Jonny

Thanks for the clarification. I was pretty sure that would be the case. It is illegal to let game fish spoil. As I understand it, if you catch it and kill it, you have to consume it. (Game fish only.)* That is one of the reasons, I believe, that carp is not classed as a game fish. You can kill carp (i.e. by bow-fishing) and you don't have to eat it. In places where you can bow-fish for pike, you have to eat the pike. That's my understanding anyway, never having bow-fished. I would have been surprised to learn that the regulation for the killing of game fish would have been amended for one particular lake. --- * AFAIK, you are not even supposed to throw out game fish that has become freezer-burnt in your freezer.

Bass Pro Shops is a great place to read customer reviews on products, including fishing line. Last night I went throught the comments about Fireline and Power Pro. There were lots of postive comments about both but there were more negative points about Fireline. I didn't copy out all the positive stuff. I thought any perceived negatives would be more interesting. Here's some of what I found: Good knots of course are important, especially with non-monofilament lines. Here's a very good site for that: http://videofishingknots.com/basic-fishing-knots.html

So am I understanding this correctly? The MNR is saying you should kill all the pike you catch but you can't keep over your limit? Does that mean a knife through the backbone and let them sink to the bottom if you're over your limit, or if you don't want to keep pike to eat? Lake Nipissing now has a large number of smelts, where before I believe there were none. I'm not sure much can be done about that either. So we get out our smelt nets during the run and make the best of it. There are getting to be so many that I am sure they will change the balance of our lake.

Very nice shots. I especially like the heron with fish in beak being chased by a redwing. One in a million shot!

As long as you get boneless fillets off your pike, you can use any recipe that you use for pickerel. My wife actually prefers pike to pickerel --- she says there's a tiny bit more flavour. Simplest thing --- wash fillets well, sprinkle with lemon juice, dredge in flour and fry crispy brown in hot oil with a generous dab of margarine melted in. Awesome. --- Man, I have never seen a tiger muskie --- beautiful fish! Too bad they're sterile (unless you're worried about invasive concerns).

Check the attachment in Post #4.

I wonder what you get for the free weeks? A pat on the back?

Try Walmart. You'll be surprised. No kidding... there's a whole rack of stockings. (Maybe your wife steered you clear of it - didn't think of the frog-keeping possibilities). Don't buy the black - they get too hot in the sun! I remember those days when my wife and I were young (and a little more spry ), and you couldn't find "frillies" except in Frederick's of Hollywood adverts. Now they're a dime-a-dozen at places like Sears and Walmart.

That first success really hooks ya, doesn't it! I've never really mastered the art of fly fishing. It doesn't help that most of my trout fishing has been on brushy creeks (can you say "tag-alders"?!) where you often barely have room to flip out a worm with a spinning outfit. I've come up dry (no pun intended ) lots of times in fly fishing, but man oh man when you get it right, it's awesome. A couple of my best times were in two little Rocky Mountain lakes (Picklejar and Carnarvon) where the cutthroat trout loved my presentation so much that I thought I was becoming an expert. A float trip down the Bow River south of Calgary quickly disabused me of that notion! When I get frustrated with flies, I go to the old standby of a worm on a plain hook (sometimes with a red salmon egg also attached - that can be a killer at times).

I see this as involving three variables: Establishing independence Winning recognition from other nations Self-realization All three are quite complex and involve not only battles but also diplomacy. As far as battles are concerned and as far as WWI is concerned, the one that seems to be the most significant is Vimy Ridge, where the Canadians gained a significant victory that the other allies could not achieve. In WWII it's hard to choose between D-Day (where the Canadian Army assaulted its own sector and the Canadians were the only ones to achieve the first-day objectives) and the Battle of the Scheldt Estuary/Liberation of Holland (where Canada gained the undying gratitude of the Dutch people). We will always be overhsadowed by the Big Players, except in our own perception and sometimes not even in that. That's why it's important for at least our youth to understand (and be proud of) Canada's role in the Wars.

Looks like a good money-maker for the people runnng it...

Maybe we should go back to the oldest baits of all - a worm, minnow, frog or crayfish on a plain hook.

Hunters wave too. It's kind of a "Hey you DO see me here, don't you?" wave. Kind of looking for reassurance that a shot won't come your way.

I haven't found anything which sheds light on why the term "zombies" was coined. "Zombies" appears to have been a WWII term, and it appears to have applied specifically to conscripts, very few of whom were sent overseas. From writing that I did for my site: I did some re-checking today and that appears to be valid. Here are some pertinent quotes, from a variety of sources: While units such as the Royal 22e Régiment, Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal, the Régiment de la Chaudière and the Régiment de Maisonneuve all had outstanding records during World War II, some feel that if they had been concentrated into the same brigade (as French-Canadians requested and as currently exists in the Canadian Armed Forces), it could have become a focus of pride for French-Canada, encouraging the war effort and political support in Quebec. These units were, however, distributed among the various English-speaking divisions of the Canadian Army overseas. Jack Granatstein in his book The Generals, points out that a shortage of French-speaking staff trained officers meant that any attempt to create an entire Francophone brigade would have likely ended in failure. -- Actually only about 13,000 conscripts were sent overseas, and they went voluntarily. Most conscripts spent the war in Canada, as the government had promised they would. But they weren't alone. Only half of the Canadian Army made it overseas, and the majority of those who stayed home were volunteers. Similarly, two-thirds of the air force stayed in Canada also, though many were involved in the Commonweath air training plan. So while the Canadian army in Europe was in desperate straits for soldiers as the war drew to a close, it wasn't solely the fault of conscripts. Also French Canada was not the only part of Canada to vote against conscription. It wasn't popular in Western Canada, and even Arthur Meighen, the pro-conscription former prime minister, was defeated in Toronto on the issue of conscription. -- Many Canadians still did not support immediate conscription; there were a few riots in Montreal, although these were not on the same scale as the 1917 and 1918 riots. Even in Toronto, a strongly pro-conscription region, Conservative Arthur Meighen was defeated in a by-election after promising to help introduce conscription. -- Few conscripts saw combat in Europe: only 2463 men reached units on the front lines. Out of these, 79 lost their lives. Politically, this was a successful gamble for King, as he avoided a drawn-out political crisis and remained in power until his retirement in 1948. The NRMA men who refused to "go Active" were derisively called "Zombies" both in Canada and overseas; Farley Mowat recalls in his volumes of war memoirs savagely disliking those who wore the uniform but refused to make the same sacrifices he and his brothers-in-arms were called on to make in Italy and North-West Europe.

Be glad to, thanks.

We will be in Stratford again some time. We went to see Macbeth at the Festival Theater and we hope to go and see another Shakespearean play in the future. Also, we really liked Stratford. I happened upon a picture of downtown St. Mary's after we got home and we regretted not having seen it too. And the surrounding countryside and towns have a charm of their own. We will definitely be back. That was one of the things that led me to create the "Johnny Canuck" site. I think there might be something about the per capita representation in my site, but maybe not in hard numbers. I haven't reviewed it in a while.

I'm pretty much of the same mind as the last two posts. Earlier I mentioned my liking for shiny, expensive things; that doesn't necessarily mean I buy them. A couple of days ago I dug out my old Mitchell 301 and 301A. I'm going to strip, clean, oil and lube them, and give them another workout. Those two reels between them have accounted for hundreds of pickerel, pike, bass, lakers and specks. Spooled up with Power Pro or Fireline they should be fun to fish with again.

My wife and I spent a minute's silence at the Stratford War Memorial a few weeks ago, and then looked at the lists of names. Lots of names for what in those days would have been a pretty small town.

Bob Izumi is her uncle. Her father's name is Wayne. I respectfully disagree (respectfully, because I can understand where you're coming from, although not agreeing). To my mind she is targeting male "fisher-persons", and not in too flagrant a manner. Like using "eye candy" to promote cars to males at an auto show. That's just the way it is. Sexist, yes, but not "immoral".

Guys, please don't get political and get this thread locked. This is posted for your information only. It is a site I developed over several years when I was teaching, and used in class for reference... http://www.personainternet.com/hjtoby/

I'm of the opinion that it's your terminal tackle, and where you put it, and how you work it, that determines fishing success much more than the gear you fish with... once you have satisfied the basics of a good reel with a good drag, a decent rod, and good line. With of course some allowance for the species of fish you are targeting. Despite that, I have the same liking for shiny, expensive things that most other fishermen do.

It looks like she's old enough to have told her daddy some time ago what she likes, what works for her, and what she's going to do. Daughters (and sons) have a way of doing that when they get to be around 18 or so. I don't get the "compromise of morality" thing in this case, and I don't think you can hold her responsible for what teenage kids might take from her example, particularly because what she does is not targeted towards them.

Come on now.

True, I had forgotten about that in my haste to reply. It was instituted late in the war and the conscripts were derogatorily called "zombies" by soldiers who had volunteered. Well in a way, I agree, but it's part of the whole package of what makes this site interesting. We have fishing in common but lots of opinions on a variety of stuff.

Ever notice that the veterans of WWII who have seen the most and done the most don't talk about it much? I do think that a year or two of compulsory military service would do a lot of young people a lot of good. But we will never see it in this country --- we never have, even in dire times.