Barry Willis

I don't expect if this will apply to many of you folks in Ontario but thought I'd post it anyway. Out here in Calgary over the past few years (Fish and Wildlife estimate there are a little over a thousand coyotes here in the city) there have been several attacks on dogs, some on people, moms being threatened while going for a walk with their infant in a stroller, children being threatened by them right in their front yards and pets going missing from yards that aren't fenced properly. Coexisting with them is becoming more difficult as they are getting bolder every year. Quite often (too often) especially in rural areas a single coyote will come in and lure dogs out and away from the yard to where a pack is waiting in ambush and attack and kill the dog. And some people wonder why I shoot them - in their words - the poor things.

Wow, I've never seen batteries do that. Thank God your wife smelled the smoke. You and your wife are very lucky. I think I'll put the purchase of a lithium for my trolling motor etc. on the back burner.

With the wind chill in the-50s out west here, 51 degrees colder than our normal high I don't think we have to worry about ice anymore. Guys have actually been out ice fishing for over a month since our last cold spell. Sunday the temperature slowly got up to -8 over night and slowly made it up to -5 yesterday and the winds have been calm, no wind chill but still bitterly cold in the central and northern part of the province. Started snowing again yesterday and still is. Going down into the -20s today with a brisk wind out of the north, -30s with the wind chill. So I think it's going be a day of two before I get out.

You'll get no argument from me. I feel sorry for the fish. Great idea Misfish.

Happiest of birthdays Big Cliff.

Ya know it's cold when this happens. This is frost not snow.

They are located in Boston and Chinese owned. One of my friends ordered some things from there and the way he puts it - low cost, low quality, ya get what you pay for. Back to Doug re, Calgary airport. As you mentioned there are a lot of folks camping out there that have been hoping to catch their flight since last week. I live ten km from the airport, the last couple days the wind chill at the house here was in the low -50s. Not quite as bad today, mid -40s as the howling north wind, thank fully has subsided some what.

Awesome Rick, a whole different world there. I love it and am full of envy. Thanks very much for sharing.

Howdy Big Cliff, one can't go wrong with a lithium battery. Getting off topic, I've never trolled with my Argo but plan on doing so this year. Curious if you have used an outboard on yours? I do have a trolling motor but I am thinking of also trying my 2hp. Johnson on it. I can run my little Johnson on my Sportspal canoe (I know it won't be as efficient on the Argo) for eight and a half hours that's trolling and wide open on one tank of fuel and it only holds 9,10ths of a liter.

Thanks Gil, glad you liked them. I have a lot more mostly birds, white tail, moose sheep and grizzly's but wasn't sure of the rules as to how many I could post.

Was going through some old 35mm photos to day and came across these. Just a few of my favorites I was too lazy to scan them and put them on a sd card so I just took pics of them with the Canon digital, so they are not the greatest. I may have posted more than I should have. The first one I call hunting the high country (for big horn sheep) it was quite a hike and worse going down as gravity wanted to pull me faster than I wanted on the loose rocks and star an avalanche. The one of the badgers, it is hard to see but papa badger has three baby badgers under him to protect them. I hope yous enjoy them. Thank you.

I did not word my post correctly, there is sand in some lakes out here and others especially the reservoirs mud and clay bottom and you can take a boat and zig zag across the lake for twenty miles as the crow flies and no structure, the fish are there, cruising around it is just being in the right place at the right time. I still remember over fifty years ago, I went ice fishing on Georgian Bay and there was another guy fishing with something I had never seen before, it was a flasher, he showed me how it worked. I could not wait to get to town to buy one. I still have it (a Lowrance) it still works and I still use it at times. As well as being exciting to watch, one can learn a lot from under water cameras of feeding habits of different species of fish.

Good point from Terry and yourself misfish, but read this, depends on the fish finder. In my neck of the woods there is very little sand and no zebra muscles, just rock. But I am a firm believer in leaving the camera down and capturing the action and recording it. It is always cool to watch later.

What is the point of having an under water camera just to find structure, it makes no sense. A fish finder will do that or a hand held sonar where you clear the snow off the ice pour a little water on the ice and place the sonar on it. It will show the depth, structure and mark fish. I have been using an aqua view for twenty years, the fun and excitement comes from watching the fish. Never had a problem with tangling or anything else as you place it far enough away, and I certainly have never had a problem with it scaring fish. If in doubt check out the videos on Youtube.

They sure are fun to watch, but it can also be frustrating at times when you see that big one come cruising in and not take your bait When I got my first one I would get so excited that I would go through the motion of setting the hook before the fish had it in their mouth LOL. Congratulations on your Laker especially for your first and biggest. Very nice. Have fun with it as I am sure you will.

I put them plastic lawn chairs in my boat and Argo to give the cover some pitch kinda like a tee pee so that as the snow melts it just runs off.

I am wondering if in fact the tail is bushy, if he was swinging it, or wagging it, which does not seem likely but if so being at night the infared with the slow shutter speed may have distorted it and made it appear bushy. Spoke to Fish And Wildlife yesterday and they are concerned about if it is a wild pig, so I will be sending it off to them this morning as soon as I hear from them as to where to send it. It may be to a wildlife biologist. Should be interesting.

Great way to star the new year!

Seems kinda weird after all this time (maybe because I am older) that just last night it sunk in how lucky I am that he did not gore me to death. I always just looked at as being lucky to have something like that happen and get it on film. I always believed, and still do that he got tired of me coming into his living room and bothering him and wasnt going to put up with it any more. I know it had nothing to do with the rut as it ended weeks before this.

I agree, I know I lucked out! unfortunately mule deer are on a draw basis and I did not get drawn that year or he would have been in the freezer long before this happened. I could get so close to him the bow would have been a good choice as well. Lottery ticket never crossed my mind although it should have.

Good going with the rabbits. I havent had rabbit since the about 1983 or so. I must ask is that a Marlin in the young lads arm. Looks identical to my 22 mag.

Thanks very much Lew, he sure could have made a mess of me and it would not have taken much with the size of them and his power.

Thanks very much Beans. Long no hear from.

This is a long story as I am sure some you know I am not very good at making them short, LOL. I hope I do not bore to death those who chose to read it. This is a mule deer I had been taking pics of off and on from September to November. The third Saturday of the following January I was to enter a wildlife photo contest that I had won several years in a row. I was not really happy with my pics so at first light, the very day of the contest I headed back out to see if I could get some better ones. I was walking to the area where I figured he would be and there he was and a bunch of does. The other times I had photographed him, I had to go very slow but he would let me get close to him (I did not have a zoom lens just a 2x adapter) He would give me the most evil look, I could see it in his eyes and facial expression so I called him Malsum, the devil deer. Any way he was just about to have his breakfast of poplar leaves and twigs and then he spotted me. stopped browsing and stepped forward and just glared at me with that devilish look. After a few seconds he charged. I had no where to go as I was out in the open so I started taking pictures which was not easy with a 35mm manual focus camera in mere seconds. Every step he took he was purposefully throwing up dirt into the air with his hooves, head down and I am thinking this guy is serious and this is it. It still boggles my mind the things that went through it in such a short time. The main one being well when they find me and develop the film they will know what happened to me. Even though I was in good shape there would be no way of holding him back, it would have taken a half dozen Hulk Hogans to do that. I did not move, I held my ground and just kept shooting, there was nothing else I could do. When he got just a few feet away he stopped, thank god, looked at me, and then to the east as much to say good morning, I am just lookin to see what is over there. We stood there like that for a few seconds and I slowly started backing away, tripped over a rock and fell flat on my back so I was expecting another charge as he would see me in a vulnerable position but he never moved. I turned around watching him over my shoulder. After about half a km I reached the bush and he was still standing there watching me. Went to the photo shop to develop my film. Any way I entered the complete series and won the contest LOL. I went back in the spring to look for his antlers and not a sign of him or the does, they had obviously moved on to a better food source which I never did find. Any way I walked away with a story that few will ever get to tell and the pics to prove it, and the pics suck as I had to take a picture of the picture from the 35mm. Whew, this is a long one. A few more pics of him at the end.

Good morning, man I am feeling sorry for the rabbits LOL. It will be great fun. I used to rabbit hunt with some very awesome hounds all the time back there. Jack rabbits were a blast. I used a 22 magnum for them, love that caliber. After a while they would head across country, we would drive around trying to head them off but it rarely happened as the hounds would be well behind the rabbit making it difficult to determine where the rabbit was. Unfortunately at times we would not find the dogs until the following day, they loved what they were doing and were very devoted to it. The trail cam in the middle of your pic appears to be the same as mine just a different color. Mine is a T70. It was on Kijiji brand new in the box for $60 and I got for $40 and he delivered it right to the door. I have not tried the mini ones yet but have been thinking about it as you mentioned they are affordable and easier to conceal which are both important to me. Thanks for sharing the info about them to me, I just was not sure about them. Good luck to the kids and their rabbit hunt. Wish I was there, it has been a spell. I am going to try and find my wild boar skull today and post a pick of it. I think you will like it. He was a big old bruiser.