Dutch01

Long post alert. There is no tl;dr, sorry. First, the lows... I wasn't planning to fish yesterday, I'm light on gas money and wasn't feeling like launching alone. Luckily I got a last minute call from two friends asking if I wanted to take the boat out. We planned to leave early until we noticed the weather report. Thunderstorms. I'm not afraid at all to fish in the rain or snow, but I won't fish anywhere near lightning. Plans revised, we decided to do an afternoon/evening fish. We pickup my boat from the storage yard and we're off. I'm excited to get my boat on the water for the first time this year. I bought a "spring wake up" package from an (as yet) unnamed marina because I couldn't find the time to drive out of town to where I store it and do it myself. The marina picked it up from storage no charge so I was really paying for convenience if anything. It was relatively cheap, so I'm okay with that. Up to this point. The service guy assured me all I had to do was put it in the water and fire it up. We get to the launch, drop the boat in the water and I notice my 2-stroke oil is empty. I guess they don't check that but at least I always keep spares. I fill it up, and turn the key...... Click..... Click.... Battery is dead. I forgot my booster cables (of course) so I swap in the deep cycle. Fire the motor up and it runs like a dog. Won't rev, smokes like nothing I've ever seen, and stalls out. I pop the hood and there's 2 inches of gas and all my oil floating around the bottom of the motor. We fire the motor once more really quick to see where the gas is coming from. There's a missing screw and gas is pouring out of the hole. I'm getting real hot under the collar by now. We drain the gas and by some strange stroke of luck the screw is in the bottom of the housing. It's a small brass screw, something to do with jetting maybe? Anyways we put it back in, add the last of my oil, and cross our fingers. I turn the key and it fires right up, and runs like a top for the rest of the day. Finally, we can fish. Sort of. The wind is insane out there (this was a Kawartha lake for reference). It felt like a steady 25-30kph with gusts into the 40's and 50's. My 55# Terrova was running at 90-100% trying to use the electronic anchor. Drifting was way too fast (drift sock added to wish list) . We didn't catch a thing. It was tough. And now for the high..... After all we'd gone through, we decided to double down and stay for the night fish. We were bound and determined not to go home skunked. Besides, it's been my experience that the wind usually drops off when the sun goes down, at least on this lake. It did drop off, if only a little, and we got to walleye hunting in earnest. By 11:00pm, with no fish and not even a nibble, we were a little beat down. But we were fishing after all, there are a million worse ways to spend a Saturday night. I was on my third "last minnow" when it happened. My lighted bobber disappeared. I don't mean it slowly went down. It just darted straight down into the darkness and was gone. Heart pounding, I take up my slack and lean into the hookset. It doesn't even budge, and I think for a split second maybe it was a snag. In the darkness I hear a huge splash, like someone just did a cannonball, and suddenly my drag is screaming! FISH ON! As an aside, I fish walleye almost exclusively, and I usually fish a 2000-2500 reel on a medium/fast rod with 6 pound trilene "sensation", but not tonight. I had just revived an old Abu Ultra Cast 3000 and put it on an old medium/slow Ugly Stick. I never much liked that rod, it's pretty "whippy", but I thought I'd give it a try for trolling. I dropped by LeBaron for their "free" trilene XL spooling event on Friday, and loaded it up with 175 yards of 10# for a $1 "service charge". Back to the fight, I have no doubt that if I had my usual setup in hand I would have been promptly overwhelmed. For the next 15 minutes this fish just bullied me. I couldn't turn my drag up too high, I knew by now this was no walleye, and I didn't want to get bitten off. But every time I got it near the boat, it would spook and take another twenty yards of line. The wind and waves were pounding us in the dark. It kept trying to wrap me around the anchor rope. It basically went where it wanted. Finally, after it jumped a second time, it seemed to start tiring. Which is good because my arms were burning! When we finally got it in the net, you'd have thought we just won the lottery they way we flipped out. We were quick about it though, I wanted this fish to live. A quick measurement, a quick pic, and time to start the revive. It took about 5 minutes, and I knew she was ready to go when she gave me the tail splash in the face and disappeared into the depths. What a moment! It measured in at 42". I know for muskie guys that's not big, but I'm used to catching walleye. This was the biggest fish I've caught in my life. It was a sweet reward from the "fish gods" for our perseverance as far as we were concerned. And now I know how to catch a muskie - just go walleye fishing! One thing I am curious about is an estimated weight. I've seen a few Kawartha muskie over the years and they seem a bit snakey (long and thin). This one was fatter than the ones I usually see. I've checked a couple of charts online and the consensus is around 20 pounds. Let me know if you have an opinion. Dutch

I put no sign on my lawn. I don't have a lawn, but even if I did I'm affiliated with no party. I voted for Hudak. It was pathetic that he's the best anyone could come up with, and he's the reason Wynne got back in. Federally, I did vote for Trudeau. Harper had become a detriment to Canada and to the concept of democracy. My policies/ideas are mine because I've given them a lot of thought. I also don't believe they line up very well with Wynne at all. I'd like to see any example of my supporting a policy of hers, or proposing a policy that is anything like hers. I do not think you'll find one comment in my entire post history along those lines. A few people made a mistaken assumption and the hive mind here has taken it to be fact. It isn't. I believe in live and let live. She believes she knows what's good for me (us). That's a gulf that cannot be bridged.

$108 would be nice. Mine is $185 a year.

I have no objection to the biggest contributors the the problem being made to be the biggest contributors to the solution.

Hey! Something we agree upon! ? It is impossible to legislate the stupidity out of mankind.

I can agree with this - good idea! What we need is to discuss what we should be doing, not sit and commiserate about what someone else isn't doing. Wynne sucks. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone on this board who doesn't agree with that statement. She'll be gone in a few years (hope, hope, hope!) so let's talk about what we think her replacement should do. The one thing I notice from my Son and his friends is their positivity. When I see them talk about a problem, they don't sit around and moan about it like old men. They talk about ideas and how to fix it. Let's take a page from their book.

I'm the asker. I get to frame the question. You could decline to answer. You chose instead to answer a question I didn't ask. I didn't ask "does Wynne do a good job". I asked "do you believe air pollution is a hoax, and if not do you believe we should do something". Nothing more. This is because I continually get a bunch of hate about Wynne, which I never asked about or for. A person I've repeatedly condemned then get told I'm "hitting on her like a school boy". I had to simplify the question because apparently it was a tough one. Now that at least one person has agreed "we should do something" (and it only took us 384 replies to get there), we can talk about what that something is. I have ideas. I don't claim to have answers. I'm at work and have to actually get something done now, but I will come back later on to discuss the something, if anyone still cares.

I asked an A or B question, you declined to answer it. Let's not pretend anything else happened here.

I re-read my question and didn't see anything about Wynne in it. I suggest you re-read it. It was not about Wynne or global warming or even climate change. It was about air pollution. The options were do something or do nothing.

I don't back her plans at all. I simply asked if you believe we should do something or nothing. That's an important question to me. It's easy, there are only two choices, something or nothing. Yet most bypass the question and just go on the attack.

Dara, I've tried to be respectful up to now but you are out of line. Show me one quote ever by me supporting anything by or about Wynne. You can't do that. I guarantee it. The fact that you keep taking about "my love for Wynne" tells me you haven't read anything I've posted. That is truly disrespectful.

Dave, I don't disagree with you. I believe climate change is real, but I am not certain it is caused by man. I'm also not certain it isn't. Let me ask you a separate question. Do you believe air pollution is real, or a hoax? If your answer is that it's real, do you propose we do A-nothing, or B-something?

People like me? Stopped reading right there. Buh bye.

"Obviously", you can't read. I have repeatedly called Wynne corrupt and incompetent. I have made one argument only on this thread - we need less air pollution. It's clear from the vitriol in here that many here actually support air pollutIon. Why else would you all have such a blind and dogged determination to ignore all reasonable arguments to the contrary?

That's why I have location services turned off, and decline to download apps like that. You're taking about something where I don't have freedom of choice. Should we use the government to mandate: coffee cups that can't be opened while driving, make up that can't be applied, newspapers that can't be read, etc? I see people doing these things every day commuting. I also see collisions almost every day, and not all of them were texting. There are enough horrible drivers we should be getting off the road altogether before I'm buying a phone that's a government mole ?

This isn't the same. You're trying to force a communications manufacturer to solve a problem caused by users of another product (cars). Using your seatbelt example they would have to legislate cell blocking technology for the drivers area onto the car manufacturers. Manufacturers in the USA fought vigorously, along with the people, against the Clipper chip technology. And they won. Use the tools in the Highway Traffic Act. If they're not strong enough make them stronger. But let's not invite government even just a little into areas that have the potential to invade our privacy.

What if I like to use my phone while riding a bicycle, in a boat, on a bus or on a train? They all go over 5mph....

You want the government to force a private manufacturer to design a specific and different phone/operating system, contrary to their profitably, because a relatively small market said to? Keep in mind this is a provincial area of responsibility. You're saying you'd let Kathleen put software on your phone to track your location and movement? I'd never stand for that. It's Draconian, it won't ever happen. Apple could appeal to the WTO and would win. Apple could just stop selling phones in Ontario until the uproar topples the government. Would you also support a requirement that all computers in Ontario have to have a back door for government to check if you're pirating? What about software that ensures I don't use key words like bomb, and reports me to CSIS if I do? Asking for big gov to intrude further on our lives is never a solution to anything imo.

I actually understand where you're coming from there. I'm just not that cynical. Yet.

Adding software to my phone is not viable at all if I chose not to download and install the app. Temporary seizure of the car is the solution with the least legal hurdles and the most impact. If I text and drive in a Ferrari no fine will hurt as much as towing it away.

Spiralling energy costs and soaring taxes are inevitable. In a world with an exponential population growth curve and finite resources, there is no scenario in which those things do not become a fact of life.

So it's okay to do nothing and let 6-9 million people per year die, because it will be 44 years from now, and because you hate Wynne? It's a good thing you don't run the government, it seems you're under the mistaken impression that this is an either/or scenario. There is enough money for all our needs if it is properly managed (which it currently is not). Also, I find it interesting that you think we will be able to afford reduced wait times with millions more people needing treatment because we did nothing about air pollution. Can you explain the math on that one?

For you frugal fellows concerned about cost: http://www.oecd.org/environment/the-economic-consequences-of-outdoor-air-pollution-9789264257474-en.htm This just released OECD study estimates the annual cost of air pollution at 6-9 million deaths and $2.6 trillion. EDIT: My apologies, something came up and I had to hit post before I finished my sentence - that is the projected cost by 2060.

Lol ???

There is nothing wrong with this line of thinking if, as has been said above, you acknowledge that you are only thinking of yourself (a common trait in humans). If you have children, or care at all about the future of the species' on this planet, then you cannot argue for the status quo.