Jonny

OOPS. Shows you how fast things get around nowadays.

Damned shame for sure. It's no use re-hashing things we all know. Suffice it to say that our governments - federal and provincial - only pay lip-service to a lot of important things. And turfing out one party in favour of another doesn't help. Well, I hope you can find something else in the meantime, or at least have the resources to get in some good fishing and hunting.

I'm told that since the Brazilian takeover there's a cadre of young hotshots who think they can run the company according to their South American labour perspective. That's not going to make solutions easy. I'm sorry to hear that the chance looks good for a protracted strike - bad for the workers like you, bad for the local economy. Best of luck with it; I hope something happens to change your prediction.

For sure! I'll throw 3 votes in again tomorrow. Good luck!

My wife and I drove to Sudbury yesterday and we decided to take a detour along some backwoods secondary highways to see an area we hadn't seen before. One little village we saw was called River Valley (along the Sturgeon River) - a old logging community which lost its railway spur long ago and now relies on I'm not sure what, except some flow-through traffic to fishing and lodges further north. There are only three larger buildings in town - a general store, a Catholic church and an old hotel converted to a four-plex. Add a couple of dozen homes and that's it. We stopped for some french fries at a chip stand in the village, and we browsed the general store next door - two floors jam-packed with groceries, liquor and beer, tackle, camping gear, local crafts and souvenirs. I took a picture of the exterior because I thought it had the typical local colour of a place like that... complete with ATV's parked at the gas pumps. Actually in quite nice repair for the backwater it's in. Question - If you follow Hwy 539A and Road 805, what kind of fishing opportunities does that get you into? We saw some big motor homes and fifth wheels heading up that way.

This is an NF topic anyway, FW, so maybe I can ask... how is the strike shaping up? Any movement from Vale-INCO yet?

A curious fellow died one day and found himself waiting in the long line of judgement. As he stood there he noticed that some souls were allowed to march right through the pearly gates into Heaven. Others though, were led over to Satan who threw them into the burning pit. But every so often, instead of hurling a poor soul into the fire, Satan would toss the soul off to one side into a small pile. After watching Satan do this several times, the fellow's curiosity got the better of him. He strolled over and asked Satan what he was doing. "Excuse me, Prince of Darkness," he said. "I'm waiting in line for judgement, but I couldn't help wondering, why are you tossing those people aside instead of flinging them into the Fires of Hell with the others?" "Ah, those," Satan said with a groan. "They're all from Ontario.................. They're still too wet to burn."

I assume that's tongue-in-cheek but that's the attitude that keeps Ontario from more convenient beer retailing.

Ahhh, would that were true. There are times when you'd like to buy some beer in odd places at odd hours and you can't because corner stores aren't allowed to stock it. I'd love to be able to pick up a case at a Mac's Milk. Plus I'm sure it would be a boon to those who don't own a car.

Not possible here. And your offer is great but up here (and probably participating in the on-line portion by the looks of it) I won't be able to take advantage of it. If the rod can be any rod, then we're all good. Equal, open-ended footing for all. If a $rama rod is a requirement, I'll make one out of bamboo, aluminum wire and black electrical tape. It doesn't have to be their bamboo pole either. They sell bamboo plant stakes for gardening that are about 5' long. One of those will do. A cherry or willow sapling might work too.

Yeah, "pioneering days" for sure. Also called making do with what ya got. An INCO worker of the day, raising a family, couldn't afford to go top-drawer. So you improvised or did without. Dad improvised.

Used to be there wasn't much that would stop my Dad. On a particularly poor (basically unimproved) launch, he would unhitch the trailer and use a 2-pulley block-and-tackle to let the trailer down to the water, using the car as an anchor point. Same for retrieval. Recalling the weight of the boat and the trailer, I'm surprised that muscle-power alone could bridge the gap for the distance the car couldn't go, but it worked fine. I'd have to ask him to find out for sure but I think one of those launches, seems to me it was at Laronde Creek (Nipissing access), the "gap" would have been upwards of 30 feet, and fairly steep. With my Mom and I chocking the trailer wheels, and Dad on the b&t, I don't recall it being all that hard, just a little time-consuming.

Crank is on the right-hand side of the reel. They were all that way as far as I saw. I'm still wondering whether the rules will be that a $rama rod has to be used. The reels and lures seem to be available everywhere --- the rods aren't. Personally I don't think the rod makes much difference, unless you're forced to use a bamboo rod that has no eyes and no reel seat because you can't get the telescopic "cheapie".

3 votes from 3 different email addy's. Good luck! --- EDIT - Boy, a little shameless cheescake and beefcake there on that site. Seems to work for some people. I'm going to toss in some more votes if I can, but it's a pretty steep drop from the top 3 to #4.

Good idea for sure. I'm just saying that if you are at your max, you should drive accordingly.

I'm not too clear on the physics involved, but being on a slope seems to shift the weight of the car more onto the rear tires. Add some tongue weight from the trailer and it seems to worsen the problem. Front wheel drive does not seem to be too good for this situation. My boat may be heavier than yours. I can only tell you what my experience has been - plenty of power but not enough traction. Not that it helps, but I don't think you'd be pulled over on the highway unless your car and trailer look overloaded. As long as your a$$ end isn't dragging, and the trailer is tracking true (no swaying), and you're keeping up with traffic, I doubt you would attract attention. Your boat doesn't look to be unreasonably large to be pulling with a Jetta. You probably already know, but you have to keep a reasonable weight on the hitch, not just a few pounds. And drive much more defensively than usual, including picking times when you know the traffic is going to be light.

Do you have tow hooks on the front of your Jetta for when you can't get the boat back up the ramp? I'm only partially kidding. Backing down to launch should be OK, assuming you get it lined up all right on the first try. But front wheel drive for pulling it back out of the water and up the ramp could give you trouble - speaking from experience. I launch my 16' fiberglass Crestliner w 65 HP motor just down the road from my place in the spring, and haul it out in the fall. My Toyota Matrix does fine for launching, but on the retrieve the front end is too light and the wheels start to spin. If it were rear wheel drive, it would have plenty of power (and traction!) to pull the boat out. I have to borrow Ol' Harv's truck. OF course it partly depends on the condition of the launch, but if you use different launches, you'll be wondering every time. Hell, my father used to launch and retrieve a boat as heavy as mine with a 1953 Volkswagen (36 HP, but REAR wheel drive).

My selection of $ama lures... How'd that freebie get in there? If the Derby works out for me I'll probably select 3 of the lures (not the freebie, don't worry) and go with those.

If I had a family doctor, I would be sure to use him/her.

I've checked $ama stores in North Bay and Sudbury now, and nobody has the telescopic rods. So what's the fallback position, or is there one? I have two telescopic "spares" I bought years ago that are probably not much better than the $ama rods. I picked up the $ama reel in Sudbury today. What a piece of CRAP!!! But lo and behold - it's for a Leftie... right up my alley!

I paid the full tax at the MTO license bureau too, not at Service Canada. My receipt is titled "Declaration/Receipt - Motor Vehicle Transfer" and the Header says "Ontario - Ministry of Finance". On this receipt the clerk wrote, in large script, "Taxes paid on boat, trailer and motor". Tax was 8% on the whole package. The receipt states - "For motor vehicles subject to tax on fair market value, this will be the greater of wholesale/appraised value or decalred value. For all other vehicles, this will be the decalred value." If you bought a NEW boat, motor and trailer, you would already have paid the PST to the dealer. For a used boat, motor and trailer bought in a private transaction, I had to pay the PST to the Ontario Ministry of Finance (through the MTO license bureau). I don't see why experiences should differ but if they actually do, then either the gov't owes me money or others should have paid tax immediately and somehow didn't.

Well scotch tastes like crap; does that mean Cuban = crap? To quote the proverbial expression, "I don't know art but I know what I like!"

Still? When we were thru a couple of years ago it was a mess. They must be doing a LOT of work. Well, eventually it'll be good. --- I'm no connoiseur of cigars. I'll happily smoke Tampa Sweet Perfecto's when I can get 'em.

I figured it was worth a try! And I would have followed the "complaint" route today if I hadn't heard back. It looks like the seller wants to keep negative feedback off his profile if he can. He didn't write anything except "Sorry you didn't like it. I will refund your money immediately." I still have to try the lure out with some casting, but it has provided a lot of entertainment value already (for free, as it turns out!)

I'm not sure about the Soo area, but if all else fails look for native smoke shops (on reserve land). Some of them here in the North Bay area sell cigars (Cubans too) at good prices. I think you just might find the same around the Soo.