Big Cliff

ID? Heck, I can go into almost any store in town and give them my phone number and they can tell me where I live, how old I am, how many credit cards I have, if I'm married or single, what my annual income is and a whole bunch of other stuff about me. The Canadian Government needs my birth certificate, SIN number, Mothers maiden name, date of birth, drivers license number and secret pass word (who the hell can remember that?) and they still don't have a clue who I am. I hardly ever carry ID with me any more, I'd forget I had it anyway. If I get stopped for anything I just give them a blank stare and when they ask me how old I am I just mumble something about "almost as old as beans". With that they usually just shake their head, tell me to drive carefully and to have a good day. Who needs ID when you are almost as old as my buddy Beans?

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and yours! Glad to hear he is showing signs of improvement. Being at the hospital when it happened probably saved his life!

Sorry Beans, you are absolutly right, don't know why I kept thinking it was Queensway? I never look at the sign, the car just knows to go in there automatically LOL.

Right at Colbourne and Queen Street in Lindsay. Beans

Yes Roy, they are local too but the little guys that give you the one on one service are getting put out of business by the big guys with the deep pockets. In the roughly two hours I spent in there, not one person came up to me to see if they could help me. Queensway bait and tackle, was right there, discussed the fishing with me and gave me a good deal on what I wanted. His price was every bit as good as CTC for a similar item.

It's huge, it covers a wide range of products, apart from BP I don't think I have ever seen so much fishing related stuff in one place before. However after spending about two hours "looking" and realizing that the jigs and plastics I wanted weren't there, I left without buying a single fishing related item. Stopped at my favorite Lindsay local bait shop, got everything I needed in less than 5 minutes and left thinking, "now I know why I like to support the local guys!" The CTC display sure is nice though!!!!!

That's got to be a close second LOL!

Lew, You know where you can go LOL! Acually my friend, I am glad yours was the oposite of mine!

Wife decides that this weekend we have a "FEW" things to get done around here. Opening weekend is coming up and a good fishing buddy is planning to come up so I figure, "work this weekend" fish the next couple. Well, the TV in the basement has to be moved up stairs to the living room, the TV in the living room has to be moved to the craft room, the TV in the craft room has to be moved to the basement. We had a water leak last year, need to do some fix ups. Need to get some stuff for the gardens. Oh you think that is it? Wait, there is more; the cabnet in the basement has to be moved to the bedroom, the (whatever you call it) in the downstairs bathroom has to be moved to the upstairs laundry room. The TV in the craft room now has to be mounted on the wall, why? Well, it just makes sense! Then there are the holes in the wall that have to be filled, others that have to be drilled, and to top it all off, when I tried to put the new brackets on the TV in the craft room, wouldn't you know it, I cracked the screen! Now I need a new flat screen TV for Sue's craft room. Now, I have just put in a 42.5 hour week at work, spent most of Saturday busting my ass to try to get things done around here. Spent most of today trying to get things done around here, ended up needing a new TV, and thinking who is smarter, the people that sit and collect wellfair or me? No, it doesn't end there, there is more! Sue is taking care of the neighbours cat while they are away for a week. So, for the last three days she hasn't seen the cat but she can hear it crying. So today I go down to see if I can find the cat because Sue is worried. Dropped my $40.00 flashlight and watched it roll down the stairs and seperate as it bounced off the concrete at the bottom. Never did find the stupid cat and spent close to two hours searching. Flashlight is toast! If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all! Unless you can top this, I don't ever want to read another rant on this board!

I'll see your Giz and raise you two spastic beagles! Actually I don't think any home is complete without a dog in it and I wouldn't trade Mandy for anything, she is actually starting to turn out to be a good dog! Glad to see you got one too!

Wow, now those are some beautiful fish!

Had a friend come to visit this weekend, even though I knew the water temperatures were way below normal, he wanted to get out and enjoy the day and try to catch a crappie. Well, the warmest we could find was about 47° We tried shallow, we tried sheltered, we tried deep, we even tried live bait. Nada, not a single fish. Finally after two hours of not even getting a bite we decided to head back and just try to enjoy the sunshine and sit on the deck. Dinner is now in the oven and I'm going to have a well earned nap. Catching is lousy, life is good!

They use Sturgeon lake as a buffer. They typically lower the water levels in the early spring so they can hold water back if we get heavy rains and run off. This year there wasn't any snow melt to speak of and we haven't had much in the way of rain.

Went to a meeting last year with Kawartha Conservation, Trent Severn (and naturally our local politicians). Same old, same old bull. 5 year studies to try to figure out that there is a weed problem in our lake. When I asked what I should do if I caught a round gobie? The answer was kill it. Then I asked what I should do if I saw a cormorant, I was told I'm not allowed to shoot it! The weeds are worse than I have ever seen them, phosphate levels are higher than they have ever been since they put a "land fill site" (dump) up river and they blame the farmers and land owners for using too much furtilizer. They actually tried to segregate me off to one side when I started to ask too many questions. How much more of this stuff are we going to take before we do something about it?

Well, I don't know about other lakes but I do know that around here, where there would normally be 18" of water you are lucky if there is 2". Temperature here last night dropped to -6 with gusty winds all night. You can bet that the water will have lost more heat again last night. With a forecast high today of only +5 and with much cooler temperatures than normal forecast for the weekend, you can bet the fishing is going to be tougher than it was last Sunday and that was brutal. Four boats, 8 crappie for the day!

Well Steve, the water is still lower than I think I have ever seen it, I went out again last night, the water was actually cooler than the previous night. I tried a couple of my favorite crappie holes and ended up with two sunfish and a SM for about an hour and a half. I was marking suspended fish in 16-18' of water but I tried pinhed minnows and a few other things and couldn't get them to hit.the wind tonight will be drawing the heat down even further. I have a feeling that next week might still be a week too early. I'll bet that we will be fishing crappie on the walleye opener.

Went out last night for about an hour, almost took my auger! Water temp was back down to 43°. I tried a couple of spots caught one dink perch and decided that if it got any colder I'd be cleaning ice off the islets on my rod. I came back home. Weather report for the next few days are still single diget highs with very little rain which means water levels are going to stay low. Looks like the next week is going to be tough fishing for sure! Well, mayby the walleye opener will be back on track although I've heard that the walleye spawned a couple of weeks ago then Kawartha Conservation (or whoever) dropped the water level so low that the spawning beds were exposed and dry. That can't be good! Sure glad I don't have to rely on what I catch to feed my family!

I was at the Senior Center today and failed a Health and Safety course that was put on for us old fogies ... One of the questions was: "In the event of a fire, what steps would you take?" "Really big ones" was apparently the wrong answer.....

Thanks for posting this Beans. Isn't it funny how much we depend on these things to stay in touch and when they go down, we are left high and dry. I couldn't read my news paper and was expecting emails from friends and suddenly nothing!. Turnes out a power failure somewhere else was affecting my internet service. all is good now. Thanks again! Cliff

If that holds true, we are in for a very cold summer because this winter was way above normal! Just checked the weather network and we are a good 5°C below normal for this time of the year.

Got up, got my coffee, let the dog out and it's snowing! Water temp had dropped by 8-9° from Friday evening to yesterday afternoon. I have a feeling we are just about back to normal (perhaps even a bit below) for this time of the year.

Glad to hear that it all worked out Ok Shane. This board is a wealth of information no matter the topic!

That is a good question but I don't think there is any easy answer. I do find that walleye seem to bite best just before dark. If I fish walleye off my dock I won't get a bite until close to sunset. The bite will last for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour and a half but when it quite, that is it for the night. Under the right conditions I've hammered them at 2:00 in the afternoon when the sun was shining. I have seen times when crappie fishing that you wouldn't get a bite until the sun was high over head. Other times you wouldn't get a bite until the sun was setting. As others have pointed out, too many variables!

I know, I know, there just aren't enough hours in a day! Worked in th garage until about 11 last night. Woke up at 3:30 this morning thinking of all the things I still have to get done. Finished a lawn mower, two trimmers and a chain saw. Got a few things to do on the honey do list, going to try to put in some work on the "fish holders" then I might just try to get out for a bit on the water. Cold though and the wind is out of the North bite is going to be slow if at all.

When I was in the army things like sun burn and hangovers were considered "self inflicted injuries". If they were preventable by you but you didn't prevent them, you better not let them stand in the way of you doing your job 100%. If you want sympathy you can find it in the dictionary!