craigdritchie

There's usually a bunch of 300-series reels on eBay. They're not too hard to find, and usually $10 to $30 range. eBay is a geat source for parts as well, in case you want a spare spool or when (not if) the bail spring breaks. 300's http://shop.ebay.ca/i.html?_nkw=mitchell+300&_sacat=0&_odkw=mitchell+301+300+reel&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313 301's http://shop.ebay.ca/i.html?_nkw=mitchell+301&_sacat=0&_odkw=mitchell+300&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313'>http://shop.ebay.ca/i.html?_nkw=mitchell+301&_sacat=0&_odkw=mitchell+300&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313 308's http://shop.ebay.ca/i.html?_nkw=mitchell+301&_sacat=0&_odkw=mitchell+300&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313 330's http://shop.ebay.ca/i.html?_nkw=mitchell+330&_sacat=0&_odkw=mitchell+308&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313 It's fun to fish with vintage tackle now and then. Every now and then I spend a day with my old Cardinal 3 .... it's a crappy reel by today's standards, but was once state-of-the-art, and it's still fun to fish with every now and then.

G3 makes an excellent 16 foot Pontoon called the 168. The one I drove had a 25 Yamaha on it - no worries about losing your hat, but for around $15k it was a really nicely made boat. http://www.g3boats.com/Sun_Catcher_LV_168_FC It also comes in an electric version, for lakes with gas outboard restrictions: http://www.g3boats.com/Sun_Catcher_LV_168_FC_Electric

Consolidation is hardly new. Bigger companies have been swallowing smaller companies since the beginning (not just the last 20 years, Whitemikeca). If you dig into the history of fishing brands like Heddon, South Bend, Eagle Claw, Shakespeare and Johnson, you'll find each has had multiple owners over the last 100 years - each one swallowed up by a bigger rival. Consolidation provides manufacturing, supply chain, sales and distribution efficiencies that cannot be matched by independents, which is why it's been the way things work in every industry from fishing tackle to kitchen appliances to automobiles to computer software. On a separate note - Bigugli, if you aren't aware, Genmar went belly up almost two years ago. Some of their boat brands have been shut down, but most have been sold off to rivals .... Brunswick Corp and Platinum Equity Corp bought the majority of them. All of the fishing boats remain in production, just now owned by someone else.

True .... Loafs won, and Ottawa lost. The tie in the standings is broken, and 26th place is all ours, baby!!! Yeah!!! Plan the parade route!

Man, where is Johnny Bass when we need him

Ouch!!!

Never used it Roy, but this looks like it might do the job. Hope you're well financed though!! My link

Haven't seen many posts about the Loafs making the playoffs lately. I guess after getting shelled 7 - 0 by NY, and now resting deep in the basement (tied with Ottawa for 26th place overall) the bandwagon has crashed and burned for another year. And it's not even February yet! Talk about disgraceful. Plus ca change ... plus c'est la meme chose! The more that things change ... the more they stay the same!

I have an '08 Escape and yes, you can turn the traction control off with a small button just above the coin tray. Awesome truck, by the way .... tows 3,500 pounds with the V6 and 4x4. No trouble whatsoever pulling a Lund 1775 Pro V.

You have it the wrong way around Ford manufactures both the B-Series pickups for Mazda (from its Ranger platform) as well as the Mazda Tribute (built on a Ford Escape platform).

Nice inbred fish farm salmon ..... yum

Pretty fishies, but dude, if you haven't done it already go buy a survival suit!!!!!

Love the picture of the three cats sizing things up!

We’ve all heard of fantasy sports pools and websites, where you pretend you're the manager, you assemble a team of pro athletes and see how they do over the course of a season. Well now it looks like you can do the same thing in pro fishing. Fantasy Fishing is a new American website where people can compete for more than $25,000 in cash and prizes, including a top prize of $15,000. You 'play' via 10 tournaments on the the Walmart FLW Tour. At the end of the day, someone takes home a grand prize of $100,000, while the runner-up gets a Ranger Z-520 bass boat with a 250 Merc, a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics, valued at $54,000 (that's all valued in US dollars, by the way. I know currency is at par, but the Ranger costs more than that up here). Fantasy Fishing is apparently free to play, but if you sign up for something called Player's Advantage you gain access to additional resources and information. The organizer says that those who have Player's Advantage tend to win at a rate of 4-to-1. I have never played this or participated in it (I'd rather go fish for real), so I can’t really say if it’s good or if it sucks. But if this is your kind of thing, then it might be fun. It would be cool for someone from this board to win it.

Kind of like an econobox version of an El Camino.

Definitely agree on the 18 with a tiller. Overall interior space is not much different than a 20 with a console. If you're worried about engine weight, a Yamaha 70 four-stroke is by far the lightest 70/75 on the market, including the E-TEC and OptiMax two-strokes. You can see it at the Toronto Boat Show this week. I've driven it a bit and its a wonderful engine. Four-Strokes Yamaha F70............260 lbs Suzuki DF70...........341 lbs Mercury 75 EFI........399 lbs Honda BF75............359 lbs Tohatsu 75 EFI........337 lbs Two-Strokes Evinrude E-TEC 75.....320 lbs Mercury 75 Optimax....375 lbs

Actually, VW did make a small pickup for many years, starting in the mid-70s and continuing into the late 80s or perhaps early 90s. It was based on their Rabbit/Golf platform, and called the Sporttruck. They didn't sell very well here in Canada, but did very well in Europe, South America and in Australia, where fuel prices have always been higher. You still see the odd one around here at classic car shows every summer, especially events with a lot of VWs. Presently, VW is looking at building a new pickup, based on its Touareg SUV platform. Here's a picture of the concept truck they showed at the Frankfurt Auto Show last year. No word on when it will be built, what it will cost or if/when it might come to Canada. But if it's anything at all like the Touareg, its 4x4 will go through just about anything and pull a 6,500 pound boat.

There used to be a guy up on Lake Simcoe who stuffed helicopter jet turbine engines into racing boats. He was an ex-Canadian Forces engine tech, and his company was called Firestorm Turbines. A few years ago he had this big white boat at the Toronto In-Water Boat Show, at Ontario Place .... 190 mph and 4,000 horsepower. is even faster.

Right in the middle of the Christmas holidays ... I bet a LOT of people missed it. Lucky timing for GM I guess, not so much for anyone who owns one of the trucks and doesn't know.

It did get press coverage up here, but to Fisherman's point, that was a couple of weeks ago.

Loafs are presently tied for 25th place in a 30 team league. After Phoenix mugs them tonight, they will resume their swan dive straight into the basement.

All over the show, Vance, looking at everything from tinnies to go-fasts to yachts. The company I work for publishes a bunch of different magazines, including some boat magazines (Boatguide, Boating Business, and the Toronto Boat Show program among them) as well as a TON of brochures for different boat, engine and accessory companies. So as part of my job, I attend boat shows all over North America. Over the next seven weeks I'll be at shows in Toronto (duh), Calgary, Vancouver, Miami, Ottawa and Winnipeg. I may go to the Montreal show too, for a day, since it's the same dates as Ottawa and a very short flight. Sounds like a pile of fun, but most of that time is spent in meetings with clients (yup, I'm one of the dorks in a suit). The positive is you can sometimes spend an extra day or two and get in some fishing .... as I will when I go to Vancouver and Miami.

I spent the last three days at the show (for work) and have to agree, LOTS of nice fishing boats and LOTS of very good deals. Crestliner, Lund, G3, Starcraft, Lowe, Sylvan, Princecraft, Glastron, Boston Whaler, Campion, Triumph, Grew, Alumacraft, Legend, Seaswirl, Stanley, Grady-White, Edgewater, Tracker/Nitro and Polar Kraft all have deals. Quite honestly, one of the best boat shows in years where fishing boats are concerned.

This seems to be a grey area, and my gut sense is that if you ask three different conservation officers, you will likely get three different answers. The formal Ontario fishing regulations stipulate that you cannot transport live game fish. So the question is, what is and what is not a 'game' fish? By MNR's own definition, 'game fish' does not include most coarse species (like bullheads) or panfish (like bluegills). Those, it would seem, can be transported alive without any problem (just like various live minnows). Having said that, I've kept different kinds of fish in a tank and was told by MNR that was not a problem providing I considered my captive fish as part of my daily bag limit. I got that in writing and kept the letter as insurance, since I was a full-time outdoor writer at the time and didn't need any kind of fishery violation on my hands. If you're worried about it, write a letter to the MNR district office and see what they mail you back. Most entertaining wild fish I ever kept was a rock bass. They're completely psychotic.

My goals for this winter are quite simple, really: 1. Finally get off my duff and order new neoprenes from Cabela's (maybe this afternoon, now that I'm thinking of it) 2. Spend some quality time on the West Coast renewing my love affair with ocean-going steelhead (trip booked, early Feb) 3. Spend some quality time in the Gulf of Mexico renewing my love affair with with wahoo, dolphin and king mackerel (trip booked, late Feb) 4. Keep a straight face every time I see the Loafs still holding steady at 26th place in a 30-team league 5. Hope for an early spring so I don't have to ice fish at all