craigdritchie

Tie your shoes = catch bigger fish. The oldest secret in fishing is now revealed

Count me among the Crazy Glue group. Works great.

Chris, It is almost always more cost-effective to replace both the AC and furnace at the same time. Most (but not all) AC units have at least some of their major components located inside the house, physically attached to the furnace. Replace the AC and furnace separately, and you'll be paying twice for a big chunk of labour cost. You save a lot of money by doing them together. As kwikfish notes, you may be able to get by simply by recharging the refrigerant in your current unit. But consider that a short-term solution to get you through this year. By spring, you will likely find yourself in exactly the same position as you are now. If both units are 20+ years old, the best scenario would be to replace them both with new, high-efficiency units. We did this in our house two years ago. Total cost was a bit over $11,000. However, the new stuff works so well that our utility bills are now a fraction of what they were before. Those savings, along with some rebate cash we got from the government as part of a home energy rebate program, will cover the entire cost of the new AC and furnace within six years. Strongly suggest you look into rebate programs from both the federal and provincial governments. I don't know what's available right now, but when we did ours there were pretty good incentives available from both. Feel free to PM if you want more details.

Noooooooooo!!!!!

I know a guy who caught a condom off the mouth of the Humber River one day, while casting Cleos for salmon. He cut the line too, and I think I would do the same. Yech. Many years ago I saw a guy at the Old Mill Dam hook a dog. The dog wasn't hurt, fortunately, as the hook just got wrapped in its tail fur while the guy was trying to cast. But it was funny watching this guy in floppy rubber waders chasing a golden retriever down the river bank yelling "dog on!" Strange catches for myself .... 1. Turtle, on a jerkbait while muskie fishing. 2. Dead, badly decomposed salmon that I somehow lined with a float and roe bag while fishing off the pier at Port Hope. 3. Gull, which hit a topwater while I was picking out a backlash. 4. Landing net (nice one, I still have it)

Nice, Bill. Congrats!

Far and away the best tent available, bar none. << link >>

Sorry man. Over the years I've learned that the key to keeping good spots is to not talk about them on the internet. I bust my hump to find nice spots that aren't overcrowded with other people. Why blow it? Georgian Bay and Simcoe are both big lakes, but the best pike fishing isn't out in the middle. If you do a little research you can find LOTS of places to get out of wind regardless of which direction it blows from. Or try a big river, like the St. Lawrence RIver. It's fairly protected and, being part of the Great Lakes, still loaded with much better pike than you will find in any of the Kawartha lakes.

If I wanted to catch pike, I wouldn't waste a day on either one. LOTS of much better choices, starting with Simcoe and Georgian Bay. Why fish for little dinks when you can have a shot at plenty of legitimate big gators?

LOL ... nope. Problem with ice fishing is that it takes way too long to make a hole big enough to fit the boat in.

Topwater for me, and in particular, fishing with buzzbaits. You see the hits, you feel the hits, and a lot of the time you actually see the fish coming before they completely crush it. That's utopia.

That's some of the best advice you'll ever get. Close your eyes and get the one that fits the best and feels the most natural in your hands. Among pumps, I'm another of those 870 guys. With apologies to Browning and Mossberg fans, the Remington 870 is likely the most reliable pump ever made, which is why they're the best-selling shotgun in history and far and away the number one choice for law enforcement. That said, my all-time favourite shotgun was a Remington 11-87 autoloader I once owned. It was heavier than the 870, which would obviously make it less attractive for deer hunting, but for waterfowl or turkey where you're more or less stationary, it wasn't a factor at all. It just fit my shoulder like it was made for it, and always hit whatever I pointed it at. I've owned a lot of guns, but that is one I wish I still had.

I've run several full marathons (42 km), a whole bunch of half-marathons (21 km) and done the Around The Bay 30k race in Hamilton a few times. I'm no threat to ever win any of these things (I'll never catch those little African dudes up front), but running lets me drink beer guilt-free and will hopefully keep me out of the hospital as I age. Apart from that, it's a wonderful, selfish indulgence that lets me escape email, cell phones, instant messages and every other bane of modern living, and let me just focus on putting one foot in front of the other for an hour or so every other morning. In that way it's a lot like fishing, but much less fuss and a whole lot less expensive. Went to Germany a couple of years ago and ran the Berlin marathon, right after spending a week in Munich at Oktoberfest. Lets just say no world records were set that day. But it was a whole lot of fun!

Everything old is new again.

If money was no object I would be fishing in Manitoba or Saskatchewan. Both have pike and walleye fisheries that will beat anything in Ontario.

Sears (and The Bay) are well known for providing over-the-top customer service. That's why they're still around after all these years. Can't go wrong dealing with them.

You might want to consider one of Kesagami's outpost cabins. They have several small lakes with cabins on them. I've been to two of these, fishing was smaller walleyes and pike, but lots of them and the cabin, boats & outboards were all in good shape. It's a nice intro to fly-ins without having to really rough it. You'll most likely have an entire lake to yourself. If you're looking to get away from other people, I'd avoid their main camp, which tends to be a pretty busy place.

Agree with Floatman - Aluminum putty will fix your leak. You can buy this stuff as a two-part expoy ("Alum Bond" is one popular brand), pre-mixed in a toothpaste-like tube (sold as "Aluminox") or in the round tube Floatman shows in his link ("Quick Steel"). You can order online or find it at any automotive store .... Canadian Tire, Parts Source, etc. for about $10. Apply to both sides of the loose rivet and trust me, it will never leak again. I used to keep a crappy old tinny up north for duck hunting, and this stuff basically held it together! I beat the tar out of that boat and it remained watertight for years after. Works really, really well.

Talk about a topwater hit. That's awesome.

That's contingent on any adults actually showing up. Don't hold your breath.

Regardless of whether we call it NOTL, St. Kitts or whatever, it still seems an odd location for a store of that size. And why have a second location in southern Ontario that's only an hour from the existing store to begin with? Surely the two locations will compete for many of the same customers. If I were Johnny Morris and wanted to open another Canadian location, I'd put a store in the Montreal area first. Southern Quebec is a HUGE market for outdoor goods, and they wouldn't have to worry about cannibalizing an existing location by opening up there. While I will welcome the new store, I don't understand the business case for it. They must be getting one heck of a financial incentive from the developer and perhaps the city to make it worthwhile. Either that, or they will support it by making it a base for the Canadian catalogue operation ... which would make sense, being so close to the US. Who knows.

I agree, but rather than Siwash style hooks I use little weedless singles. The tiny wire guard on the hook keeps from hanging up on sumberged branches, and doesn't seem to affect the hooking effectiveness one bit.

I have an ancient Shimano Chronarch CH200 permanently mounted on an equally ancient Compre 7-foot one-piece that's rated for 8 to 15 pound line, and it's just about ideal for throwing light cranks (and more often, topwaters). I can fire a lightweight lure (often a small Pop-R or Tiny Torpedo) for miles with this rig, and with better accuracy than I get from a spinning outfit. The rod has a progressive action, which is key ... a lot of current baitcasting rods are just too stiff, and you can't get them to load up properly with a lightweight lure. It kills both accuracy and distance. The reel is also key to this setup, and it took me years to get this one worn in just right. But that's the thing, as long as you do the maintenance on them and give them an annual cleaning, really good quality casting reels usually get better as they wear in. That said, this is a special purpose outfit I have. A spinning rig is definitely more versatile.

Sadly, Ranger is no longer made. Too bad, it was an excellent truck.

Don't know about the hybrid, but I drive a 2008 Escape 4x4 with the 3.0L gas V6 and just love it. It costs about $65 - $70 to fill it from empty, and that will take me 450 to 475 km in the city. On the highway, I'll get another 80 to 100 km to the tank before I have to refuel. It's been dealer serviced since new, and I haven't spent a penny on it in 160,000 km, apart from tires, wiper blades and one set of brake pads. Everything else is original. I've never had any problems getting stuck in mud or snow. Mine's rated to tow 3,500 pounds. One of my friends is on his second Escape, and he loves it too. Wonderful vehicles - I would buy another one without a second thought.