Big Cliff

A couple of weeks ago there was a big promotion at the Lindsay CTC; get one of their Advantage CTC Master cards, save $0.10/liter at CTC Gas Bars for the next 30 days after you activate it. Now I really didn't need another credit card but I figured WTH, I go through a ton of gas and I can fill up all my gas cans, why not? I go through all the bull, and sure enough I get the card in the mail about a week later. So: Friday I call in and activate the card, go and fill up with gas, I only get $0.02/liter discount so I phone them. No problem, first time using the card, system didn't recognize it was a promotion card and they issue a credit for the differance. Saturday I am down in Oakville and I fill up again, only get $0.02/liter discount so I call them again, No problem, first transaction just hadn't been posted yet and they issue another credit. So far so good. Monday I go to pull into the CTC Gas Bar in Lindsay, closed for renovations for the next 6 weeks. Now I'm pissed off, CTC must have known they were going to be closing down this gas bar so why did they allow a promotion for something that you couldn't get. I phoned CTC Master card and told them I wanted to cancel the card, she suggested I could just go to the next nearest CTC gas bar (Peterborough) (about 100 km round trip to save my $0.10 a liter. Needless to say the card is now cancelled but it still burns me that this was even allowed to happen and I think it basically boils down to false advertising. I wonder how many other people got the card because of the promotion and will just suck it up?

Still some ice out on the main body of the lake as of last night but this rain this morning should pretty much take care of that. Got the marine railway hooked up yesterday, I may try to put my first section of dock in this afternoon then I can put the boat in the water and fet out there and do some fishing. So far reports I have gotten from a few friends are telling me water temperatures are at about 42° and the long range forecast is showing us staying well below normal for the next two weeks at least. So far, no reports of the crappie showing up in a few of our favorite spots as of yesterday. Soon though I hope!

Thanks for the heads up.

I prefer the lower but that is because I lived in that area and knew the river well. Wolsley Bay would be a good place to start for someone new to the area. It would be a good idea to get a guide for a day if you want to make the most out of your trip and get to learn a bit about the river. It isn't a good idea to just take off in a boat without someone who knows the area, there are some rocks that hide just inches under the surface right out in the middle of nowhere.

Many on this board have helped me numerous times over the years and continue to offer anytime I need a hand with anything. It's me that is trying to return the favors and I've got a long way to go!

If your sister needs my generator I can get it to her, have Subaru Forester AWD with really good ice and snow tires and I can bring a chain saw for the trees that are down. Just let me know!

We lost power just as I was about to put some bread in the oven. Called Hydro, 5899 people without power in our area. Power expected to be restored by 11:00 pm tomorrow. Hooked up power pack to fireplace fan, lit BBQ to bake the bread, was just putting my coat on to go get generator ready to go and the power came back on. Sure feel sorry for the other 5898 people that will be without power until tomorrow night. Temperature seems to be warming up rapidly now, ice seems to be melting and the rain seems to have stopped. If anyone on here knows of someone in this area (Kawartha Lakes) that is going to be without power for more than 12 hours please let me know, I'll trailer my generator to their place and at least give them a chance to run sump pumps or what ever they need. (All I ask is that they cover my gas) My cell is 705-928-8899, house is 705-328-0577. Have generator, have time, will travel.

Just saw on the news over 100,000 without power. It is still raining/freezing rain here, a good solid inch of ice on my driveway. I wouldn't be going out if I didn't absolutly have to. Stay home, stay safe, tomorrow is another day.

I'd be looking at French River or the Kawarthas. I've lived in both areas and love them both.

Are we talking small game license?

Will check local conditions around 12:30 and let you know, sander just went by on our road but everything is covered with ice and it is still freezing rain as of 11:00 might be better if she can postpone her trip. You are more than welcome to come by and see my setup anytime. It isn't anything fancy but we have tested it and it works well. I'm just North of Lindsay off 36 on Snug Harbour Rd. #313. Phone is 705-328-0577. I'd rather have Lew's setup but couldn't afford it. Our plan is to use the generator "as required" instead of running it all the time. ie, let it run for a couple of hours to pump water cool the freezers down, recharge batteries, that sort of thing rather than running it full time so a couple of tanks of gas will last us several days if needed. If the outage was bad enough one tank of gas in our little Versa gives me about 600 km, if I can't find someone with working gas pumps inside of 600 km then we'll just have to go into "survivor mode". I have a bunch of those solar lights that I bring in the house to use for night lights anytime there is a bad storm coming, our gas fire place will keep the house warm at -25 if we need it. Lap top battery is good for several hours and I have a really good UPS for back up. I also keep all my boat and other batteries fully charged. Gas stove works even without power, I can cook eat, flush toilets, that is all I need LOL.

That is a lot less than I thought it would be Lew. When I looked into it for our place they wanted about $1,400.00 just for the automatic control panel and almost $4,500.00 for the generator. I ended up buying a portable gas one for about $700.00 and $300.00 to have a manual switching panel installed. That was 4 years ago and the only time I had to use it was to help Beans out a couple of years ago when he lost power for a few days. I still fire it up every couple of months just to make sure it is there when I do need it and drain the fuel and put fresh gas with stabilizer in it every fall. Still nice to know I have it if I need it though. Mine is 6500 watts and will run the whole house with no problem, I do have a gas range in the kitchen, gas hot water heater, gas fireplace, gas furnace. About the only thing I do need power for is to be able to pump water, run the freezers, and lights, I could probably have gotten by with a smaller generator but this one was a good deal.

Well, it's here! Everything covered in ice as of 5:00 am and still coming down. It's a mix of ice pellets and freezing rain. Got the bath tub filled with water just in case we loose power, filled every gas can I have yesterday and test ran the generator just in case we are without power for a couple of days (remember the Quebec ice storm?) I understand there are a lot of power outages all ready so better safe than sorry. Sit tight and stay safe everyone.

Got up at 5 am, looked at the weather forecast, checked on here, had a coffee, checked the radar map and weather forecast again and decided I'd better cancel my plans for the day and go get extra gas for the generator and get it ready to go and put in a few extra supplies. It is now 5:20 we haven't had a flake of snow, the 60K wind gusts that they said we were going to get hasn't happened, there hasn't been a single drop of freezing rain. I've lost a whole day of working on the docks, cancelled a friend coming over to check out putting a bowmount trolling motor on my boat. Darn you again weather person!!!!!!

Sure sounds like a fuel problem, check the fuel filter before you go making it all complicated. When was the last time you replaced it?

Last year while fishing crappie there was a young couple fishing with their two kids, they weren't catching anything and we were just hamering them. I called them over to where we were, showed them how to set up there rods, gave them some jigs and baits. You'd have thought I'd given them a million dollars! Made a good day fishing spectacular!

I like a 7' light action rod, remember you are going to be casting very light tackle and there are going to be times where you need to get some distance or you'll spook the school. I picked up a rod and reel combo at CTC last year for $39.00 and it has landed plenty of crappie! You don't need to spend hundreds of $ to get something to do the job.

The Boys and Girls Club here in Lindsay always seem happy to get donations of anything the kids can use.

Figure it will be two more weeks before I can put my docks in on Sturgeon Lake.

Had a 55 Suzuki for years excellent motor! Only problem I had was finding a dealer close to me. If I did want to get it serviced I had to haul it over to Minden. Bought a new boat three years ago and opted to go with a Merc because of lots of local service. I haven't needed it but it is available if I do. In my opinion both are excellent motors but I do like not being tied down if and when I do need service on it.

I love how you photoshopped the background into those pics so no one could ever guess where lake X really is! Good to see you get out and get a beauty fish to boot.

Just wondering if you managed to do anything with that battery?

My he live on in your heart forever.

I wonder what impact cormorants are having on the walleye in the Kawarthas? In the last couple of years Sturgeon Lake has started to develop quite a colony of them. 5 years ago you might not even see one all summer, now there are hundreds of them. I find it really strange that MNR will tell you that if you catch a round gobi to kill it but you can't shoot a cormorant.

Thursday afternoon I look out my window and there is some guy out on the lake in front of our house fishing. He wasn't just a few feet off shore, he was right out at the chanel. I tried to yell at him to let him know that the ice wasn't safe but either he couldn't hear me or he was just ignoring me. I kept an eye on him just in case and eventually he did come back in to shore. Friday morning I look out my window and there is open water not more than 25' from where he was fishing. The chanel had opened up within a few hours of him being there. I wonder if he knows how close he came. If he had gone through there wouldn't have been much I could have done to help him without risking my life too. Scary part is I'd have probably tried. This guy either doesn't know the lake in which case he should never have gone out or figured it was worth the risk to see if he could catch some fish. Unless you REALLY KNOW what the ice conditions are stay off the ice!