craigdritchie

Seriously kids, the only way to really avoid getting eaten alive is by wearing a proper bug suit. Period. People will smear all sorts of stuff over themselves trying to avoid bites, but nothing saves your hide like a lightweight mesh bug jacket. You can buy one for less than you would spend on Muskol and Afterbite over the course of a summer, it will last for years, and you simply won't get bit. Every year I see guys trying some secret formula that someone told them about, or that they read about on the internet. And they get mauled. Just buy a suit and be done with it. Once you have a jacket, bugs no longer exist.

Everyone catches OOS fish now and then. On opening day of trout season I caught a gorgeous smallmouth, drifting a roe bag under a float. Sometimes, the fish don't know they're out of season so they hit anyway. Happens to all of us. That said, when you're catching far more OOS fish than the species you're targeting (or say you're targeting), it's time to change tactics or move on.

You're right, spawning alewife do attract all sorts of predatory fish - salmon, trout, pike, smallmouth, walleye, catfish, you name it. The problem is, when they're in thick like that during their spawn, your fishing lure is competing with thousands of real baitfish. Even though there may be all sorts of large fish feeding in the area, that makes for pretty tough sledding. The action is normally best before they turn up en masse, and for a short period right after they die off.

He was actually getting ready to hook up a second boat to the trailer hitch, I believe he was a dealer taking delivery. But you have to admit, it looks weird.

I always thought the trailer hooked onto that little ball thingie by the back bumper. Guess not.

Two Liberal campaigners showed up at our place on Saturday and did exactly the same thing, except they never even got to asking for my support. They marched up the driveway, interrupted my lawn work and immediately began to lecture me at full volume on why Tim Hudak is evil and not to be trusted. When I finally managed to get a word in edgewise, I told them I feel their entire party belongs in jail, and told them if they weren't off my lawn by the time I reached the front door, they would soon meet a very large dog. Thankfully, they took the hint and left quickly - which was a good thing, since we don't have a dog. Conservative candidate came around the day after. Politely introduced herself and asked if she could speak with me for a few minutes about her party's platform. She gave me a pamplet, kept it short and to the point, then wrapped up by asking what issues were important to me. Where the two Liberals were loud and shrill, she was polite, and listened as much as she talked. So she will get my vote, if for nothing more than just treating me with some respect and taking the time to ask what I felt might be important. Still no sign of the NDP candidate ... assuming they even have one in my riding.

Chamber depth information is normally stamped right on the barrel near the receiver. It usually looks like this: If you're unable to locate this marking, then the safest route is to take the gun to a gunshop and have them check with a chamber gauge. This is a cylindrical (or sometimes flat) brass instrument made for this specific purpose. It takes two seconds, and they'll most likely do it for free. Simply sliding a shell into the chamber is NOT an accurate way to check chamber depth, as a three inch shell will fit very comfortably into a 2-3/4 inch chamber. The chamber has to be deeper than the shell it is intended to fire, in order to accommodate the crimp at the end of the shell. When you fire the gun, the crimp unfolds and has to have someplace to go. So the chamber is always longer than the shell to allow for this. Of course, actually firing a three inch shell in a gun with a 2-3/4 inch chamber would be catastrophic, since there is no space to accommodate the crimp. With the chamber effectivey blocked, the most common result is the shooter's head being vaporized in the resulting explosion. If you can't find any marks on the barrel, take them to a gunsmith to be sure. They're both most likely to be 2-3/4 inch, but best to be certain. Don't screw around with a measuring tape or a fired shell ... that is just not reliable. Cheers

Huge amount of work indeed! Nicely done though Pete, the pictures show the overall condition well. They also show that the guns were stored correctly to begin with, and that can only help enhance their value. The Hungarian double shotgun was made by FEGARMY ARMS, which was established in 1891. FEG started out building rifles and pistols for the military, and at one point expanded to build large field guns for the Hungarian army. While 15 cm field guns will definitely bring down ducks, they're just a little large for the average waterfowler Following the second world war, with lucrative military contracts drying up, FEG branched into building sporting arms, including the boxlock shotgun you own. They're widely known as good quality field grade guns, very well built but lacking the delicate scroll engraving and fine-cut checkering you would find on a Browning Citori, for example (checkering on your gun is most likely stamped, rather than cut). Finish details aside, structurally and mechanically, are not much different than the much more expensive Brownings. Unfortunately, a small domestic market and newer, stricter rules governing export put FEGARMY into bankruptcy in 2004. So that's the story with your shotgun. Check the chokes and chamber depth. While there is a possibility it may be chambered for three inch shells, it is most likely chambered for two-and-three-quarter inch shells. A late model shotgun chambered for three-inch shells will have a higher value, mainly because it will be more useful for waterfowl hunting with steel shot (particularly if it is full choked). If it's set up as a pheasant gun (modified or improved cylinder chokes) then chamber length won't matter one bit. Otherwise, everything looks nicely kept. There are a few love bites here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary for guns that were actually used and loved. You should have no problem getting the high end of those Blue Book values.

Very nice rig, I'm envious! I love Starcrafts .... far and away the most under-rated boat on the water. You have what is very close to my dream rig. Enjoy it!

Nice collection of artillery, but I'm afraid none of those guns are currently worth a whole lot of money. The biggest problem is that they're all popular, well made, decent quality guns. They last forever and, as a result, there is already a ton of them out there on the used market. That depresses prices faster than anything else. Condition obviously counts too. If they've been in storage for a long time, you'll want to hope they were put away properly in the first place, and there's no pitting inside the barrels. Too much/too little humidity is a problem for guns of any make. The Blue Book (see http://bluebookofgunvalues.com/ ) is a decent reference for used gun values. In outstanding condition, it puts the Parker-Hales in the $200 - $400 range, the Brownings in the $350 - $600 range, and the .22s at about $75 apiece. Bear in mind these are retail selling prices. A dealer will give you much less (more like half these amounts). Need more info on the 12 gauge O/U. There were all kinds of shotguns imported into Canada from Europe in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Depending on make, model and specs (i.e. barrel length, chokes, boxlock or sidelock action, etc) prices are all over the map, but most seem to fall into the $300 to $700 range. Could be more or less than that, depending again on specifics and condition. Vague answers, I realize, but what they're worth on a given day really comes down to what someone is willing to pay for them.

I would be very surprised if ad revenues cover even 25 percent of their costs.

x2

Back in the early 1990s MNR approached a bunch of magazine publishers to see if one of them wanted to take over responsibility for publishing the fishing regs for them. We looked into it, figuring it would be a no-brainer to sell a bunch of ads into the booklet and make some great money. But once we got a look at the actual costs of printing and distributing these things, we said no thanks and walked away. The printing expense was just enormous, but the real killer was the warehousing and shipping cost. By the time you printed the thing and got it into people's hands, the cost was over seven figures, and that's in 1994 dollars. As much as I also like having a paper reg book, I can totally understand why MNR wants to get rid of that expense every spring. The regs booklet is a huge expense that comes directly out of MNR's operating budget. Personally, I would rather see them spend my tax dollars on fish and wildlife management than to simply give it away to a trucking company every year.

Absolutely. Nothing funnier than some guy with a 15 footer trying to fish a creek that's only 12 feet wide.

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Nice, but pricey. X-Zone Swammer is a pretty good goby imitator as well, especially in Pumpkin Candy or Road Kill Special colours. It absolutely rules on Lake Erie/ St Clair.

Sorry Rich but I'm bored out of my skull this morning. Nice fish bro!

There's a big difference between a helpful product mention (lets face it, people want to know what the host is using) and a flat-out suck-and-blow, which - lets be honest - is what most of these shows really are. "We're out in 90 feet of water today folks, and I tell ya, I would never have caught this fish without my dependable Fram oil filter," said the host on one program I recently saw. I'm not making that up. Come on man, really? That's just plain insulting. I think I'm of reasonable intelligence ... so don't expect me to believe that unless I go buy a Fram oil filter, I'll never be able to catch average-sized lakers off the Niagara bar. I don't have a Fram oil filer now, and I already catch lakers bigger than what this TV Hero was getting. Is there a message in that, maybe? Nor do I need to hear the sponsor's name repeated 17 times in a 22 minute program, as well as having the logo show up across the bottom of my screen in flashing graphics, oh and of course all the while the host is wearing an obnoxiously loud shirt with the same logo stenciled across his chest in eight inch high fluorescent letters. You know, just in case I missed the glow-in-the-dark wrap with the same sponsor logo all across his boat, and all over his truck in the obligatory launch ramp shot (because to get the $50 discount on his lease he agreed to show the truck in all 13 episodes). Do they really think we're that stupid? Apparently they do. TV fishing shows can be expensive to produce, and product sponsorship has always been a part of them. Done well, it provides legitimate value. But there's a fine line between being genuinely helpful, and turning your program into a non-stop sales pitch. Some hosts do a great job, they may approach that line but they never seem to cross it. Others - the crappy ones - don't cross the line so much as pole vault right over it.

Normally I would agree with you. But about 90 percent of the lake is still ice covered, so the high winds have basically zero effect right now. Enjoy that while it lasts!

You generally need water temps in the very high 40s or better yet, 50s to get fish to jump at fishways. If the current temp is 35 (which I believe, given how much snow and ice is still melting) then you'll need to be patient yet.

Stoty, I called this before the season even began. And I will fearlessly predict they go nowhere next year either. What threw me off this year is the utter collapse at the end. Usually they're unbeatable in the last two weeks, ensuring they don't even get a decent draft pick.

Love the turkey! We've never had one of those at our feeder!

The only real way to keep raccoons out of the bird feeder permanently is to mount the feeder on a sturdy pole with a proper racoon baffle on it. They're not cheap, but they are about the only thing that works. Here's a link to the one we use. Shoot the raccoon or trap it, and another one will just move in and take its place in a few days, a few weeks at the latest. Mothballs, pee scents etc may work okay in a boat over the winter, but they simply won't keep raccoons away from a food source like trash or a bird feeder. Beyond that, any scent you put down disappears after the first rain so you'll go broke by the end of the summer continually reapplying the stuff. Just buy the raccoon baffle, put the feeder on a sturdy pole that's clear of overhanging branches, and you'll never have a problem again. Simple as that.

Amazed they had cameras back then.