JohnF

For what it's worth I've been noticing recently on the creek that the little baitfish are doing their flying fish act when the bright-coloured lures get near them, but none of the line seems to spook them. I've been using both mono and braid, but the braid has a fluoro leader on. I can actually follow the progress of the lure by watching the little fishies get airborne. That's in shallow (3') water with about 6-8' viz. 'Twould appear the baitfish at least aren't bothered by the line. Maybe the growed up bass think differently. JF

I wouldn't know. I was standing in the middle of my deepest pool out on the creek, and the water barely made it to my belt. That's why I just laff when people ask if I like deep divers. JF

Either yer a cradle robber or yer 36' tall. JF

You didn't say what kind of fishing you were doing. Most of mine is wading in the creek for bass & pike. Being on the downhill side of 60 I find a 6'6" rod and larger reel get heavy after a few hours out in the water. I am much more comfortable with my 5'6" ultralite with a lite spinning reel. It's surprising how aware you become of the slight weight difference after 2 or 3 hours of holding and casting with no place to set it down. Sux to get old, huh? If I was fishing from a boat all the time I'd probably go with the longer 6'6" - 7' rods though for the casting distance. As for reels, now that I've been introduced to baitcasters I like 'em, but I still feel better using a spinning reel for smaller fish and lures. Mebbe as I get more adept with the baitcaster I'll use it more but for now the lighter spinning rig makes me more accurate and more comfortable. Ideally I would want to have two spinning rigs and two baitcasters so that I would have quick bait options when out in a boat and a good set of equipment options for the different shore and wading situations I encounter. One of the spinning rigs would be an ultralite and the other a 7 footer with a bigger capacity reel. The baitcasters would both be 6 1/2 to 7', one medium and one MH. Spend a little extra to get decent backbone and action. I've got enough cheap rods by now to appeciate the benefits of a quality blank. Take these for what they're worth. I'm a relative newby compared to most of these guys but because I'm new I probably don't take anything for granted yet. JF

I put one of those neck lanyards on my little digital and let it hang inside the bib of my waders. The only way it gets wet is if I take a tumble in the creek. Now, if only I could catch some danged fish worth photographing. JF

And as for the "fizzing" technique, it is probably significantly less than effective. In reality the fizzing that must be addressed is the blood in the fish throughout the body, not just the expansion in the air bladder. In a human who is seriously bent the blood turns to something like fizzy pink jello effectively stopping circulation and the o2 supply to the brain etc. At that point the air expansion problems are merely a very painful symptom of the barotrauma. In a fish I would think the gills would be exploded beyond redemption at that point and the fish is doomed. JF

I realize that fish are built differently than us humans, but we can get bent in a mere few feet of the water column due to explosive decompression from rising too quickly from depth. Admittedly it doesn't happen to divers too often, at least not so we can notice, but in theory it's possible. I have friends (and myself) who will claim a variety of aches and pains in joints after ignoring through carelessness or necessity (running out of air) the ascent rate their computer or knowledge dictated. I'm not sure if a fish's sense of self preservation will kick in when hooked and fighting, but perhaps if we were just a little patient when catching at relatively shallow depths (20-30') and let the fish dictate the rate of rise (i.e. watching the angle of the line) we might reduce the risk of bending the fish. JF

Thanks, and I haven't forgotten your bass flies. My problem has been that at first I wanted to be certain there were actually fish about, and since I found the fish the weather has sucked. If the rain hasn't turned the river to chocolate milk, the wind is too much even for light plastic, let alone feathers and fur. I carry the flyrod on every visit to the river but the wind is always howling out there. Saturday evening the baby Torpedo would blow over a good 20-30' from the target and the line would have a huge belly. I was literally aiming up on shore to hit the weedline. The return trip for the Torpedo was more of a semicircle following the line. Fortunately the wind was across the pool so I could go both up and downstream. I would have had no distance at all casting into that wind. JF

Hang pictures, tie up plants, leader material JF

Better. JF

Not that I've had a lot of fishing time of late due to work obligations but I have been out a bit and here's what I've noticed - 1. In the morning the river Smallmouths like plastic worms, wacky rigged and just sinking or laying on the bottom. The fish seem disinterested in hard baits then. 2. In the late afternoon the worms aren't working but hard baits are. 3. 3" & 3.5" AC Shiners (yellow back) have been good retrieved gently or just as they hit the water. I even just let one trail behind me as I wade back to the exit point of the creek. 4. A 2.5" skinny little Daiwa minnow (silver with bluish back) on an easy retrieve seems to be working better than the old faithful Rapala original minnows. Got me a nice SMB last night on the third cast to a fresh pool. Surprised the heck outa me hitting the minnow at the end of the retrieve about 6' in front of me. I was watching for the minnow to appear out of the depths and instead a 14-16" shows up, bursting with energy 5. A Heddon Baby Torpedo that I just picked up drew a nice little smally on the second cast to a large pool last night, but that was all it caught. And this was after about an hour of chucking worms, spinners and minnows to no avail. Given the frugal nature of the pool I'm not sure if I caught the only fish in it or if the noise of the little propellor scared the other bass away after the initial curiosity was over. The prop wasn't turning easily so I tried wake baiting with it but nothing after the initial catch. I did have something come up and bang it once but all I saw was the swirl and splash. Might even have been a carp. 6. Regarding the Torpedo, I bent the prop blades a bit this morning and tested it in my pool. It works much better. The prop goes round with almost no forward momentum. I expect that's how it's supposed to work. My questions: 1. In a creek pool do you think the Torpedo is too noisy? 2. With AC Shiners should they have a split ring or not? I'm pretty sure they're supposed to, or at least be tied on a loop rather than a tight knot. Perhaps I've answered my own question as I think the action is better when loosely tied. Thanks JF

Unless you're changing thousands of dollars don't worry about it. If you wait till you get to Canada and need to use cash most tourist areas will allow reasonable exchange and if you feel better about it, go to a bank and exchange some. There's always a little premium for exchange wherever you do it. As DanC said, for a few hundred bucks it'll cost you a couple of bucks each way. It's not worth worrying about. JF

Well, I know that some of my southern US friends save up a bit of extra gas to run their gennies etc in the event of one of their hurricanes. I suppose if enuf folks squirrel away 100 gallons of fuel each, that might make a dent in the supply. JF

Get outa here. Everybody knows that he who dies with the most toys wins. JF

What about the Competetion Act? The regulators sure like to wave that one in my industry's face. I'm trying to figure out what's so different about the gas retailers conspiring to fix their prices, and an across the board increase of 12 or more cents overnight sure looks like collusion to me. JF

Nice! Thanks JF

So how many did you eventually find? JF

HMMMM! Psychiatrists have a clinical name for that. JF

Ya done good. Thanks. JF

I'm pretty sure I have a Cdn version 220F and a 411 stove stored away in the crawl space, probably both still in the boxes they came in. If there are any collectors out there who want 'em I'll crawl in and look. They're free to a collector (if I still have 'em). JF

Be careful what you wish for. Hopefully I'll get my act together enuf to make it to Lakair next spring. I wanted to go to the fall gtg but work commitments messed that up. JF

Please do. The wind has changed again. It's blowing out of the east. JF

I can't begin to name 'em all, but it says something about the nature of the forum that in only one year as a member I've already met at least two of those folks in the pic in person. JF

A little over a year ago I decided to take advantage of the power of the internet to learn something extra about my new hobby. When I took up scuba diving the internet was an invaluable resource and I assumed it would serve at least as well for fishing. To be honest I don't recall exactly how I got to OFC but it began with a search of fishing forums and newsgroups and eventually narrowed down to this one as being far and away the best in terms of relevant info for an Ontario boy. I'd be hard-pressed to say if it was the wealth of readily shared knowledge or just the hospitable reception that closed the deal. In any event I can't even remember what the other sites were now. This one is enough. My thanks to all who had a hand in it's creation and who now keep it running smoothly, and thanks to all the members who help to make it a good place to visit for the wealth of information, the sound advice, the banter, and in some cases new friendships. JF

Mebbe they're like the little lost kid who says "Who's lost? I know where I am. I'm in the middle of Disney World with lots of other people. It's my folks who think I'm lost. JF