craigdritchie

Very nice boat. I've fished out of both console and tiller versions. The tiller versions were usually sold with a 75 hp (which was about as much tiller as you could get at the time) and ran just fine. Console version was rated to 150 hp, if I remember correctly, but ran just great with a 115. With reasonable care, the boats are pretty much bullet-proof. Tons of useful storage space, spacious front deck that's high enough for easy sight fishing, but still low enough you can reach over and lip bass easily. Handles big water well enough to be suitable for offshore Great Lakes trolling, provided you keep a weather eye out. The old two-stroke Mariners of that age were simple, good, reliable motors. No issues there whatsoever. If the bow mount electric is a 12-volt model, you will want to upgrade it to a 24-volt. The Pro-V is a reasonably heavy boat for an aluminum, but has high enough gunnels that it can still be blown around a bit in strong winds. The larger electric (24v in 60 - 70 lbs thrust range) is worth the upgrade cost, especially if you fish on larger lakes where you would be more exposed. Obviously price and condition are givens when you buy a used boat, but the 1775 Pro-V is a great design. One of my all-time favourites, actually.

I'm missing something John. How would this product be different from any other drone? You're still shooting video or stills, and flying over someone else's air space. Looks like a nice enough drone, but I would be concerned about the built-in battery (as per the specs page on its website). With the GoPro you can replace a dead battery on the spot and go right back to shooting (which is why everyone who has a GoPro also has a bunch of spare batteries). Does this Lily thing need to be plugged in to AC to recharge after 20 minutes? If so that would be a big disadvantage, IMHO. Csan't imagine having to plug in my cell phone every 20 minutes.

Mercury says a 2008 60 hp four-stroke should run somewhere between 5,500 and 6,000 rpm at wide-open throttle. If you're tapping out at just 5,100 rpm but the engine seems to run fine otherwise, you're most likely running too much prop. As a general rule, prop pitch alters engine rpm by about 200 rpm per inch. In your case, dropping two inches of prop, that is going from a 13-inch pitch to an 11-inch pitch, should give you another 400 rpm or so, and put you into the correct rpm range at WOT. Dropping one inch further, to a 10-inch prop, would theoretically put you around 5,700 rpm at WOT and likely give you optimal performance. On the Smokercraft, you should be in the 35 mph range running properly trimmed at full throttle. Understand, these are averages and estimates - your mileage will vary somewhat. Many on-water dealerships will allow you to try a prop before you buy it. Go find one, and try a smaller prop. The Mercury Spitfire four-blade comes in sizes from 9.5 to 23 inch pitch. As a four-blade prop, it won't be quite as fast wide open as a comparable three-blade, but it will get you up on plane much faster, and hold the boat on plane at lower speeds, even when it's heavily loaded. That's a fair trade-off for maybe 2 - 2.5 mph at the top end.

Can you safely operate the boat and keep it positioned where you want it? If yes, then the wind is ok. If no, stay home.

Very common to catch chain pickerel that size, and up to about 5 pounds. World record is a little under 10 pounds. Redfin and grass pickerel are much, much smaller.

Not really ice fishing per se, but the remains of an ice fishing season in New Brunswick. It's quite a mess, really. http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/drone-footage-exposes-trashy-truth-behind-ice-fishing-/50440/

If you can't find them at Dollarama, try a Michaels craft store. They normally have them in the sewing section for around $4. They sometimes have the deeper ones too, that are good for spinnerbaits.

That's pretty funny stuff. I love that first buffoon holding the wiener fish a mile out in front so they look huge. And these guys think no one can tell? LOL!!!

Whether it's included or not depends partly on the insurer and partly on the broker. Ask. At least it is commonly available with boat policies. Good luck running that one through the rider on a house policy, especially if it happens while you're staying at a cottage somewhere.

Do not insure your boat under your home policy, since that's the best way to guarantee you will have problems when you need to make a claim. When people scream that their insurance company screwed them over something, it usually comes down to this. A rider on your house policy is fine for a canoe or kayak, but for anything with an engine and a registration number, you're far, far better to take out a proper policy for the item itself. There is a reason we don't just insure our vehicles under the house policy - boats, snowmobiles, campers and ATVs are no different. They all need their own separate coverage. The big problem with putting a boat on your home policy is that house insurance doesn't provide for things that can and do happen with boats - like get damaged while being towed, or break free of the dock during a storm and slam into another boat. These things don't generally happen to homes, but they happen to boats every year. The house policy won't cover liability if you damage something with your boat, or if someone gets hurt on it. A rider on your home policy won't cover the cost of an environmental cleanup if your boat sinks and spills fuel, nor will it cover the cost of salvage if it runs up on a rock. It won't even cover the cost of an emergency tow. Proper boat insurance will. Your house insurance won't cover what's known as "vermin damage," where a proper boat policy will. Have you ever seen what a family of raccoons can do to a boat in just one night? If your deck carpet smells like fish, they will rip right through it thinking there's a treat underneath. God help you if they move in over the winter. So get a proper boat policy and be done with it. The cost difference is minimal, but it can save you thousands. When you shop for a boat policy, make sure you get full replacement cost coverage for all parts and labour. Actual cash value policies only insure the depreciated value of the boat. If the boat is five years old when you hit a rock and wipe out the lower unit, an actual cash value policy will only cover the cost of a five-year-old replacement. Good luck finding those five year-old parts. In reality, you'll replace it with a new lower unit, and you will have to pay the difference. That can be a lot of money out of your pocket. Also - cover your butt and insist on "all perils" coverage. With policies that cover named perils only, you could be out of luck if something happens that isn't specifically listed on the policy. There are many good boat insurers in Ontario. MD Marine Insurance, Northstar Marine Insurance, Ogilvie & Ogilvie, McMichael Davis and Skipper's Plan all exhibit at the Toronto Boat Show. Google them for contact info. Cheers

Canadian Tire

Uh huh. Why buy crappy offshore knock-offs when the genuine item costs about the same? Scepter tanks are the best, and they're made in Toronto.

I stand by my original prediction of September 8, 2014. Now with seven games left, lets see about that draft pick. And for the 2015-2016 season, I boldly predict the same thing I have predicted every year for the past eight nine or nine 10 seasons. The Leafs will play like crazy in October and November, and probably hold first place at some point before Christmas (when it doesn't really matter). But come the new year, the injuries will begin, play will slump, inexperience will show and once again they will finish the season by watching the playoffs on TV. But they will play well enough in the dying days of the season to ensure they don't even get a decent draft pick. And Leaf fans will all say, wow, did you see how they got it together at the end? Next year, baby, next year!! Or, as MuskyMatt so aptly captured it ... a video from this time last season:

That would not be hard. A couple of golden retrievers would do the trick.

The two problems with Justin Trudeau are that (1) he's a liberal, and (2) he's a moron. Unless you really want to lose your house and life savings, pray to God this is the high point in his political career.

You're kind of asking how long is a piece of string. Depends on the card, and depends on how you use it. They're all different. I travel a lot for work, so of course I book all my flights and hotels on this card. But I also buy groceries and pay my utility bills with it. For this particular card, travel spend earns points at a different rate than groceries or utility bills do. So how much you need to spend to get xxx-amount of reward depends on what you charge to the card as much as how many dollars you spend. Bottom line is, whether you wind up getting back enough points for an $8,000 vacation or an $800 fishfinder ... it's still money for nothing provided you pay the card off every month, and simply use it to cover expenses you're going to incur anyway. Who doesn't like free stuff? There are a lot of ways to earn reward points beyond basic spend. Tons. Do a little research on the web.

Lots of really good ideas in this thread, and I agree with many of them. Except for one. Unlike most other people who have posted, I avoid using cash at all costs. Instead, wife and I pay for everything - and I mean absolutely everything - with one, single credit card. The goal is to accumulate reward points and for Mrs. and me, it really works. By the end of each year, we've usually collected enough points to offset the cost of a two-week vacation to Europe. We're talking about a $7,000 to $8,000 vacation every single year ... for free. This only works if you are truly disciplined ... only buy what you actually need, like groceries, gas etc., ... and be sure you pay the card off every month without fail. That means every cent. You have to have a zero balance at the end of the month. Because if you get in the habit of carrying a few bucks over, well then you're hooped. Before you know it, you'll be ears-deep in debt. But if you can be disciplined, these cards literally give you money for nothing. The other key thing is that you have to concentrate all your spending on that one card, since the reward is a percentage of what you spend on it. So use it for everything - gas, groceries, insurance, utility bills, the works. You have to pay for this stuff anyway, so why not get something back? If you can be disciplined, this approach will save you the cost of a juicy vacation every year. Or, just give you enough spare cash to buy a LOT of goodies. Happy to answer any Q's via PM ...

Here's another ... not quite as funky this time, in white with blue trim. The black parts are fixed, but the coloured side and top panels can be changed easily since they're held on by a series of screws (look carefully and you can see them). You'll notice this engine is mounted on an aluminum Armstrong bracket, which moves the engine 22 inches back of the transom. Holy cow does that ever do a lot to juice the boat's handling. The extra torque and leverage is incredible. The only down side is that you're more likely to tangle lines around it when trolling.

I had the chance to drive a few of the new E-TECs last summer and fall. While the styling doesn't really speak to me, I have to admit they really are nice engines to drive. The power steering and auto-trim are nice features, even if they do take a bit of getting used to. Funky looking thing in lime green ...

Not sure about "Cable Cable" (is that sort of a cable equivalent to "Pizza Pizza?") but we've had our land line on cable for a while now. Works totally fine, and costs half what Bell was charging. It came as part of a TV/internet bundle. Never had a worry about power outages, since we still have multiple cell phones.

There is a lot of variance in chart water depths, largely because water levels vary from year to year, and throughout the course of a season. A spot that's 12 feet deep in the spring might have only 9 feet of water over it in the fall. Hence the phrase "at chart datum" ... which means that the depth was accurate when the soundings for that particular chart were taken. Many Canadian charts are using base maps from the 1970s. They're obviously nowhere near as accurate as more recent ones. Between that and the +/- variance of GPS on a given day, use it as a rough guide but don't expect it to be right on the button all of the time. It still beats holding your thumb up and trying to line up with trees on the shore.

Provided you don't exceed your daily bag limit I don't know that it's specifically illegal, at least in a technical sense. I expect a CO would have to consider it on the same basis as culling fish from a live well, which goes on all the time. Some home-made live wells I've seen used at tournaments are pretty dodgy. Culling seems to be a grey area. Legally speaking, the regs do clearly state that once you "retain" a fish, it counts against your daily bag limit. But this obviously isn't enforced at bass tournaments, for example, and I don't know what the reasoning is there. But regardless of the legal situation, the stringer is definitely going to do a lot more harm to any fish that are released. The hole in the jaw is one thing ... but the added stress of being retained that way, being potentially kept in surface water thats warmer / less oxygenated / different ph than the water at the depth where the fish was hooked, being exposed to much higher levels of sunlight for extended periods, etc etc could easily result in stress-related delayed mortality. The fish might swim away just fine, but then keel over and croak a few hours later.

Coq-au-Vin, made from chicken (or better yet, grouse or pheasant) and served with a nice Burgundy. This one is from France's Cote de Beaune region ... and far too nice to cook with, so I use a cheap bottle of Ontario Pinot Noir to actually stew the bird in. Quick and easy to make, delicious beyond words, and actually healthy for you!

One more vote for O'Keefe's. Buy it at Home Depot. Stuff works.

I've generally been keeping my nose out of this thread. 86 pages long and I think this is my third or fourth post. Back on September 8, I predicted the Leafs would play great in the fall, tank in January and be playing golf by April. I was right about their solid performance early in the season, and so far it looks like they're tanking right on schedule. I still maintain they once again finish the season by watching the playoffs on TV ... I guess we'll know by April 1. Predicting this team's fortunes is so easy that even a child could do it. Firing Carlyle will accomplish nothing. Getting new players will do nothing. The Loafs have been firing coaches and signing new players pretty much continuously since 1967. And how many cups have they won in that time? Precisely. The problem, sorry to say, is Leaf Nation. As long as Leaf fans continue to blindly support a perpetual loser and keep flooding the owners with money by buying jerseys and hats and stupid car flags and t-shirts and all sorts of other blue-and-white crap, ownership has zero incentive to change a formula that is already bringing in more money than they can possibly count. Blind loyalty by fans has been the basic problem for the past 45 years. Nothing will ever change until people stop buying all that stuff, stop giving them money, and send a real message that this just isn't good enough. Otherwise, there will be no parade up Yonge Street. Today is January 18 and I will boldly predict ... in the 2015/2016 season, Leafs will be on a tear by November, tanking uncontrollably by February and playing golf by April. Sorry to those who really like the team, but you can take it to the bank.