bare foot wader

I'm pretty sure Excalibur will keep their level of customer service, not worried about that....but maybe they'll finally improve their trigger unit...I can see an accutrigger in the near future

x 2 maybe the new 150 with all that aluminum will actually hit what they claim....right now with my v8 5.0 I'm equal or slightly beating a friend's mileage in his ecoboom even used I think it would be out the 15k budget too

I towed my boat fully loaded at about 2700-2800 lbs with a 4.0 ranger, and my buddy towed it a few times in his colordo/canyon thing....you can do it, but if you plan to tow often or long distances, I don't think you'll be winning the mileage game, both our trucks guzzled gas big time towing my boat compared now to our v8's, plus harder on the brakes and cross winds were not pleasant to tow in, the trans temp was around 100-103 on long climbs and I always nursed it if you do your daily driving with a smart foot, I'd lean towards the v8 route personally

anybody ever smoke in a tent? the smoke lingers for a good while, it isn't vented away very well in any tent I've been stuck in all of my tents are 3 or 4 season, while some might have a mesh fabric on the upper part of the tent, the fly is waterproof/resistant and the fly is staked to the ground.....there is ventilation between the fly and the tent, this keeps the condensation on the fly, rather than the tent...but not much ventilation to the outside air I'd be extremely cautious running a heater while you sleep in tent, regardless of the safety features, failures happen....sometimes instructions are good, warnings are there for a reason I always pack my heater if i'm truck camping, but it doesn't run while I sleep

I don't think the OP has a mr buddy, at least not in that pic he posted, so he wouldn't have those features and even still, wouldn't gamble on running it while I sleep I always keep the heater in the vestibule, not actually inside the tent, with the zipper cracked up about half way on both sides, it only runs when I'm waking up and getting dressed

I use my mr buddy heater in the tent quite a bit, but for no more than 15-20 mins at a time, mostly in the morning to warm up and get dressed...I wouldn't trust it for sleeping, you could pack a detector and battery....but with good base layers and sleeping bag, air pad, etc I don't think it's needed to sleep comfortably

I work for a US owned company with a ton of guys from Alabama...this is very, very, very true...I see it on a daily/weekly basis

let's call that half a tail? I'm a generous guy lol so you could maybe trade that bad boy in for a bright shiny nickel http://www.mepps.com/programs/squirrel-tail/

cabelas US = great store cabelas Edmonton and Winnipeg = disappointment looking forward to the grand opening reviews LOL

gotcha, a guide would likely be smart move then and waaayyy cheaper than a large capital "investment" to gear up for river fishing ha bent rods are highly regarded or call pacific angler, and see who they can hook you up with

in addition to steelhead, like Christopher mentioned, bull trout, cutthroat and rainbows bite good all winter

are you set on tofino/the island?.....island fishing tends to pick up right about now, dec was a very slow month in the lower mainland you have a good range of rivers you can cover on your own without needing a guide (not many/any guides drift these rivers - mostly walk and wade, unspoken rule kind of).....assuming your a proficient steelheader, no point in paying for walk and wade guide IMO, with some google research you can find plenty of access points, backroad mapbook, etc ...you'd be renting a vehicle? the island would be worth a guide, river access is a bit tighter on some of the smaller rivers, and especially for the pleasure of fishing from a drift boat PM me once you get your dates figured out, can point you in the right direction you say you're only interested in steelhead, but maybe give sturgeon a go

half the city is from Ontario...what does that say? LOL sad deal, glad flash got his stuff back at least

musky matt got it right.....regardless of the forum rules/setup, everybody will get what they want from a forum....lurkers will lurk and get info, some guys will get their bragging rights, some guys just like to chat with like minded people...everybody will utilize the forum however it floats their boat could care less if somebody posts a steelhead/salmon report about the credit, ganny, beaver, maitland, etc, etc, etc....they're very well known, everybody and their uncle knows where they are, and knows they get runs, they were busy before the internet and they will stay busy, it's part of the game if you're into river fishing I ended up in a boat with a friend of a friend on sturgeon, buddy threw a hissy fit when I raised a big bass and asked for a picture...because he didn't want the other boats to see we were catching fish...didn't fish with him again LOL if guys wanted to share pics and info strictly with friends, create a private facebook group for that, members only lol....best thing about this forum is the community vibe OFC is one of the better forums around...wanna see guys really get upset about sharing info? read a hunting forum during season ha

I had a pack rat nest up in my otter portable, which in turn let in rain water all summer and 3 weeks ago I was dealing with a 5' block of frozen rat piss/crap and rain water....wasn't fun, to say the least...most of my ice fishing tackle is in waterproof plano boxes, which held up perfectly...but I had my jigging rap/spoon box that was completely submerged/frozen CLR helped save a lot of those lures, I was on the verge of just chucking them and figured i'd try it out, returned most of them to looking like new...if only cleaning the hut was so simple LOL

the st Croix rods are pretty good for 25-30$...but make sure you check a few out, IMO the guides are not always spined right, and the actions are not always consistent (as is this case with most factor rods lol) I also really like frabill rods...if you ever see any older discontinued frabill ultra ice or amplifier rods, buy it and then PM and sell it to me hahahah...really good rods and much cheaper than a thorne bros a lot of my shimano reels are double duty summer and winter, but for strictly ice fishing the newer generation fx and ax models in the 1000 size are hard to beat and they're cheap HT are not the best quality but plenty good enough for ice fishing and with 50$ you could get 2 combos for a 50$ combo you have a lot of options and you won't really go wrong with any of them

return it and leave with an lx7...problems solved

what does the OPP know about ice, are they actually trained on ice rescue? they seem to only call the fire fighters I'd tend to trust the locals on ice reports more than the OPP...they also tried to convince me and a few friends the ice was unsafe, coincidentally a couple hours after somebody in a cottage yelled at us for "trespassing".....guess we ruined his private view of the public water body HA

I think the IGFA guidelines might ask for both of those measurements, fork length and total length, mouth must be closed

I have the otter 650 with thermal top, great hut, the sled and frame seem tougher than anything else on the market, but if you have the cash get the full thermal....I tried to upgrade just the tent this year, but they can't keep up with production I wanted the bench seat in mine, happy with it but not perfect, it could be a bit wider and more cushion to make it better

I became a member a long time ago, but lately I stay away....my issue is with their donations to organizations with an anti hunting agenda, if you email mec they will give the corporately safe reply, "mec provides outdoor gear and takes no stance on hunting" but when you look at their donations, their stance is a little more obvious I was rubbed the wrong way when I walked in their store with a camo hat and shirt and was blatantly refused service by their tree hugging yuppie staff

hit F12 in IE and you can set the browser mode to act like previous versions, might help with the problem? I use both chrome and IE right now, set to version 9 (for work purposes) and quoting seems to work here

http://drybags.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=b756e4d10998da4fffb3fd7fe43200b8&Screen=PROD&Store_Code=D&Product_Code=FGW-UDB&Category_Code=BoatBags they have a good lineup, pricey but much better than the bps/cabelas versions, but very slow ship time, I think they're built to order

fishing scene is a little different indeed, AB has very tight regs and unfortunately a lack of bass and musky....5 perch daily possession on one of my favourite lakes...lottery tags for walleye on some other lakes....seems to work though, impressive catches

Cool experience I'm sure for the photographer but unfortunate for the bull Wild animals deserve to be wild...if that guy wanted to be up close, go to a zoo. Habituating a wild animal to human interaction, in a national park especially, is no different than feeding bears IMO, you're creating a problem animal, that guy should've received a fine. Wild animals need separation, if not the animal always loses. The park service did the right thing, they can't allow a known risk to continue, what would've happened when a mature bull decided to rut with a tourist?