DT10Sam

Hi Gman, Great pic of a nice musky. Sam

My Laurie does whenever we get a chance to all go as a family. Family outings are real nice and we get a kick out of watching the kids catch fish. Regards, Sam

Well I guess the ice is not going off the BOQ as of yet, I am ready for Spring and the weather is not. Regards, Sam

I like it great job Nautifish, however I still want to see you twist Roy into a pretzel LOL Regards, Sam

I feel that our heart needs to explode with kindness at various times in life and Speedtroll needs all of our support for his young lad Chris. Our family will always pray for the miracle that we are all seeking and having Chris in our hearts. Kind regards, Sam, Laurie, Andrew and Hunter

Done, we are all family. Regards, Sam, Laurie, Andrew and Hunter

Well the hard water season was great this year even though it was a short season. Here is a pic of our employee Glen Hales with a male walleye. A pic of Glen with Dan. The walleye that Glen caught was a 12 lber and it was released. Dan with his personal best 13 1/2 lber. Hope you enjoy these and we are all just waiting for the soft water season. Regards, Sam

Not to highjack this thread but Whopper is right. You can harvest the meat from fish that are being mounted. I know as I have done taxidermy for many years and I have had many fish show up and I would immediately skin them and place the skin in the tanning solution while I prepared dinner with the fillets. Of course I was selective on which fish I would enjoy. I am a hunter and fisherman and lately I have been more of a conservationist since I have not shot any deer in at least 5 years or anything for that matter and now I have gotten back into fishing so most of my year will be doing exactly that fishing. I do see both sides to this issue and will stay neutral as there will always be feelings that come into play here and I value Lew as a good friend. Sometimes opinions are exactly that and when they are worded differently it can cause some hurt. I would ask everyone to please be sensitive to each other and hopefully we can all stay as a family on this great messageboard. Kind regards, Sam

Coming into work at the store I have noticed that the western part of Belleville towards Trenton is without power. Sam

Awesome report and pics. Sam

I was informed that I can only love the 4 legged cougars and the cougar that I have here at home Regards, Sam

Glad to hear you're okay Glen. Regards, Sam

Okay in the Quinte area the trees have some ice onthem making them look kind of nice this time of year. Hopefully there are not many trees down because of the ice. Regards, Sam

Hi Blake, I do recall this event in your life last year and you are in our thoughts and heart in this family. Best regards, Sam , Laurie and kids

Hi Everyone, I can give you the perspective from the vendors point of view. As a past vendor we had to pay for the booth as soon as possible and usually by a date in December. The booth space was expensive and you were nickled and dimed for every little thing that you required. For example if you needed a phone line to run your credit card and debit machine that was a set price and extra to the booth rate. If you required chairs and tables you had to rent them from the show as well you were not allowed to bring in your own. If you required to place a banner up it had to be done by their union employees which was an extra charge, and if you required electical services again that was an extra fee and there was more. Everytime you needed something for your booth it would cost extra. I was at the Show last year and I was also informed that their security would watch over our products during the night and not to worry. The next day we were short 14 pairs of Irish Setter boots and we were told that we must have made a mistake and not brought them since there was security at the show. Then it came time to have product at the show all of our distributors mentioned that we needed to have all of the new and upcoming products available for the public to purchase. All in all we brought 28,000.00 worth of products to the show, made sure that our employees and prostaff were kept in a motel for the nights we were there and also fed for the hours they worked. The price of the booth was over 10,000.00. We had an expense of over 40,000.00 and we sold just over 7,000.00 for the days we were there. While we were setup it became a flea market where most of the people that came to the show wanted bargains at much reduced prices so that they were successful in getting a great deal. Some of the vendors dropped prices to below cost as we did as well to match some of the prices and the public was still not pleased and would want to negotiate a lower price which was not a smart move at all. We did give alot of product away and worried as to how on earth does anyone ever make money at these shows. The math in this venture is very simple to figure that we lost a large amount of money. It is not feasible to set up shop at the Sportsman Show whatsoever for any vendors at all and that is why you see a decline in the amount of vendors that show up at the show. This year there are fewer vendors as well and the only companies that benefit from it are the manufacturers. Now into the equation you add Bass Pro Shop which was denied the opportunity to be at the Sportsman Show because Sylvia LeBaron of LeBaron store is on the board or extremely powerful on the Sportsman Show board and she was instrumental in keeping Bass Pro out of the Sportsman Show. So Bass Pro decides they will have their own show at the same time and their marketing campaign is extremely simple. They advertise that we do not charge admission and parking is free. What more can you ask for you save a minimum of 25.00 and you can have your wife walk the mall while you enjoy the toy shop at Bass Pro. I predict that you will hear this year that the crowds at the Sportsman Show will be much less and fewer vendors were present. The only winners of the Sportsman Show is the Sportsman Show themselves where they get paid in advance from all of the vendors that take part. This is the reason why I will not be there this year or any other year, I just can't take another beating as I did last year. I just thought I would let everyone know how bad the vendors have it as opposed to the people that want to attend. I just lost over 14,000.00 last year in total over the 5 days that I was there. That kind of loss in profits will mean that we will have to sell 160,000 worth of products to break even on that venture after all said and done. This may sound like an easy solution however it is not since we have to sell that much over and above our regular sales to achieve the end result. Keep in mind the amount of products you purchase at a tackle shop a lure may be 7.00 or 8.00 and the profit may be $ .35 - $ .53 for that lure, now ask for a better deal and you have what is left a long time to reach that sales figure of losses. Taking lumps in business is not an easy thing, that is why you see tackle stores going out of business it is mainly the results of some bad business sense and also having to compete with someone selling at lower rates attempting to attract more business away from the competitors. I do apologize to everyone if this sounds like a rant, it is just the plain truth of bad business on my part for even entering the Sportsman Show. I did voice my opinions to the committee whenever they called after the show ended to see how we like it. Best regards, Sam

Now hitting the Quinte area quite hard. Good time to stay indoors. Sam

I would have done all the dishes, vacummed the house, cleaned all the windows, do all the laundry, dust all the furniture, make all of the beds, and just make sure the house was spotless. This would confuse the hell out of her and she would be wondering what I was up to or if I had company over. Wow that sounds lika alot of work well maybe do half of it so that I still have a roof over my head LOL. Regards, Sam

Happy Birthday Joe and have a great day. Best regards, Sam

Bill you are quite the outdoorsman and I know that you will enjoy a portage trip. There are some lakes just north of Napanee and Kingston that would take your breathe away with rivers etc. to enjoy. Some of the area that I am referring to is Grindstone Lake, and for some awesome speckle trout fishing there is the Quinn Lakes, Mosque lake and the list goes on and on. Just check into this are and you will be pleasantly surprised. Best regards, Sam

WOW Cliff you are an artist, awesome work. Regards, Sam

Well if we did loose the lead to Team #9 then there obviously is something that has not been posted as of yet. Well I guess I will have to get back out next week and add to our list. Regards, Sam

Hi Everyone, Well today was the last day for walleye fishing on the Bay of Quinte and I had the itch to go seeing that it was going to be a beautiful warm day and sunny. Hard to beat those conditions. Well I ran into a problem I gave Glen the day off of work today and I knew that he would be out fishing and I felt that I had to get out for one more outing. The only snag in all of this is who will work at the store. Well I made an excutive decision and closed the store at 2:30 pm for the rest of the day and make this outing a family outing. I then asked Laurie to drive to the school and pull the kids out for the afternoon and we will make a good excuse as to why they need to be with the family. When the boys found out they were excited and now I knew I was in a jam because I will not be fishing after all. Anyone with a family knows that whenever the family goes fishing it becomes work and not a fishing outing. I shouldn't really complain since I did my share yesterday. Following are some pics of todays outing nad I will also add some pics of fish being caught in the past week. Hope you enjoy the following pics. Our 2 boys Andrew and Hunter enjoying the sunshine while fishing. Laurie also getting in on the action, this being her first taste of ice fishing. Andrew very upset that he was pulled out of school just before a math test. Andrew extremely happy to be pulled out of school now that he has hooked his very first walleye. Oh by the way his math test is now tomorrow LOL. Andrew and Hunter both with a couple of walleye for dinner. We did meet up with Glen on the ice and here he is with his first walleye of the afternoon. Glen with a nice male walleye. A bit of a wind came up and Laurie and Hunter decided to use the Frabill hut. Here are the ones we kept for dinner between the 5 of us. Now to go back since Friday of last week, and show you some pics of walleye that Glen and a customer of ours Dan caught this past few days. Dan with a 13 1/2 lb walleye that went 34" now this was a real hawg and he did release the fish for someone else to catch after the spawning season. Glen with a couple of nice ones for the frying pan. The next day Glen with a 12 lb. Hawg and Dan with a couple for dinner. Glen released his fish after the pic. Dan with a few from today that he caught with a couple of his friends. Well that is it for 2006- 2007 ice fishing on Bay of Quinte, now to get ready for the spring fishing season. We have marked all of these spots on a GPS and will hit them all next hard water season and we will try them in the spring as well. By the way tonight Laurie and Sam got skunked Best regards, Sam

Higuys, I really know that you do not mean all of this hatred this is the fun we are going to have. I do know that there was a household last night that had an extremely difficult time with it though. LOL Just imagine being in Joey's home and seeing her walk around the home with a grin from ear to ear and not saying anything. Aaahhhhh yes then there is Tybo who is eating crow as a daily meal right about now.LOL I sure hope he uses spices it would taste better. Regards, Sam

Well here it is the first walleye or pickeral for Joey's Team #2 a 29" and I thought that I should get this up and tomorrow being the last day of ice fishing on the Bay of Quinte I will try to beat it if possible. Regards, Sam

Welcome aboard Rob. Now Lew has someone to try and keep up to. Best regards Sam