craigdritchie

It's a nice idea, but not terribly practical. Sucker eggs are really tiny, so tying loose eggs in bags is really not an option as they go right through even the finest mesh. So you have to deal with chunks of immature, skeined eggs. Unfortunately, those just don't freeze well - they tend to turn to mush really quickly. I guess you could try and Pro-Cure them, but it's not likely worth the hassle. Brook trout have never dominated any of the Great Lakes, at any point in recorded history. Not sure where that idea came from. Lake trout were at one time the dominant species on the Great Lakes. But as CLofchik notes, not many people fish specifically for them today. Lake trout just do not melt line from your reel like a chinook, nor do they jump all over the place like a steelhead or a coho.

Starcraft, Smokercraft and Sylvan are the same company, and all three boats are manufactured at the same facility in New Paris, Indiana. They have made both riveted and welded aluminum boats for a long time. I do not know exactly when they started selling Starcraft welded boats, but the 1970s could be possible. Most of their welded boats are sold in the US, as Starcraft and/or Starweld. Starcraft does not sell its welded boats in Canada, which is why most people here don't know they even exist. However, welded boats made by Starcraft are sold here under other well-known brand names, and have been for years. They're very good boats.

Camera flash works really well. Go to a large camera store that does repairs, and ask the techs if they have some old beaters hanging around. A common problem with many old flashes is that the plastic mounting shoe that attaches it to the camera gets brittle with age, and eventually cracks or breaks off completely. It's not really repairable, but will still work fine for charging lures. Last time I went and asked, I got a half-dozen of them for $10.

Pretty sure it has to be a typo ..... 52 lbs should actually be 25 lbs. No one in their right mind would believe that fish is 52 lbs. Not even if it had lead teeth.

One safe prediction - with Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley on their team, San Jose will be unbeatable through the season and invisible in the playoffs. I say eliminated in the first round, four games straight.

As others have noted, side casts generally mean tangles, and usually within a few minutes. If you can learn to Walllis cast (i.e. line peels off the spool as it rotates, as opposed to off the end like a spinning reel) you'll eliminate the problem. Learning to Wallis cast is a pain in the butt, and you will experience some incredible birdnests as you get the hang of it, but in the long term, that's the best answer. It's a bit like learning to use a baitcasting reel. In the end, it's worth it. As far as the line setup goes, I agree you're probably over-complicating things. Since you'll still be picking out a few backlashes in the weeks to come, why not make your life simpler by just running some straight six pound mono all the way to the hook? When you get a backlash, you cut if off, stuff the dead line in your pocket, retie and you're back fishing in a few seconds - as opposed to screwing around with swivels and fluoro leaders and blood knots and all that other extra crap. You may hook one or two fewer fish by not having the fluoro leader, but then again you'll probably hook one or two extra fish by actually having your bait in the water, instead of spending so much time re-rigging. In the end, it will probably balance out. You'll spend more time fishing and less time knitting. Once you become comfortable with the Wallis casting, and have largely eliminated the tangling issue, then you can worry about experimenting with specific setups.

Dave ... I remember those SP guns quite well. I really wanted one, but couldn't justify it at the time with a young family and all. At one point Remington had a fantastic deal where you could get the SP with a 28 inch barrel for waterfowl, plus a short Parkerized slug barrel for deer for only about $100 more. If only ..... Billy Bob ... thanks for the link. Still looks to me like some sort of blued finish that has just not been polished, but who knows. Too bad it isn't Parkerized tho ... at those prices it would be one heck of a steal. Worm dangler ... welcome - enjoy the new piece! At some point down the road you may want to pick up an inexpensive press and start reloading your own shells. It's really easy to do, and you'll not only save a bundle of money on ammo, but will learn a ton about your gun and be able to dial things in so it hits anything you point it at.

The plywood test is a good start, but remember that the gob of shot elongates as it flies through the air, and soon looks more like a string of pellets than the disc-like patteern you see on the plywood (hence the term "shot string"). Depending on the load, you may find some of these "strings" have pretty big holes in them. Where ammo is concerned, you really do get what you pay for. Higher quality loads use higher grade components, so the shot travels more consistently after it leaves the barrel and makes connecting on moving targets a bit easier. That's especially true with a .20 gauge, due to a number of ballistic factors including the relationship between the barrel diameter and the mass of the shot column. Try a bunch of different brands of shot and see what works best for your particular gun. You may find that you shoot identical shells from three different manufacturers and have much better success with one brand over the others. In fact, that's pretty common. For hunting upland birds like grouse, pleasant and woodcock, you might also want to experiment with shooting target ammo, which is normally intended for trap shooting. It's cheap and generally very well made. I used to have an 870 that just couldn't miss with Winchester AA target loads and no. 7-1/2 shot.

Uh ... nope. Remington 870 Express does not have a Parkerized finish. It has a standard blued barrel, receiver and magazine tube with a non-reflective, matt crinkly finish. The Express models are intended as a lower cost alternative to the Wingmaster. Since Parkerizing (an anti-corrosion treatment of the metal parts) adds to the overall cost of the gun, increasing the price by about $75 - $90 at retail, this has never been offered for the Express models. Remington did sell a Parkerized version of the 870 for a while, which was called the 870 SP. I wonder if that's the one you're thinking of? Express and Wingmaster use the same metal parts. The differences between them are are strictly cosmetic.

Thanks, all, for the plugs and kind words. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions ... happy to help. Cheers

Yes and no - apart from external finish, the metal parts are absolutely identical and completely interchangeable. Wingmaster gets polished, blued metalwork where the Express guns have a matt crinkle finish. The big difference is in the stock. The wood on a Wingmaster is oiled American Walnut, where wood stocks on 870 Express guns are made from beech, which has been stained to resemble walnut. Wingmaster stock has fine-cut checkering, where the Express has a stamped grip pattern. Depending on the age of the Wingmaster, there may also be very minor differences in the bead sight and barrel rib. Current 870 Express models are also sold a synthetic stock. Not as pretty as the wood on a Wingmaster, but perhaps more resistant to scrapes, scratches and water damage.

Laura clipped me on the stringer a long time ago. It's only the weigh-in that was recent :-)

Kentucky really does have some of the most unbelievable muskie fishing anywhere. I've been down there a few times, and after each trip I come away completely awestruck by the combination of good numbers and solid average size. Plus, every now and then you do see some really big fish. Coolest thing is, it's primarily a casting fishery. I wrote about this in more depth in this month's OFC digital magazine (see www.ontariofishing.net/news2009/sept2009-2.html). Load up with some Super Shad Raps, some Mepps Muskie Killers and a handful of Baby Depth Raiders, and you're all set. I have fished Cave Run Lake, with legendary muskie guide Crash Mullins, and it is amazing. Even better is Green River Lake - same fishery, but with one quarter of the pressure. If you want to have one incredible long weekend with your friends, drive down there (10 hours), stay at Emerald Island Resort (very nice lakeside accommodation, and owner Terry Brown is a great guy) and go fish with muskie guide Bill Jarboe - a tremendous character and one of the most brilliant anglers you'll ever meet. Mention you read about it on my article here, and you'll be well taken care of. Hatchery-based fishery, so it's a year-round season. Fall is (surprise) the best time to be there. The mind-blowing part is that Green River Lake also has an awesome walleye fishery - we're talking 'eyes to 10 pounds, folks - and no one touches them. It's totally untapped. Talk about a great combo for a fall trip!

But the big question is, can she cook fish? Congratulations - pretty girl, and another victory for the whole concept of "selective harvest."

I've owned a couple of 870s. Wonderful gun that will give you years and years of use with even the most minimal care. Congrats - having that history behind it just makes the gun that much sweeter. Let us know how you make out with the birds.

You know Anders I thought about your neck of the woods after I hit the "post" button and I concede, most of the Superior rivers are a bit of an exception (the Garden River circus aside). Unfortunately, in my neck of the woods it's just ridiculous. Ditto for pretty much all of the States I've visited.

Closing the season or designating the area as a fish sanctuary will accomplish nothing. These morons are already breaking a bunch of laws by blatantly snagging fish and tossing them in the bushes. Does anyone really think a closed season would deter them one bit? Every single night you can find gangs of idiots blatantly snagging or netting fish out of the existing sanctuaries on the Credit and Bronte. Laws mean nothing to these yahoos. If I didn't enjoy the lake fishery so much, I'd be all in favour of eradicating salmon altogether. It doesn't matter where you travel around the Great Lakes - anywhere there is a salmon run, you have this kind of hooligan act. It's completely sickening.

I remember reading something about the effect of water depth on lure colour in In-Fisherman a long, long time ago. They found someone who actually did some research on this and published a chart showing the depth that various colours "disappeared." Red was the first to go, at about 10 or 15 feet, followed by orange (maybe 20 feet?) and yellow (30?). Green hung on longer (think it lasted to about 50 or 60 feet) and blue was the colour that held out the deepest, at nearly 80 feet. Beyond that, everything apparently looked black. To JohnF's point, the text that accompanied the chart qualified it all as being dependent on ultra-clear water, the sun dead overhead, no algae, and a bunch of other factors. These findings were all using regular painted finishes, so no word on how fluorescent or phosphorescent finishes might compare. They didn't go into metallics either, so there was no sense on how chrome or gold plated lures might appear at different depths. It would be interesting to find out.

Hamilton is well known around the world for its delicious fishes. Nothing like a heap of Stelco Sheephead, or maybe a big plate of Dofasco Dogfish ...... mmmmmm. Tasty.

According to a story in today's Hamilton Spectator, health officials are advising people to stay out of the water and not eat fish from Hamilton Harbour due to a bloom of potentially toxic blue-green-algae. Here's a link to the story online: Spec Article

$200 is a bit of an odd number where a centerpin is concerned. If you're looking at a new reel, then in my humble opinion you would be farther ahead to hold off until you can scrounge another $150 or so, because the difference between something like a $200 Raven or Okuma and a $350 Islander really is day and night. For two bills I would look for a good used reel. A gently used Islander is a great value IF you can find one - they tend to get snapped up pretty quickly. You might have more luck finding a good used Stanton, a Loomis/Tournament Drifter, or maybe an Aurora Barrington. I own all three, and they're all wonderful reels. You can sometimes find good used reels on eBay or Kijiji, but I'd suggest you watch local boards like this one. Chances are, you'll know something about the person you buy the reel from and even if you don't, you can probably pick it up in person and avoid extra charges for shipping or customs.

Good grief - that thing's built like a horse. Amazing how many really large fish wind up being identified as genetic freaks. The Royal Ontario Museum has a replica mount on display of a 102 pound lake trout that was netted in Lake Athabasca many, many years ago. Its body shape looks more like a sunfish than a laker. When the ROM examined the actual fish, they found it was a naturally-occurring eunich, neither male nor female. With no sexual organs whatsoever, it grew like an embryo its whole life. It makes you wonder how many record fish over the years may have actually been genetic mutants, naturally occurring or otherwise.

Couldn't agree with you more, Roy. Well said.

This pic is now rotating on the Ludington newspaper website home page (www.ludingtondailynews.com).

I have news for you, the vast majority of the digital scales out there are no better. It is important to understand that when we're talking about fish scales, the term "digital scale" simply means the weight is displayed as numerals on an LCD panel instead of by a needle going up and down a little index or around a dial, and has nothing to do with how the weight is actually calculated. In fact, many "digital" fish scales still use the same type of internal mechanism to determine the weight of the fish that we first saw 50 years ago on the old Zebco De-Liar. In other words, some sort of cheap spring mechanism. They just display it on an LCD (i.e. digital) display. Hence, digital scale. At Real Fishing we once weighed a five pound weight with a bunch of different digital scales and spring scales. None of them were right. We even gathered up three identical digital scales - all the same make and model - and all three gave different weights. Precision? Pffft. Tackle manufacturers love digital scales because they are one of the biggest profit grabbers out there. Made in China, 50 cents worth of parts, $44.95 retail price. And people line up to buy them. Talk about money for nothing. Bottom line is, if you want an accurate weight you need a very high quality scale, and those cost serious money. One of the best (Chatillon) is a traditional spring scale that shows the weight with a metal pin, not an LCD panel. You can have it IGFA-certified. Of course, they start at about $100 and go up to about $180 depending on size. Cost for IGFA certification is, of course, extra. Or you can get a Boga Grip - another $100 to $150 spring scale that can also be IGFA-certified.