danc

I bought a used (obviously) 2006 Toyota Tacoma a couple of weeks ago. I'm very happy with it. Original owner, rust checked every year. Pretty much immaculate. The interior was like you were looking at a brand new vehicle in the showroom. Anyways, tonight I get a knock at my door and there's some dude standing there in a uniform that would be fit for Buckingham Palace. He identifies himself as being from the MTO (Ministry of Transportation of Ontario), which I concluded from his fancy arm band a minute or so into our conversation. He tells me that he is investigating safety checks from a certain dealer in town, as there has been some complaints lately. He wants to check out my new Tacoma. I say sure, have at 'er. This could only go in my favor. So the dude gets under my truck with his clean, fancy uniform on, and checks a whole lot of things out. He gets me to turn the steering while he is under there. He asks if I have any vibration or steering issues. I do have a small vibration on the highway at 100 kph or so. He says I might have a bad tie rod end on the drivers side. Not a safety check issue in the condition that it was in. He gets me to start the vehicle and then checks the mileage. All good. Then he does some more rolling around under my truck and then comes back up. I tell him to not be shy if he finds anything wrong, because I have nothing to lose here. He didn't find anything wrong. In fact he complimented me on the condition of my purchase. Anyways, nice to see this type of thing happening. The government is actually looking out for the consumer.

It's been 11 years since the last dirt track race was run around here. A bunch of guys decided to dust off an old track and put a weekend show together. What a success it was. The place was packed both days on the weekend. I had a pit pass and while walking around I heard a "Hi Dan". It was the voice of a young kid that I worked with last winter who also happens to be a stock car racer. He had a beautiful car that he had purchased earlier this year. Was really nice to see him doing his thing outside of work. Anyways, I had my SLR hanging from my neck and I told him I'd try to get a few shots of him while racing. This was the best shot that I got. My buddy Rob is in the 20 car. He was thrilled with this shot.

So sorry Matt.

lol. Nice shot Bill. The reason that I was so excited about my encounter is that I've never seen a Snapper within a couple hundred miles of my home before. Ever. So this was way cool to me. I've seen hundreds of Painteds before. But never a Snapper.

Common sense goes a long way as far as extending ones life goes.

I have a Mustang manual inflate. I don't want mine popping open in a heavy rain or if I drop it in the water. If I ever get knocked out while flying out of a boat and end up in the water, then one way or another it's time to give up fishing anyways.

Even though the Leafs didn't acquire Crosby, Ovechkin, Stamkos and Doughty in the off season, like I was hoping, I think that they're a better team this year than last. They certainly have more depth and made some great front office moves (imho). Are they ready to win the cup? Of course not. But I think that they will be a fun team to watch. Can't wait for the puck to drop.

Yes, his shell is only about 8" from front to back. Nice clean specimen.

Wow! What a sweet rig Chris. Which bed is mine??

Super Degooper gets my vote.

Anything shiny that wobbles while trolled will catch Lake Trout. I'd pay more attention to boat speed, and how your lure of choice reacts to boat speed, than solely what's on the end of your line. Biggest Lake Trout that I've seen caught was 34 lbs. on an inch and a half green and brown muddler pattern crank bait. Nothing shiny about it, but it was in the right place at the right time. As a side note, it was caught on an ultra light with 6 lb. test. and would have smashed the current c&r line class record at the time, had it been kept and recorded. Another interesting moment that I had with Lakers was a few years back in late May when there was a huge mayfly hatch occurring. Being late May in northwestern Ontario, the fish were up high, but they were gorging on mayflies. Ever fly fished with a spinning rod? We did that day and slayed them. Like any other fish, it's not a magic lure that will catch them. It's understanding and knowing what the fish are up to on the day that you are there.

On the other hand, as I'm sure you know Bill, is that they can whack your offering and practically rip the rod out of your hands at any given time as well. 30+ years of fishing for them, almost exclusively, and I still don't have their bite patterns figured out.

Brookies are notorious for bumping their prey before committing. I often troll for them and can't count the number of times that I get a tap, tap, tap, tap, before I hook a fish. The fish that I'm talking about are definitely big enough to inhale my offering in their first attempt. It once took me 3 days to catch a certain fish. I was shore fishing on the Nipigon River, and for the first 2 days at an exact location, I had a follow and a tap from a really nice fish on my first cast only ( I could see the fish plain as day). That was it. One follow and one tap. The third day I caught him. It was a respectable 22 inch fish that could have easily swallowed my offering on day 1 or day 2. Such is Brook Trout fishing.

I'm currently working in Nipigon. About 100k. But I get paid for driving both ways. Tuesday I drove to Dryden and back. 360k each way. Otherwise, 10 minutes to the shop.

There's obviously more to it than that. Believe what you want. I just choose to believe the research that has been done for decades about this rather than come up with my own ideas. I follow the solunar tables religiously and have for 40 years. Try it. You just might like what you experience.

You do know that you're disputing what the Lindner family has discovered over 30 years ago? Last I checked, they knew a thing or two about fishing.

There are tides on an inland lake for starters.

mBar is very important to fish feeding. I can explain it here, but it's very well documented on line. With all due respect, what you are trying to accomplish has been documented thousands of times decades ago. Google should save you a lot of time and effort, and give you more time with your gf.

Do a search of world record fish caught within preferred moon phases. It will blow your mind.

The only bone I've ever broken was my pelvis Joey. So no advice here. Good luck!!

It's pretty simple actually. The more constant the mBar, the better the fishing. Personally I'm a big moon phase guy.

I've seen 2 family friends perish because of drugs in the past couple of years. Sadly they are beyond help and before you know it, they are gone. In both cases I wish I could turn back time and help them when I could. But you just never know how deep they are into these things until it's to late. So sorry Cliff..

Last I heard was that 47000 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance. This was revealed in a debate between a Canadian doctor and an American congressman. I wish I could find the link to the video. It was awesome. Anyways we should count our blessings. Apparently life means more than money does in Canada than it does in America. And I like that.

Clearly Carlyle has to go. He runs this team on how he likes his players, not how valuable to the team they are. Kadri, whom is under Carlyes most hated list, played the second least minutes in the game and yet scored the game winner. The kid has talent, but RC hates him. If RC had Gretzky, Lemieux and Crosby as his first line, and he didnt like them personally, theyd ride the pines. He totally ruined Reimer. Hes an idiot and the sooner hes gone the better. Theres a lot of young talent on the Leafs. They are a few years away from being a contender. They need someone to bring the talent that they have to where it should be.