wrong cuz he got just as much as me. Shortly after the Walleye Garry brags "Fish on" and hauls in a nice Sheephead. I'd have a picture for you but it off the hook and over the side too quick, almost like Garry was ashamed of it. The boats around us were all pulling in an assortment of Walleye and Sheepheads but not exactly at a torrid pace. Perhaps the rain and hail on the weekend and the turbid water had had their effect on the fishies. In any case we'd had a long day and it was getting chilly so Garry gave us the last lesson of the day - how to load a boat with only a MinnKota bowmount for power. So despite not getting many fish it was still a pleasant day, and another great learning experience for me. For those of you who are intimidated or frustrated in using a baitcaster, get Garry or someone like him to show you the technique. It's easy when done right, and fun. Thanks for the great day boys. JF