dave524

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.

Nice fish, that male in the centre is a football. The hat..... bet it's warm

Some other article it was said they can eat 40% of their body weight a day, a bit more beleiveable. Reporters

Initially I think you are going to find wing shooting a very humbling experience. Your best bet would be to go to a gun club, the guys are very good there for the most part and you would learn more in a couple of visits than you would in many frustrating attempts at learning on your own. At the very least, try to find a mentor that has experience, the learning curve will not be as steep.

The model airplane stuff is very stretchy, just like a small diameter surgical tubing, it actually makes very good slingshots. I have never sampled the wares of Princess in this dept but I know black stuff that is used for vacuum lines is not quite the same, just make sure it is the very stretchy material. Originally the model stuff was like a yellow covered surgical tubing , last batch was a clear blue like fluoroescent blue Stren. I wouldn't be surprised if it wouldn't make good snubbers for dipsey divers as well.

I use the slip floats with the small bead, for a stop I carry a small container of dental floss and just tie a mutliple wrap overhand knot after a couple of turns around the line above the bead at the depth I want and trim the ends, goes through the guides fine and will slide if needed. Edit: Also for elastics for postioning fixed floats I go to a hobby shop that caters to model airplane builders, the ones with the gas engines, and get a section of the fuel line they sell, chop it up with a razor blade into a few years supply of elastics.

It would still be a bit of a drive and I have never been there only had friends with favourable reports, but look at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, New York State and a town called Pulaski and the Salmon River, it is probably the closest good steelhead river that remains open as the flow is regulated for hydro power production.

Years later, I find individual good steelhead , the fish , the drift, the fight remain in my memory far more vividly than a good bass. Guess you can guess where I would be going. A big resident brown is the only other fish to permanently etch the memory. Never caught a really big musky, but I suspect that would do it too.

Good going on the fish. Waders?? At one time I used to swear by the Seal-Dry moulded latex seamless waders, yeah they were hot in summer and cold in winter but had some give and didn't give a lot of leak problems, haven't seen them in quite a few years.

That is a very nice buck, congratulations. Reading the story I was expecting to see a small spike or forkhorn when I got to the pics. Hope you get a chance at the real big guy next year.

Its probably older than most on this board but a Mann's Little George tipped with a piece of dewy works very well for this type of presentation.

It's really the municpal bylaw that is the deciding factor on where you can hunt and not hunt and what you can use, the only stipulation in the Game and Fish Act pertains to shooting across roads and rifles of greater than .275 in southern WMU's. Federal Regulations pertain to registration and the Migratory Game Bird Act. Some municipal bylaws downright prohibit the discharge of anything and some limit firearms to shotguns only. Some are really progressive and allow different firearms in different areas depending on the conditions like land use and population. This .pdf for the Town of Fort Erie show a lot of thought and could be a model for other regions rather than blanket rules for the whole area. I would urge anyone to actually check their own municipal bylaw for the actual wording and defintion of firearm. Fort Erie Discharge Bylaw http://www.town.forterie.ca/WebSite/tofewe...nting_bylaw.pdf

The wearing of life jackets from Nov1 to May 1 is a state law, The reciprocal agreement between countries is a federal thing and I assume on federally mandated safety equipment, I think you would have a hard time if stopped and not wearing your pfd.

This is probably the biggest change, it is just new. Be aware if you boat NYS. http://www.oneidadispatch.com/articles/200...26055876344.txt

I clipped this out of the local Hamilton paper a few years ago and put it away as a reminder of those to who we owe so much, I think tonite it would be appropriate to share it.

I am not going there, unfortunately I had the misfortune of seeing her perform once and that was enough. It was my first year of University. I lived on campus just a couple of hundred yards south of Varsity Stadium and there was a great lineup at a rock concert there the first weekend after I moved in. Even my favourite artist Eric Clapton was onstage with her and John at that time but it still sounded like some one torturing a cat. On the bright side I did get to see the Doors and a lot of other great acts of those times. http://rockandrollrevival.tripod.com/

Good shooting, They are my favourite upland bird but are in serious decline in the south. Don't let the Walleye anglers tell you they are Ruffed Grouse.

I learned a lot from watching the fish as to where to fish in a run. Get a set of polaroids and a good vantage point like a bridge or a high bank above a hole where you can look down and see the fish, watch them. You will see patterns of movement and resting places. Get to know a couple of stretches of a few rivers well under different conditions. Once you have got their holding patterns down you can apply it to unfamiliar waters. Take a break and sit close to some one who is obviously successful and watch, like I tell my daughter " if you see some one who is more successful than you it is probably because he/she is doing something your not " Think you got the basics of rigging down, it's in the application now.

I guess if you are into sports you really need a live feed but if you want the latest episode of a weekly show like "House " or whatever tickles your fancy, as I previously mentioned there is also the option of downloading the show. Really, I'm not sure of the legalities but I use a site called EZTV and it has shows from all over the world and a bittorrent program. I get the show as a DivX file but there is also a HD format too for some of them. My Sony DVD player/ recorder has a usb port and is DivX compatible so I just transfer the file to one of those cheap usb thumb drives, plug it in and watch. As a bonus I have explored TV programming from other countries and can recommend a program from the BBC called " The Fixer " and last year they had a good miniseries called "Demons" which is still up for download and we enjoyed. Most north American shows are up for download within 4-6 hours of being broadcast and as a bonus the commercials are already edited out so the running time is about 42 minutes for a hour show and file size about 355MB for the DivX version. This could be another option and expands your viewing choices as well.

Beautiful fish, gotta love those buck Coho, put something green in front of them, yahoo, fish on!