bigugli

Update Venue move to Rennie Park in Pt Dalhousie, Sat Feb 26th.

Same problem each year end. In February they are busy tabulating the results for Avid Angler awards, and getting reports ready for the AGM. The regular flow of entries get processed at a crawl for a few weeks.

For any who frequent the old canal in Welland. They started raising the water. First 20' of ice is submerged and soft. Making it unsafe the next few days. There was supposed to be a Heart & Stroke derby on Saturday, but I believe they will either have to change venue or scratch. It will take a few nights for that ice to firm up.

My Gram taught me about stretching the food dollar when I was young. It pays off. This week's grab; bacon at $1.79. Grabbed 10 lbs. Canned sockeye a $1 a can, grabbed the last 8 off the shelf. I still buy large hunks of meat to break down into roasts, steaks, chops, stewing portions. 20lbs for $20 goes a long way. There is only a little left of my credit to pay off, and I'll sleep a lot easier.

Truth is, if there is an excuse for putting up the price of anything, it will be used. Always has been and always will be. Only a fool believes that a politician will change that time honored formula. Politicians are either well off of their own accord, or they have been bought and paid for by the corporate world. How else do they pay for lavish election campaigns and high priced advisors and analysts. Not by selling membership cards. I just find that in today's economic climate, I am applying a lot more of my grandparent's wisdom and advice. They got through the depression and WWII, so I guess I can manage too. Rule number 1: Trust no government or corporation, because none have your best interest at heart.

The ugli bunch will be there.

Don't worry about the garlic. China has had a catastrophic garlic crop failure. They had buyers in Ontario paying upwards of $500 a bushel for seed stock. A lot of folks remember how they got screwed last time, and won't sell to them. Besides, Chinese garlic tends to lack the hardiness and shelf life.

A lot of us love making our own stuff. Twice the satisfaction when something you crafted catches fish.

Lots of good produce at the farmers markets as long as you seek out the farmers and avoid the jobbers. Just need to learn the old skills of canning, preserving and stockpiling. I don't buy produce in winter because I like to know where my produce came from, and who grew it. I do know what is in the produce coming across the border, how it is processed , packed and stored.

Now I have this image of some big burly fella in a nurse's outfit giving a poor wee field mouse an enema

It's pissed off many a friend who've lost their livelihoods and way of life. Highliner is mostly a sham. Canadian in name only. They buy up offshore fleets to do the catching.

Sorry, but the offshore vessels have offshore crews. Flags of convenience do exist, 90% of American owned bottoms use such flags as Panama, Liberia, etc... They also rely on cheap offshore crews and Lascars. However, factory ships do all the processing from start to finish. The do not need land based facilities. Canadian fisheries have been destroyed by bureaucratic regulation and incompetence. The boys down east aren't working on Chinese or Portuguese vessels. They cost far more than the $2 a day crews used on foreign vessels.

Many nations have fleets of floating factories that fish outside territorial waters then bring the catch home for distribution. Such fleets fly the flags of China, Japan, Norway, Portugal, to name a few. There is nothing new in any of this. The only thing new is in being forced to actually I.D. the nation packing the fish.

I forgot all about chatting with you at the show Alzheimers. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Congartulations old son. May you have many years of mischief and fishing trips together. Time to dust off that rocking chair and have the Mrs warm up some milk and cookies for you

There vintage section isn't very old. I've got some of the old floating balsa minnows, still in the pale blue boxes they used to pack them in.

Glad to see a safe final outcome for you fellas. Weird weather and nasty things happening everywhere today.

There wasn't much to be impressed with. Almost everyone selling the same 5-6 lines of plastics. The usual discount racks and bins. A couple of newer outfitters. Got a chuckle watching 2 wee fellas fight trout in the pond. Couple of seminars that were worthwhile. The one chef had a potato and leek walleye dish that was heavenly. Met up with HTHM, and spent some time chatting with Maureen at Off The Dock. I love the caricatures you do. Well worth the money.

I would consider it good fortune if I only had "one of them days" once a year. All the same it sucks to have such luck.

Don't forget all those gas and oil spitting boat motors. There are thousands of leaky motors plying those waters in the warmer month. just check out the oil slicks around the marinas.

I know that one only too well.

Already sent the son to work and have now shipped the Mrs off to Ottawa for the weekend. All before 6 am. Getting up at 4 am just to run the son to his job sucks. Can't wait til he has a decent set of wheels. Now I'm just browsing through OFC and the tackle catalogue before I run to the fishing show.

I'll be a gunin for ya, sheriff!

Looks great Emil. Hope the ice is that good next weekend for Fishing For Tyler.

Nice to hear there are still people willing to do a good turn.