bigugli

If you can wait, try picking up some of the things you need when they have the late afternoon sales on the last day of the fishing show or sportsman show. just make sure you go with a specific shopping list, and know what the regular price for those items are. So for your tin boat you need safety kit anchor paddles/oars ( I would suggest a pair of oars with oarlocks and pins) pfd's Then there is all the optional stuff you can add to the list.

Oh so true! Government agencies are often no better. I've contracted to the government in the past and everything was governed by flow charts and quota sheets. So pathetic to see people scorecarding the number of calls they answer and then stop answering the calls once the hourly quota had been met. We, as contractors, got warned for exceeding a "safe" daily workload. It's a good thing some of these govt. agencies did contract out a lot of departments. The sad thing is that although industry may have to wake up, governments won't. Part of it is bureaucratic inertia, part of it is the public "need" to govern and regulate every minute detail of our lives. Knox is preaching a simple economic gospel, but big business and the general public will never accept it. We live in a society that no longer accepts the notion that sometimes you have to accept limitations and do without.

I remember the crowds that would show up for smelts around the Soo, St Mary's, and the Huron Shore. Got so bad at times, every available OPP officer would be along the waterfront doing crowd control and keeping us from trying to kill each other. You could run Hwy 17 doing 140 from Sudbury to the Sault and not see a cop anywhere. Did it once when Easter and the smelt run coincided. Had to get to the in-laws before sunup Good Friday. Out fishing that night til the next dawn.

I did not mind 12 hour shifts. Spent 5 years doing straight 12's, five nights a week. It was the commuting that was horrible.

Sounds like a good reason to go up and retrieve your gear It should only take 2 or 3 days

kinda had the same thought, Jack. Of course, we could just bring the fryer out onto the ice and fry up smelts while a bunch of us are out jigging for more fishies. Hmmmmmm???

Heads off, belly opened and guts scraped out. Roll in flour, quick panfry in butter, grab the tail, slide the fish tween the tongue and your teeth. Yummy!. Good alternative is to roll em in a cajun mix. The hottest mix I've tried was a bucket of Uncle Buck's Cajun that I got at Christmas a year back.

Now I'm used to seeing all sorts of smelt caught by net in the spring, but I'm relatively new to jigging through the ice for them in Ontario. I know that in Nova Scotia you could not net them. You wait till there is good ice on the coastal bays and you jig for big Atlantic smelts that are 8-12" long. Preferred bait is the eyeball. Got out for a few hours yesterday with my son and 2 friends and we had fun. I tried 3 different baits. Gulp maggots, a piece of yarn and eyeballs. Eyeballs produced the fewest hits. Fish were biting non stop. A lot of big (for Ontario) 7-8" smelts in the schools. I felt like a kid let loose in a candy store pulling up 2 or 3 fish every minute and firing the small ones back down the hole. The fish were only 6-18 inches below the hole so you watched them bite and jerk it up. If you are too slow they shake off and back down the hole. The smaller smelts nibble or suck on the baits, but the big ones slam like a pike when you drop the rig down the hole. Unfortunately, maybe fortunately, the back can only handle being hunched over the hole for about 4 hours. Then it is time to quit. Then comes the hard part. Cleaning and packing the smelts took 5 hours to finish. Man is it worth it. It may look like a lot, but they'll disappear in the frying pan real fast. Especially after I've dropped some off to some of the old timers I know who can't get out any more.

I could really get into one of those. Just have to convince the wife to move a good 120 miles north of our present digs to make it worthwhile. I can dream

Nice little story to read over my morning coffee. You had a fun and interesting week. Good on ya

I've been using 15lb wire for my harnesses. Does not look very thick, but has a lot of resilience with toothy critters. I fish a lot of watter where the pike/walleye catch ratio is 5/1. Too many biteoffs with 20lb mono for my liking.

Stable and uneventful are good words. However, you have to remember to look after yourelves else you won't be in the best state to look after the little one at home. I know its easier said than done. It's a lesson we've learnt from far too many trips to the hospital with our daughter. We will keep you in our thoughts and prayers.

Funny you should mention that. Milk was $.49 a litre here last week. Bought 20 and put them in the freezer. However, you are quite right about changing habits and practices. Yes, I have been known to hoard extra gas when it is a few cents cheaper than usual. I shortened my day trips considerably when gas pushed $1.40, and only made longer trips when I could make sure I got 2 or more days of fishing in. Less impulse travel. I got a good schooling on getting cheap from the old timers who lived the depression. Did not need it when things were booming, but I think we will need those lessons now.

TJ: I like the idea of a memorial section/wall. maybe with a typical photo of the person at their best. A simple photograph of an old friend can often kindle the most vivid memories.

Now I'm really getting the itch. Thanks for the report.

Every time the Israelis get trigger happy and the Arabs go bomb crazy, the speculators get to jack the price of crude. Any excuse to push the margin. Pity the well head tax we collect from the yanks isn't based on a percentage of that price per barrel.

WOW! My deepest heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to your litlle one , and your family. I remember only too well what you are going through and feeling at this moment. There is no greater feeling of frustration than to watch and know you can do nothing more than be there and wait. Be strong, be patient, Stay level headed. Pray the Good Lord will see you all safely through this difficult time and restore your child to good health.

Despite the adversities and difficulties encountered, there is no better sense of satisfaction than being able to say "been there and done it". You were no more worse for wear from an experience that most folks would never think to attempt. There is a lot to surviving winter in the bush. I used to teach bush skills and build snow bungalows with scouts on winter camps. Despite the effort involved it was always a lot of fun. A hearty well done to you all

My wife will never go ice fishing. According to local legend, long, long before I had met my wife, she used to go ice fishing out on Erie. According to the story she fell through one snow covered hole and was quickly fished out. Then came the 1/2 hour walk back to the car to warm up and change into dry clothes. Once all warmed up, back on out to the ice she goes and, you guessed it, she found another hole. At that point folks called it a day. Not sure if it was because the fish had been spooked, or because everyone had peed themselves laughing so hard.

To a degree I get the Dawg's point. Here on the board, when we complain about the losers out there, we are preaching to the converted. The posts here won't change the behaviour of those losers. I'd be embarassed if I had been caught leaving my crap lying around. These people don"t care. It does far more good to carry around the extra bag to bring some extra back out. A positve result.

I guess we missed it here in Beamsville. The heavy clouds moved in but did nothing.

It's all part of being the Dad Jack.

One of the guys lost the bottom half of a 2 piece auger. Auger got stuck as he finished the hole, tried to reverse it out and the pin sheared. Bye bye.

Hard effort deserves big rewards

Someone forgot to tell the bass the season was closed. Kept getting bass on teardrops tipped with gulp maggots today.