akaShag

Well, I am blessed with many friends, and many of us have been through a pile of crap together: deaths, disease, divorce, illness, loss, you name it. And we have been though lots of good times also, and when a guy is strong and on top of things, he can help the guy who is struggling. That was why we started calling our fishing and hunting trips, and this probably 20 years ago, "Male Healing Retreats." And every one of us has had his healing moments and times of need, but we help each other out. I think that many of us who enjoy time in the outdoors can share that passion on a very fundamental level, which helps our buddies to deal with their challenges. Doug

back to Sour_Squirrel............yeah you are right, the burners on that BBQ are left centre right, and a full rack of ribs takes up the entire width, so the end with the lit burner (and smoke) would get burned. The GOOD news is, my BBQ is just about ready for retirement, so I can look at a few new-to-me features that I am learning about here. But I still can't see selling two scoped rifles to buy one of those Green Monsters......... Doug

back to Sour_Squirrel..............thanks for that. Where does one buy a smoke box like that? (Or probably I could use an aluminum pie plate or similar, if you are using aluminum foil for some of the chips?) Thinking I might give the (natural gas) BBQ a try to smoke some ribs. My smoker has smaller racks than this BBQ so I have to cut a rack of ribs into three or four pieces to put the smoke to them. But a full rack of ribs is nicer to deal with (and I think has better flavour). Hmmmmmm......... But I don't see myself selling two scoped rifles to buy one of those Green Egg machines.......... Doug

back to Sour_Squirrel.............. I have been smoking meat, fish, etc for over thirty years but always have used a dedicated smoker. How does that work with a BBQ? I am guessing you'd have to set the heat down quite low so as not to dry out the stuff being smoked, BUT you need enough heat to make the wood chips smoulder............. and what the heck are flavourizer bars???????????? TYIA Doug

I often tell people, and I mean it, I would rather have minus thirty than plus thirty any time! But having said that, I did NOT go ice fishing this morning at minus thirty plus a North wind............ Doug

How did we all know this thread was going to turn into a dick-waving contest? (there is supposed to be a "rolls eyes" emoticon here...............but not for this site with my NON Google Chrome browser............

back to manitoubass2: Yes absolutely the jig was hitting bottom, zero question. As for the graph, sometimes it could not make up its "mind" as to the depth, and was giving readings all over the map, but then would settle down on the six foot figure. Definitely not slush underneath, and we have not had the conditions this year which would have created it, ie deep snow then warm then cold. Back to Mike Rousseau, no I did not look down any of the holes, but that would have potentially been very useful. It was a bright day, rather brisk with a North wind 25 gusting to 40 and minus 15ish, and I did not think to lay on the ice with a cover over my head to look down a hole.

back to RDR, nope, we have had very little snow, certainly nowhere near enough to sink the ice.

back to kraTTor............. I was thinking about lave level changing (which can and does happen on lakes that are controlled by dams in this area), but to the best of my knowledge, there is no such outlet or inlet on Loughborough. And I have fished this lake on and off for over thirty years, so I "SHOULD" know if such a thing exists.

back to Chris Brock............. Not a chance of a shoal that big going north-south on Loughborough. The glaciers left this part of the country very much marked from East-Northeast to West-Southwest, and this shoal, which is a LONG one on that same orientation, is absolutely not that wide. The last hole I drilled heading North I should have been over about 120 FOW.

back to Sinker...........nope I was not drinking, but I did say to Glenn if we go across the lake to the 80 foot spot we fished last week and hit 6.1 feet, I am going to start drinking................

OK folks, put on your thinking caps............ Quite a number of years ago, when the winter lake trout season on Loughborough was still closed, I headed out to a shoal I know that in those years produced excellent catches of BIG bluegills. In fact we called them BULLgills. I figured, if American ice anglers can jig up a bunch of bluegills, I should be able to do likewise. Important note and disclaimer: I have never iced a significant number of bluegills on a single outing, and would value tips on that.......... Anyways, I located the shoal, which tops out at less than ten FOW, then drops precipitously to over a hundred. I drilled a couple holes, and set up my ultralights. I was probably using live minnows on one rig, and a small jig and 2" twister on the other. Then WHAM!!! About a six pound laker slammed into one of my rigs, and after a brief tussle I landed it. (I had figured something that big had to be a pike, but nope, it was a lake trout. Back down the hole immediately. A couple minutes later WHAM!!! Another lake trout, this one probably eight pounds, and right back down the hole. Two nice trout in five or ten minutes, but clearly anybody observing me would have figured I was targeting trout, so I left. I had kind of forgotten about that but was thinking about it again a couple days ago. So today four of us went out on ATVs to try to find the shoal, and this time we WANTED to catch lakers. One lad has fished the lake for fifty years and was certain the shoal was in such a spot. I did not think so, but humoured him and we drilled half a dozen holes. Water ranged from 32 to 42 feet, or similar numbers. Not what I was looking for...............so we left two guys there then one buddy and I went back to where I figured the shoal had to be (and yes I was using my hand-held GPS with the bathymetry detail.......) I drilled a couple holes. The Marcum said 5.1 feet in both, and a jig dropped down the holes confirmed that depth. So I kept drilling holes further out into the "deep water." Hole after hole between five and six FOW, in all over about a hundred yards of travel at ninety degrees to the lay of the shoal. There is no way whatsoever that the actual BOTTOM was that shallow, and occasionally the graph would give a much deeper reading, BUT the jig showed the skinny water. Our conclusion was that there had to be a second layer of ice down five or six feet in that area. I have never seen this before. OK sleuths, what the heck was going on? Doug

Done, I think...............last time I was on Facebook was a couple years ago.............. Third time's a charm eh Bunk? Doug

OH I REALLY HATE THIS WEBSITE AND MY INABILITY TO POST STUFF!!!!!!! (And no, I am not willing to go to GOOGLE CHROME!!!!!)

One of my favourite Rick Mercer pieces: Doug

Those of us with grey hair, or thin hair, or no hair at all, know what you mean. I am reminded of the saying: "We are too soon old, and too late wise." Doug

Pulled pork?

nope, no brown trouts were stocked into any bodies of water.................

back to Brian B.......... We got up early to fish a lake loaded with jumbo perch and walleye. The wind was 40 kph or similar. My host owned a 12 foot tinnie. And the forecast was for the winds to INCREASE (which they did). So while I would rather have been putting the steel to perch and walleye, there was no way we were going to get out on the water. Which caused the fall-back to the liquid lunch and all that. Doug

Yeah, that was a rough one. But as lunches go, it was pretty darned good. At the time. Not so much later. Doug

oh yeah, and then sometime thereafter............. That was a rough one.............

PS) The pot on the stove behind my left arm probably had a very pretty something or other in it but I did not think to take photos. My bad. And yes that IS a four litre (empty) wine bag in a box type bag, and yes there was still some work to be done on the last 66 pounder. But we were equal to the task. Doug

Liquid lunch, Cold Lake Alberta, fall 2011

back to Bunk.................looks like your lunch needs a tourniquet................. Doug

Baseball bat, or a two by four, or a shovel..... They cannot move very fast. And don't let any nosy neighbours see you................................. ...............or if you have nosy neighbours, use a golf club and carry a ball with you for "putting practice." Then make the carcass disappear. You can lift a dead porcupine by its feet and not get quilled. Good luck PS) Porcupine is pretty tasty. I was looking for an old recipe for sweet and sour porcupine but couldn't find it. And I cannot cut and paste in this infernal website, so you can google recipes for yourself. But "porcupine meatballs" don't use porcupine meat, they use beef burger,,,,,,,,,,,