Rattletrap2

My old fiberglass boat started taking on water for no reason a couple of years ago. Last fall, I found one of the livewell hoses had a crack in it. Since this hose is below the water line, I really suspect it to be the culprit. I am going to change it out and if I ever get the boat in the water this year, I will let you know if that was the fault! LOL

and...on the plus side of things......Tony is a serious Bass fishing fanatic and a real gentleman!

Thanks Folks! Remember, any e-mail address can vote! I'm moving up slowly and I'm sure that is all thanks to you folks! When a guy's teen aged daughters and young adults say all these nice things about me.....well....I can't let it go for nothing! LOL Just have to stay in the top 10! http://www.wfn.tv/adopt/view.php?entry=360

Thanks Splashhopper! I know with the sheer numbers of people on this board, that if everyone voted, it would be great! The top 10 is also pulling away on me, but every bit helps!

Thanks Brian! I need to bump this back to the top again. I am trying to get into the top 10, and am currently in 13th place. I still have a whole month to go and you can vote every day. Thanks

Folks, I hope this is appropriate to post here. I have been a board member since the early days and my Daughter's have entered me in a contest on WFN to be adopted. I could sure use your support to move my standings up some! I am in 17th place with a long way to go. You can vote everyday with your e-mail addresses and we have a month to go! Please do what you can to help me out. Thanks http://www.wfn.tv/adopt/view.php?entry=360

fisher, Your wife was just being kind! She loves you just the way you are! lol

I understand and was fully aware of what douG posted. In fact, I am slightly offended when I see our flag all torn and faded waving in front of a home or business. I believe that the intent of the law in the US was to prevent the actual flag from being disrespected. As already mentioned, those kids do not seem to be disrespecting anything at all. Jocko, I would imagine that you are very patriotic indeed. I also respect your opinion on the clothing items. Wishing all in the US a very happy Independence day on Saturday!

hmmm.... I would have to disagree with you on this one Jocko! I think we need a whole lot more Canadian patriotism....in whatever form we can get it. Those folks are just having some fun celebrating the great country we call home! What harm is there in that? At my home, we fly the flag all year round and really go all out for Canada Day! If I was an American, I would be more than proud to fly the Stars and Stripes as well. They are both great nations that we are proud of. I'm sure our friends south of the border will be doing just that in a couple of days!

The OPP cop reminds me of Bill Murray in Caddy Shack!!! and......it's good to hear Steve Smith (Red Green) getting some work in his retirement as "the fish"!!!

WOW! Awesome report and some real nice fish. I'm partial to the nice Bucketmouth, but those cats look like beauties too! Glad to hear that you are going to cook one up. They are the "sirloin of the south". I had no idea that Sparrow holds Channel Catfish like that. Sure beats "Mud cats".

As Raf suggested, and I am assuming this is a receiver style hitch? Just pick up two inserts and get a 1 7/8" ball on one, and a 2" ball on the other. Princess Auto is as good a place as any to get these cheap! DO NOT attempt to tow a trailer with a 2" tongue coupler on a 1/7/8" ball! I always carry both sizes as you never know when you might need to hook up a smaller trailer.

A2F, Someone mentioned Lake Ontario? Just curious, is that where the cottage was that you were fishing at? reason I ask, is that I wouldn't normally expect Brown Trout to be in the same body of water as Bass (maybe SmallMouth)? Certainly not on the inland lakes. Great Lakes would be an exception. Nice fish just the same. Was it tasty? A neighbour of mine caught a nice trout out of the Credit when we fished it many years ago. He was all excited to eat it until he found out it tasted like river bottom mud! LOL He had a big dinner all planned with friends over. Ended up ordering Chinese food in. I still laugh about it!

I'm partial to the Pop'R for Bass myself! All of the poppers, chuggers, and such will work, but I keep going back to ol' faithful!! There is nothing like bringing mule Smallies up out of 15 to 20 fow to smash a popper! I also like to toss a black/blue skirted buzzbait over weed beds. At night, or in very low light, be sure to give black coloured baits a shot. They silhouette against the night sky and are easier for the Bass to hone in on. In all cases with topwater baits, a good approach is to cast the bait out as far as you can from the boat, let the circles dissipate, and then start a varied retrieve of twitches, pauses, and erratic movements to simulate a wounded prey. I find they smash it on the pause a lot of the time!! Sometimes ripping as buzzbait over weeds can produce good results. You get a reaction or anger type of strike. Enjoy!

Fantastic report as always Cliff and Bly!!! That is a real nice mixed bag of fish and some beauty specimens to boot! Congrats on sticking out the bad weather and gitt'n er done!

Yes Boss, Just hook them up in parallel to give you 12 volts, but double the amp hours. This is positive to positive, and negative to negative. You could hook even more batteries up this way to extend the run time. If hooked in series, they will give you 24 volts approx.

Gerritt, I was in the same predicament a couple of years back. It was a toss up between JD and Cub Cadet. I ended up going with the Cub cadet because of the dealer i was dealing with. Mine is a GT2554, Shaft drive (versus belt drive), full hydrostatic tranny, and built like a tank. However, it did cost me about $5,500.00. I was looking at similar JD machines as well. The JD and Cub Cadet models at Home Depot are both very light duty series priced to compete. They get serviced by the local dealers to do the PDI inspection, fill the fluids, and such. If you want to know the difference, just go to the local dealer and check out the real thing. try to pick-up the ass end of either brand, and then go do the same at Home Depot! Also, all Kohler engines are not the same. they have different series based on the life expectancy of the individual models. I have a 23 h.p.Kohler engine in mine. I run it about 8 hours a week and have over 100 hours on it. I do not use it for snow blowing or anything else. My only complaint about my machine is that I have torn up three belts in those 100 hours that drive the deck off the engine. Pain in the butt! Still trying to sort that out! If you have any questions on specific things, ask away! Good luck! Brian

For what it's worth, some Bass are still on the beds. I know for a fact that some hatched yesterday! Might want to hold off on the shallow stuff for another week or two or so? Weather and water conditions have been an up and down roller coaster this year. The bass that started to spawn earlier this month may have had their fry die due to dropping temperatures we experienced.

Yep, they have been excellent to deal with. A Buddy bought a baitcaster combo LAST YEAR and they spooled it up with line. Well, he didn't bother to check it out before we went fishing and found while out on the laake that it was defective internally. We finally got around to taking it back a couple of weeks ago (with receipt) and they immediately took a look at it at the fishing counter and gave him a full replacement! Can't ask for more than that!

The fishing on St.John has always been good for Walleye, Bass, and Pike. In a traditional year, it can get weed choked though. The biggest deterrent I have to this lake is the pollution from the soap factory located on it! I don't think I would want to eat anything from there. I don't recall the noise from the float plane airport being a problem.

douG, What an awesome trip! Thanks for sharing with us. Looks like you really do live a good life...you possibly even deserve it....but I'm not 100% convinced! Beautiful fish and scenery there!

John, You could pm em' to me if you like. I don't get my knickers in a knot over these things! LOL Sounds like you might be onto something with the Mrs. Hey, she can take it slow at her own pace and who knows where it can go? My wife likes to fish and tries to get out when she can. She just isn't a fanatic like me!

Beautiful fish! Nice mixed bag as well.

Thanks for the update! I would have thought any tire shop could balance them. Even a static balance would be better than nothing.

Congrats to you both! And, a true Canadian he is.....already wearing his toque!