JohnF

Leafs are up to their old tricks. Beat the Cup champs (I could hear Stoty puke) just so the loyal fans will get all bent out of shape before they go into their seasonal slump. Ah well. Being a dyed in the wool leafer I'm expecting bigger things than are possible after that win. Mebbe we'll see a Leafs/Wings playoff?????? JF

Okay. Ya got me on that one. JF

Well, there's nothing illegal about farting in a crowded elevator, but so far no one has come to my defence. JF

I happened to be nearby in the packing plant when a tour group were accidentally brought face to face(?) with a bunch of slaughtered sheep (the carcasses when bled out and hung look like skinned greyhounds). Rest assured the reaction was slightly different than what you see at the meat counter in the deli. For some reason folks don't relate processed or butchered meat to the stuff on the hoof, or what was very recently on the hoof. Methinks there's a difference between being discrete in exercising your rights and gloating about them when you do. We all knew at some point in our young lives what Mom and Dad were doing in the privacy of their own room, but if Dad started cavorting around the house waving a used condom that he and Mom had shared we'd be grossed out, wouldn't we? Very good point and an even better reason for discretion. Fly under the radar. Limit the bragging to folks who'll be impressed, and spare those who might be offended. They're the ones who'll do the most harm later on. I've said this to my friends in the States who feel they need to carry guns. Why flaunt the gun, or the right, in the faces of those who'll try to have it taken away. "Because I can." just isn't a very sensible answer. Of course I get a lot of heat from some of them when I say it, so my apologies if I've offended anyone here. JF

Preseason's fer getting rid of the bugs. It's the main event that counts. JF

A new season's always fun. With all the changes it should be interesting watching the Leafs start over, although I'm sorry to see Boyd D. gone from the roster. Detroit, Montreal and Anaheim look really good, but I'm betting Detroit for the Cup this time around. I'd be doing a Stoty this year if I went into a pool. The Penguins might be a little short of horsepower with preseason injuries but they'll be fun to watch too. JF

I'm with you Lew. Years ago I worked two summers in a meatpacking plant/slaughterhouse. We all learned to tune out the blood and gore eventually, but there was a reason why plant tours were discouraged on kill days. Even watching a fish die can be fairly traumatic for some folks. I saw it happen this summer on Lake Manitou. My cousins were on the boat with us and the lady became quite upset about us killing some lake trout (pulled up fast from 100') and refused to have anything to do with eating the meat later. Hunting is fine. In fact, it's a good thing that at least some folks are keeping the meat gathering skills alive and well. Not that I think we'll ever have to go back totally to the old hunter/gatherer ways, but who knows for sure. I don't hunt land critters any more. I had my share of killing and blood by the time I'd finished school, but I still remember the killing/butchering skills I learned back in the day. I sincerely hope I never have to put them all to use, but I'm sure I still could if necessary. Not everyone can deal with death as stoically as hunter types. Like the slaughterhouses, I think that hunters & fishermen should use some discretion in waving the bloody results of their killing in the faces of folks who might be offended, even frightened, by it. Hypocrisy has nothing to do with it. People today, at least in our civilized part of the world, aren't conditioned to deal with the realities of violent death, and it's not the place of those who are to train the rest whether they like it or not. Think of it this way. When our members post hunting pics here they usually accompany them with warnings of the graphic nature of the pics for those who might be offended. Why should a hunter coming home from a successful hunt handle his bragging any differently? A modicum of common sense and compassion would suggest that a public street is the wrong venue for hunters exercising bragging rights. JF

It's for the dogs. Buck (the one who lays down about every three feet unless he's on the way to the water) would get frozen to the deck, and Vu would disappear the first time he went out to pee. JF

I know he's got a gps unit, but I don't remember it doing any tricks. She's got a nice voice though. I think he screws up his turns just so she talks to him more. JF

Jeez. I thought you were gonna say he broke an axle or something. JF

Excellent. ***** Thanks JF

Baitcasting - many thanks to Garry2rs & HometownHandyman for the tutelage Wacky rigging - with advice from Garry (again). Actually, Garry taught me a lot of fishing lore that's been useful since. He's kind of like a living Bassin' For Dummies, and a nice guy to boot. Fishing from a bassboat - Garry's, of course. That was fun. I've always had a penchant for going fast on the water. Finally tried those AC Shiners that have been collecting dust in my tackle box. They work - great, especially the yellow ones. A few posts here steered me to the Torpedo lures. Picked up a baby sized one and had great results. I got out flyfishing once with young Bill Parker and though we had no luck, he showed me a lot of good stuff on flyrod technique. Now if the wind would only go away I'd get out and try Singingdog's nifty bass lures that he sent. I've been lugging the rod/reel around all summer but there always seems to be a gale blowing on the river, or when there's a calm patch I'm hundreds of yards away from the car up to my hips in the creek, and too durned lazy to trek all the way back to change gear. Got out on Lake Manitou once and nailed a couple of smallish (but very tasty) Lakers. It was interesting but I gotta say I prefer the action of casting, whether from a boat or from the water. Considering the meager pickin's on the creek this year I had a pretty good summer of fishing. Had grand plans for trying more new stuff, and some generous offers from a number of folks (Brian, Steve, Albert, Rick, Bill, Gerritt to name only a few) here, but time, weather and life's little responsibilities conspired to rain on my parade. Hopefully some of those invitations will still be standing next year cuz I'm rarin' to go. Thanks for the fun, all. JF

I'm not sure many those electronics thingies (phones, entertainment, cams) aren't manufactured in Korea and branded with Japanese company names. JF

Whether we like it or not, or even believe it, there's a shift in power going on. The power is moving from south of our border to across the oceans to the east and west of us. Our world is always in flux, and right now some European countries are getting some of theirs back, but the bulk of the shift is across the Pacific to the Asian Rim. JF

Besides a few million cars? JF

Thanks. I haven't seen that before. I'll try to figure out where those sections are down around St.Marys. I would think the interesting spots are all east of the golf course heading back towards Wildwood. I've not had any luck at all just above the St.Marys dam and having grown up right on Trout Creek a block from the dam I can tell you there sure weren't any decent fish there when I was a kid either, just shiners, sunfish and rock bass (all small), carp (which we didn't know were game fish in those days), snapping turtles, wild mink, muskrats, frogs and mud puppies. I once saw a rather large pike up under the Sarnia Bridge and we used to catch lotsa smallmouths upriver from it. Of course Wildwood and environmental reform has changed the rivers around St.Marys. The biggest change I notice is more weed growth between the bridges (beside my old house) where the river used to be pretty much weed free. I keep saying I'm gonna take a walk along Trout Creek from the dam upriver past the first bridge just for the helluvit, a kind of nostalgia trip for me. It would be fun if it produced some fish. JF

The water moves so slow in the wide part that we're still waiting for last winter's melt to get to the dam. JF

Often wondered that myself. In this case it's the Thames River, but as you can see in a lot of spots it hardly warrants more than "crick". Anyone who knows how wide the Avon River is when it passes the theatre in the park in Stratford might be surprised to see what it becomes when it trickles into the Thames just a skip and a jump from where I took these pics. We keep thinking that a watercourse this pretty should hold trout, something graceful and pretty, but all it has are smallies (pretty in their own way), suckers, carp, hammerhandles and snapping turtles. And I had a rod with me that night - a nice little 5 1/2' UL that never gets heavy, even after 2 or 3 hours of tramping in the water chucking lures at imaginary bass. JF

This year "few" is the operative word, unfortunately. Other years I could wade into at least half a dozen spots just as pretty along a 4 or 5 mile stretch of the river and know there'd be a few smallmouths awaiting me in each. I'll get some shots of a few of the other spots next time out. Some evenings it's enuf just to stroll down the creek (trailing a lure, of course) and enjoying the ambiance. On the plus side we're seeing lots of young bass in some of the pools. In fact we've been avoiding a few of our spots because of the youngsters all beating themselves up on our trebles. We left a couple of places like that on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully next year they'll be all growed up and ready to play. JF

Any of the stuff my funds aren't in right now. JF

Some of us here are constantly extolling the virtues of crick fishin'. Here's why. I shot these standing hip deep all alone, just me & a few smallmouths who dropped by. This was upriver and downriver from the same spot where I tied into a couple of friendly little smallies using a silver Daiwa minnow. The pool's only about 3-4' deep and not all that big, but there's usually a bass to be caught there, and it's easy to get to, if you know where it is. I didn't bother with pics of the visitors. They were just average little Thames bass, 12". JF

I got a Canon A80 years ago (when they still cost an arm and a leg) and it's been excellent. I discovered in my research that Canon apparently uses better lens components than some other brands. It's been dropped twice that I know of on my driveway. It marked the case but no harm to the functions. It's great on batteries (AA) and a feature I really like is that the viewscreen folds to protect itself. Best of all, after years of being knocked around, it still works as well as it did on day one. I realize they don't still offer that model but if you can get a modern version like it you'll be happy. Several family members have had great results with Fuji cameras. The one I really like is under $200 now but is a tad bulky for carrying whilst fishing I was given a small HP digital and it just doesn't work as nicely as the old Canon. It's already having issues like the shutter cover not opening when it should. I got it because (a) it was free in an HP printer deal ( I wanted a smallish AA battery driven cam for carrying on the river. The HP has let me down several times on the river (sticky lens cover) so I'm back to carrying the slightly larger and slightly heavier (4 AA's vs 2 AA's) Canon. JF

There's nothing like river bassin' on a pretty evening, huh? I haven't tried a lot of other fishing, but I just gotta believe this is about as good as it gets. JF

I wuz gonna suggest leavin' all you guys on the dock, and heading out with just me and the 15 dancing girls. I'd settle for even a few dancing girls in fact, but no guys. I can't handle competition any more. JF

Before you do anything else, make sure she's got the sole authority to sell and that there are no liens registered against it. Vindictive spouses do some pretty nasty things in retribution. Then you can start to wonder why the boat is under-priced. JF