Tom S

From the other end of the guitar talent spectrum

Came through at 9:30, stayed for about an hour. Picked up some deals for myself, some reels and a bamboo rod that needs to be rescued. Based on this year's crowd I think they should start looking for a bigger venue for next year, it felt very crowded and it would have been nice to have somewhere with some tables and chairs set up to sit down.

Do autonomous cars sound boring to anyone else? I enjoy driving, and would probably be quite bored if just chauffeured around by a computer all the time. Subaru is even considering the sacrilege (already committed by BMW) of eliminating the stick shift from some models because it interferes with their safety features. http://www.core77.com/posts/75530/Will-Subaru-Kill-the-Manual-Transmission. Far cry from their racing/rally roots.

A tight building envelope is great, but you do need to let that building breathe somehow. To tight of an envelope can cause major humidity issues, plus smells and sickness can become trapped in the house. The trick is to have a tight envelope and a Heat Recovery Ventilator, which will bring fresh air into the house while preheating it with the exhaust air to improve efficiency. I believe they are now code on new builds in Ontario. Your stove puts out ~7,000 BTU per burner, so call it 35,000 BTU if everything is cranked up full. Your furnace is ~100,000 BTU. Lots more CO coming off the furnace, and because it's running through the day the CO will build up. You typically run a stove for 1-2 hours a day, so the CO is much less and won't build up over time to a dangerous level. Even when cooking all day you'll probably have less overall CO buildup than the furnace would over a couple hours.

For anyone not familiar with Lefty, here's an excellent article describing him: http://www.flyfisherman.com/news/lefty-kreh/. Seemed like the type of guy you could learn a lot from, as long as you were willing to listen. I would have loved to have met him, his Deceiver fly pattern is one of my favorites.

Hillbilly trailer hook? Catch lots of fish with just one cast?

This discussion popped into my head this morning when I read a post on a blog I follow that showcased a tractor produced by Porsche as a post-war project. Beautiful looking design (ever seen an art-deco looking tractor?), and it was emphasized several times that it was cheap to run / easy to maintain and repair. Now you can't even change the battery in a German vehicle without going through a trained mechanic? Can someone explain to me how this is progress? When did designers/manufactures become more concerned about post-sales revenue than building a solid product? Porsche Tractor for anyone who is interested: https://silodrome.com/porsche-tractor/

Don't be. They've got a durable finish and are meant to be fished. Nothing worse than a rod that doesn't get fished for a reason like that.

Thanks, I've asked myself the same question a few times, but haven't found any way to find our for sure. The rod came to me out of Massachusetts, but I can't find a model list of what was produced in Grimsby.

I'd like to introduce you to Bluegill Rodworks, my rod building venture. My favorite rods to build are fiberglass fly rods, wrapped with a very simple style. I also enjoy restoration work, some of those classic rods still have lots of life left in them and clean up pretty good. I'm willing to tackle pretty much any build, from fly to spinning to casting rods, so give me a shout if you have a project in mind. Fair warning though, if you're looking for something specialized (such as centerpin or spey) I might redirect you to someone with more experience in those areas. If you'd like to know what I'm working on feel free to follow my page on Facebook

Sorry, got pulled away at a family event. Yep, you should be good to go. As John mentioned, most resorts have outlets that should accept the plugs without adapters.

No, that's the output. It should say somewhere on the serial plate something like '100-240V - 50/60Hz' for input.

Check the power supply for the tablet - most power supplies these days are rated for a wide range of voltages and can probably handle 220V. If that's the case you just need a plug adapter (~$25).

A tough topic to get anyone to agree on. Wolves definitely have a place in that ecosystem, the question becomes how many wolves can be sustained, both from an ecological perspective and a human-wolf interaction perspective. Some interesting reading on what was seen in Yellowstone Park when they reintroduced wolves - things you wouldn't even think connected initially https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem I wish that they would base decision like this more on data and statistics, rather than it being a political issue between treehuggers and resource users.

Yep. I am worried that in the coming years you'll see more and more cars that should have lots of life left in them scrapped because of electronics issues. Especially because manufacturers love to do things like change computer boards between models to add in more features. And since so many models come standard with more and more advanced electronic bells and whistles it's going to get worse and worse. It's like we're going backwards.

Yep. Can't stand it, hard to tie, hard to cut, kinks. Rio product is much better.

Just finished up another one. 7' 3/4 weight, wrapped with raw silk so the wraps become transparent. Ritz grip, black hardware, stacked bamboo uplocking reel seat. Really like the way this one turned out.

To me Ribs mean smoker. No boiling, no slow cooker. ~6 hours of smoke (apple is great), dry rub beforehand and a sauce near the end. Low and slow baby.

They sure have. And for the sake of people with attitudes like yours I hope the interest rate stays down, otherwise there is going to be a whole lot of trouble. Nothing wrong with carrying some debt, pretty much everyone needs to these days. But there are way to many people living beyond their means who could be in for a heap of trouble. Just make sure that you're covered in the event of a bad situation (car repairs, house repairs, loss of job, sickness) before you start borrowing towards some big boy toys.

Try Barbecues Galore in Burlington. Great place, if they don't have it I bet they could get it in.

Custom built fiberglass rod. Built on a Japanese made E-Glass blank, 7'5" 4/5 weight. Burl reel seat, Ritz grip, Snake Brand guides. Blank colour is a light olive, similar to the Orvis Golden Eagle colour. Very nice casting rod, enjoyable softer feel than graphite. Can handle a 4WT line for lighter presentations, but will also handle a 5WT line for small streamers. Shorter length is a bit nicer for tighter streams, would make a great brook trout rod. Would like to get $350, but feel free to make an offer. Includes a rod sock to keep it pretty.

Beautiful fish. Best looking fish out there in my opinion.

I wouldn't say that they companies you've listed aren't listening to what fishermen want as much as they are being very slow to respond. And that doesn't surprise me much based on the cost of the augers. The commercially available electric models (which there are a few of) cost about the same as a gas or propane powered model. If you're going to drop that much on a piece of equipment, wouldn't you want the reliability and long life of a gas model instead of going with an untested electric model? I'd bet that if a manufacturer wanted to they could produce a nice ice auger with a brushless motor, metal gearbox, long-lasting battery, and an auger designed to work well with it. The question is can they survive the 5 years it's going to take for the market to decide that it's a good product, since it's so different from what's out there and accepted by everyone. Then enter the clam drill conversion. You've got a drill sitting around the house anyhow and a couple hundred bucks and you're off to the races. Drills are made in much greater volume than ice augers, so they most likely can be made more economically and are sold with less margin, so using them as a power source is a great idea. Clam doesn't have a ton invested in their product, so they can afford to take that chance. I bet you'll start to see some really nice electric models enter the market in the next few years.

Has anyone tried the knot-able wire available for fly fishing toothy critters? I have a Rio spool that I was quite impressed with this summer. Easy to work with and not to heavy