bigugli

Looks like you've been doing some right serious fishing while you were away. Caught some mighty fine specimens at that too.

WTG

I searched high and low clear across Niagara looking for the Grail. been to 6 different stores. Finally, after fending off bus loads of dollarama frenzied migrants who just got paid, I finally found a Dollerama bamboo pole. Here is the swag:

Here is the armoured version of the pole with a woven wrap of dollarama duct tape to compensate for certain weaknesses in the cane.

We now be ready, Aaargh!, to do battle with the mighty Leviathans of the deeps

ANother excuse to part with a C note or two NOT

I do not miss the dreaded Toronto cram on the weekends. We avoided it like the plague. When I lived there, I chose to have Fri-Sat. weekends when possible. Night shift ending Sat am. or wait til 4 am. Sat to drive up and commute straight to work Mon. morn.

There are some great back routes for getting around Barrie or running up to Haliburton. Just have to experiment.

It's a bitter piece of reality to swallow but Homo sapiens sapiens is the most invasive and destructive species on the planet. We still have not, collectively, given up the primitive habit of use it up and move along. Only difference is that there are fewer and fewer places we can go to escape from the filth we pile up, and fewer and fewer resources at our disposal. Anybody care for some "Soylent Green"?

Gotta get rid of all the bad luck vibes in the boat, like bananas. Might want to start with your cousin

WTG on a successful ( for some) outing.

Love the look on her face. Cute.

When I was a kid ( can't believe I'm sounding like my uncle ) we wet lines everyday from last Saturday in June til the end of September. Started each morning by checking the bait traps. I used to sell a lot of minnows back then. Then check the night line ( they were allowed back then.) and making a few casts before breakfast. Probably went a solid month without breaking that routine, back in the good ole' days ( another case of 'oldfartitis' setting in )

You could mount a single propane burner instead of the hotplate. Only way to get higher temps with the hot plate would be through insulation and getting a better air seal along the walls of the smoker.

Just gotta love those smiles. You've done a good thing Dad.

bigugli, i didnt realize the depth of that area fluctuated so much, hopefully with all the rain the water levels will be reasonably high...or high enough anyways.

 

I didnt see any maps in the store at muskeys landing while i was there booking the room, but i probably missed them. does anyone know of bait/tackle stores on in the area or on the way, i'll be heading up the 400 then onto 69

Running up the 400 get off on Hwy 12 and go east. No more than 5 minutes down the road. Expensive for minnows. Beyond that you would go 12E to Orillia or 12W to Midland. There were a couple of hole in the wall joints in Honey harbour and mactier, at best, iffy, if they are still around at all.

In 2003, water levels were 8' below normal.

Any map is no more than a guideline when it comes to Severn Sound. Changing lake levels from year to year result in different actual depth. Ask the folks at Muskie's they usually carry a fishing map, and they can give you some guidance.

The one year, 2003?, lake levels were so low I had to push pole my 16' to the channel from Muskey's dock. Some great fishing areas were islands.

Sorry, not a fan of the Neutered kittens

Used to be an Argo fan, but then again, my coach was an ex-Argo.

Wonderful adventure there guys.

Just goes to show that doing the homework, and leg work pays off.

Half of the adventure is in the planning and getting there. The other half is the success that comes from the effort.

Pretty solid results from what I see.

It takes a good sense of humour to last 20, and some, years without trying to kill each other off. Congratulations

Had some time to kill before I could visit the daughter in hospital. Good thing there is always gear in the van Just an hour or so of casting. A few pan sized smallies.

Plus a few WGSF.

Dropped off some fishing gear for the rehab department. Apparently my daughter is going to teach others the basics of fishing. Kind of funny cause 2 weeks ago she still had me tying on all her tackle I'm hoping I'll get a few pics of these sessions to share.

It's been beached. Hard to press a salvage claim.

Adrft, you would be within your right to do so. However, you may only claim a fixed percentage of the vessels worth as your salvage fee unless no one claims the vessel. If unclaimed, a percentage reverts to the Crown. There are , again, fixed time frames to follow. You really do need to talk to a lawyer.

Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Tooooooooooooo Loooooooooooong I enjoy mine in about two weeks

All depends on the recipe. We used to do fermented dills. 10 weeks.

Gave up on that process. Some decades back woke up in the middle of the night to gunshots . Go down to the basement to see pickle jars exploding everywhere. The house reeked for days.

There is an old oak leaf recipe my Mom has that I have to try again. A distinct flavour.

They look good, but,,,, I gotta wait 6 weeks before they are ready to taste.

Heck, that first 50 jars barely gets us through til next summer. Thanks for the compliments guys. Just hope they taste as good as when wifey was doing them. Usually I do the washing and prepping while she does the actual preserving and mixing.

To quote a song; "to everything... there is a season..." Summer harvests mean canning season. Feels kinda weird doing all this stuff without the Mrs. around. We usually work on this together through the season.

Anyhow, after 8 hours effort we went from this:

A lot of prep work:

to produce this:

I don't want to look at another cuke for a month , But I'll be staring at em again in another week or so.

Not every adventure can make it into the record books.

Gotta cherish every minute you can get together.

Thanks for sharing that.