craigdritchie

It seems like everyone has an opinion on this, or an opinion of the people involved. Putting that all aside, the security camera video evidence is crystal clear. https://youtu.be/KaQwdSekfQg At the 1:35 mark you can see the O'Leary's boat appear, with its lights on. At 1:53, it hits the other boat. At 2:10, the other boat begins turning on its lights. Regardless of who has money and who doesn't, the one thing that cannot be disputed is that the boat Mrs O'Leary hit did not have its lights on. The court got it right, fault lies with the operator of the second boat. Everything else is just window dressing.

Virtually every manufacturing business in the world is having supply chain problems right now. Car, boat and RV dealer lots are empty because of manufacturer's having problems getting semiconductors, plastic resin, vinyl resin, steel, aluminum and, to a lesser degree, marine-grade lumber. When you can get it, you pay through the nose. Some of this stems from covid, some of it (semiconductors, for instance) stems from Trump's trade policies in the US, including restricting the importation of chips from China (where more than 80% of them are made). Most of the boat builders sold out their entire 2021 production run back in the spring, and several are now saying their entire 2022 production run is already gone. Delivery trucks come into the dealership and every boat on them is already bought and paid for by somebody else. Dealers can't get inventory to put out on the lot because pretty well every boat coming in already has someone waiting for it. It's not going to be a buyer's market for a long, long time - at least until these supply issues get sorted out, and boat builders catch up on what (for most of them) is already approaching 18 months worth of back orders. Even if boat sales suddenly tank, that's still at least two years away. Just saying ...

OMC went out of business over 20 years ago - in December, 2000. Even if you can find parts, you're better off to junk the old engine and replace it with an outboard on a bracket. It will work 100x better, use way less fuel, and just be fewer headaches all the way round.

If you're worried about the fuel capacity, Smoker Craft's Excursion 166T is very similar in layout and comes with an internal 24 gal / 90L fuel tank. I've driven a couple of these, they're nice boats. https://www.smokercraft.com/showroom/2021/fishing/excursion/166-t

What I truly can't believe is that there are still people in this country who didn't see this coming. The call-in show I listened to over lunch was just amazing ... all these guys phoning in practically in tears, OMG I can't believe this happened, etc etc etc Once again, I will repeat the fearless prediction for the coming season that I make around this time every single year. Leafs will look great in training camp. Early season holds promise. In first place by Christmas! Start planning the parade route! Starting to wobble by the all-star break. <<< EPIC CHOKE >>> Watching the Stanley Cup final on TV - for the 55th consecutive year. Next year's team won't look a whole lot different than this one. Neither will the results. Sorry boys and girls, but that is the reality of Leaf hockey.

If you're talking about the Nith River that flows into the Grand, then you shouldn't be targeting bass at all. The season is closed for another month.

I've caught fish on all sorts of crap while joking around with friends: cigarette butts, gummy bears, surgical tubing, a ripped plastic bag, and even a carrot (trolled 70 feet down off a downrigger on Lake Ontario, no less). No way I'm coughing up $1,100 for a designer fishing lure. That said, good luck to the guy selling it. If he can find some fool to pay that much, then why not? Kind of reminds me of the artist who duck-taped a banana to the gallery wall then sold it for $120 grand.

Easiest is to just book a charter boat. There are several operating out of downtown Vancouver. I have no idea what they charge, but expect they would be comparable to what you would pay on Lake Ontario. August/September is fine for timing, you'll definitely get pinks and probably some coho. If you were to go over to the island you would definitely have more options, there are charters in pretty well every town and village.

Here's a Boeing 737 landing on a frozen lake in NWT. It's actually pretty common, it's how they get heavy equipment that's too big for a float plane into those remote northern fly-in camps. Just wait for the lake to freeze, then load up a 737 and give 'er. That said, it's landing on five or six feet of solid ice. I don't think I would try this on Simcoe right now either. https://youtu.be/5FQp1siO41s also: https://worldairlinenews.com/2018/04/16/nolinor-aviation-boeing-737-lands-on-a-frozen-lake/

Seems like it happens every year. https://nationalpost.com/ford/f-150/auto-news/news/ice-fisher-waits-until-last-possible-day-sinks-f-150-in-lake-simcoe/wcm/c0382d16-8cbc-48c0-9906-464ac9333926

About five years ago I was at the Old Mill Dam in Toronto shooting photos of jumping salmon. A day or two later I noticed a small fish in the background of one of the photos, so I cropped in as much as I could to see what it was. To my shock, it was a brook trout. Picture quality is horrible because it's enlarged like crazy, but it's still unmistakably a brookie. No doubt about it. If they show up in Lake Ontario tributaries, then why not Georgian Bay?

I'm sure that one day electric boats will be the standard, but that day is still a long ways off. Torqeedo makes an 80 hp equivalent electric outboard which you can buy right now. It costs €39,000, or around $60,000 Canadian. Fortunately it comes with the two batteries needed to run it, which weigh approx. 300 pounds apiece. Per Torqeedo's website, maximum range on a full charge is around 12 hours, but that's based on running at 4 mph. At full throttle, it runs out of juice in 25 - 30 minutes. That's based on summer temperatures, by the way. As with all batteries, performance falls off in colder conditions. That Torqeedo motor has been on the market for six years now, so it's not like the price will drop once it gets out there. Boats are not like cars, the volumes required to drive prices down simply do not exist in the marine industry. And because pushing a boat through water takes a lot more energy than it does to roll a car on wheels, performance comparisons to automotive are just not valid. As far as marinas go, I can't see any of them eating the cost of installing charging stations until there is steady, consistent demand for it.

It's hard to see in the video, but are there no registration numbers on that boat?

Berkley Powerbait Power Rattle ... they show up on eBay fairly regularly.

Biggest issues there have been a bunch of clowns leaving trash all over the place ... worm containers, lure packages, fish guts, pop/beer cans, etc. etc. Worst of all are the coils of used line. I've personally seen dead ducks at Bronte completely wrapped up in the stuff. I mean, seriously, is anyone honestly surprised they closed it down? It was only a matter of time. It's always the same thing again and again ... a small number of idiots ruin it for everyone.

An online course can help, but the best return on your time is deciding exactly what it is you want to improve, learning how to do it with some YouTube instructional videos, then going out and practicing that new skill over and over again till you have it down pat. Just deciding "I want to take better pictures" won't get you anywhere, since that's not specific enough that you can do anything about it. It's no different than fishing ... just saying " I want to catch more fish" won't get you anywhere. But saying I want to learn to cast properly ... I want to learn to pick spots ... I want to learn how to jig ... I want to learn how to fish swimbaits .... I want to learn how to fish topwaters ..... those things are specific skills that can be learned, and produce real results. So what do you want to learn to do better with your cameras? Do you want to take better photos in dim light? Better action shots? Better scenery shots? Better close-ups? Better compositions? Get better pics without a flash? What, exactly? You need to decide what you want to improve on or learn to do, then focus on that alone until you've mastered it The GoPro, iPhone and Canon M100 especially are more than capable of producing very good images. You don't need a better camera, especially if you're looking at the end results on a screen. Seriously, lots of pro photographers have done coffee table books and National Geographic shots with older iPhones. Within reason, the equipment doesn't matter. It's all technique.

The honest truth is that among today's 50 hp to 75 hp engines there really isn't a bad choice, they're all very close in terms of fuel efficiency and overall reliability. Go to each manufacturer's website and you can read the specifics on each ... there are some minor weight and feature differences that might swing you one way or another. But the biggest difference is most likely going to come down to the dealer you buy it from ... some may offer incentives that the others don't, or be more convenient for service etc. Just for clarity, BRP did not sell Evinrude to Mercury, or to anyone else. Evinrude is discontinued, meaning BRP still owns the name and such but will no longer build the engines.

Depending on traffic it can sometimes take longer to get through the various locks than you might expect. You may want to pad yoru schedule a bit to give some leeway ... and to allow time for a few casts here and there. Seriously --> buy the PORTS cruising guide to the Trent-Severn (see https://www.portsbooks.com/trent-severn-lake-simcoe/). It's the most detailed info you can get on where to stay, where to get fuel, where to find groceries and the LCBO, marina facilities, launch ramps, locks, distance between various things, and some useful fishing info if you read between the lines. Book is loaded with high resolution aerial photos and maps. Only $30 and absolutely worth its weight in gold.

Big news this afternoon, as BRP announced they have discontinued production of all Evinrude outboards and will concentrate on building boats. They've also entered into a supply arrangement with Mercury to provide outboards for their boat brands worldwide, including Alumacraft and Manitou. More details are sure to follow. https://www.ibinews.com/brp-to-discontinue-evinrude-outboard-production/36404.article

Not sure I completely agree with that. If I had a buck for every bass fisherman I've seen who say they're "fishing for pike" or "fishing for crappies" but are actually targeting bedding bass weeks before the season opens, I'd be a pretty wealthy guy. You get clowns in all types of fishing, it's not exclusive to any one group.

I think this is the kind of scenario that Ang is referring to, and it is exactly what opening weekend of trout season will look like in many, many areas. That's the problem.

John wrote for the Toronto Sun, every Thursday if I remember correctly, for many, many years. Before him it was written by Pete Sticklee (briefly) and Tiny Bennett, author of The Art of Angling. It was John Power (another wonderful guy) who wrote the outdoor column for the Star. I often regret the fact that we no longer have outdoor columns in the papers, even the online versions. Now that it's out of the mainstream media, it's becoming more and more of a fringe pastime ... something that's painfully obvious with every MNR budget cut.

Deeply saddened to learn that former Ontario Out of Doors magazine editor John Kerr has passed away at 73 from complications related to cancer. John was not only a terrific angler and a true pioneer of many techniques that trout and salmon anglers in Ontario take for granted today, he fought countless battles with MNR on behalf of anglers and campaigned relentlessly toward getting MNR to establish the extended fall seasons and year-round seasons we all enjoy today. Beyond that, John was a true gentleman, a pillar of integrity, and one hell of a mentor to guys like me who wanted nothing more than to make a living writing about fishing. No funeral service details have been released. For more info, see https://oodmag.com/news/ood-editor-john-kerr-passes/

Wow, if only they sold beer like that.