Big Cliff

With the apparent demand you could start making these and own your own company in no time! Just a thought!!!!!

It sure does in lots of things LOL. In this case though an 8" auger removes 3 times as much ice as a 6" auger by volume so it is reasonable to figure three times as much power is consumed.

I used my Dewalt to drill 8" holes through about 16" of ice and got 4 holes per battery. Brian I would take ont of those with the extension and one without, just let me know how much,!

I use to fish pike all the time when I lived in French River. Our go to rig was a weight (bell sinker) on the bottom and two snelled hooks tied up the line, one with the hook hanging about 1' off the bottom, the second one with the hook hanging about 2' off the bottom. Sometimes we used tip ups, other times we just tied the line to a branch we would get on shore and stick in the snow or slush. For bait we often used frozen smelts or sometimes minnows, smelts worked really well. Then just sit back and wait because if there are any pike in the area you'll know it quick enough. I often use a similar rig for perch, just smaller hooks and bait. Hope this helps!

Boy I have to disagree with you on your last statement, CTC here in Lindsay have always been fantastic to deal with (at least for me). They have gone above and beyond on several occasions over the 12 years I have been living here. Regardless, I don't think lousy customer service anywhere justifies fraud, no wonder they are having to tighten their policies on warrenties.

Well, first of all it would really help to know what you are fishing for, different species, different setups. Going out without a fish finder can make it a bit tougher but there are ways around it. Find an area where other people are fishing and fish that area, most of the people I know would be happy to help you with the setting up if you explain that you are just getting started. Might even get to make some new fishing buddies that way . Short term though give us a bit more information to work with and I'm sure you'll get plenty of help.

Checked a couple of times last night and again this morning, no luck here either.

If you are taking orders for that adaptor with the plate, I'll take one! I just started using my drill this winter and love it but am a little concerned about loosing the auger down a hole. Thought about the rope idea but how would you stop it from catching on the auger and winding the rope around the auger. A slip ring might work but you'd have to make sure the rope didn't catch on the wing nut, that plate is by far the best idea! Pattent it! BTW, 8" hole vs 6" hole = a big differance in the number of holes you can drill on one charge. You will only get about 1/3 as many 8" holes through the same thickness of ice as you will 6" holes.

Well, it sure looks like the solar idea isn't the best solution for what I want to accomplish at least at this point. The propane whole house system would sure serve my needs and be a good way to go but that is a lot of money to spend for something I MIGHT need. My gas generator does do everything I need it to do but just isn't as convenient but it is here and paid for so I think I'll just keep it. I haven't had to use it in 5 years, we'll just hope it stays that way LOL. Thanks again everyone for all your thoughts, ideas, and information! I really appreciate the time you have spent helping me to become better educated.

PM received and very much appreciated!

T-Bone, you are one smart person! That was probably one of the best replies to any thread I have ever read!

You see, this is why I post questions like this on here, the answers are always informitive but then every once in a while you hit an answer like this! Truly awesome! NightCrawler, you wouldn't happen to be going to school in the Lindsay/Peterborough area would you? If so I just might know of a place where you can fish to your hearts content in exchange for your knowledge on this sort of system! Oh what the heck, you'd be welcome to come fish here anyway LOL. Lew, I guess it's like buying gas, prices come down when people don't need it as much but after this last round of stormes I guess demand has gone up. Just heard about a guy stranded in the Us in a storm, he went to get a hotel room, regular rate $129.00 a night but there was a line up in front of him. By the time he got to the desk to register the rate had gone up to over $300.00 a night. Apparently some lady bought bags of ice salt in Ajax drove them to Ottawa and sold them on Kijiji for $20.00 a bag. People like that should be shot! Anyway, lots of good information coming out of this and I really appreciate all the replies!

I don't know a lot about this stuff but even if the grid goes down would the solar panels not supply power to the house (assuming the sun is shining). We can easily do without hydro for about 24 hours at a stretch and would only need enough to cool the freezers back down, charge up some batteries, pump enough water to get us through another 24 hours.

Call the Generator Center in Peterboro...705-931-0938 That is who I got to quote me on my system Lew, actually I was surprised that the quote was as high as it is because there is already a propane line to within a couple of feet of where the generator would go and the hydro panel is right on the oposite side of the wall so labour would be minimal. They are quoting me $5400 for the generator, $600 for instalation, and $806.00 in tax.

Well, the propane system with the transfer panel, installed was $6806.00 taxes in and that is only an 8kw system (it would run all the basics). The problem with the big propane tank like Lew has is that it has to be at least 15' from a property line or building which means that it would have to be in the middle of my yard, do able but not exactly the sort of thing I want sitting out on my front lawn. As far as battery storage is concerned, I have a couple of options that wouldn't interfear with our living space. Here is a link to one site I found: http://pure-energies.com/ and here is a statement from their website that "leads me to believe" there is no investment required on my part. Is this one of these "if it sounds too good to be true it probably isn't true" things? Earn Income 2With no upfront cost you can earn up to $90,000 over 20 years. Enough for your child's tuition, travel or reno’s.

It is all about preference; I use a 6 lb Trilene ice (mono) for all my ice fishing and no leader, it works fine for me and I've caught my share of fish through the ice. I am not a big fan of the fluro lines, I think they are really expensive for any advantage they might give you. Each to their own I guess but you are fishing for perch here, not a trophy muskie that you might only get one chance at in a life time.

After the recent power outages I decide to look into getting an automatic whole house generator for our place. The gas one we have now would get us out of trouble in a pinch but the idea of having to get out there in the middle of the night in a storm to fill it with gas and things isn't quite going to cut it for me any more. I priced out an automatic propane 8kw system and installed it would cost me about $7000.00 plus service every year. While I think it would be a good investment, it just isn't in the budget right now. It might be different if we were younger but we aren't. Then I started thinking about the idea of solar panels on our roof. Being right on the lake with exposure to the sun from early morning right through until sunset I am sure would be an advantage. There is also our garage which is 1000 sq ft and it also has exposure from early morning to sunset.The other thing is that we will probably be getting our roof redone this spring or summer; can I kill two birds with one stone here and perhaps come out on top? Apparently there are programs in place where the cost of it would be totally covered but how would it affect the existing roof (shingles) would they have to be replaced first? What about the extra weight of the solar panels; would the roof have to be braced? I do realize that the solar panels wouldn't supply power at night or if covered with snow and ice but at least there would be power during day light hours for the most part. I wouldn't have to worry about a generator that doesn't want to start or filling it up with gas. I wouldn't have to worry about running out of propane if the outage was extended for any period of time. and if I didn't have to lay out about 4-5 thousand $ to reshingle out roof that would be a bonus! Have any of you got one of these solar systems or looked into them in detail? Any feed back would be very much appreciated!

Do you mean from the original storm before Christmas until now without any hydro? If so, that is just nuts!

A young felllow that I use to work with is looking for part time work in the Guelph area. He is a third year University of Guelph student working towards obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree with certificates in both Business and Leadership. He is a bright young man, and a hard worker, it would be nice to help him if we can. If anyone has an opening or knows of an opening, please email me [email protected] and I will have him forward his resume!

Geoff, email it to me would you [email protected] Yesterday I spent two hours out there with the snow blower, no sooner had I finished than the snow plow came by and it took me another 1/2 an hour to clean that mess up (my driveway is 55' wide at the road). I just got in the house and within 1/2 an hour you couldn't see the road from the house because of the snow and blowing snow. With that wind last night and this morning the drive way and path ways are drifted in solid. At 47, this sort of thing was an adventure, at 57 it was an inconvenience, at 67 it isn't any fun at all. I have been down to the Keys, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, loved them all but they would add a lot of extra hours of driving to our trip so I figured Myrtle Beach is closer, rates should be good this time of year and the likelyhood of seeing any snow is slim. I am not really worried about being able to sit out on the beach or anything, so it doesn't have to be tropical, I just want to get away from all this snow and bitter cold. I have found a few places in the Myrtle Beach area for about $300.00 a week (Best Western is one of them) not exactly a condo but quite adiquit for Sue and I, even includes breakfast.

Sounds like you have a really good trip worked out there Thanks for the sites, there are some really good deals to be had from the looks of it! I spent about 4 hours already trying to pick the "perfect" spot but it is a little hard when you have to make a commitment for something you haven't seen yet.

Beans, if I had even thought I'd live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself LOL.

Wouldn't be leaving until about the 15th and by then things are looking like mid to low 50's F for the highs. That is one heck of a lot better than it is going to be here

I have had enough of this winter already, it's just too cold and too much snow for this old man. Even with a good snow blower I am finding it really hard to keep things done up around here. A couple of winters ago Sue and I spent a month in North Myrtle Beach and I spent my days pier fishing at Apache Pier and had a wonderful time. I'm thinking that might be a plan for the last couple of weeks of Jan. Perhaps even into Feb.. Last time we stayed there we were able to rent a nice 1 bedroom condo for $750.00 for the month, that unit isn't available this year so I was wondering if anyone has some places they can suggest. Needs to be clean, quiet, doesn't need to be on the beach, I'd consider a nice trailer is a trailer park if one was available. I have done quite a bit of looking on line and there are a lot of places available but sometimes the write ups don't always give you a really good picture of what you are really getting, nothing beats first hand experience. I am a little nervious about commiting to something for a couple of weeks then finding out it isn't as described or that I had assumed something that isn't. Any help would be most appreciated.

Sorry, I stand corrected! My first experience with it was when Mo started the first ever "fishing for Tyler"! Didn't mean to step on anyones toes here.