Jer

I bought a pair of the CTC cutters last year and so far I'm fairly impressed with what they will cut. Was just restringing my clothesline and they cut through the "heavy duty" cable like butter, my sidecutters wouldn't even put a dent in it.

My guess is if the impeller turns no problem, there isn't anything wrong with the pump...more likely a blockage in the intake or discharge hoses. I had problems with mine a couple years ago in the spring. I attached my garden hose to the intake at the back of the boat and flushed the system through...never had a problem since.

Nice report. We've got a campsite booked at Crotch for July 6. It will be our second annual trip there...can't wait.

I guess old habits die hard...

I've had the reel for a few years now and never had a problem til now. I've also got a Symmetre 2500FI (bought around the same time) and although it's cheaper reel, it's always felt smoother from day one and never a problem with the bail snapping closed. Maybe that's why the Stradic has been completely redesigned for the FI model.

I hope he split it with you...

I've been having a different problem with my Stradic 2500FH lately, but still bail related. On the occasional cast, the bail will snap closed when releasing the line from my finger. This of course snaps the bait right back at your face (if you're lucky maybe your fishing partner's face). So far this year it's only been with crappie baits, but I'm worried about throwing bigger baits with it.

I've had a 10A single bank XPS on-board charger for at least 4 or 5 years now and it works great.

The problem you might have is isolating the batteries for charging. With both batteries hooked up in parallel to provide only 12V, I don't think you can hook up separate charging banks to each battery without causing some sort of short, or more likely the charger just shutting off because it senses a full charge not coming from the battery, but from the the other charging bank. You might need some sort of switching mechanism to isolate the batteries from each other for charging (at least the positive side). ...or I could be totally wrong...

The tires have been great, Ernie. I haven't put alot of miles on them yet, maybe a couple thousand km. Had no problems in the snow over the winter, I could drive in 2wd most of the time, any snow with my last set and it was 4x4 for sure. I did take a highway trip to London and back a few months ago in the truck and was pleasantly surprised how smooth and quiet they were for such an aggressive looking tread.

Well eight boats anyways...we only kept a dozen. I take your point though, we seemed to be on the "spot on the spot", if you know what I mean. It was only early afternoon when we left so god knows what happened after we were gone. As far as fishing them out of the lake, if I remember the FMZ-17 info meeting a couple weeks ago correctly, the MNR wants to expand the opportunity for crappie fishing around here. According to the biologist, crappie are here and here to stay. Controlling the numbers can only help the pickerel population.

...cause I got mine... My weapon of choice...Chevrolet.

We did notice that most others weren't quite as selective as us on Sunday...but hey, thats what the crappie are for. I don't think we'll ever fish them out.

Sunday afternoon, my buddy and I were on one of our "no-miss" crappie spots and pulled in fish after fish for over two hours straight. We must have caught at least a hundred crappie, keeping the biggest dozen, and yes, they were yummy. It was a crowded spot, with as many as nine boats in there at one time. At least everybody kept it civil. Last night after work, I went back with the dog to see if I could get a few more. I had the whole lagoon to myself and could not find even one crappie. Two hours of fishing and all I could catch was a couple bluegill and a rock bass. Where could the crappie have gone in just over 24 hours? The weather hadn't changed at all, besides it was nice and calm yesterday. Oh well, i guess that's fishing.

It's tucked right between Pigeon, the Balds and Upper Buckhorn with a creek draining into Upper Buckhorn. It's spring fed and has no boat access to the bigger lakes. Beautiful turquoise colour and nice and sandy. I've never fished it as there is no public launch but assume it has the regular Kawartha fish species.

Surface temp on Buckhorn ranged from 51 to 55, we managed a few crappie but no real numbers.

Found a few on Buckhorn yesterday, brought about seven home for a snack. It was a tough day getting chased around by the wind & rain. At least it was warm, today is a total write-off.

Once...and only once, about 8 or 9 years ago, we had a run of huge perch off of my dock for a day or two in early November. These were Simcoe class fish on Buckhorn like I've never seen before or since (besides the odd one off). We've tried to duplicate every fall since and haven't been able. We had some freaky Indian summer weather that fall I remember.

We got a new starting spot on Chemong for crappie, then working our way back through Buckhorn. I hope the slab bite is on!

Nobody knows where the Ops-Fenelon border is anymore. It doesn't show up on any newer maps, it's all City of Kawartha Lakes.

I just got a cheque today...pretty sure it's just some of my own money back though...

That was hilarious...

...is this some kinda rule I've never heard about? What are ya allowed in your backyard? ...if not a dog?

I have to disagree, as far as the tri-lakes goes anyways. I've lived here since '96 and this may be the highest level I've seen. A nice summer day (note the heron)... Taken about a few minutes ago (the dock is actually floating about 1" over it's blocks)... I was in the water Wed evening to move another piece of dock to keep it from floating away and where normally the water is not even knee deep, it was four inches from flooding my chest waders.

I'm just hoping my dock doesn't float away... The water is up over a foot since Sunday (when I mighta jumped the gun and put the dock down). So far it's the second highest I've seen it, 97 or 98 was a little worse.