Dabluz

I made a mistake in my previous posting. It wasn't Mason Tiger braid that comes in 3 different models but Tuf Line. There is Tuf Line Plus, Tuf Line XT et Tuf Line. The third one is the more difficult to find. It's the only one that does not have any added coating to make it stiffer and/or shed water faster. I also like Tuf Line for baitcasters. Yes....it is tough too. This year, I will be trying the newest version of the line called "Easy Cast". It's very smooth and hard...almost feels like mono. I guess that the 6 to 10 lb test would be just about right for a spinning reel.

Braided lines differ mostly in how they are coated and how tightly they are braided. Very tight braids will be stiffer. Some coatings are thicker than others. The coatings add stiffness and smoothness. They also add diameter to the line. Why the coatings....the simple reason is that a very limp braided line will get tangled around the end of the rod. This caused a lot of complaints by testers. For casting distance, the smaller and the more limp a line is, will add distance to your cast whether it be a spinning reel or a baitcaster. Fused lines like Fireline are thinner than braided lines. This is normal because the braiding process does add diameter....look closely and you will see that there are spaces in the braiding. However, Fireline, which is only a bunch of parallel fibers is "fused" together. This makes it stiffer. It may take a good while for it to get a bit more limp. It's still my favourite line and I have not had any fraying except close to the lure and it's just a matter of cutting off a bit of line every now and then. Mono also gets damaged near the lure but since it is very hard to see the damage, nobody complains about this damage causing a weakness in the mono. The funny part is that frayed Fireline does not get weak unless it's very frayed. Yes....knots do slip more easily in Fireline than braid. This is normal because it is thinner and more slippery. I use a double Palomar knot. Do not go over 12 lb test....it's too stiff. I have 14 lb test Fireline and I had to put it on a reel for very deep water fishing (200 to 450 feet deep). So, if you want to be able to cast long distances, you will have to stay with braid or that is limp and under 20 lb test or Fireline that is under 12 lb test. Luckily, Fireline is the strongest of all the dyneema/spectra lines. 20 lb test Fireline breaks at around 47 lbs and since it is made up of parallel fibers, it has less stretch than braid. However, less stretch also means less "shock" resistance. The bad part about braids and fused lines is their knot strength. If you can get 70% knot strength....you are doing good. There are some lines that offer a few surprises. Example; Mason Tiger Braid is actually a braided exterior with a bunch of parallel fibers running through the middle. This makes it thinner than other braids yet does not fray as easily as Fireline. I really like Mason Tiger Braid. It's very very limp. The 20 lb test is smaller than other braids. The parallel inner core reduces the stretch to about 3% instead of 4%. However, Mason Tiger Braid has one huge problem.....knot strength. Imagine tieing a knot in a line that has 2 types of stretch. The outer braided core with more stretch and the inner core with less stretch. When tieing this line, it's real easy to damage the outer braid. I use a Palomar knot and after the knot is snugged up, I look closely at it to check to see if any of the inner layer is visible. 3 out of 4 knots fail this test. However, the more flexible outer layer does make this line much more resistant to fraying. In the abrasion tests, this line won hands down. You can find the "20 lb abrasion test" on the internet. Yes, Mason Tiger Braid does get tangled on the end of the rod tip more frequently than other lines. I'm used to this because I fish a lot with 2 lb test mono which does the same. It's a question of keeping tension on the line. Another problem with Mason Tiger Braid is finding it. I have to admit that I have never used it on a spinning reel but I use it on a few baitcasters and it's my favourite line when I want to cast light lures and still get a bit more distance.

Nice set of aquariums outside. Some great looking sheds too. Do I see a pen for raising pheasant?

We've had a rotten year so far in my area. Winter came very late. The Saguenay river does not have much ice and where I set up my fish hut, there is no ice yet and the area is closed. So far, we got about 1/3 of the normal snow fall. It's either very cold or too warm with rain. Been in the - 20's all week. Should get quite a bit warmer after the weekend.

How much to rent it? I will still let you hang out there. You can have your own key.

I've had no luck with Yozuri lures. The Pin's minnows have no action but I used them enough to see that they also catch no fish. I have on large banana style Yozuri with great action and even though I use it quite often I still haven't caught a pike on it. Way over priced. X-Raps have been great for me on walleye. Ripplin' Red Fin.....I think I haven't caught anything on those. Almost impossible to tune right. Storm swim baits......the walleye will hit them every now and then but the hooks are too heavy and won't penetrate past the barb no matter how sharp they are. Walleye Diver.....maybe it goes too deep for the walleye in my area. Norman Lures fat lures deep diving.....not expensive but no fish so far. However, there are no bass in my region. Jointed Rapalas ..... been using them for years.....no fish. I find a few of them here and there, put them in my tackle box and lend them to others....still no fish. Shad Rap.....still my best producer of fish from brook trout to pike....sizes SR5 and SR7 in natural silver with black back or crawdad have worked the best.

For creek fishing...I would go to 4 lb mono and a stiff rod. The reason for a stiff rod is the fact that the fish will hook itself and will not be able to scoot back under the roots, logs and other hiding places. There are a couple of creeks near my home and nobody fishes them except those that will toss a baited hook from the side of the road. There are no trails along these creeks and it's very dense bush. The only way to fish them is to walk upstream with waders. Fishing consists of pointing the rod tip in an opening over the creek and then lowering the baited hook into the water by backreeling or opening the bail. I don't even use bait....just a weighted nymph and a tiny split shot about 3 inches above the nymph. Even though I can often straddle these small creeks, there are places where the water is waist deep. It's a real jungle and it's hard work but I can catch my limit of 20 trout in a matter of minutes all summer. The water is tea coloured and the small trout all have extremely beautiful bodies. The average size is about 7 inches but there is the occaisional 12 to 14 incher and quite a few 10 inchers. I sometimes go up to 6 lb test depending on where I am fishing. I'm even thinking of just using a good stiff branch about 7 feet long and just unrolling the line that's wrapped around the end of the branch or maybe installing an old fly reel on a rather stiff bamboo pole. Nobody fishes in these creeks in my area....too much trouble. I only do it when I want a quick meal. Every creek in my region is crammed full of trout and there are rarely another species of fish except maybe a few places where there are creek chubs and even then, I haven't come across any creeks with chub.

Yes....I should have read your message more closely. I guess that even if a 1 lb bottle did suddenly spring a leak and emptied itself in a store, the diffused gas would not be concentrated enough to ignite.

Where can I find an adapter for filling my 1 lb tanks? Are they sold commercially? Do you think I can buy one at a place that specializes in filling propane tanks? I've got an old Coleman catalytic heater in which I can store 2 one pound bottles. This is the heater I use in my portable fishing hut and also for camping in the spring and fall. I even use the heater for late fall to keep my insulated 8 X 8 hunting camp warm. I also have an old Coleman oven/roaster, lamps, camp stove so in the long run, I use quite a bit of propane throughout the year. I do a lot of wilderness camping/canoing/fishing and hunting where any extra weight/bulk is a handicap.

The 20 lb tanks that are for sale in stores do not have propane in them.

I tried different fluorocarbon lines and returned them for a refund. Berkley's Sensithin in 4 lb test was my favourite for brookies in the 2 to 4 lb range on ultra light gear but it no longer exists. Maybe Berkley changed it's name to "Sensation" but I haven't tried it yet so I have no opinion on that line. Now, I use 2 and 3 lb test Tectan Premium. I use a rather old ultra light reel....Cardinal Ultra Light Pro Max teamed up with a surprisingly low cost Daiwa Spinmatic X, SM-X 602 ULFS, 6 foot fast action rod. Concerning fluorocarbon, I don't follow the hype. I do my own tests. I compare the size, the stretch, knot strength, strength, stiffness test etc etc. I ask friends to send me samples of their lines for testing. Yes....Silver Thread did surprise me but I can't get it in smaller than 6 lb test. Trilene XL is great but too much stretch and the XT is way too stiff to stay on my tiny spool.

You are going to love your machine for cruising the trails. Very comfortable. Elans in good condition sell for quite a bit of money.

Well....the sealing industry got a recent boost when China said that they wouldn't mind buying seal products from Canada.

When fishing for smelt through the ice, they are usually caught in about 3 to 10 feet of water. Rig up a light but fast action short ice rod with 4 lb mono. Make a series of dropper loop knots about 3 to 4 inches apart and attach a size 10 hook to each loop. Use a tiny bit of nightcrawler on each hook. Put a 1/4 once bell sinker on the end of the line and lower the line to the bottom. Where I fish, there is no limit to the number of hooks. I use 10 hooks so that I can pull the whole setup out of the water with my short rod. When the smelt are biting, it's quite common to catch 3 or 4 at a time. However, in Quebec, the limit is 120 smelt which is quite a bit since you need a really big appetite to eat more than 20 of them. On top of that, their importance as a forage fish for sport fish is still underated. You won't find landlocked salmon unless there are smelt. I can manage to eat about 30 of them....however with nothing else on the plate. I prefer small smelt because you can eat them like french fries...no need to remove the vertebrae. The real tiny smelt (about 3 inches), I freeze individually and use for bait. The are excellent eating when fresh. Some people freeze them to eat another day but I find that they lose their taste after only a short while in the freezer. I only eat them fresh (less than 24 hours). Fresh smelt smell quite a bit like cucumber....very similar to whitefish. I often go smelt fishing through the ice so I have a few people (usually older folk who no longer can go fishing) who I give them to. I usually quit when I have around 100 smelt caught. That means that I have a good 1 hour of work at the sink. Smelt are an interesting fish. Most die after spawing but some do spawn again and even a third time. They are a relative to Atlantic salmon...so are whitefish and grayling. Smelt also have a natural antifreeze in their blood. Here in the Saguenay river where salt water mixes with fresh water, the water can actually be -2 or -3 celsius near the ice. This means that an ordinary fish would freeze at that temperature....but not smelt. However, the smelt further north have a greater concentration of this antifreeze. Where I fish, there are 20 foot tides. This means that at low tide, there is no water under the fishing hut. However, as soon as there is 6 inches of water, the smelt start moving under the ice. It also means that I only fish on a rising or falling tide. Rising tide seems to be the best time. The smelt aren't always moving under the fishing hut. They sometimes run elsewhere so sucess is not a sure thing however, if you find a fishing spot where you can usually catch smelt, you have a silver mine. Smelt are not the only fish with an antifreeze in their blood but they are numerous and are of commercial importance. They may even be a way of using this antifreeze to cure cancer. Imagine being able to use this antifreeze in normal human tissue and be able to freeze (and therefore kill) nearby unhealthy or cancerous human tissue.

Buy the tiller model to have more space and less weight. 15 feet seems to me to be more versatile than 16 feet...depends on the width and height. I have a 12 foot and would love to have a 14 foot. Anybody want to trade?

I hope you like your machine. It wouldn't be my choice either. Great for 2 up riding on trails but other than that.....don't go into snow over 12 inches, never leave the trail and stay away form any kind of slush on the ice. If you want to crank it when the battery is dead.....good luck. Big motors may be fun but are crap to crank when it's cold. Even the old 540 cc often took 2 people to pull the crank. Store an extra battery and booster cables. Is the heat exchanger under the seat? I also hated machines that had that....you end up with a wet rear end and accumulated ice between the tunnel and the track.

Not allowed to use enclosures in my region. This due to the fact that snaring grouse is not legal. Those that snare grouse illegally, make a large enclosure with a few snares around de circumference and bait the middle with natural food that grouse like to eat. Grouse either walk into an enclosure or fly into an enclosure but walk out. They never fly in and fly out. I would have a hard time convincing a conservation officer that I was just looking for rabbits. However, snaring a grouse accidentally in a rabbit snare is legal and it's quite common to snare a grouse.

I never use a snare that has already caught a rabbit. Been doing that so long now that the reason is obscure but I think it was due to too many of those used snares breaking off. I've tried the brass snares and even old dull brass snares and I seem to get fewer rabbits with them. They are also larger (approx .030" to .040") but are maybe a bit stronger. I've tried .017" locking wire and did catch rabbits but did have more break offs. The best has been .020" locking wire. I'm sure that .022" or .024" locking wire would do fine too but .030 locking wire is definately too stiff. Another great source for wire is monel trolling wire in size .020". It's probably exactly the same stuff as locking wire. Anyway....it seems to me to be the same and that's what I use now. Maybe I'm too nostalgic when I think of aircraft locking wire. I remember even putting locking wire on many of the bolts on my motorcycle. If 2 bolts were close together, I would lock both bolts by twisting locking wire between the too bolt heads. Looked snazzy too.

Rubbing the snare on a small tree trunk....really makes a smooth round snare. So....just put the wire behind a small tree trunk, grab each end of the snare and rub it back and forth. The snare will take a natural curve that is perfectly smooth....very little friction. When tying your snare to the branch that is angled over the trail, make 3 turns around the branch and then twist the free end around the wire lead. The snare must not swing on the branch. I usually use a branch that is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and jam the cut end into the ground and then tangle the other end between some trees. I use a long branch for this. I try to make my setup under some evergreen trees where there will be less chance of snow filling up the trail and burying the snare. It's quite a chore setting up a snare because you really have to be in dense brush. I use a pair of good shears to cut my branches but I always have a sharp hatchet for bigger stuff. I find that the little upright branch just under the snare bothers the hares....they don't seem to like being scratched on the belly I guess. I've seen many people do that trick and they do have sucess snaring rabbits but they also have over 100 snares set. It would take me a week to set 100 snares and would cover a realy big territory. I prefer setting up a good quality snare on a great looking trail. Sometime, I will lay a branch crossways under the snare but it must be done so that the rabbit does not have to force his way through the obstacle. Try to keep the distance between the snare and the upper branch as short as possible. However, you should have a good 3 inches of clearance between the snare and upper branch.....the same distance as the snare is off the ground. I was really surprised when I actually saw a rabbit getting caught in one of my snares. The rabbit was not running....just walking slowly and sniffing around. When he got to the snare....he just gave a push and his neck was firmly grasped by the wire. He gave a couple of more pushes and by the time I got to him....he was dead. Hardly struggled and did not make a sound. Very impressive....very fast and probably much more humane than people think. I often have 100% sucess rates with my snares on the first day they are set up. After that, it quickly drops off to approx 70% the next day and then about 20% on the third day. After that, it's about 10% sucess unless I remove the snares and there is no additional snow to make the rabbits change the location of their highways. Big snowfalls, a day of thaw followed by a day of cold will allow the rabbits to run on the crust all over the place but in the real thick bush, the trails stay pretty constant. I do have a tendancy to make my snares a tad larger than other people. The smaller rabbits often have a paw in the snare too but I try to target larger hares and anyway, later in the season, the rabbits are older and larger. I don't have many break offs but they do happen. Often it's a rabbit who has got one or both paws in the snare....along with his head or a larger stronger animal like a skunk. Since my snares do collapse when touched...I do catch a lot of squirrels and grouse. Up here where I live....there are only red squirrels. The grouse are either spruce grouse or ruffed grouse.....more often they are spruce grouse. It's a pretty bird but the meat is much darker and stronger tasting. My wife usually cooks the spruce grouse when making baked beans. The rabbits are also cooked in baked beans but most often simply baked like a chicken along with a small roast of pork. Don't forget that the kidneys, heart and liver are great t eat too. Just remove the bile sack inside the liver before cooking. My wife cooks my rabbits with the head (fur and ears removed). There are the rabbit cheeks, the tongue and the brains that are great eating too.

Contact this person: [email protected] Also....take a look at this site: http://pages.videotron.com/fishing/index.html

I do a lot of snaring for snowshoe hares where I live. Some times, I set up 9 snares and the next day I have 9 rabbits. I prefer the steel monel snares.....020". I make my circle by grabbing each end of the wire and pulling it over a small tree trunk. The circle is clean and perfect....plus it removes any human scent. I then set up the size of the circle so my fist just makes it through the cricle. I have a small fist.....4". The circle is a bit smaller because it deforms a bit when my fist goes through it so about 3 1/2 inches is about the best. I sometimes go to 4 inches later in the winter when the rabbits are larger. I then make a bend where I want the circle to stop. Then....I carefully close the circle almost completely and then open it back up to the bend. This way, when the rabbit touches the wire, it springs closed about 1/2 way or more. No snare limits or rabbit limits where I live. We can even sell the rabbits and there are butcher shops that buy them and resell them to customers.....it's legal. I also make fences so that the rabbit is lead into the gap where the snare is. I don't put a small post under the snare. I just make sure that it is low enough to the ground....about 4 fingers (3 inches) off the ground. I like to put some wide evergreen branches over the snare to remove any possible glare that the moon could reflect on the snare wire. In any event, the rabbits like to sit under branches. I have seen rabbits come up to a snare....get caught and before I could get to them, they died due to blood not getting to the brain. They did it in complete silence. They will struggle and scream if they get a front leg or half their body into the snare. If possible....do not walk in the rabbit trail. If you do, make sure that the rabbit can continue to use the trail. I leave my snare wire outdoors for a good while (to make them as dull as possible). The best snare wire is aircraft locking wire .020". I wish I could get more somewhere. I wish I had scarfed more when I was in the airforce. To make the tiny locking loop at the end of the wire, I use a small nail and I make the turns so that both the turning wire and the main wire twist at the same time. This is the strongest loop and this is how the twists are made when using this wire on aircraft bolt heads and electrical fasteners. The tiny loop is 90 degrees to the circle of the snare....you want the least amount of friction possible. The small loop will prevent the snare from loosening after it is closed around the neck of the rabbit. I'm not much for putting out hundreds of snares like a lot of people I know. I look for main trails where the rabbit trails converge. If I can install 12 snares in a day....I'm happy because I know that I will have rabbits in most of my snares. Rabbits make a lot of tracks so it doesn't take long for the snares to come up empty. When I have too many empty snares....I remove them, restaure the trail like it was and place the snare elsewhere. I now use my GPS to mark my snares because there are a lot of guys who spend their time just looking out for marking ribbons and then steal the rabbits. For snaring....the colder the better. Wind keeps the rabbits immobile unless the snares are in really dense cover. Every once in a while, the rabbits love to move out into open spaces and run around in groups......usually on nights with full moon, no wind and cold. Snaring success goes a bit down during these evenings because the rabbits run everywhere. I guess the full moon also makes the snares more visible. There are no snare limits or rabbit limits in my region. It's even legal to sell the rabbits. Many butcher shops buy them and resell them to customers. This does not affect the rabbit population. However, there are regula variations in rabbit populations...it's usually a 6 to 10 year variation from many to few rabbits.

Ice fishing is a world apart from fishing from a boat. Yes, it really makes winter a nice thing to have. Icefishermen rarely grump about the weather. The biggest thing is to be warm. No such thing as too much clothes. If you feel the cold....you will hate icefishing. I also like the fact that you set things up and then you can go about making coffee, toasting sandwiches, listening to music on the mp3, chatting with other fishermen if you want or going out with a group of buddies and then every once in a while you check your lines or you pull out a fish that will surely taste great. Fancy expensive equipment will not let you catch more fish so everybody is on the same level. Also, being alowed more than 1 line lets you experiment a lot and this helps with the summer fishing too. It's great exercise too. The only bad thing about icefishing is the cold and that can be controlled.

Stoneflies are a real nice pattern to make but they are only found in fast flowing streams with rocky bottoms. There are lots of different varieties of stoneflys in my region but the streams are small therefore the trout are usually under 12 inches long. Yes....there are larger streams where there are large brook trout (over 2 lbs) but they mostly have salmon in them too so you have to spend money to fish in them. So while you fish them....you might as well fish for salmon and trout that jump on a salmon fly. Almost all of my flyfishing is in lakes where there are no stoneflies but lots of still water nymphs like mayflies and dragonflies. The best fish catchers in these waters are flies that only suggest mayfly or dragonfly nymphs. If I want to target larger brook trout, I often use a streamer called a Tri-Color. It's green back, orange body and white belly actually resembles a small brook trout and is quite effective. My most effective fly is the old standard....a muddler. I make it with a deer hair body (hair tied parallel to the hook shank) which I grease and I fish the fly as a dry fly. I also tie this pattern with the wing quite high in order for it to also imitate a large mayfly. This fly which ressembles a deer fly, or a horsefly or a mayfly or a dragon fly or even a bee has accounted for my largest brook trout. A tiny tuft of bright orange wool at the rear end closely ressembles the egg sac of a mayfly.

Glad you liked it. It's a real easy tune to play too. I play guitar and harmonica. Fantastic drumming too.

That's probably the ultimate question for any lure. Is it shape, size, colour or the realism of the lure that makes a fish bite.