douG

Did someone say Pho? A nourishing soup made with flat rice noodles, Pho Bo soup is popular throughout Vietnam. Serves 4 to 6. INGREDIENTS: Beef Broth: 1 small onion, chopped 1 2-inch stick ginger 2 pounds beef bones 12 cups water 6 star anise 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sugar 1 pound lean, tender beef Noodles: 1 16-ounce package dry, flat rice noodles (pho) Garnish: 3 scallions, thinly sliced 1 large onion, thinly sliced 10 cilantro sprigs, finely chopped 1 cup bean sprouts 10 sprigs basil 10 sprigs fresh culantro (ngo gai) fresh red or green chile pepper, thinly sliced Accompaniments lime or lemon quarters fish sauce hoisin sauce hot chile sauce PREPARATION: Broil onion and ginger until they look burned. Using back of cleaver, smash the ginger and set aside. Wash beef bones, place in a large soup pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil and immediately pour off this "first boiling" water and discard. Add another 12 cups of fresh water and again bring to a boil. Skim off foam. Add the broiled onion and ginger, star anise, salt and sugar. Over medium-low heat, simmer for 30 minutes. Slice raw beef into thin strips and set aside. Remove bones from broth and strain out vegetables and seasonings. Soak noodles in cold water for 10 minutes. Drain. In a soup pot bring two quarts fresh water to a boil. Add drained noodles and cook seven minutes at a rolling boil, stirring occasionally until noodles are tender. Rinse noodles under cold running water and set aside. Return the broth to a boil over high heat. To serve: Divide noodles among 4 to 6 large individual serving bowls. Arrange thinly sliced raw beef, scallions, onion, and cilantro on top. Pour boiling hot broth to cover noodles and serve immediately. The boiling broth will cook the thin slices of beef. Pho is always accompanied by bean sprouts, basil leaves, culantro and chile pepper. Serve with lime and lemon quarters, fish sauce, hoisin sauce and hot chile sauce. Serves 4 to 6. *Culantro is a leafy herb with a similar aroma to cilantro, although more pungent. If unavailable, increase the amount of cilantro or simply leave out. Recipe Reprinted from The Vietnamese Cookbook, by Diana My Tran. There. Or just hop in the car and go buy a big, steaming bowl of the most amazing beef noodle soup you've ever had.

Wow. This board is all over this one like a fat kid on a twinkie. WTG folks.

Roy's wit? You're half right.

Best to you folks, have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Snag, just rent 'Emperor of the North Pole' to see Borgie as Mr. Shack. That will exorcise your demons, fer sure. I saw that one about 30 years ago. Unforgettable. Definitely a guy's movie.

Remember that if you aren't wearing enough on your head and neck, your hands and feet will get cold no matter how good your boots and gloves are. If you can keep most of the heat in your body that would leave from the top and core, you will be surprised how easy it is to keep your pinkies and tootsies toasty. You just can't beat toasty tootsies. My float suit has built in side pockets on the chest that are sorta like those hand muffs that you strap on your waist. I could probably put one of those handwarmer packets in there too.

That's just wongr.

Sometimes it's hard to find a good NetBoy. Don't kvetch.

Head like Ernest Borgnine. Hilarious! Anyone remember Shack?

What does anyone want with a bier?

Maybe we should have next year's BoQ get together at Lakair instead. That always seems to work out well.

Take everything, as long as you can get the bait deeper than 20 ft. Run long lines, either off planer boards or downriggers, or even flatlining. Snap weights have their fans too. Wayne, the launches are easy to find from the water, just look for the docks.

Very nice, joey. Thanks for taking the time to post such a wonderful report. I guess. I had a great time fishing with Emil, that guy is hardcore, a man with a mission. It was great as always to meet again with good friends, and even to catch some fish. My fish was a beauty, we guessed about 31 in. Unfortunately, it was a little too big for Emil's net, and was in a great hurry to get back in the water. In the end, the only thing I lost was a photo or two. Emil and I found that both the long lines and planer boards worked, as well as a variety of colours and sizes. The trick was to locate the fish that were hanging around the schools of baitfish. These were around 25 - 30 down, in anywhere from 40 to 100 fow. Back to joey's pictures, I think my OFC toque makes me look fat. As for my position on the dock, I think I was tieing up your boat on your return on Saturday. See Tybo in the foreground? Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Thanks to everyone for a great weekend, a fitting end to a great softwater season. Cheers!

I joined this board in 2003 when I decided to join my Dad and Bro on their twice yearly trip to Algonquin park after a friend's father passed away. My friend spoke to me about his regrets over the lack of time that they had spent together, and I decided that I had been a fool, and that it was time to fix this situation. I used to fish lakers north of Peterborough and into Algonquin park with my family when I was much much younger, but gave up the whole fishing thing for about 30 years. I then started to join the old man's crew in May and September in Algonquin. I joined this board around that time to try to learn about fishing. Since then, I have accumulated a huge amount of clothing, camping gear, and fishing gear and tackle. I have met some lifelong friends here on OFC, and I look forward to meeting many more. Now, I fish for lakers, whitefish, walleye, perch, muskie, salmon, and steelhead, all over southern Ontario, four hours from Toronto all year round. This is a wonderful community, distinguished by a love of fishing and the outdoors, and a sincere desire to help and support our hobby and our friends.

Great to hear from you, pooch. Nice walleye under tough conditions.