thalweg

I believe there are two sizes to the those rubber stop jobs. Make sure you buy a package of both. It sucks trying to get them to fit right in the weight when they are to big or two small for the hole.

Some dandy bass!

Bassman.... all I gotta say is

Nice fish! Well done. Every time I go early thinking I'll hit a good payload...it bites...no pun intended. Good timing.

Jesus...relax man.

What a cute dog. Like others have mentioned, many have been through this if that's a consolation. It hurts like hell. Get another..you won't forget your first..but you'll realize that life will go on and that your new one will provide you with great friendship as well. All the best.

Hey Hammer swinger. You figure thats the same prop as the first posters picture?

The bears are around, but really unlikely you'll be bothered unless you leave your bacon and eggs pan on the fire pit and left overs on the picnic table. For what its worth I always ensure my food is stored properly as the raccoons are more bothersome in my opinion. As with regards to the Booze ban..its purpose is to keep the spring and summers end teenage bush parties from getting out of hand. I have always brought beer or mixed beverages with me ban or not. Just make sure you don't make any unnecessary noise, keep a respectable and tidy camp(cans and alcohol containers put away or disposed of properly), a small and controlled camp fire and very unlikely you'll be bothered.

Totally agree with Fish4Eyes and his recommendation. You might get lucky..but I doubt it. You better be good with small engines with a motor 30+ years old. Nothing ruins the day then on the water breakdowns. Particularly with your wife and kids on the boat...not to mention 15km away from shore. Been there done that...and it sucks BIG TIME. Find a way to put at least 1500.00 dollars together to get something within 10-15 years old and try to get the max HP for your boat rating. You say now that you'll just plow around but later you will regret it. Along with Fish4eyes suggestions...my experience is less with the actual power head (main engine/combustion/pistons etc ) and more problems with the lower unit and gears. Check the gear oil..if it has fresh oil when you buy it (be suspicious) if it doesn't, check it and ensure there is no water in there (oil will have a murky grey to light grey look to it. Check the oil plug (usually magnetic) for any small metal shavings etc etc.

Funny...I know the boat that prop belongs to.

Nice fish... Wondering if you notice any fizz marks on them? Curious to know how many have em? Cheers

Multitrackstudio.com Great software with free demo (three tracks) $99.00 for unlimited tracks. Blaques recommendation for the UX2 is also good. You don't want to use your internal sound card. The above UX2 is an external sound card and input device all in one, with the added bonus of guitar amp modeling. Basically any guitar sound you want plus the ability to mic sounds like piano, vocals...etc etc Once you really get into it then a more professional system is Sonar, Cubase, or Pro-tools and a more quality external sound interface like the Mackie Oynx family of pre-amp interfaces is what you should be looking for. There's a lot to learn to get pro-sounding recordings with home based gear. EQ, compression etc etc...but with the above stuff you should get rolling pretty quick.

All the above and +1 to EC1. Its tough at first..but over time you'll get it and a great way to present baits with the beauty of significantly reduced line twist vs spinning.

Both are decent spots...not the best lakes around. I like Conestoga more for the simple fact if you do get one...they tend to be bigger.

Link for Dutch http://www.bigfatbass.com/viewthread.php?tid=15210

Don't beat yourself up. I was in the same tourney. Both days. Day one we got 7 lbs and dumped them. (a lot of zero's aren't complete skunks btw...guys dump em figuring its a waste of time to wait for weigh-in) Day two, complete change of tactic and we got a pay spot. Pre-fish can mess with your brain...patterns rarely last more than a couple hours. Make decisions the day of hour by hour...draw up basic guidelines during pre-fish. There's no silver bullet..or secret. Time on the water and having lots of spots for various conditions is the key. Some guys luck out first time on the lake by making good decisions during tourney day. Others have fished the lake for decades and have established spots for certain conditions. Some guys just get pure luck (rare) but it does happen.

Oxygen(air), spark, fuel. Check each individually and always the easiest things first...ie fuel filter, plugs etc. Could be as simple as a rich/lean setting to as complicated as a bad magneto. Before changing anything...verify it is indeed the problem.

Mother nature's natural programming for the deer. The dog was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I Didn't interpret the dog posing a threat but Deer may have took it for a coyote. I'm a dog lover..but I don't blame the deer.

Thrill seeking cowards... that's all they are.

And another more detailed article on the subject http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/library/7663.pdf

Thanks for the reply, and you are right it is apples and oranges. You bring up a good point as Urban area comparison is an important distinction. Are you sure its clay? Some river systems that I've seen lots of floating foam are in lime stone areas as well.

Hi, I'm not trying to be a bummer here, but it's been bugging me for a long time. I've recently joined my friends on a yearly, once a week fishing excursion that requires that we pick a new country to travel to and fish. Two years ago it was the bitter root river system in Montana (my inaugural trip with the gang). Years prior (before I joined them) it was Iceland, Caribbean salt, and nearly all central Europe i.e France, Germany Slovenia, Poland etc etc. They all live in various parts of Europe from Belgium to Poland, so Europe is a favourite. Last year it was Canada (I was appointed guide). I couldn't help but sense their confusion and surprise when they came to our waters. Canada has seemingly done a great job of promoting our outdoors as clean and relatively untouched to visitor to our country and they came with that vision in mind. However, they kept asking me why the waters were dark and what is the floating foam? It never occurred to me to think of the waters as polluted as I have fished nearly every decent Southern Ontario Steelhead and trout river and just accept them as relatively clean (Saugeen, Beaver etc etc) with the only exception of the lower grand (I won't set foot in that water again...I can't help but think I'm wading in a river that is used to wash away at least a population of 500,000 daily trips to the bathroom...smells like poop mixed in with the scents of shampoo and conditioner.) Anyways, I found myself making excuses...such as "oh thats just algae foam as a result of turbid pocket water...or ya, there's a lot of farms along this stretch." After a while however, I could sense that they just didn't believe me...and I figured that I was just brainwashed to think that the water quality is good and kinda felt ashamed that I recommended a visit to my local waters( which is why I want to get the opinions of others) Are there any folks here that have the know on the general water quality of our popular steelhead and trout rivers? To be fair and on Southern Ontario's behalf...most of the river systems they fish in Europe and Montana for that matter are mountain fed streams so maybe it's just the way it is in fertile farmland areas. Thanks for any feedback or thoughts.

Your new outfit is a setup that many professional bass anglers use. Light and responsive.

Nice fish. Wish Ontario would smarten up and re-think the bass season up here. In my opinion, US fisheries management is light years better than Ontario. I would rather spend my fishing dollars up here but end up sending more of it down south. They don't seem to be losing fish populations either, in fact...in my experience the bass fishing down there gets better year after year. I've tried for carp from the boat with the fly rod using a brown woolly bugger. Got them, but not when they were suspended or surfacing. The fly needed to be resting or very slowly dragging bottom. The carp seem to be trying to eat stuff at the surface...but I don't think they are.

What a beautiful boat. Congratulations. The 57m seems very slow to me for a 300hp. I know guys with rangers and 250's and they top out around 75. Yours looks heavier and maybe the deeper hull design offsets speed with a better rough water ride. I would suspect with proper setup you should be able to at least touch 70 with that rig. I couldn't tell if it had a manual or auto jack plate? Not that speed really matters when you're already in the 50's but I suspect that you're putting a lot of load on the engine.