jimvanm

I'll look into it. I'm very much interested in her accomplishing more than just passing the test.

Agreed, but my 12 year old daughter wants to get her card as well, and for her I was looking for a study guide that doesn't read like a legal document. The one I found online seems to fit the bill. We went through some of the sample tests together, and she guesses more right than I did, so I think we're on the right track here.

Thanks a ton for the response. I did a bit more digging and found this, which also includes sample questions: http://www.boatsmartexam.com/manual.cfm Thanks again!

Does anyone know of a good online resource for studying to get an Operator's Card? Google turns up a ton of sites where you can take your exam, but it's harder to find study guides that can be downloaded. TIA Jim

Octopi are known to be very intelligent. It has been estimated that they have similar intelligence to a cat. The shark is a fish. In a battle of wits there's no contest. I found it interesting that the octopus immediately covered up the gills of the shark. Kind of a sleeper hold wrestling move, that.

That's a good point. Catch and release has become the standard these days. Only keep what you'll eat. I think it used to be that people didn't worry as much whether the fish survived. Which brings me back to another thread, about fish getting more conditioned. If more fish are being put back, those fish might be more reluctant to bite, whereas in times past, it didn't matter if a fish learned that a lure was bad because it seldom survived to benefit from the experience gained.

Does MNR have stats on this? Are there big differences in fish populations since, say, 20 years ago?

What a monster. Wow.

That trophy is a beauty. I have to admit I am jealous! What a great way to introduce kids to the sport of fishing.

People like that are fascinating. In most cases they don't even know what they know, in the sense that they can't really articulate their technique beyond the obvious. Put the lure on, put it in the water, wiggle it just-so, and there's a fish. They just happen to have an almost magic feel for it, and to them it's so natural and obvious they can't see why anyone would spend much time thinking about it. I think one could spend a lifetime on this. What a hobby!

How do people choose a lure? Basically I have become conditioned towards orange lures. Why? Because all my favourite fish have been caught on orange lures. Now what actually might be happening is that I tend to fish more often with orange lures, so naturally more and more of the fish I catch would be on those, which reinforces the conditioning. When I go to look at lures, I am totally mystified by all the selection. I try and look at them from the fish's perspective. "mmmm, that one looks tasty". "hey, this one's nice and shiny!", "wow, that one has real-looking eyes!". But then I start to realize that I am not a fish, I can't know how a fish responds, and there's far too much about this that I just don't know. So I buy another orange lure. What I really need is a cup full of worms. It is a consistently proven fact that fish find those things irresistible. Do they come in orange?

A few weeks ago I was driving around the Toronto harbour area with the kids, and I thought it'd be interesting to drop a line into the turning basin and see what might be caught. After a few minutes another fellow showed up and started fishing. I figured that was a good sign. After a while I went up to him and asked him what sort of luck he'd had fishing in the basin. He admitted that this was the first time he'd fished it, and only tried because he saw me. Didn't get so much as a nibble, but then again I didn't stick around for too long. I guess that basin probably gets dredged for weeds, so there's probably not a lot of places for smaller fish to hide. Part of me figures there can't be many fish in there (if at all), and another part of me figures if there's a pond as big as that which is connected to a large lake by a wide channel, there has got to be some fish that have worked their way into it over the years. I'm wondering if anyone has caught (or has heard of anyone catching) any sort of fish in there?

Well, that fish had obviously lost a lot of weight and was probably just trying to build back the lost muscle mass ;-) That is a whole new method of fishing. We should call that catch-fillet-and-release.

NICE!! She's hooked now for sure!

I know it my head that it's an irrational fear. Even Great Whites are supposed to be pretty much uninterested in humans. Mostly they just take a test nibble and then spit us out. But of course a nibble from a mouth full of 6 inch teeth... The reason that I'd want to conquer it is because I know it's not rational. It wouldn't have to be sharks; anything that triggered the fear would be enough. I have also heard that having panic attacks underwater is pretty dangerous, so I'm not planning anything recklessly stupid anytime soon. I'll be happy to stick to fishing for a while :-)

I would have been so scared I'd have been sick to my pants. I love fishing but I don't think I could handle swimming with them. As a kid I'd even get worried if a swimming pool was too deep. I tried swimming in the Trent river once. I was so scared I couldn't enjoy the swimming. I hate having phobias, though, so I tell myself one day I'm gonna take the bull by the horns, learn to scuba dive, and then do one of those shark tours or something. Still, I'd better wear diapers just in case. Do they make man-sized Pampers Splashers?

I have seen a lot of pictures of some lunkers on this board, and having just caught a respectable sized pike yesterday, I thought I'd write in for some advice on how to best hold them. I wear gloves because I had read that human skin can strip the protective mucus off a fish, and thus leave a fish exposed to disease. But how to pick up the fish for a photo? I see how to hold the back end, but it looks like people are holding the front of the fish by it's gills. I can see how that makes sense as far as avoiding the teeth, but is there a specific spot that is best for the fish? I'm not a fish but I would not want to be picked up by my lungs, if you know what I mean. I'm sure I'm missing something, and I figure this would be good to know: what is the correct way to pick up a huge fish with teeth so that a good photo can be taken, and yet the fish still be returned safely to the water? Any advice would be most appreciated.

I was using a yellow and orange spoon (with diamonds on it). It was a Red Wolf that I picked up at Canuck Tire for a few bucks. Funny thing is I lost it a few casts later; I wonder if the pike damaged the line. Spoons are a pain in the butt for fishing in weeds, but the fish seem to find them hard to resist, 'cause everybody has one in their tackle box they'd swear by. I was on the South Eastern shore, under the trees (yes, I cast a few into the trees as well), and I was casting North West onto the edge of the weed line. We didn't catch anything else, but I'll still be back again. Just the fact that it's on the subway line scores points in my book. I think I'm gonna see about a bass or two. Maybe a hula popper or a floating Rap. Wish I had a boat so I could do a bit of jigging; that weedline was teasingly far away; tough to cast a light lure into. Good luck!

So the best lures are gonna be the ones that make 'em angry. Kinda like a drunk in a bar. Somewhere in his head he knows he's gonna get a good arse-whooping, but he still heads in there swinging ...

LOL. That's exactly what my youngest son must have thought. On every cast after that he kept saying "Dad, catch another fish!". He kept looking at me like I was holding back or something. All I know is that I'm in love. I'm gonna go there tonight at midnight and compose a sonnet for her or something. Maybe buy her dinner or something. It's always so hard to know what to do on the second date.

LOL! That's kinda what my folks say too! Yeah, it's gonna be a big problem for me, I can tell already. At my desk now I keep thinking "maybe I can sneak off for a few hours and try ...". They were saying "Dad, you are such a good fisherman", and I was like "no no you don't understand, this was a total fluke". I can't wait until one of them gets a big one on. I just hope they don't let go of the rod!

1982 Chevy Chevette. Cheap to insure; cheap to repair; cheap on gas. No power, but it handled amazing in the snow.

I've always wondered: if a fish is caught and released, does that fish remember enough to not do it again? Even if the fish does do it again, does it retain anything of the experience(s) that might give it an edge, and increase it's odds of living to a ripe old age? I know fish are not really considered to be very intelligent, but they sure seem crafty sometimes. I always wonder if the very few, very rare fish that live to be the king of the lake are somehow different. Do they know something that the other fish don't? Is it just a series of random chances? I think everyone has heard the "goldfish only have a three second memory" concept, but the news is that this has been disproven. It would seem that Goldfish can learn: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1645894.htm If that is true of goldfish, might a fish with a bigger brain remember that the last time it tried munching on that shiny thing, bad things happened? How often does a fish get caught more than once? If anyone knows of any studies that have been done on the subject, that'd be cool, but any opinions or experiences would be just as fun to have.

She's still in there, so once she forgets her unpleasant little experience, let's hope she didn't wise up too much and'll give someone else a fight in the future.

Third cast with an orange/yellow spoon produced this little darling: It put up a pretty exciting fight to start, but then managed to hunker down in some weeds and I couldn't move it. If it weren't for the fact that it had been fighting in the first place, I'd have sworn there was no fish and I just had my lure caught on a log. I was seriously starting to try and figure out how it managed to spit my lure into a log, when it finally decided to take off again and I was able to land it. On 8lb line it was a pretty fun fight. The kids were mighty impressed. Thanks to all for the advice about fishing in Toronto from an earlier post of mine. I have to admit I'd have never thought to fish in Grenadier Pond. You can call me convinced :-)