danc

I can't remember the last time I've used organic bait. Probably while ice fishing, which was several years ago. I use 100% artificials these days.

The ice fishermen among us are certainly in their glory these days. But those of us that don't partake in this mid winter ritual are sitting here miserably waiting for the first signs of spring. This thread is for us. Let's see a few photos that embrace what summer means to you. Here's a couple to start with.

I'm with Rick on this one. I have not one, but two union pensions growing very nicely, thank you. I have some RSSP's growing from several years ago as well. But bottom line. There's no need to die a millionaire. And I don't intend to do so.

I hope that the pessimists are right. Lets keep pumping out those pollutants into the air. No need to worry. All will be fine.

Is a fisherman considered a tradesman? All kidding aside Joey, thanks. That should get me a few extra bucks back.

For the record, I'm not a Rogers fan either. I had their cell phone service for a year and it was terrible. I could hardly make a call right in the middle of town at times. Never again.

Well, truth be told, it's actually been this cold. And.... with no end in sight. C'mon May!!!

Clampet, I'm planning on doing an article about photography, or most likely a series of articles in TJ's newsletter in the upcoming months. I'll most likely explain things much clearer at that time, but I'll give a brief explanation of what these things mean in the meantime. It's actually amazing how your camera is like the human eyeball. It reacts much the same way in similar situations. Let's start with aperture settings. Those are the F2, F5, F8 etc. settings in your camera. When you walk into a dark room, your pupils open wider to let more light in. Your camera aperture does the same thing. It opens wider in dark situations to let more light in. F2 is a wider opening than F8. Shutter speed is simply that. It's how long your shutter remains open to let in that light. My mid level camera has shutter speeds from 1/2000th of a second, all the way to 30 seconds. If I'm in very bright conditions and I want to freeze the action of a sports scene for example, I'll go all the way up to my 1/2000th of a second. If, on the other hand, I'm attempting to shoot lightning or the northern lights at night, I might go as long as my 30 second setting. ISO is probably the most difficult to understand. In the days of film, ISO was called film sensitivity to light. Film packages that you bought might have said "ISO 100 for bright sunny days" or "ISO 400 indoor shooting" Now it refers to your cameras sensor chip sensitivity to light. In most cases you would want to take as fast a shutter speed that you can. So selecting a higher ISO would allow you to take a faster shot if the lighting conditions permit. All these things go hand in hand but they also have downfalls if used to extremes. I'll attempt to explain them in my future planned articles. But at least you now know what they mean, and hopefully what they do in regards to photography. 5 or 6 years ago I didn't have a clue about any of this. But I got interested and took the time to read and experiment. It has become a great hobby.

I believe that phone/cable/internet providers will soon be able to service any and all areas of the country. You will soon be able to use your cable tv provider for your phone service too, for example. In fact this is already happening. This move will undoubtedly create competition and drive prices down. I think. But then again, the CRTC operates in strange ways.

You seem to be on the right track Jason. All it really takes to get some decent photos is a desire to get out and do so. Like anything else, practice makes perfect. The last two scenery shots are very nice, but you'll probably have to upgrade your camera to get better wildlife photos, for the zoom factor alone. You mentioned that "they again were pretty far away and i had to use the maximum zoom which i think hurt the pic quality". This would only occur if you went beyond your optical zoom and into your digital zoom. As tempting as it is, don't use your digital zoom. Ever. Digital zoom only crops your photos in camera and basically throws away a lot of the pixels that you paid dearly for. You can easily accomplish what your digital zoom does with any basic (and free) photo editing software. If photography really interests you, save up and buy a better camera with manual controls. You don't have to spend a fortune on this. 300 to 400 bucks can get you a nice camera these days. Practice setting your aperture, shutter speed and ISO manually and you'll get much better results. In other words, don't let the camera control you. You take full control of the camera. 10 or 12x optical zoom is great. I've seen some newer cameras are as high as 18x. You seem to live in a nice rural area with plenty of wildlife, so the world is at your door step as far as photography goes. Good luck Jason. Photography is a great hobby that you can practice any time, any where. And it's rewards are many.

Joey, Tybo... That's awesome. Best wishes to both of you and may you have many more.

I don't ever recall work being canceled because of the temperature. Thank goodness I was in the shop today though. I have worked (and fished!!) in -40 temps in the past though. It's not fun. When I fished in those temps, I recall the holes freezing over in about 10 seconds.

:thumbsup_anim:

Maybe we'd better start a fund raiser to buy Rick a pair of bolt cutters. I'd hate to see this scenario play out again. I'll start with a $1.00 contribution. Anyone else??

A change in wind direction almost always means a change in barometric pressure. It's the barometric pressure that does it. Not the wind direction. "Wind from the West, fish bite the best" is mostly true because of the prevailing westerlies. Our wind almost always comes from the west which results in steady barometric pressure. Any change will throw the fish off, depending on species. So, your poem is mostly true. But if we had two weeks of steady east wind, the fishing would be great. But that never happens.

Thanks Whopper. I'll lead you to dew worms anytime Bud..

Here's one more shot that came out ok. Too bad his back is towards me, but you can really see how this guys feathers are puffed out in an attempt to stay warm in such extreme conditions. His actual body size is probably about 1/4 of what the picture shows.

And Tom lives on the warm side of town..

Outdoor photography is one of my hobbies Davis. The biggest problem that I have is finding the time to pursue it. So I try to take a camera with me whenever I'm out of the city. Today, for example, I happened to be quite far north. I'm pretty sure that I was further north than Moosebunk in fact. I ran into a flock of Spruce Grouse that seemed quite comfortable in the -40C temps and hopped out of the truck and began shooting. I always try to take as many shots as I can when I run into such a situation. I'll start shooting from a distance and then take a few steps closer and fire off a few more shots. I'll continue this pattern until my subject flees. With any luck, I sometimes get very close. Usually the closest shot is my best one. I managed to get about 12 to 15 feet away from this guy and used my full zoom before he flew. I really like this shot. They are beautiful birds. I purposely lined up the other guy in the background as well, although I'm not sure that it makes the photo any better. I can easily clone him out if I want to. I'd be happy to share photography experiences with you.

I'd die to be basking in such warmth. Here's where I've been all week and apparently will be this weekend too. Enjoy the heat waves guys!!

Nice try. As if it's not the same guy. Trying to make us believe that you had more than one buddy way back then??

I'm using version 2.0.0.1

Firefox has a built in spell checker. Tools, options, advanced, general. Make sure the spell Check is checked. Works great on ONF and other sites.

You have to consider planned obsolescence in the equation too. If they made vehicles that never needed repairs and lasted forever, they wouldn't be selling many parts or new vehicles in the future. But just how far do you go with this? I'm sure they could put a much better product on the market if they really wanted to.

I caught that too Rick. It's no wonder they call them brain teasers.