Tom S

It's been a slow summer for me, but I'm just wrapping up another rod project. All you walleye folks will just have to look away, this one is designed for smallies. 7'6" fiberglass blank for slow action with lots of shock-absorption, 6/7/8wt to handle streamers and poppers, all aluminum reel seat for durabillity, and a Nickel Silver ferrule to minimize the dead spot in the blank. I'm currently doing some test casting before I glue on a fighting butt. Thanks for looking.

I think the term you're looking for is 'butterface'.

I call Bull. Who ever heard of a walleye fighting for a half hour?

Take him fishing.

Terrible thing to hear. Hope they find him soon. Saw two choppers come screaming into Hamilton from over the lake last night, and back out again probably 15 minutes later. Figure it was a fuel stop. One all lit up, one without any visible lights. I wonder if they were part of the search effort to the west end of the lake.

This got me thinking - imagine that in the 60's instead of stocking pacific salmon to control the alewife, they had stocked stripers? Was this ever looked at? Imagine - huge, aggressive fish; surf casting; smashing schools of baitfish. I don't believe they can successfully breed in freshwater, so it would hopefully be a controllable fishery as well.

Well, my trash issue took care of itself. New owners for the property, they aren’t putting up with any Bull and are blocking acesss to everyone. Can’t say I blame them.

LoL. Not many high schoolers around at 6AM.

Unfortunately I don't think the people dumping really feel much in the way of guilt. I fish a local pond, bit of a local water hole type place where high-schoolers go in the evening to get away from parents. It's depressing what people will leave behind when they know they won't be caught or prosecuted - bottle/cans, wrappers, furniture, canoes & boats, towels & clothing, diapers, etc. I almost feel like its a self-perpetuating problem though, as cleaning it up just teaches the scum that someone else will take care of it for them.

I would also encourage anyone with relatives nearing death to talk about palliative care and the possibility of going to a hospice. There are some very special people working in those fields who can make these difficult situations much easier.

Good. Thin out some of those cormorant colonies. Hopefully it doesn't affect to many other species.

Any thoughts on whether the smallmouth-goby relationship will follow the same track as the salmon-alewife relationship? The gobies have exploded by aggressively filling a particular niche in the Great Lakes ecology, to the point where they have become a primary food source. Are we now seeing the smallmouth population growing to meet the supply of gobies, and will there be a point where the smallmouth begin to overpopulate to the point where the goby population can't sustain them and we see a decrease in the smallmouth population?

I had a line on one for a good price on Kijiji, but couldn't get out there before someone else beat me to it. Saw that Cumberland on Kijiji as well, but don't end up out in KW to much. If I do I'll definitely look into picking that one up. Funny you say that about using a kayak paddle. I was at Arrowhead this past week and saw a couple of ladies hop in float tubes and try to head down the river using kayak paddles. Probably about the most awkward way I've ever seen a watercraft propelled. Thought about walking over to them and making an offer on the tubes.

Looking good. I've started to look for a float tube thanks to your videos, have some smaller bodies of water in mind that would be fun to access that way.

Someone's probably adding 'foam earplugs' and 'big-ass treble hooks' to their shopping list after viewing it.

Worth the stop if you're in the area. I volunteered there a little bit during college, my FIL still does. Lanc was overhead today, love the sound of those Merlin engines.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is some sort of safety standard preventing that from happening. Either some sort of extreme puncture/breakage test a composite can't withstand, or the standard hasn't been updated to reflect new materials. Sounds like a great idea though - rust proof, lightweight, durable.

Lol. I looked that up last night for the kids and had to convert it to how many bathtubs of water for them to understand (about 20 from my figuring).

For sure. Probably need a couple barf bags to. But I’d still love to try.

Wow. That second last guy gave me a butt pucker with the way he turned in, but he backed right off at the end there. Brave fellows, I'd love to go for a ride with one of them.

This is a better map, you can adjust the layers to see the extent of the fire area. http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/interactive-map?zoom=10&center=1111869.5050119918,-213740.1027276589&month=07&day=24&year=2018#wb-cont

The Grand is a very cool river. I love how it flows through some urban areas, yet once unless you're directly in the center of those urban areas you wouldn't know it, and there are some stretches that can be difficult to access. Imagine that - a large river running through a highly populated area there are large stretches that are essentially unchanged. Unheard of and under appreciated.

Haven't really done much fishing up Fergus way, as I prefer green trout to brown trout, but down through the lower Grand we're starting to see some heavier hex hatches. Might not be happening up that way yet because of the colder water. Grand is low and warm right now, so look for the deeper cold areas and be nice to the fish. https://apps.grandriver.ca/waterdata/kiwischarts/rf_uppergrand.aspx

Krocs are like pajamas - wear them around the house, but please don't wear them out.