doubleheader

I'm glad he got his boat back, but I don't care where this took place to let the thief off is wrong. There's right and there is wrong, it really isn't that difficult be it Hamilton Ontario or any other place.

I find it amazing that the corporate intelligence of Cabelas is completely ignorant as to what made Cabelas, well....... Cabelas. Instead of understanding their customer they seem fixated on the one thing they understand, the bottom line, and doing so at the peril of killing the golden goose. I've been to 6 different stores in the US, and while I've enjoyed the experience each time, I'd say my combined spending of all those visits is considerably less than $500.00. Store prices are simply too expensive. I, like most of you, are looking for a complete line of whatever it is I'm looking to buy. For instance, if it's a rod, I want to be able to look at a variety of similar rods, including brands I know, before making my decision. I want to look at customer reviews, I want to feel like I'm getting a deal (I almost never buy unless it's a sale), I want it delivered promptly, and I want excellent customer service if I have a question or problem.

In fairness to Cabelas, through their on-line shopping they deliver on most of the above quite regularly, certainly better than most of their competitors, albeit not as well as they did a few years ago. I don't need 200 catalogs delivered to my house every year, and that may actually be understated, and I definitely don't need or want a hard bound catalog. I honestly don't think one of those catalogs has ever influenced a buying decision for me, and I have tried to opt out of the catalogs before, it doesn't seem to work. Cabelas, if you want to save money, stop printing catalogs and start printing rebates based on each customer's buying history.

I've been there once. I don't think that strip between the dam and lake would be very good. I did fish the lake end of it and we didn't do any good. the water is pretty deep. In the spring the far end of the lake seems to hold more fish.

I came across this site yesterday and they have a number of leftover small Yammies on sale. Thought maybe someone would be interested as I think they are in or around Buffalo.

http://www.ballantynerv.com/inventory.php?vehicletype=RV&condition=New

They have a way of getting right into your heart. My sincerest condolences.

The post yesterday about losing baits and Lew's comment on Pikie Minnows got me thinking about my own tackle as a kid. It was pretty limited, but when I was about 10 (1962) I was a pike assassin on the Nip and I carried out my dirty work with only two lures, a red/white daredevil and a small green Creek Chub Minnow. It was nothing to catch 20-30 hammer handles a day, but it was a blast for a 10 year old on spinning tackle. I bought the Pikie Minnow at Lakair, where between fishing trips, I was prone to hang out, ice cream cone in hand, checking out the various lures and assorted fishing gear that were displayed on the wall. Dad was a walleye and musky fisherman, but while he trolled for musky I trolled for pike. Somebody had to. The west arm was a little different then, Deer Bay was absolutely loaded with pike. Mind you a good one was only 20", but I was more into quantity. It was at the mouth of Deer bay where the water drops to over 20 feet that Dad slammed the biggest fish I ever saw, and have ever seen to this day, but that's a whole other story. We would head east to the Muskrats or down to Merganser when the forecast allowed. My job was to sit up front and look for rocks, a job at which I was only mildly successful. Even down there we fished it a little different than today as we would head back into the bays rather than out in the main channel. Those were great days for a kid.

 

I'm leaving mine as is Fred, but if my old brain remembers, I'll bring it to Memquisit for you to see.

Lew, surprisingly one can purchase these lures at pretty reasonable prices on Ebay. The other one I really like is the old Cisco Kid and I have quite a few of those from Ebay.

My dad taught me to fish back in the early 50's and as far back as my memory takes me, his #1 go-to bait for just about anything that swam was a wooden pikie minnow.

 

Didn't matter if it was Quinte eyes, French River pike or Simcoe pickeral, he clipped on that old minnow and boy did he ever catch a ton of fish on it. Back in the day guys didn't have a dozen rods and hundreds of lures like today, you had ONE rod and a couple baits.

 

When Dad got to a point in his life when he retired from fishing, he made me a gift of that pikie minnow and my memories of it made it one of the best gifts I ever received.

 

I was afraid to use it in case I lost the darned thing and it sat in my tackle box as a good luck charm for years.

 

One day my bud and I were heading out to do some trolling and I got brave and decided to give it a try. Darned if I didn't get hung up on something and before I knew it the line snapped and the bait was gone.

 

I couldn't believe I'd lost it and was wondering how the heck I was even gonna tell Dad I'd lost his #1 bait.

 

Anyhoo, it was done and nothing I could do about it so I sucked it up and we continued fishing.

 

Couple hours later we're trolling back and my bud yells out "look, there's your lure" and sure enough it had somehow popped free and was floating on the surface.

 

Couldn't believe how lucky I was and swore I'd never use it again and to this day it hangs on the wall of my garage alongside a bunch of other stuff.

 

There's no monetary value to it, but the sentimental value makes it priceless to me.

 

That lure is close to 70 years old and is now permanently retired.

 

I've got some very expensive musky baits with some being close to $100, but so far I haven't managed to lose any of them yet.

 

That's a good story Lew. I also have an affinity to the old Pikie Minnows, and have two jointed ones, one perch like yours and a brown colored one. My favorite as a youngster though was a 1 piece pikie, somewhat smaller than the jointed ones, and it was light green. I still have it, it's been disassembled and ready for a paint job for quite awhile. It was an absolute pike killer back in the day. I think I'll paint her and bring her to Memquisit.

Silly boys arguing about E-Tecs and Yammies, especially when we all know Merc rules. Why just the other day I blew by an Etec with my 200 Verado like he was standing still, wait............., maybe he was standing still............. anyhooo, they're all good these days, just pick one you like and go fishing.

Gerrit the ability to make the knife whole is very expensive. The blade will need to be broken down and then reforged to restore it to it's former length. You can regrind it to the correct shape however it means the knife blade section will using part of the knife called the spline as a cutting edge. Most spines are made of a tempered steel that is more ridgid but softer on edge retention. Replacing it at $75.00 is a lot cheaper most of the knifes I regrind cost 125 - 300 dollars to get them to have the same flexibility as the did before they were shortened.

 

 

Art

I would say that a commercial knife blank is roughly the same hardness throughout, albeit some work hardening takes place during grinding.

If you're boat fishing you may want to consider a rod in the 6' to 6'6" length.

Been running 4 strokes since 1997. Never had any problems with any of them and I do all my own winterizing. I would never go back.

Let me tell you, many a Ranger owner is very concerned.

I'm 2 years from retirement. I've been fortunate in my career, made a boat load of money, but also found my share of adversity. Lost one pension plan due to my company going bankrupt, lost another small fortune in a divorce. Still, I'm going to be okay, not abundantly wealthy, but certainly okay. The key for my wife and I was to have a goal, even though we've done well we spent money nearly as quickly as we made it, so 5 years ago we created a spreadsheet with all our monthly income, expenses, and planned savings. Don't get me wrong, we had been saving all along, but we didn't really have a plan and couldn't really see the end. As we developed our spreadsheet we were kinda forced to answer some questions. Did we want to pay off everything we owe or squirrel more money away, and how much savings did we need before we retired given our other income streams just to name two. We decided we wanted to retire debt free. We determined an amount the cash and savings we needed for our planned lifestyle and then we calculated how much we had to save to achieve these goals. Now, each month we review how we're doing. This has really helped us stay focused and avoid things we'd like to have but don't need. It also has forced us to seek answers to questions for which we had little understanding, so anyhow we think it's been a savior for us, and I would recommend this process to anyone, no matter how old. You won't have all the answers at first and that's okay, but if you keep at it your spreadsheet will get more detailed and accurate.

Is the axle mounted straight?

This is my guess given your comments on tire maintenance.

We're thankfully about 30 miles to the south of the snowbelt Lew, and in the case of this event we're quite a ways south. Received notice that it's time for our cabin deposit this week. It's one bill I look forward to every year.

Happy belated birthday my friend!!!

As is written, it's often darkest before the dawn. Best wishes.

If the winterization includes engine oil, filter, lower unit lube (actually changing it), prop maintenance, grease, gas treatment, and treating plumbing, all things typically associated with winterization, then a typical cost for a 4 stroke would be around $250.00. If they dropped the lower unit things can get pricey in a hurry, and the $650 is not completely unreasonable. As a customer I would have an expectation that i approve anything additional, such as dropping the lower unit, before the work is completed.

A very sad day. Wish there were answers, I'm afraid there are none. The only thing we can all count on is there will be more terrorist events in the future.

That's great Regan - what a fantastic first year you folks are having at Mashkinonje. Dreams coming true in a big way.

Too bad I can't get that show here in the states - I would love to see it.

You'll have to record it and show it to us next June.

Rich, it's on WFN, I get it on Dish

Whenever I'm not sure on the Nip I drop my bow mount down all the way and run the kicker. The bow mount runs deeper than the kicker so if it clears I know the kicker will. The bow mount unit is a plastic shaft with a guarantee. I've hit reefs with it but never broke it.

There are too many variables to give you anything more than general guidance. Walleye movement is typically predicated on food and barometric pressure. Your best bet for the mid day is to cover some ground, and assuming you have decent electronics, trust them. Speed is your friend this time of year, so whereas in June you may have trolled a harness at .8-1mph, try varying speed up to 2.5 mph but stay in the zone. Also, spend some time probing the deep ledges and submerged reefs.

It all depends on the speed you want to run. I have a 1900 Pro-v and my 200 Verado will troll down to around 2.3-2.5 mph. I also have a 9.9 Big foot kicker which will troll under .8 mph. The only benefit of trolling the Verado is it is quieter than the kicker.

There is a weedbed across from Lakair that has given up many a pike as well as one just west of the old Samoset lodge. Often you can catch walleye in both as well. Throw a small weedless Johnson spoon and hold on for pike. Walleye can be caught in the weeds on a jig and plastic or crawler. Between the islands west of Lakair leading into Warren Bay can be excellent for walleye, especially when the current is moving. Warren Bay itself is quite deep, so you'll fish the shorelines. Pike and walleye can be anyplace there are weeds. There are some underwater shoals around the periphery of Warren Bay. Do not rely on any map being completely accurate. Slow down, if you have a kicker don't lock it down. Going east under 64 bridge again can be good for walleye due to current. Watch for underwater shoal just SW of bridge like 25'. I recently came back from 2 weeks (8/9-8/23) and did rather well for walleye in 20-25 FOW. My wife and I caught close to 60 walleye which given the conditions wasn't bad. Of those 11 were legal, over 18.2". Our biggest was 25", smaller than we normally get, but again conditions were bad. Water temp dropped 5 degrees in the 1st week. Most all our fishing was east of 64 bridge around Squaw Island. Fish were located near underwater shoals and humps but not on them. As was mentioned Porcupine Creek has been producing, we didn't even fish it. We prefer to pull harnesses using our bow mount.