markiemark70

Nice looking garden you got there. We have alot of the same crops. I guess by the cages that you have a lot of critters where you live? My Beans have been ravaged by Rabbits then Mice, but everything else is good and I now have a fence up! Thanks for the tour.

Concert was great! I was 18th row on the floor dead center. Pearl Jam is my other obsession:this was my 13th time seeing them. My wife and I took a road trip last year with our then 1 year old and her parents to NYC to see them at Madison Square Gardens last year. They were awesome as usual on Friday, although I found the sound a bit off for most of the first set, but it always takes me a while to get used to the sound in large venues.

That's yer basic keytar there normy!!

Hey Welcome to the board. FYI you will get more replies if you introduce yourself first. I would suggest that you are already on a great lake. I fished Lake Muskoka alot as a kid and there are plenty o Bass as well as monster Pike in there (not to mention Lakers). I think rather than finding a different lake, you need to find some different techniques for when the fish aren't co-operating. Part of the sport is finding the fish when they aren'y finding you. Try learning about jigging, drop shotting, tubes, Senkos, trolling. There are many different techniques you can try to produce fish. Thats my $.02

Sweet I live backyard ponds. I used to have one at my old place and it was so relaxing to sit out there and watch the fish. I cold spend an hour out there. Someday I will have another one. Good job. And the cat enclosure is a cool idea too. Is there a way for them to get out to it directly from the house? I always wanted to do that so that we did not have to have the litter box inside.

Hey I would not bother with the SPeed in town. Was there a few weeks back and it looks dead. You could try the 2 ponds a bit East of town on Hwy 7. Seems to be a hot spot although I have never really given it a try, there are always a few people there fishing when I go. Or as someone else said, up towards Belwood.

Now theres a show I could get into. Always wanted to see Stompon Tom but never made it.

If the package did not say "Rock crashing Rapala" or "able to withstand any kind of abuse" then you really have no case. My guess is they test it to make sure it will last long when being dragged through water, and as long as that criteria is met, they are good to go.

OK Mea Culpa, the $30,000 per child thing was me being dramatic, but the story that neither of us have touched on so far is that there is a population the size of Canada in the US right now that has no insurance, meaning either come up with the funds or die. Surely any universal (albeit sometimes pretty crappy) system is better than that. I do tech support for a living and one day while working on the computer of a client from the US, she told me how at her previous job, they messed up the paperwork on some type of insurance that carries you from the day you leave one job to the day that you start the next (she had a name for it, but I can't remeber). So as luck would have it, on the 1 day that she technically had no insurance, she needed an emergency gall bladder removal. Well the list price is $60,000 for that, but there was a way that you could apply to the hospital to have it done for 60% of the cost by claiming hardship. SO it cost her $36,000 out of her own pocket for what amounts to day surgery. And that is a first hand story, no hear say. I just want to make clear I am not bashing the US. I love the US and it is without a doubt the 2nd greatest country in the world. I just know that it will be even better when you guys stop paying gazillions of dollars for private fat cat executives who actually have business plans detailing how they can provide LESS health care to Americans. THe government can't possibly darn it up any more than those guys.

Whatever you do make sure you talk to a lawyer first. If as you say there are already people making this product, rest assured they have people whose job it is to look out for competition on the horizon, and when they see you (as they surely will once you contact a big box) they will do everything in their power to crush you.

Well just for perspective, keep in mind that the vast majority of people will never need the kind of dental intervention that has been mentioned here. I would still rather have "FREE" health care for the basics. My wife & I have just had 2 kids in the last few years. What does that cost in the states? $30,000+ per? My mom's last husband died of Luekemia after a 2 month battle. At one point the doctors told us that 1 procedure out of the dozens that they did was a $400,000 procedure. We were saying at the time that if we lived in the states we would be selling our house to get it done, if that would even cover it. He lived in the hospital for 2+ months at our bill: $0 So some perspective is a good thing.

Nice fish for sure. Just an innocent question here, but does holding a large fish like that (rather than horizontally) decrease its chance of survival? Or did he keep it?

Actually I have heard that the fish there will turn and run away when faced with any kind of danger. Sorry, couldn't help it.

Life truly is precious, thanks for the reminder. Very sorry for your loss.

Yeah true, not sure why though. So far almost everyone (who actually READ my post and did not READ INTO my post) have agreed with me, and the dsicussion was pretty much over after TJ's post. Let's recap: -THe rules already say do not post specific spots -Posting generalities such as "there are lots of Bass in the Grand" is ok -THere are other sites that are members only and people can join those if they so desire -THis site is great the way it is, so why change it I agree 100% with all these statements. And now that we have had this brief interlude, lets get back to what's important: I think I will hit the Lake O Lakefront for some Bass/Pike action tonight.

Good points all!

Well Roy I respectfully disagree with you. I guess it is a question of semantics, but I don't think I ever asked for specific spots. Saying I like this location, does anyone have any valuable info is not the same as "I like to fish and live in Kalamazoo can anyone tell me where to go. Besides which, again, I NEVER said that no one should ask for spots. I said we should take it to PM, which the rules support. Personally I would use discretion that if someone asked me for a spot and they were a long time contributing member of he board, I would give it, and if not, I probably would not. For me it comes down to a judgement call as to whether I think someone respects the resource, something we lose all control over when we publish it in a public forum. And lastly, since that is the second cheap shot you have taken at me in the last few days, I am going to take you to task on your logic: pointing out my old posts is cheap and pointless. Why not just discuss the topic instead of bringing up talking points? Are you a politician by any chance? That is like saying "if you ever broke the law, don't EVER talk about the need for security or improved law enforcement in our society." People can change and we don;t always live up to our own standards 100% of the time, or our ideals change over time. I don't see how you can defend that I open a topic for discussion, and you (and another poster, not just you) make it personal. THat's just indefensible in IMO and reflects on the kind of person you are.

OK thanks TJ. I probably could have guessed the traffic part. Nothing is free. And thanks for the refresher on the rules. Cheers

Perfect so in other words you agree with me. That is all I am talking about.

OK so you obviously did not read my post, because not once did I so much as imply that we should not post pictures or "help a newbie with generic info". THe only thing I am talking about is people who, and I admit it is rare, say "go here, use this kind of lure, cast it under the bridge to the left of the column" blah blah blah. Trust me if we could not help out newbs with generic info, I would be screwed. Also I take exception to the idea that you and another person posted that everyone comes here to do the same thing you do. THat is fuzzy logic: I come here for gear tips and how to tie knots, therefore noone that comes here and lurks is looking for easy fishing spots.

OK first off, a little discussion is all I am taking about here, so you could try breathing for 10 seconds before you post. Second, your logic is slightly questionable. You seem to be saying that since you are older than a lot of people, we should just post away all of our spots and let the chips fall where they may. I disagree, and that is my right, hence why I posted this for discussion. BTW, my post count is low because I only come on from June-Sept. That is as long as I can remain distracted from the business that I run and the 2 young children that I have if I want to stay married, and I would gladly give up my own ability to use these boards and get info if it meant saving the resource. I love the fish more than the fishing. Cheers

Just thought I would throw this out there: some people have mentioned recently that after they post that they are catching fish in a certain area, they go back and there are a lot of other fisherman there, and the suspicion is that they are people who lurk on this board. Why do we allow that? Is there a reason that the board can't be for members only? I know it is technically possible, so why have the admins of this board chose to leave this wide open to people who just want to get new fishing spots but not contribute? The resources we are discussing here are valuable, if not irreplaceable, so it is worth it to try our best to protect them. I would go a step further and suggest that there should be an "Anti-lurker" feature that keeps track of your posts with a point system, and only allows you to read posts based on how many posts you reply to or start. That way we could weed out the people that are only here to take info and not share info. At the very least we should definitely be careful to only give out specifics in PM, so that the lurkers cannot read it. I think that the admins should be more strict about enforcing that if possible. Just my $0.02, hope it don't kill ya

Hey justfishing, do yourself a favour and create another post with an introduction. Tell us a bit about yourself and some of your great fishing exploits, etc. People are a lot more welcoming once we know that you are going to give back as well. And don't forget to participate in others posts as well. Maybe you know of a spot that someone else is asking about, or have some gear that someone is thinking of buying and can give a review. Welcome, and good luck.

Excellent, you're a good brother...and those are some decent fish. Thanks for sharing

Hey buddy, welcome to the board. Just a heads up that you will get more replies to your post and possibly some takers on your offer if you introduce yourself a bit first: we know where you are from, but what kind of fishing do you like, where have you done most of your fishing, etc. Just post an introduction message and participate in some other posts and people wll start to see that you are here for the right reasons. Welcome to the board.