Dutch

Has anyone seen the documentary "The Smartest Guys in the Room"? It is about the Enron debacle and how the top executives, through Market traders, pushed up the price of the California Energy market. Remember hearing about the brown-outs in Cali? Well those were engineered by these energy traders. A couple of weeks before Enron was due to report quarterly results, they were consistently behind expectations, but due to some miraculous "power problems" and by taking plants off the grid, prices were driven up and Enron made millions and millions in those weeks before results were due. The strangest thing was, Cali uses only 70%-80% of the power generation available in the Winter months, but Enron was able to cause these black-outs and take up to 40% off the power out of the grid. Great movie. Very enlightening and informative. I smell a rat. Why is there no refining capabilities out there? Why is supply so far down? These price increases are artificial. The best thing anyone can do is buy oil company stocks. Maybe the profit one makes will offset the increased prices at the pumps. The government has said they will not be looking into gasoline price fixing accusations. I find it a conflict of interest that the Canadian Government owns not an insignificant number of shares in Petro Canda.

For $30 bucks great deal. I bought one LY and one this year. The only issue I see after using this year's model so far is the reel seat doesn't hold the reel 100% tight. Kind of moves back-an-forth a bit if you pull on it. The only reason I probably notice it is becuase I felt it move slightly once. Not a big deal though.

Welcome...great people to meet and great info. to be shared/learned.

Headed out with my buddy Dale tonight after work to see if the Kawartha Crappie bite was still strong - is it ever! Went out for two hours and pulled in about 150 fish, kept about 35-40. One stretch I pulled in 12 fish on 12 casts and 7 of those were keepers! The one I am holding in this pic is 12.5 inches, the biggest of the night! Quite the slab. The bucket holds the rest of our catch, Here is about 1/4 of our haul after a lot of cleaning! Dinner is going to be great tomorrow night! We are also going over to Dale's place on Saturday for a Crappie fry followed by a few friendly games of poker. Can't wait - crappie, then poker - what can be better?

Thanks for the update - I want to see how this one turns out!

I agree with you about early '80's baseball, but not hockey or basketball - some pretty goods sets from the early - mid '80's in hockey. The greatest basketball sets, outside the '50's, were produced in the mid '80's, Fleer to be exact. The way to go now is with serial numbered rookie/signed cards. Hard (if not impossible) to pull from packs our days, unless you spend thousands on a case. It's really unfortunate as collecting is not done by kids much anymore, just by adults that can afford to lay out $6 plus on a pack of 5 cards. Bring back Hoops and Pro-Set. At least the young kids could afford to buy a pack and have the thrill of pulling out their favorite player.

I was an avid basketball card collector going back a few years. Your Bird card would "book" at $2-$3 Max. Back then, when card collecting was "hot" companies over-produced and the real determination of a card's worth, scarcity or rarity, was a distant thing of the past. Not sure about your Poke-e-man cards. E-Bay would probably tell you what people are paying, but it is really a buyer's market. For example your Bird card would probably go for about $0.05 - $0.25 if someone were to buy it.

Sounds like a great project, can't wait for the pictures as the project progesses.

Ouch, glad to hear you're okay now.

You can count on me to send a prayer up for you both !!

Charlesn has a great idea. Dry it out, filer' up with a hose and find the leak. If nothing comes out, you were swamped. Good luck with the dealer - probably not getting anything from them. Once you drive it off the lot, the responsibility is yours, unless they did something neglectful, like not sealing off a screwhole or 2, but the hose test suggested above would rule that as a cause, or rule it out. Even if the salesperson was the last to put in the drain plug, still up to you to make sure it was tight. Insurance is your best option - I hope you had some on it! Good luck with everything. You have all our support.

It is probably clogged with hair. No need to unscrew. Get a plastic bottle of Liquid Plummer, use the whole bottle and let sit for as long as you can. Flush with hot water.

Fishing and family...2 of life's priorities.

I actually just replaced my old deck this weekend...not that there was anything wrong with my original deck...lol

Change it. My guy suggested changing every 2 years, 3 max. Any heat at all can warp or disfigure it. Just 'cause there's water coming out, doesn't mean it's full stream. Peace of mind is a great thing. Ask around in your area, I'm sure someone outside a marina can do it pretty cheap, perhaps a retired Marine Mech. I was lucky enough to find one around here. Hope you can do the same.

I love the taste and texture of crappie - by far the best overall freahwater eating fish, IMO. I haven't been out since that night, but, as was mentioned in a previous post, my wife and I are looking at a waterfront property on Chemong. We took another look at the place on Saturday afternoon and stepped out on the dock and saw 10-15 crappie sunning themselves. Some real nice slabs too. We are talking about 3 feet max. They seemed to be pretty active and were chasing bluegill and small perch off. I think they are in tight in the bays where the water temp is 3-5 degrees higher during the day. Just a thought, but maybe try long casts to shore and working a tube back. Forget the 8-10 fow thing and go shallow!

That will definately do the trick

Great report

Congrats...no small accomplishment

Bought the green Abu combo last year at 50% off and bought this black one at the 60% off today. Great combo for the price. Worth every penny. Great jigging rods and enough backbone to fish the bass too.

Looking for the same stuff myself. I found some at a place called Monaghan Lumber, here in Peterborough. Probably too far for you from the T-dot. Price on the 3/4" 4' X' 8 was $118, pretty much what I figured it was going to be, but you may as well do it right.

Good job, as usual

Looking forward to the pix

Another prayer is being sent up here. Keep us posted.

After a pretty stressful week of work (after only 3 days) I decided to hit my favorite local shore spot to see if the Crappies were in. After fishing for a few minutes I caught a couple of smaller perch, but no crappies. I tired walking the bank and casting to a few spots that aren't accessible due to heavy, heavy weed later in the Summer and picked up a loner cruising the shorline. I had seen some baitfish in pretty tight, so I figure that's what they were after. Couple more casts with nothing else and went back to the bread and butter spot. I thought they may start moving in to feed on those baitfish as the sun went down more. I was right and picked up 5 more crappies all in about 15 minutes, enough for a feed for my wife and I. The largest one was about 11", with others anywhere between 7"-9". After the sun went completely down, they turned right off, so it was time to head home and do some cleaning. Fish were caught on a 1.5" tube, pumkinseed with chartreuse tails and 1/16 oz. jig head. That's what I love about the Kawarthas, I had a 10 minute drive home. Most of my shore spots are within 15 minutes of my house. Nothing like a night of half-decent fishing to take the edge off a couple of bad work days. Here a pic before: And after (my own version of surf and turf, 8 oz. beef filet, fried crappie and musroom rice), nothing better!