Canuck2fan

If you are going to go waterproof then look at the Pentax Optio 7.1MP Digital Camera (W30), which consistantly gets much better reviews than the Olympus. The Olympus is a decent under water proformer but a ton of people say they can't see the screen on it outdoors in bright light, making it totally useless as it doesn't have a viewfinder.... It isn't cheap but you can price match it at Futureshop where it is currently 349.99 with Carmens where it is 299.99. If you pricematch it at Futureshop you can save another 10% of the price difference..... Here are the links for both stores. http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetai...6402&catid= http://www.carmans.com/store/product.php?p...at=0&page=1

Let it slide? NO WAY I thought it was impressive that someone could post results for something that couldn't have happened yet..... I mean I KNOW when I go to my favorite bassing spot that I will catch at least 5.... I can generally predict the size as well, just by how the weather is when I leave, but I damn sure don't have digital pictures BEFORE I leave. I thought it was an awesome trick.

I don't know about the "conditions" of Lake Erie, but every time I fish from shore I am totally unimpressed to see two or three fishing tugs fishing within 200 yds of shore..... If we don't address that soon it won't matter what condition the water is because the spawning beds will be totally destroyed for a lot of species.

I especially like how you got out fished and posted pictures from the EVENING on the 29th when it is only 2:05 PM on the 29th right now. That is damn impressive LOL. Can you do the same thing Wednesday and post the winning lotto numbers a day early? AWWW now you edited the post to read the 28th instead of giving all of us the winning lotto numbers.... I figured it was too good to be true.

If you have ever eaten Atlantic Cod you have eaten pretty much the same thing..... The factory workers only pick out the ones big enough to see in cod...

I don't know about where you folks are but for about 80KM around me the winds from this so called nor easter are a going to be a WHOOPING 15KM per hour from the southWEST that should really stir things up..... or probably not? By morning the winds where I want to go fishing are supposed to be southwest 10KM.. So where is this nor easter coming from?

Drifting or float was way more productive last year and early this spring IMHO. I don't have a pin reel yet and cheated by leaving the bail open on my spinning rod and caught a ton of fish float fishing that way. Bottom fishing has it moments but you pretty much have to beat the living crap out of float fishermen so they don't start drifting over your spot in most places these days where I fish. Each year more and more good areas get closed off because of the jerks who leave garbage, urinate everywhere, and start making noise at 2AM as soon as they start lining up to get fish. There are a lot of sites explaining how to rig for float fishing.... one the best ones I have seen is down right now. They are revamping it or I would have posted a link.

Sorry to tell you but a thunderstorm will stop the signal no matter what your installer said. Wait until you start losing signals due to swaying trees that can be a real puzzler...

Done voted today and will everyday till it is over.

As mentioned most rods over 12ft can be gotten in 3 pieces. I have a bunch of 11.5ft two piece rods and have yet to find a car where they wouldn't fit in the passenger compartment. On a couple of occasions it has meant putting the rods between the front to two seats. One car they would only fit by putting them on the floor of the passenger side. You just have to be creative and have friends who realize that they might have to ride in the back because nothing is more important than you getting your rod there!!! As for length of rod, if you are thinking of chucking spoons for salmon as well as using the same gear for some bottom fishing with a slip sinker and a bit of float fishing 10ft is the minimum. A shimano convergence 10ft or 10.5ft will do all three. Not as well as a combination of rods but for starting out it will work. As for line go with a good mono mainline. Look at Raven's Main Line 40% cheaper than Berkley's XT and twice as good in my opinion. To do everything like chucking spoons for salmon use 8lb. As for leaders I have yet to find a fluorocarbon leader I can trust as much as good old 4lb XT for steelhead 6lb XT for Salmon. Not using Fluoro might mean a few less strikes but I know when I get a hit with XT I will not have a 50% chance of a breakoff... If you plan on going after those lake O salmon make sure any reel you have will hold 240 yards of 8lb as a minimum....

Sony has had quality issues for years now.... They had a HUGE problem with 27" to 32" CRT TV's that had distortion in the corners.... They tried to blame the stores for storing the TV's too close to large speakers, the magnets in the speakers were the problem according to Sony. Yeah it had absolutely nothing to do with them moving the production facilities for the TV's to Mexico as the hundred of thousand customers affected insisted.... Sony has definite quality problems these days in all areas, I think they are spending too much effort on Blu-ray and not enough on making other things right.

I am heavily biased toward the Pflueger President and Medalist series of reels. I really enjoy using them. I do lubricate them twice a year and if they get dunked when I get home I do clean them. The two Presidents I have are just as smooth as the day I bought them. The Medalist I can't really say how it is doing yet because I only took it out on my last steelhead trip this spring so it only caught one mightily angered male rainbow about 9lbs. I was all set to try the Diawa Regal Xi last January when I needed a reel for steelheading . After trying it and the Pflueger there was no comparision. The President was smoother, felt lighter and even though it was 20 bucks no contest. Last month for Father's day I took my dad to BPS and gave him a choice between the Pflueger 6740 President Series and a Shimano Sedona 4000RB. He asked if I was joking when he tried the $10.00 more Shimano. Carrying his President off to the cash register so I could buy it, he said when he tried the Shimano it felt like he was putting cuttlery through a dish disposal in comparison.... What can I say the guy has been a Class A Auto Mechanic for 53 years, and knows a good piece of machinery when he tries it. If you do go Shimano DO NOT GET a 2500 for fishing off a pier as you could find yourself waving bye bye to 30lber when it spools you. Get a 4000 series in either the Sedona or Sahara.

Ask around a bit about what happens if you break a St Croix or G Loomis before you buy one. I have seen quite a few posts about how the lifetime warranty isn't such a deal when you have to ship out the rod and wait to get it back. If where you buy it will do over the counter exchanges then you are laughing. I looked at both types of rods for steelheading but just couldn't justify the price when I could get a total of 4 rods all different sizes and actions for the price of one them puppies. That it just me though always looking to do things on the cheap. As for others when it comes to fishing the only limit you should set on the cost of your equipment is the what if factor.... What if it breaks. What if the signifcant other finds the receipt. What if gets stolen. What if I still suck at catching fish but have spent all this money. Which is my problem LOL

Seasonal dependant. Fall through Spring any trib on Huron. June till end of July Lake Erie..... Anytime during the summer and early fall rivers around here for bass.

Not trying to start a war here but the facts are changing with regards to the U.S. leading the world in medical technology.... India will be smoking you all counts within a couple of years. Why you ask because the drug dealers aaaahhh I mean drug companies can make their drugs cheaper, do medical trials of all sorts in half the time with a larger population base minus the interference of the FDA and lastly do it all subsidized by the U.S. having the highest prescription drug prices in the developed world. Your politicians agreed to have you pay the higher prices so that you could be the center of research... and you are losing that benefit and getting hosed by the higher prices, but that's capitalism.... You might want to research some facts about what is really happening and how fast you are losing ground in the medical sector. Another reason that both India and China will eventually lead the world in medical technology is because they are not going to be held back when it comes to genetic testing or stem cell research by the moral or ethical dilemmas other nations are. No religious right to stop it in those two countries. On the other hand you do really have the Statue of Liberty

I found the best two lures for catching salmon on a pier during the first two hours after dawn were a Walmart $1.83 Blue Fox in a pattern that looks a lot like a certain of type of fish that begins with p. The second one is something that you will only find out about from watching me catch one on it because I had to learn that way by watching another angler pull in two salmon for everyone I caught.... So the advice of looking at what other anglers are using is pretty good advice. However as stated don't go spending all your egg money on what you see catch one fish today because it doesn't mean that it will work tomorrow. But then again it can't hurt to have every lure in every color you can afford either LOL. If nothing else when you are freezing your butt off, because the wind is howling a million miles an hour changing spoons will at least make you think you are doing something when the bite is off.

Ummm sure they can't refuse you.... under the "law" It does happen all the time though. They refuse you but letting your rot in the waiting area. They refuse by rerouting your ambulance. They also only have to administer emergency care. They do not have to get you continuing care. If you can be patched up and stabilized you are out the door. If you need followup proceedures that often isn't covered. Also if you CAN pay you have to pay eventually. The corporations "hospitals" will use any method up to and including seizing your assets "house/car" until they get the money. How do I know this happens I used to talk about this very subject with a woman that had the job of verifying HMO coverages and the patients assets in order to pay at a county clinic.... in California.

I have had a lot of experience seeing how severly sick people in my family have been dealt with in the Ontario health care system. In the space of 20 years 3 family members developed severe types of cancers. I have to say with only one or two very small exceptions the care has been TREMENDOUS. The amount of time, effort and compassion shown those individuals was PRICELESS. The people giving care at all levels went through hell trying everything possible, the end result however was that 3 of these family members did pass away in the end. Do I hold the health responsible for their passing no, the fact is we will all die at some point. I am thankful though that in all three cases, my family members were treated with respect, kindness and allowed to pass away with dignity, when the treatments available didn't work. I am also especially thankful that because they lived in Ontario their families are not in debt, and or homeless because of the cost of the treatment required. With respect to the American system I can only go by what I learned from talking to some people I know who work within it. To me it seems it is even more of a lottery than ours on what type of care you can get. If you have unlimited resources you can get good care. If you don't you might get good care, or even no care. To me that seems just WRONG for a country that likes to boast all the time about how they are the greatest country in the world. Both systems need work no question about it.... The biggest issue Canada would have with going with a dual public and private model is that we simply don't have enough people to fund both models. Even the super rich in this country who think they want a private option on top of leaving the public system for the poor folk like me intact don't seem to realize to even begin to approach the options available in the U.S. they would have to still pay 50 to 75% of the taxes they do now. That would allow the public system to continue. For their "private" system they would need premiums 4 to 10 times higher than the U.S. to fund it. I don't see too many people with that kind of money around. Also if they have that kind of money it makes more sense to do what all the muckidee mucks do now. Run to the U.S. get what you can afford there when necessary. Which I continue to urge people who can afford it to do as that will continue to free up to a certain extent our public services for those of us who aren't in a financial position to jet south for care.

You can no longer buy Crayfish in Ontario. You can however catch them. Get some boots a small minnow net and go to any local stream with a rocky bottom place the minnow net in front of you about 2 feet away and kick rocks from side to side. Lift the net put the crayfish in a container and away you go...

I just went bass fishing with two people. I caught 14 smallies and 3 buckets, while the other two folks caught 3 smallies and no buckets..... Now what did I do different not a darn thing. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. What were we using. Leeches and crayfish. Why because they work. Getting the leeches was easy you can buy them at any decent baitshop. Catching the crayfish was a PAIN literally as I got to be the one kicking the rocks even though I broke the baby toe on my left foot monday night, because I was the only one with waders LOL. I have never seen a bass where we were fishing this afternoon even look at a plastic bait of any kind, much less follow it or try to inhale it. So we go for the live stuff there. However whenever I have fished elsewhere with plastics depending on the cover either the texas or carolina rig does work. One thing to keep in mind though is all of the commercially available plastics and lures for bass are just too honking HUGH for Canadian bass (with Simcoe and Erie being exceptions. Our bass have colder waters and grow so much slower and less than the ones in the U.S of A. Since they have 10 times the number of anglers they get the baits tailored to the bass there. So don't be afraid to cut down any plastic you are using to make it smaller for the bass here..... Because it works or so I have heard ;o)

I think that Fantino wants you charged with street racing automatically for going 50KPH over and that you lose your car for 7 days.... Which to me is more than fair. As someone who makes the majority of my living driving I welcome seeing anything that will get people to stop street racing... I hope the two clowns who are under arrest for killing that truck driver on the 400 get 20 yrs no parole. It might start to set an example.

If you can find one get an 11 1/2 ft Shakespeare Catera. This rod has a unique feature, all but the last 3 eyes are the double foot type. That makes the rod extremely strong, but the tip still has great sensitivity. I have chucked spoons for hours with mine without a problem. The best part of this rod is that you can chuck spoons for salmon/rainbow, bottom fish, and it is even long enough to make a fairly decent float rod. Making it very versatile it should run you about 60 bucks if you can still find one, since they stopped making it when they introduced the Agility line. I have seen some of the them in local stores in London though.

I have just purchased a pair of Bass Pro Shop 8' crappy rods for perching. I really like the one I have opened up and used. The quality of the rod is outstanding it has many of the same features of rods that cost 5 times as much. I can't say whether it has the durability yet but so far it has been the better money/value ratios that I have gotten on a rod in a long while. It is rated to use 1/8 to 1/4 oz jigs, but I was using it to power cast 1 1/2 oz weights plus a baited pickerel rig for 8 hrs the other day no problems. I thought the tip would just snap off the first time I heaved it but it never did.... even after the 1000 cast or so. Another brand of rod that has really impressed me for the money is the Pflueger line of Trion/Shakespeare Agility. Both are IM 8 graphite and very well put together IMO. Also as mentioned don't overlook the Shakespeare Ugly stick if I ever had to go to just one rod I think I would be happiest with the ugly stick.

one word COSTCO!!!! Before you buy glasses anywhere check out their pricing....

Doing the homemade PVC thing is a snap no cutting involved either because you just go to a TSC store and they will even cut it to length for you..... You buy the proper end caps and fittings with the PVC glue and you are done. If you want to lock it just drill a hole through the side and end cap on an angle and get a large shackle lock and bob's your uncle. I agree with using padding in the caps and wrapping the rods. Another thing you will want to think about it what diameter to hold your rods. I have one made of 4" then tapered to 2" with a fitting because it halfed the weight. It only holds two rods though compared with my buddies 4" which will hold 3 if the eyes are small. As for durability when we made them by bud proved it to me by driving over the glued tapered part of mine with his car. No damage at all to it. Total cost for mine with fittings and caps was about 18 bucks.