Jonny

I have a somewhat related question. What I want is a charger that will power a 12V winch from 120V current. The winch will take up to 90 Amps. Any recommendations?

There was a time when you could buy canned bacon. It was great for camping because it didn't require refrigeration. I used to buy it at K-Mart and it came from Europe (Poland, maybe?) Has anyone seen canned bacon around lately?

Yeah, they're OK too. Best kind in Canada --- Schneider's Red Hots. My wife and I will be down in the States for about a week soon. Maybe I should try to scare up a chili dog somewhere, despite their explosive qualities. Forgot to mention wieners and beans --- an old standby, and not just for camping. With fresh buttered bread... hits the spot!

Best hot dogs --- Roasted over an open fire and put in a top-sliced bun with yellow mustard, green relish, maybe some diced onions. You can "shortcut" the separate mustard and relish with "Hot Dog Relish", a combination of the two. Ketchup --- only on French fries, home fries (re-fried potatoes and onions) for breakfast, and tourtiere (meat pie). Never had a chili dog in my life. What's the attraction in making a drippy mess of your hot dog? Yes, we have ketchup-flavoured potato chips. They must be popular enough because you can always get 'em.

I always keep a 6 1/2" Buck Special on my belt when I'm in the bush (berry-picking, cutting firewood, etc.) and even when I'm carrying a gun during hunting season. If a black bear catches me unawares I want to have a last-ditch chance to bite back. As for beavers, they're pretty tame if you talk nice.

I thought there might be some interest in having a look at a netting boat. Here's a photo I snapped last month. I "grayed out" the faces simply as a courtesy...

There are things you can do something about and some you can't. But at the very least you can stay informed. A native fishery has a right to exist. How it is done, however, is something that we need to engage in, and occasionally speak up about in a reasonable way. There's no reason to get a topic like this locked as long as people don't get extreme. It doesn't do any of us, or the resource, any good to consider a subject like this somehow taboo. Remember - silence is taken as consent or agreement, or apathy. To take one part of the article as an example... It is said that if the pickerel fishery improved from "stressed" to healthy, the netting harvest could be more. Well that's a thing that should be debated before it happens, because it should be balanced against things like narrowing the slot for sport fishermen. Yes, netting (and cleaning) is not "easy money". It's money that takes work to bring in. It's work that has intrinsic value. And it's a lot better than government projects or handouts. (A principle that applies in ALL areas not just in this specific situation.)

Yup. But the fishing license pre-dated the Outdoors Card. I still don't agree with a fishing license, just like I don't agree with a boater's card. While we're at it, another annoyance (and cost) is a special course for wild turkeys. Any waterfowl hunter knows that waterfowl hunting is potentially more dangerous than hunting wild turkey, yet the safety rules you need to know are well-covered by the regular hunter safety course. The wild turkey course is an unnecessary rip-off. It could easily be accomodated in the regular HSC. And older, experienced hunters don't need it.

I don't think we really know that because the native fishery is self-policing. Hopefully that is working as it should.

Just a couple of pieces of information about the Outdoors Card, which I still believe is actually a good thing. When I was a Zone 3 director for a number of years of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (in the 80's) we were pushing for the adoption of an Outdoors Card. The older members here will remember the days when you had multiple pieces of paper for all the licenses (small game, deer, bear, moose, fishing) and multiple ways to lose them. The Outdoors Card "centralized" all the licenses with stickers on one credit card-sized piece of plastic. It also did away with you having to wait for each license issuer to fill out a new license with all your information (name, address, etc. etc.). The cost of the Outdoors Card itself (not the licenses that are applied to it) is earmarked for fish and game management and conservation. This is unusual because all other license and permit fees go into general governemt revenues and are "lost" as far as maintaining and improving hunting and fishing opportunities. The O.F.A.H. and the public have some say in where Outdoors Card revenues are spent.

FYI Article from today's North Bay Nugget... http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1756643

Good job!

Good thing Heinz ain't the only game in town! Some things aren't meant to come out of squeeze bottles --- relish is one of them. We always buy our relish in glass jars. Bick's. Mayo is another of those strange things to put in a squeeze bottle. Tried it a couple of times and won't buy them any more. I'm sure they market this because once the bottle is 2/3 empty you can't get anything out of it any more. We use GT (Giant Tiger) ketchup - can't tell the difference from Heinz. Their squeeze bottles work fine. Funny story... but true... In the 60's my Dad got P.O.'ed with Kraft caramels because the cellophane wrapping was so hard to get off. Whatever possessed him to write to Kraft about that I don't know, but he got a rather snarky letter back from them and to this day he has never eaten another Kraft caramel! Good luck in the Condiment Wars, Randy!

Bureaucrats. Used to be you could walk into an MNR office, talk to the receptionist and get whatever you needed. Now they've come up with a "better" system, because the MNR doesn't want to be bothered by the general public any more. You have to go to a separate office for licenses and permits - with exceptions! A couple of years ago I went to the license-dispensing office in North Bay (Ontario Gov't Building on McKewen) to get a permit for my ice hut for Nipissing. Oh sorry, we do all licenses here but NOT those --- you have to go to the MNR office for those. What do I get at the MNR office? I go in the door and find myself in a little porch and the next door (frosted glass so you can't see in) is locked. On the wall is a phone and beside it is a notice that says, "Please dial the extension number of the person to whom you wish to speak". Trouble is, there's no list of numbers!!! I knock on the door --- no answer, though I can hear people talking on the other side. I stand there looking stupid. I'm about to blow my top when a guy (not MNR) comes walking out. I grab the door handle and make an ass of myself giving the woman behind a counter in the next room hell for the dumb set-up they have. She apologizes and says yes I can get the ice-hut permit from her. I apologize for giving her hell for something that obviously isn't her fault, and she allows that I'm not the first to get steamed. Bottom line - the MNR is following what other gov't offices are doing --- making themselves as inaccessible as possible. It would be so nice to be able to find the right person to give a good kick in the pants. Of course in a bureaucracy that's impossible.

So you're the guy that buggered it all up. Thanks a lot!

They get all their chemicals from eating 20-year-old turtles.

The MNR can get sticky if you show them two cards. They don't like that, and it can actually be illegal. I always keep my wife's outdoors (fishing only) card with mine (fishing and hunting) in a little billfold, along with my pleasure craft operator's card, my insurance slip for the snow machine. Just so that everything's in one place. Two years ago, during the deer hunt, a C.O. asked me for my license and when I pulled out the billfold, he saw that I had a second card (my wife's). To this day I don't know if he could have charged me for having two cards in my possession. but he was not a happy camper for a few minutes until my explanation seemed to satisfy him. If my wife's card had been a hunting card, I think he would have charged me.

Repeat offender, so obviously he loves his turtle meat and frogs legs, no matter what! They should put him on bread and water while he's in the klink.

The sad fact is that if you want to hunt the fall, the best thing to do is get a hunter safety course and a firearms course the previous winter or in the spring.

I've launched many times from "unimproved" ramps over the course of my fishing life, some of them pretty hairy. You probably know this, but you should be using your parking brake every few weeks, even if you don't need it. As far as I know the most common failure for that brake is because it rusts up and seizes because of lack of use. Chocking a wheel is a ten-second job that can save you a lot of grief. You don't really have to chock both; one is good enough. Loose gravel is as bad as sand. It's like your wheels are trying to get a grip on marbles. We used to carry a come-along, a steel post (old mining drill bit) and an axe for emergencies. If there was no tree to tie to, we'd hammer in the post, attach the come-along and use it to assist the truck out of difficulty. Had to do that once or twice. It's a slow process but at least you're not stuck in the middle of nowhere with no options. Heck, a truck box is made to fill with junk --- some of it might as well be remotely useful.

Excellent beer! I had a couple earlier this summer. But North Bay LCBO doesn't stock it, and the big Sudbury store stopped stocking it. They're welcome to it! If God had meant for man to drink beer warm, we wouldn't have ice coolers and refrigerators.

Cabela's in Hamburg PA (near Harrisburg)... http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...rg/hamburg.html Click on "Photo Gallery". Awesome! I think we might just get there.

Ah yes, Big Sky... they like their brand names. I had some of their Moose Drool while in Montana a couple of years ago, with a meal of Black Angus steak. The steak was out of this world. The Moose Drool was, shall we say, passable.

Uh-oh! Make sure that you're not left with only a rented condo and pair of undersized hip-waders that you can't use. j/k

Smuggler.