splashhopper

As a small business owner, I have found some of the comments on a thread or two very interesting the past few days. I am wondering how many of us use the business services or products from fellow members on this board. I have found alot of help through many different posts over the the 2+ years I have been here from various businesses and or their employees and the tradesmen to be very helpful. I have also sent PM's to a couple of them for situations where I needed some help on in my own business. The OFC community is always a source of help in any area of our lives and I trust it will continue to be that way for the foreseeable future. Thank you for taking a moment to add your answers to the poll attached(anonymous answers). Splashhopper

wtg Nick !

Sorry bro... i don;t get that one either... my in-laws are first generation uneducated immigrants from the Philippines.... they had one bad experience with a business and pulled all their business away from them.( CIBC missed the boat on their business )

Johnny: with no disrespect intended at all, but how can one family have so much bad "luck" in their purchases of services or goods? Something doesn't equate here. I can also play the "not protected card" by unscrupulous homeowners( 2 to be exact) that ripped me off to the tune of over 10k! Who do I turn to to recover that money and should I not pay my employees for the work they did on those two homes, may ask for a credit from the suppliers for the materials that these scumbags are using to this day? If I stayed focused on those two negative experiences I would never work in a home again. With your fears of business owners and their practices, how do u ever walk in to a: Tackle shop Gas station to fill up the boat/truck Tim Horton's to get a java for the early drive to the lake These questions are not meant to tick u off, but are meant to ask you for a little self reflection on all the good experiences you have had with businesses over your life time as well.

Blarg: i am not sure where u are coming from with that statement but rest assured, as a small business owner off and on since 1994, I have been ripped off royally by a couple of employees. One so bad that it tipped me in to bankruptcy. On the other hand, I have had some great employees who to this day we are friends with each other as our lives have taken different paths. Don;t for a second think that small business owners are out to rip you off anymore than you are out to rip them off.

I second that

Where in ontario is "Finland"? I can't find it on my map anywhere Great looking fish. Thanks for the adventure

excellent report

AWESOME !

are u saying the fish are your friends John?

great lookin fish...I might have to try that spro frog too

Red-necks like me like our motors dumb too

If the fish have "little black ears" up there John, you might want to put some steel toes in those waders

Yeah, it's been know to have a certain van with parking lights left on it while fishing

u can never have too many fishing buddies

Well this has been a slow start for the Large Mouths for me so far, but as my fishing mentor told me: " if the line isn't in the water, you can't catch a fish". I took the canoe out again this am to my favorite local hole. Decided to tilt the electric motor up and paddle in to the HEAVY SLOP. Darn glad I did too. The first cast with my top water frog( Scum frog with a big split shot up it's butt) and KERSPLASH!... was too excited and pulled the trigger too quick on it Tossed a senko right back at at... but the slop was just too thick for me to work that thing in Another 10 or fifteen minutes go by and I can hear fish rising all around me . It's just a matter of time I am thinking. Yep, a few minutes later and I get a small one. ( too small for a pic.. hehe) Couple more casts in the same general direction and get another small one. Decide to paddle a little closer to shore with a big ol tree trunk coming ever so slightly out of the slop. First cast. BAM ... wait( one steam boat , two steam boat) SET THE HOOK! Yee haw... finally got a decent fish out of there this season. Slugged my way a little further along the shore line and was rewarded with this one >> Dang it was getting hot, so I headed for a shaded stretch where I could cast out from to the heavy mat. A few minutes there and KERPOW ! By this time the heat was really getting to me and I had some heavy paddling ahead ( in myfat bottom Sportspal ) Once I got free from the mats I put the motor in third gear and trolled on in with a beautiful breeze to cool me off. Hope to get back out this week for some shore fishing. I think I found another way to get at the mats from shore too. Happy fishing all. Splashhopper

something weird is going on . Now I have all the gears again. Is it possible that if I crossed the wires last night that this could have happened? I ask this because today I realized that, last night, I was turning the throttle the opposite way of what I usually do to make it go forward and reverse?

excellent trekking John... Great looking smallie for such a shallow stretch of water

Great looking largies. does standing on an over hanging tree branch and tossing a senko to the outer edge of the fallen tree count as "flipping". My friends think I have flipped my mind when they see me crawl out on it. But dang, it's fun to catch one when teetering on a branch like circus performer

great looking fish Cliff

I had a bit of a surprise with my trolling motor last night. One of the terminal clips had come off on Friday and I re-attached it. ( the wire in to the clip) Last night the motor was side mounted on my canoe and I used it for the first time since re-attaching the wire. To my surprise I now only have two forward gears,4th and fifth. ( used to have five) I still have the two speeds for reverse though. Those are the fastest gears and really move the canoe along way too fast for closing in on trees and points etc. Has anyone else had this happen out of the blue? And what did you do to fix it? Thanks Splashhopper

Yeah, fourteen bucks does seem a little steep ( based on your profile pic)

Dang, I was all pumped up to go fishing on my favorite lake on Friday with my friend Dutchy. I was sooooo pumped that i woke up at 3:30am Finally fell back asleep and then woke up late. Had picked up my "new to me" 12 foot tinnie the evening before and was looking forward to cruising around looking for bass and pike. I should have known the fishing was gonna be poor when i discovered that my little boat had a leak in it... and we were not even in the boat yet! Oh well, I do grouting for a living and had plenty of sponges to keep dutchy busy! Five hours later and we only had a couple of taps on the heavy worms and two blow ups on the top water.( nothing hooked though) On our final lap around, we came across Spinnerbaitking and his friend. ( the "highlight" of the day ) Being new to car topping a tinny, i soon learned that if you have a leak in the boat, you want to be at the bow of the boat when you flip it over, or at least taller than the guy who is helping you . Got a good soaker. lol Dutchy damned near dropped the boat, he was laughing so hard lol The real hilight of the day was seeing a reminder of a simpler way of life as we were leaving. ( can you say- " the lucky sperm club" )

$14.00 for a haircut is still a darned good price. Unless of course u have fur toilet set for a hairline

Went fishing with Dutchy and another friend for perch on Friday. Dutchy was first up with a hawg ! ( that picture does not do the fish justice at all) Then our friend was up with a bunch. I was ill prepared and brought the wrong rod ( stiff bass rod ) Our buddy lent me his old 6"light action rod and I was soon in on the action as well. The two-way radio was going all morning with limits being caught at different depths. I guess it was the perch god's giving us all a break after the dreaded HST kicking the day before. These were biggest perch I have ever seen that didn't come from a grocery store! All in all, we filled a 5 gallon pail with jumbos and had a nice little meal that night. Can't wait for the pickerel run on Erie...