Dabluz

I've always used the best boiled linseed oil I could find to finish my firearms. The finish is beautiful, waterproof, non-reflective and scratch resistant. Wiping down with a lightly oiled cloth every now and again keeps the finish in great condition. I've never heard of "Tru-Oil". It sounds good to me.

I would recommend a Berkley Lightning Rod. If it's for crankbaits you can choose the "Shock" model which is made for braided lines. In any event, these rods sell for about 40 dollars. Those rods that have lifetime garantees....you pay for the garantee. Meanwhile, Berkley will replace any of their rods if they have bad workmanship. A long time ago, I broke my Berkley Curt Gowdy model fiberglass rod. I asked Berkley to send me a tip to replace the one I broke (my fault) and they sent me a fiberglass/graphite composite rod for free. 3 years later, I sent that rod back because I hated the rubbery action it had. Berkley then sent me a graphite Lightning Rod. I guess I was the first in Canada to have one. I loved that rod and used it for many years. I broke the tip (my fault) and then broke the rod when my snowmobile rolled on an ice fishing trip. What better garantee than that!

I also have a Daiwa Spinmatic and it's a great rod....not wimpy at all. I usually hate the action of an ultra-light rod but the Spinmatic has a fast action. For the reel, I like a reel to be smooth and tight. I hate any handle play or play in the spool. I use an Abu Garcia 601 ALB and it's great. It also has a great drag. I use 2, 3 and 4 lb mono or 4 lb nanofil on this reel.

Well.....if a rod has a lifetime guarantee....you are certainly paying for the guarantee when you buy the rod. I've been fishing for 60 years and I have broken only 2 rods. One was about 50 years ago....a hollow fiberglass rod that was very old and beaten. The other was a rod I bought at Walmart for 10 dollars. It sported the company name of "Renegade". I lent the rod to a newbie from Europe and he had most certainly given it a rap on the side of the boat because the rod broke real easy the next time I used it. This rod had seen a lot of use previous to the break. I have broken a couple of other rods but that was due to leaving them in the sun while in the car or rolling my snowmobile on an icefishing trip. I even steer clear of rods with lifetime guarantees because I know that I will be paying much more than just the price of the rod.

It's not climate change that makes fish smaller. Fish are getting smaller due to fishing pressure, diminishing water quality, invasive species and general decline in genetics. I could explain further but it would take days of writing.

It's possible to estimate the number of hours of operation you should get from your battery. First, you have to calculate how many amps your trolling motor consumes at different speeds. Most motors use a bit more than 1 amp for every lb of thrust. If you are using your 5 speed 30 lb thrust motor at about 1/2 speed, you can pretty well say that the motor consumes about 15 amps. If you use the motor for 1 hour at 1/2 speed, you have consumed 15 amp/hours. If your battery is rated at 150 amp/hours, you should be able to run the motor for 10 hours and the battery will be dead. Large deep cycle batteries have about 200 minutes of reserve. This means about 200 minutes at 50 amps. Fully discharging a deep cycle battery does a lot less harm than fully discharging a starting battery. The big problem is finding a real deep cycle battery. Most of the batteries that are called "nautical batteries" are actually hybrid batteries....meaning that they are a combination of a deep cycle battery and a starting battery. Real deep cycle batteries cost more than twice the cost of a starting battery. Another thing you have to watch out for is the fact that most battery chargers cannot properly recharge a deep cycle battery. Canadian Tire does not sell chargers for deep cycle batteries. Walmart sells battery chargers made by a company called Schumacher. The instructions say that these chargers do recharge deep cycle batteries and so far (2 years now) my deep cycle battery has stayed powerful. My old charger (Motomaster) could not recharge my battery and I almost ruined the battery before buying a Schumacher. If you do decide to buy a charger and your battery is large, get the 15 amp model.

I've been thinking about doing a bit of wilderness camping (tent) this coming weekend. I live close to the 50th parallel and it's getting quite cool....especially at night. Only fishing for pike is allowed in my region right now....outside of fishing in the Saguenay River which is a different fishing zone but too close to home for a camping expedition. I guess I could go to Chibougamau and do some walleye fishing/camping but that would be hard on my budget. I hate this time of year.

First of all....I doubt very much that you have a real deep cycle battery. If you did, you would not use it as a starting battery. What you probably have is a "nautical battery" which is in reality a hybrid between a deep cycle and a starting battery. I used those sold by CT for many years but they did not last very long. Maximum of 3 years. Just enough for the garantee to run out. Normally, a deep cycle battery has caps on the cells that open and allow you to add liquid to each cell. Secondly.....Canadian Tire does not sell battery chargers for deep cycle batteries. Well....not the ones we normally see on sale. Those small CTEK chargers....I do not trust. The battery charger that is on sale is not a deep cycle charger. But since you seem to have a nautical battery (hybrid), I guess the battery charger will work. I tried a couple before somebody with a lot of experience who worked at one of the Canadian Tire stores told me that Motormaster does not sell chargers for deep cycle batteries. If you read the instruction manual for the Motormaster charger, you will even read that it is not recommended for deep cycle batteries. 2 years ago, I almost ruined a deep cycle battery with my Motormaster charger. I spent some time looking for more info. Anyway, for the past 2 years, I have been using a Schumacher battery charger sold at Walmart's. There are 3 or 4 different models (depending on charge rate) and they do say that they charge deep cycle batteries. I got the 15 amp size charger. So far, I have been impressed and they cost about the same as a Motormaster.

Smalleye....yes that's a good one. Now imagine "brooskies"! Both fish are very agressive however brook trout are much more agressive. Brook trout live in cool clean water and taste great. Musky get very large. Both fish jump and both look great. Also, brooskies has the same name as "brewskies" which is another favourite among fishermen.

I use braid on baitcasters for casting heavy lures for pike and walleye. I don't use braid on my spinning reels. I tried it and though it was ok, I still prefer a fusion type line like Fireline. Anyway, Fireline, size for size, is the strongest line. 20 lb Fireline breaks at over 45 lbs. I use light line so my largest Fireline is rated at 8 lb test. I tried Nanofil this year in 4 lb test and love it. It's as strong and shock resistant as 4 lb mono. I don't use leaders....especially fluorocarbon which is way overated and expensive. I'm even surprised at how many people like this stuff since it does not have any qualities at all except the fact that it sinks. I am a finesse fisherman so I use 2 to 6 lb clear mono. The best line I have used so far has been Berkley Sensation. It is not a mono but a copolymer line. It acts exactly like mono but it does have less stretch than Berkley XL and if you look at the diameter versus rated strength, it's in the class with the thinnest monos and copolymers on the market. Of course, it does cost a bit more but it is a premium quality line. Sensation lasts a long time while I have seen other monos become deteriorated (turn chalky, feel sticky and rough) quite quickly. Tectan Premium is a great line but much more expensive and hard to find. Remington Ultra is rated as the best of the monos but I have never seen it for sale in Quebec. I've tried a good number of braided lines and I did not like Power Pro very much. I prefer Mason Tiger braid and the original Tuf Line that has no special coating to make it stiffer. Both of these lines are super supple and cast great with baitcasters. They are about the only braided lines that don't use an outer covering to make them less supple. They have also tested to be the 2 best braided lines on the market. Ok....I have not used any of the very new braids because the one's that I have now refuse to die. I still have my original 10 lb test Fireline and it is still going strong since the day it came on the market.

No such thing as a marine GPS. All GPS's do the same thing. The only difference is in the mapping software. You either get topographical maps or marine maps.

No....if you catch and keep your daily limit, you cannot catch anymore fish even though you eat 1 or 2 at midday. However, it would be hard for a conservation officer to be able to prove that you ate some fish during the day.

In my region of Quebec, the slot limit is 32 to 47 cm. (13 to 18 1/2 inches). I doubt very much that someone who catches a 27 or 28 inch walleye would want to put it back into the water. I'm certain that no one in Quebec would release a record size walleye. Before the slot limit was instigated, there was no size limit on walleye. I caught and kept some large walleyes but I did not really enjoy eating those walleye. The smaller walleye in the 16 to 24 inch range tasted much better so over time, I released all walleye over 6 lbs because I almost always caught as many walleye as I needed to fill my quota anyway. Ok, I don't give away as many walleye fillets as I used to but the way I figure it, if someone really wants to eat a few walleye fillets, they just might as well do as I do.....go fishing.

I am a resident of Quebec and from what I have just read, I no longer need to buy a fishing licence when I go to Ontario because I am now over 65 years of age. Wow!!!

I also hate the blur when looking at a LED screen. I bought a Panasonic with plasma screen and love it. Do not believe all the hype about having a dark room to see the screen. You can use any dvd player with the new televisions but the H.D. dvd players are not expensive anyway so why not be able to see your movies in high definition. I also bought a Samsung home theater system.....the sound is awesome.

A long time ago, I tried 30 lb Power Pro on a spinning reel and I did not like it either. I would use a much thinner line for a spinning reel. The much thinner line will not loosen as easily on the spool. You will also get much more casting distance with thinner line. I haven't used braid on any spinning reels in over 10 or 12 years now. I like Fireline in 8 or 10 lb test and Nanofil in 4 lb test. I haven't tried Nanofil in any other size yet but I think that it will eventually replace my old Fireline that I bought over 10 years ago.

Well....for your information, your battery is not a deep cycle battery so any battery charger will work fine. Deep cycle batteries are not rated in how many amps of cranking power they have. They are rated in how minutes of reserve capacity. Also....a normal sized deep cycle battery cannot give you 750 amps of cranking power. Only a starting battery can do that.

They are all good. I like the one on the trailer the best.

I broke a rod once....about 50 years ago. I broke another one about 3 years ago but I had lent it to a person who had never fished before and I'm quite sure he hit the gunwale of the boat with it. Anyway....it was a good rod and cost me a big 10 dollars....on sale at Walmart's. I still have a few more of those rods made by Renegade and they are doing fine after more than 10 years. I also broke a rod by leaving it in the sun in a car and it warped. I tried to straighten the warp and broke it. I sent it back to Berkley and they sent me a new one. It did not have a lifetime garantee but was replaced anyway. I don't believe in rods having a lifetime garantee. You pay for the garantee or you buy a rod made in Korea from a company that makes the same rod as the one that has a lifetime garantee. All rods break if they are improperly handled or the fisherman wants to pull fish out of the water like the pros do. No ordinary rod can lift a 10 lb bag of potatoes off the ground without breaking so don't expect the rod to pull 30 lbs. A fish can pull about 4 times it's weight. Luckily, todays reels have great drags when compared to the reels made in the 40's and 50's so use the drag on the reel to protect your rod.

I'm trying to get around this question and I have one big question. Do you mean that there is nowhere in SW Ontario where you can just pitch a tent or tent trailer near a body of water where there is any fishing? Where I live, there are thousands of spots to do that. Actually, finding an organized camping spot is a bit difficult and all of them have good fishing. My favourite activity is wilderness camping and fishing. Pretty well all the land is public. Here in Quebec, we have large areas called 'Controlled Exploitation Zones'. They are non-profit organizations so costs only a few dollars per day to fish in these areas and the camping is free. The fishing is great all over (depends where the zone is situated in Quebec) because each lake is monitored so that no more than 40 to 60% of the catchable fish are removed each year in order to protect the good fishing. As you can imagine, each organization is responsable for it's zone so the fishing does vary from one ZEC to another. These controlled exploitation zones are situated near large populations. Near enough to allow a person to go in the morning and be able to get home that night. Yet, wilderness camping is free anywhere you can pitch a tent and there are places for those who want to camp for the summer.

Went to a large river about 45 minutes north of where I live. The water was quite high. I guess the hydro company is figuring on a dry summer. Anyway, went up this long bay and right to the mouth of a stream that was rushing down into the end of the long bay. I nosed my aluminum boat right up into the stream where there was about 2 to 3 feet of water. Wham....the walleye were hitting like they were brook trout. I had to put some back because in my area, I can keep only the ones that are 32 to 47 cm long. This same thing happened a few years ago but did not happen last year. It was late afternoon but the sun was high. The trees are full and tall on each side of the stream so there was lots of shade. If there was a way to fish from the bank, I would try that because I'm sure that my boat did spook some walleyes. So if you see any streams dumping into your walleye lake, it is worth a few minutes to explore well up into the stream.

What is good stuff to stop the small leaks in my aluminum boat?

Real ugly fish are often good to eat. But then, really nice looking fish like trout, walleye, salmon and pike are also good to eat.

My AT36 bow mount does not work. I got it a few years ago and it did not work so the guy (here on the this site) reimbursed me. I took the motor apart and found that 2 magnets had come unglued. I reglued them with an extra strong metal glue. I also changed the brushes and springs. It still does not work. Anyway, I will take it apart again....maybe one of the brushes got stuck in the holder and does not contact the armature. The cost so far is around 15 dollars. If I do get it to run and the cost is low, I will send some money to the seller. I sure would love to get it running again.

I bought a Shimano Citica 200E for 80 dollars in the U.S. Shipping was free.