Ramble

Female is bigger in pretty much every species....it doesnt take much space to store a few million sperm at all. So males don't need to get big....there is whole heap of stuff i could carry on about relating to optimal body size and metabolic rate....basically it boils down too, the bigger the female, the more eggs she produces, the more youg she has, the more young survive to spawn which means a higher fitness level for big females, so through natural selection females are bigger.

Lets also remember that over time DNA in all species degrades and as such more mutated, unhealthy genes are added to the gene pool, hence it may in fact be helpful to a popuation to remove the very old fish. Hmm, maybe that would make a good topic for some thesis study... Got me thinking

I'm gonna pull this apart, and want you to know I'm not trying to be condesending or anything, so please don't be offended.

Mutations occur...YES! There is a whole wack of things that can wreck and alter DNA. Ultra-violet light for example. There is a few "checks" in the DNA replication system which are supposed to catch any errors, but due to the nature of the system some get by. Some people have a better replicating system then others, and have DNA with less errors. A DNA error that isnt caught basically means either nothing, cause it didnt wreck a gene, OR a tumor...cancer or not. If bad genes are in her eggs as you suggest those fish wouldnt survive very long anyway...but the fact she has lived well past the age of the others, seems to indicated she has very good genes, and a healthy replicating system. That would mean few if an mutations, and those genes being passed on is GREAT for the population.

Now i hear it all the time "mutations" being used in a negative way. Mutations are not always bad. Randow mutations occur all the time in pretty much all forms of life, and it's for their own good. "Pure" jeans dont help anyone. You need variety to stay alive on this plantet. Almost any one involved in breeding livestock can tell you about the benefits of hybrid vigour. SOme that is increaseingly lacking in farming today.

Anyway, being really old and still producing is about good genes, and good health. Both atributes any fish would want. Big fish producing bad genes to the population doesn't make any sence from what i understand. If anything, eggs un able to be fertalized migh be the casue of some mutation but that would be the only concern i can think of.

-Dave

I'm not familiar with big, old fish getting sterile in their old age. I know the bigger the fish the more eggs they produce. But i'm not sure how long that goes on. You can't compare the repoduction in mammals to that of fish....different sytems which evolved under different pressures. Human females stop producing offspring for a reason.....evolutionarily speaking.

That said big fish make up only a small fraction of the reproductive potential of a population and the 1st couple reproductive year classes do most of reproducing for a populaiton. Then various factors take their toll and individuals are lost. A big fish like that has some very good genes to live that long, and her contribution to the gene pool, although small is all the more important in my opinion. Cause without her only her young hold the genes, and not all of them. The more offspring she produces, the more likley of another winning genetic combo being made that will produce more fish like her. The longer they live the more offspring they produce, and that means higher fitness level.

I don't like seeing these beasts being killed just cause they are trophies....no matter what species they are....whether the reg's allow it or not. In my opinion its a loss to the populaiton, and when i hear of people releaseing their monsters in good shape, it puts a little smile on my face.

I might do alittle digging to see what i can find, but i'm pretty sure fish reproduce until they die.

-Dave

i wanted to break 47 pike of 40 inches in my boat guiding at the lodge this year. I hit 37. The most of any of the guides, but not what i was hoping for. It's a tough number to hit. I still averaged about 1 over 40 every 2 days.

Another goal was to improve on the number of lakers dad and I catch in Algonquin and we hit that no problem and even ended up with a PB twice.

My only other goal is specks through the ice...that's gonna have to wait till after January now. Never got to them last hard water season. I also wanted to ice fish more, and we did pull that off last winter.

Other then that my only goal is to have a good time and I managed that no problem.

-Dave

perhaps he has issues with a site that has several intelligent people who are able to do more than just fish and who like to give advice to those who need it......

Yeah that must be it...

-R-

It'll be a while yet before the bay is good to go I imagine....then some time after that before the best spots are safe. Keep an eye out for Hawg Hunters reports. He has a couple secret spots that ice up pretty quick, and reports as soon as it's safe to get out. I think he guides day trips out there as well.

If you're heading out with a buddy or whatever, i think they were doing well off big island last year.

-R-

Hey now, It's one thing to put up posts about people bashing, another thing to put up their name, and something different all together to post their picture. This sorta thing is exactly what he's talking about.

He got me the stocking list i was after when no one else here had it. Him and i both belong to other boards, and you have to admit there is some lame-ass posts here from time to time. He doesnt like it, and wants to joke about it...NO PROBLEM. If you have a problem with him you should take it up with him, not make a public post about it. I'm hoping this one gets cut by the mods really soon.

-Dave

Looks like the EU is well ahead of us again trying to deal with health related issues. Thought a few of you might find this article interesting.

http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...ew_post&f=2

It's official: Men really are the weaker sex

Evolution is being distorted by pollution, which damages genitals and the ability to father offspring, says new study. Geoffrey Lean reports

The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals.

The research – to be detailed tomorrow in the most comprehensive report yet published – shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people.

Backed by some of the world's leading scientists, who say that it "waves a red flag" for humanity and shows that evolution itself is being disrupted, the report comes out at a particularly sensitive time for ministers. On Wednesday, Britain will lead opposition to proposed new European controls on pesticides, many of which have been found to have "gender-bending" effects.

It also follows hard on the heels of new American research which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy are born with smaller penises and feminised genitals.

"This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat," says Gwynne Lyons, a former government adviser on the health effects of chemicals, who wrote the report.

Wildlife and people have been exposed to more than 100,000 new chemicals in recent years, and the European Commission has admitted that 99 per cent of them are not adequately regulated. There is not even proper safety information on 85 per cent of them.

Many have been identified as "endocrine disrupters" – or gender-benders – because they interfere with hormones. These include phthalates, used in food wrapping, cosmetics and baby powders among other applications; flame retardants in furniture and electrical goods; PCBs, a now banned group of substances still widespread in food and the environment; and many pesticides.

The report – published by the charity CHEMTrust and drawing on more than 250 scientific studies from around the world – concentrates mainly on wildlife, identifying effects in species ranging from the polar bears of the Arctic to the eland of the South African plains, and from whales in the depths of the oceans to high-flying falcons and eagles.

It concludes: "Males of species from each of the main classes of vertebrate animals (including bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have been affected by chemicals in the environment.

"Feminisation of the males of numerous vertebrate species is now a widespread occurrence. All vertebrates have similar sex hormone receptors, which have been conserved in evolution. Therefore, observations in one species may serve to highlight pollution issues of concern for other vertebrates, including humans."

Fish, it says, are particularly affected by pollutants as they are immersed in them when they swim in contaminated water, taking them in not just in their food but through their gills and skin. They were among the first to show widespread gender-bending effects.

Half the male fish in British lowland rivers have been found to be developing eggs in their testes; in some stretches all male roaches have been found to be changing sex in this way. Female hormones – largely from the contraceptive pills which pass unaltered through sewage treatment – are partly responsible, while more than three-quarters of sewage works have been found also to be discharging demasculinising man-made chemicals. Feminising effects have now been discovered in a host of freshwater fish species as far away as Japan and Benin, in Africa, and in sea fish in the North Sea, the Mediterranean, Osaka Bay in Japan and Puget Sound on the US west coast.

Research at the University of Florida earlier this year found that 40 per cent of the male cane toads – a species so indestructible that it has become a plague in Australia – had become hermaphrodites in a heavily farmed part of the state, with another 20 per cent undergoing lesser feminisation. A similar link between farming and sex changes in northern leopard frogs has been revealed by Canadian research, adding to suspicions that pesticides may be to blame.

Male alligators exposed to pesticides in Florida have suffered from lower testosterone and higher oestrogen levels, abnormal testes, smaller penises and reproductive failures. Male snapping turtles have been found with female characteristics in the same state and around the Great Lakes, where wildlife has been found to be contaminated with more than 400 different chemicals. Male herring gulls and peregrine falcons have produced the female protein used to make egg yolks, while bald eagles have had difficulty reproducing in areas highly contaminated with chemicals.

Scientists at Cardiff University have found that the brains of male starlings who ate worms contaminated by female hormones at a sewage works in south-west England were subtly changed so that they sang at greater length and with increased virtuosity.

Even more ominously for humanity, mammals have also been found to be widely affected.

Two-thirds of male Sitka black-tailed deer in Alaska have been found to have undescended testes and deformed antler growth, and roughly the same proportion of white-tailed deer in Montana were discovered to have genital abnormalities.

In South Africa, eland have been revealed to have damaged testicles while being contaminated by high levels of gender-bender chemicals, and striped mice from one polluted nature reserved were discovered to be producing no sperm at all.

At the other end of the world, hermaphrodite polar bears – with penises and vaginas – have been discovered and gender-benders have been found to reduce sperm counts and penis lengths in those that remained male. Many of the small, endangered populations of Florida panthers have been found to have abnormal sperm.

Other research has revealed otters from polluted areas with smaller testicles and mink exposed to PCBs with shorter penises. Beluga whales in Canada's St Lawrence estuary and killer whales off its north-west coast – two of the wildlife populations most contaminated by PCBs – are reproducing poorly, as are exposed porpoises, seals and dolphins.

Scientists warned yesterday that the mass of evidence added up to a grave warning for both wildlife and humans. Professor Charles Tyler, an expert on endocrine disrupters at the University of Exeter, says that the evidence in the report "set off alarm bells". Whole wildlife populations could be at risk, he said, because their gene pool would be reduced, making them less able to withstand disease and putting them at risk from hazards such as global warming.

Dr Pete Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences, one of the world's foremost authorities on gender-bender chemicals, added: "We have thrown 100, 000 chemicals against a finely balanced hormone system, so it's not surprising that we are seeing some serious results. It is leading to the most rapid pace of evolution in the history of the world.

Professor Lou Gillette of Florida University, one of the most respected academics in the field, warned that the report waved "a large red flag" at humanity. He said: "If we are seeing problems in wildlife, we can be concerned that something similar is happening to a proportion of human males"

Indeed, new research at the University of Rochester in New York state shows that boys born to mothers with raised levels of phthalates were more likely to have smaller penises and undescended testicles. They also had a shorter distance between their anus and genitalia, a classic sign of feminisation. And a study at Rotterdam's Erasmus University showed that boys whose mothers had been exposed to PCBs grew up wanting to play with dolls and tea sets rather than with traditionally male toys.

Communities heavily polluted with gender-benders in Canada, Russia and Italy have given birth to twice as many girls than boys, which may offer a clue to the reason for a mysterious shift in sex ratios worldwide. Normally 106 boys are born for every 100 girls, but the ratio is slipping. It is calculated that 250,000 babies who would have been boys have been born as girls instead in the US and Japan alone.

And sperm counts are dropping precipitously. Studies in more than 20 countries have shown that they have dropped from 150 million per millilitre of sperm fluid to 60 million over 50 years. (Hamsters produce nearly three times as much, at 160 million.) Professor Nil Basu of Michigan University says that this adds up to "pretty compelling evidence for effects in humans".

But Britain has long sought to water down EU attempts to control gender-bender chemicals and has been leading opposition to a new regulation that would ban pesticides shown to have endocrine-disrupting effects. Almost all the other European countries back it, but ministers – backed by their counterparts from Ireland and Romania – are intent on continuing their resistance at a crucial meeting on Wednesday. They say the regulation would cause a collapse of agriculture in the UK, but environmentalists retort that this is nonsense because the regulation has get-out clauses that could be used by British farmers.

As the title suggests im wondering about how the ice is doing up around Bancroft. ANy body hear or know anything?

-R-

Time. They have to figure it is there, and then they will start coming. sprinking some on the ground where they can see it is also an option. But if it piles up on teh grass in can mess ur lawn up. Its also messy to clean up, not to mention would probably get burried by the snow. How long have you had it up for?

-R-

If you still have the skull the teeth can give you an estimate on the age if you know what ur looking for, or i guess know someone who knows what to look for.....i'm sure there is a site around what has some descent pictures.

-R-

I'm debating whether i should reply to this or just avoid the whole thing entirley.

-R-

I love it. I'm amazed that made the paper...but sooo glad it did.

-R-

I got it from a buddy about 5 minutes ago....thanks fellas

-Dave

It's not lake on the edge of the park. It's south of bob's lake beside potspoon. I know what other lakes have in the area, and i was just wondering if any one had any info specifically about that lake.

-R-

My friends dad bought a place on White lake just south of Bob's lake in Frontenac county. Not to be confused with the white lake about 10km away northwest of Bob.

We have no idea whats in their waiting to be caught? Anyone know? Or where i can find out?

-Dave

Evening evreyone....

My buddy's dad just bought a place near Godfrey North of Kingston. I'm lookin for the stocking list for that area. I think its Frontenc county. My last step is calling the MNR office. But if some one has it i'd appreciate getting a copy, so i can for-go the run-around.

Thanks

-R-

The Scu is a good time. I always catch something fishing there. Sometimes we catch lots of somethings, and sometime we even catch the somethings we are after!

Tight Lines

-R-

For my tip ups i've been hooking them just above the anal opening. The weight on the bottom of the minnow keeps them up right...more or less and still allows them to swim around. I stay away from hooking them in teh head or near the spine. Jigging is another matter entirley.

-R-

The weather forcasts are always good for a laugh. This summer at the lodge, their forcast was consistantly wrong. If we doubled the estimated wind speeds, we were close, but their precipitation forcasts and cloud cover was off by miles.

My pactiular favourite day for Kesagami was when the current conditions said "3600 foot ceiling and 1600 feet of visibility." Does this look like a 3600 foot ceiling and 1600 feet of visibility to you?

Oh i hope its colder then normal and locks the lakes up in ice by the end of december....im DYING to get out ice fishing!

-R_

Nice fish and soild report. The snow on teh ground makes for some nice shots. Nice work.

-Dave

Specks/Splake are both beautiful fish and usually come with some really nice scenery. Pulling a few through the hole always strickes a cord with me.

Perch/Crappie are next on the list. Getting into a few schools of these bad boys in a day always puts a smile on my face and leaves me satisfied.

Lakers are fun, when i can find some to cooperate. Another beautiful fish accompanied by great scenery.

Walleye are a good time as well, but i'd rather catch 10 perch then 1 'eye. I see enough in the summer anyway.

Pike i don't target in the winter, and I don't miss them.

Last year we ended up with some really nice bass fishing for walleye on a weedline. They were a riot through the ice. Too bad we can't target them...but you can't stop them from biting when they do!

I've never caught a whitie through the ice before, but this might be the year. I have plans with a friend to specifically go chasing them on Simcoe this winter at least once.....here's hoping!

-R-

on the days in late january and february when i head out with the spud bar those 10 inch holes are REALLY nice lolol.

Im a big fan of the 8" but have never had any trouble with a 6 inch hole either.

-R-

Didn't you get the memo Irish? hats were invented a while back. They'll keep heat in and prevent freezing. I'm betting you got the pants memo tho right?

haha

-R-

Hut? Heater? Are you guys getting soft or what here?? LMAO

INTERNAL COMBUSTION. i can go quite a while on bacon eggs and orange juice lol

-R-