dave524

From what I understand from my Dad and others his age that had an opportunity to fish the Lake Erie Blue Pickerel is that they were somewhat like a Sauger in that they were small 1-2 pounds with a 3 pounder being a big one and they lacked the white spot on the tail that the Yellow Pickeral/Walleye has. The Blues were caught in large numbers in similar water to fishing for jumbo perch today, they were also a staple of ice fishing too.

I think its all a result of these Regional Governments, those in the country, instead of being Lot X concession Y in Anywhere Township, in Chris's case he is probably now in the City of Barrie, but still out in the country without the benefits of living in the city like regular snow plowing , sidewalks and such but they make him pay a big city mill rate based on his assessment. Lot of rural residents were dragged into Regional Government kicking and screaming because they were going to get hit with higher taxes with no increase in services. Can't say that I blame them. Chris , your rant is heard a thousand times everywhere there is regional goverments.

I've noticed over the years that oldtimers spell the Canadian pickerAl with the A whereas the American pike related species is spelled pickerEl with the E. I'm a few months from 60, dad is 83 and he tells of catching the blue pickeral in the 40's out of Port Colborne and Port Maitland, my first recollestions of fishing where the late 50's there and by then they were gone/extinct. There is a bluish phase of Walleye native to some lakes but the true Blue Walleye was a separate species.

Curiously almost all sightings seem to occur during the warmer months when visibility is obscured by foliage and tracking a soft padded animal is difficult. You would think that like other animals, sightings and tracks would spike during the winter months with better visibility and snow to hold tracks. If there is a sighting in winter I can't see why its tracks have not be followed and the animal confirmed, cats are not a long winded animal that could outdistance a determined tracker or hounds.

Quite some time ago I used to hunt them with a loosely organized group, drivers and blockers, when fur prices were high. Later, individually, with a predator call or driving a vehicle and glassing , then a short stalk. It has been my experience they only use a den when they have pups. Often in the winter on a sunny day they will bed down in an open field in deep snow, glass dark bumps for telltale fur. I feel they like to have good visibility when they bed down. One corridor for movement that I have seen here is the set of railroad tracks running through town, I also suspect that they might use the railway embankment as a den site. Groundhogs are quite common in these embankments and coyotes usually enlarge existing burrows for their own use. if you want pictures, I would suggest getting a predator call, it will work for a while but they will get smart to that quickly, they are not stupid.

If you look hard there is some hiding between the blades of grass and in the cracks of the sidewalk here, bit of rain now. Looks like the weatherman had another case of premature accumulation

Curiously, I just noticed this morning , I have only to hit the back arrow once to go back, ever since I joined here , which isn't that long I have always had to hit it twice to move back one page. Is the recent or perhaps I've just not been paying attention ? I beleive I wasn't the only one that had to double click back, there was some discussion about it. Nice Christmas details this morning, hope the change over goes smoothly for you Rick, that kinda stuff can be a bear sometimes.

It would have to be Rainbows/Steelhead. It is the one species that I can target every month of the year with a good success rate. River fishing, October through to May, there is no doubt they are my favourite. Out on Lake Ontario, May through to Sept, they can consistently be caught, however would rather fish for them on a float rod with a nice night crawler as bait in a river.

Not a problem, minor inconveniance. As anyone who goes back far enough to remember the usenet , newsreaders and moderated groups like rec.hunting because of the antis where every post had to be approved before it would show up will attest. We got it good here, hats off to the mods

Very nice looking fresh fish, 6 for 6 is a good day in anybodies' log. Nice pictures too.

For an offshore Great Lakes boat, I would second the recomendation for the Starcraft Fishmaster, they are a much deeper hull than the Lunds, fine multi species boat that they are and of very good quality. The Starcraft with a greater floor to gunwale height just makes me feel more secure setting riggers and netting fish in rough water, might not be quite as easy to reach down and lip a bass though. I run a mid 80's vintage Sylvan 18 foot centre console that has 29" of floor to gunwale height, that 196 Fishmaster would have more than that judging by how far the motor is notched down below the gunwale height at the back. Fished out of several comparable Lunds and always felt nervous like if I slipped and lost my balance the gunwale would hit me just above the knees and over I would go. Sorry, but I just like an offshore boat with sides up around my waist.

Lew, you gotta remember this was on Bloor St. in downtown Toronto, high priced establishments. Almost forgot, Rochdale College was on that walk to Honest Ed's, but we'll leave that part of the 60's back there

I remember my first visit to Honest Eds. First year student living near Varsity Stadium, Sept 1969, the one thing I remember getting was a toaster that trip, not a popup but one of those with the flip flap doors on each side that you had to flip the toast when one side was done and take it out before it got burned and unplug it to turn it off. Unlike Bigugli, I wasn't with grandma, we used to stop at the Brunswick House for a couple of 20 cent drafts, that is another fine old establishment in the same area.

Strangely looks like a Moray Eel crossed with an Atlantic

There was a few years before the pin caught on, back in the 70's, where the superstar status was to be using a long noodle rod, usually some Lamiglass S-glass blank and a Shakespeare 1810 underspin closed face reel. We were all disciples of the Dick Swan school of float fishing for steelhead.

I beleive the late Lee Wulff used to catch Atlantics on dry flies at times and they are not unlike our steelhead. My best bet is that he would have used the Lee Wulff pattterns of dry flies, bushy high riders, often variations of existing patterns. For those inclined to try for steelies on a dry fly I would investigate his techniques. When I was a teen the man was a living legend, remember old B&W TV shows featuring his exploits with very short fly rods.

OK, here is the way I'm wired up, have a DVD recorder now but it worked with the VCR before that. Take the HDMI output off the sat receiver and run a HDMI cable direct to the input on TV, it will probably be input HDMI #1 on your TV remote, you this for normal TV viewing, if you have hi definition I believe you would have to use this to get hi def. Also on the back of the sat receiver, you will see 3 outputs , one yellow (video) and a black and a red which are the left and right stereo channels, run these to the VCR inputs and then run from the same from the VCR outputs to the same inputs on the TV, this will probably be input AV#1 on the TV remote. OK, when you want to record, turn on the VCR the sat receiver and go to input AV# 1 on the TV. Set the timer on the VCR, if it works you should have the onscreen menu, also need to set the desired channel on the sat receiver and leave it there. Now you can turn off the TV, but you have to leave the sat receiver on and on the desired channel, If I remember right my VCR had to be turned off for timer recording, yours may be different, I'll leave you to read your manual for that. That should get you going. NOTE: you can't watch one channel while recording another unless you have one of the dual tuner receivers.

Sounds suspiciously like the same problem I had with my 97 GMC Safari. The computer was telling the transmission to shift, it would try but then go back to second, 2nd was the only gear to work. They hooked it up to the computer and verified that the computer was telling the tranny to shift, at that point they figured it was an electronic switch on the transmission that was fried, had them replace that as it all seemed to make sense. It actually worked fine for a day or two and started it again, finally figured out that it was just crud in the tranny fluid, try getting it serviced and changed if it has been a while.

I've used felts and they have the tungsten studs, they are good on smooth rocks even with some algae covering, what they are not good for is sub freezing weather. Step out of the water and the waterlogged felt freezes then you are in even more trouble. I don't wear them in the cold any more, getting too old to take a header.

Remember a guy had a Bolens I think it was , back in the late 60's, maybe early 70's, you sat on a sledlike seat behind the power unit which was kind of like a small tank with a steering handle out the back, it was an idea that didn't catch on. edit: was a Bolens, here is an old advertisement I googled http://www.adclassix.com/ads/67bolensdiablo.htm guy we used to ice fish with on Erie had one, hauled stuff well as I remember

You fellows would probably all be interested in this and maybe unaware that The Ministry of Natural Resources, ( back then it was the Department of Lands and Forests ) previous to 1968 used to do all their own training at a facility on Lake St. Nora near Minden, generally called the Forest Ranger School but in later years officially named the Leslie Frost Centre. I have many fond memories of this older facilty, not as a student of the program there but as a student of the undergraduate forestry program at the University of Toronto. Each spring, after the final exams, we would all head off there for a 3 week spring camp for practical field work. The undergraduate Forestry program was closed at U of T some years ago but a post grad program still continues. I completed my B.Sc.F in 1974. Some of you fellows may work with alumni of mine or maybe like me they are retired For those of you interested this link give some of the early history of Forestry and Fish and Widlife education for Ontario. http://www.frostcentreinstitute.com/history.html

Braided type lines seem best for this , what I do is carry a small dispenser of dental floss in my float fishing vest, it is handy and works well. Haven't come to any firm conclusion about whether the waxed or unwaxed is better. Also , The tip of my float rod, I wound a guide on it as opposed to a regular tip top for the increased diameter, this was a common practice at one time.

The population is cyclic, right now the coyote population is very high, it will crash and then the rabbits will increase, then the coyotes will come back because of abundant food and the rabbits will go down again , and so on and so on. Cottontails and jackrabbits ( European Hares ) don't really compete with each other, cottontails prefer brushy areas and jacks are more of an open field animal. Best place I found to jump jacks were open ploughed fields, they get nestled down in between the furrows and let the snow drift in over them. You could try looking for them in that type of field as well as in the hedgerows.

Is it not illegal to use an artificial light to attract fish? The cameras with lights could be seen as attracting fish if you have a baited line down as well. Maybe something for those with these units to research.

Nice pictures Rick. The biggest drawback of the point and shoot and I cut my teeth on the Nikon F's of the seventies, is the ability to selective focus. I guess maybe any autofocus, even a slr, locks on to components of a picture that are not the actual subject, leaving the main subject out of focus. I don't know if it is my 60 year old eyes or the limitations of the digital screen or viewfinder on a point and shoot, but I just can't seem to nail the point of focus even manually with a point and shoot that I could with the older ground glass screens of a film slr. Still the point and shoots of today, especially the high ratio zooms, are incredible pieces of technology to some one who started with manual focus , centre the needle exposure SLR's of the past. The biggest hurdle to using a point and shoot, is realizing where their limitations exist and then avoiding the situation or finding a way to overcome it.