craigdritchie

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.

The Dinsmore stuff works okay, but isn't worth the premium price. I buy round Gremlin shot in bulk. I sometimes do the Liquid Plumber thing, but more often than not am too lazy ... LOL.

Uh huh. A lot of the fluoro on the market is just plain fragile.

Buy the SmokerCraft, and max the power.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the 70 mph part, since the boat will spend a very tiny amount of its life actually running at that kind of speed. And you won't be doing 70 mph in big waves in any bass boat - sorry, but you just won't. Not unless you really like the idea of destroying the boat then getting a kidney transplant. If you want to go fast in big waves, believe me man, the last thing you want is a bass boat. For what it's worth, the vast majority of any bass boat's life is spent with the big motor shut off - not running at wide open throttle. Probably 90 percent of the hours you log in it will be spent fishing, not driving, so you'll enjoy the boat a lot more if you focus on things that matter when it's being used that way, as opposed to going top speed. Boats like Ranger, Triton and Stratos tend to be a bit wider than others for most of their length (I'm not talking max width, but width over the entire length of the hull. They all have a 96 inch beam. But how much of the boat is actually 96 inches wide? How wide is it at the console? Or on the front deck?). Wider boats provide greater stability when fishing, and perhaps an inch or two less draft so you can get into real skinny water. It also means more fiberglass is used in construction, which results in greater cost and greater weight. These boats also tend to have a broader pad that they run on while on plane, again providing increased stability. Being heavier, they blow about less in the wind, so you're on the electric less often to correct your drift. They're awesome to fish out of, but as Gerry notes, there is always a compromise, and it's usually in the form of top-end speed. Other bass boats like Allisons, Bass Cats, Panteras etc. are lighter, narrower overall, have more aggressive hull rakes, and use sharper, narrower pads to run on. This gives them greater top-end speed potential (100 mph+ for an Allison) but once again there's a trade-off, and that comes when you want to actually fish, not just burn gas. Step from an Allison into a Ranger and it's like night and day. One is really, really fast, and one is really, really comfortable and great to fish out of. How do you want to spend most of your time? By the way - have you ever taken a horsefly to the face at 70 mph? It's not a whole lot of fun. Buy a full coverage motorcycle helmet to go with your new boat. Nitro makes a very nice boat that's a happy compromise between fishability and flat-out speed. Ranger, Triton and Skeeter are more expensive because they have more glass in them, are built a little differently, and have different finishing details (stuff like upholstry, hinges, differences in wiring and plumbing, etc). Being a little heavier and more stable, they will generally provide a softer ride in chop (and waaaay better than a Pantera, for example). The big question of "is it worth it" comes down to how, where and when you'll use the boat. I do know a lot of guys who have replaced their bass boats with multi-species rigs.