fishinggeek

The Clamp looks cool, but with a price tag of $200 + taxes, shipping, and more if you want the wheel hub guard, that's a lot of money. Personally, since I'm getting a new boat, I'm going to go with simple cable locks.

Yes that was a concern for me too. My car has a towing capacity of 1,500, so that gives me a bit more room to play with a slightly bigger boat and motor and still have capacity for people and gear.

Irishfield, if you ever make any extras, let me know and I'll buy them! Great idea! If only I knew how to cut, weld, and drill steel. I'm not very handy.

Great report! Looks amazing.

I agree. I think some people mistakenly believe a CO or police officer's words are law. They are law enforcers, not legal experts. If a law enforcement officer says it's illegal, it is not necessarily illegal. And if an officer lays a charge, it doesn't mean one has committed an offence. Like Stoty, I would have no hesitation in taking a picture of an OOS fish, fish within the slot limit, fish accidentally caught whose species is prohibited from all angling, etc., even in front of a watching CO. Not that I'm a rebel, but it certainly doesn't sound illegal to me and I would fight that charge in court. Of course, I would respectfully not post the picture on here as our mods have politely asked us to refrain from doing so. In another thread, someone asked what happens if one is unhooking an OOS fish and someone else takes a picture of it. Same act, same intention (i.e. taking a picture of an OOS fish) yet there's no way the latter could get a successful conviction.

Can I get the swing tongue mounted after-market? Or can I buy a trailer with a swing tongue before buying the boat? I don't think it's an option with the dealer.

Excellent point! I must have measured the garage a dozen times. I have the room for either. Nothing bigger than a 16 mind you. The 16 has the same hull, width, depth, etc., but has a bit more length.

Thanks for everyone here for helping me make up my mind on outboard motor brands (I promise not to open that can of worms again). Can't decide what size tinny to get, either a 14 or 16 foot. One thing I don't know is if the 14 footer is easier to launch or trailer when compared to the 16 footer. Any thoughts?

Thanks for everyone's helpful info! Sounds like I'll start with my walleye gear, and perhaps next season if I still want to play in the game, I suppose I might consider a $50 rod. This board rocks!

Isn't throwing the guts back in the water another offence? That is quite the bloodbath there. I wonder if poaching is getting worse or better. On the one hand, I can't remember conservation being more widely accepted. On the other, people on here have loads of these kinds of reports. I'm hoping it's gotten better, but we're hearing about it more because of the Internet.

Stoty good luck! I only tried a couple of pools in a close trib, so I didn't do any scouting. Burtess, thanks for the tip, but $100 sounds like an awful lot. This is the first time I've ever tried steelheading, so I'm not sure if I'll stick with it. Just wanted to see if some of the tips here worked and it was a good day fishing. I was thinking of increasing my line strength, or else seeing if my odds improve.

Thanks Stoty and Capt Bruce! I'm a poorly skilled angler, so I'll stick to the medium spinning. Maybe I'll try spoons and cranks after the ones in the tribs are totally gone. I didn't go far, but they seemed to be there and was surprised at the 0 for 2 given I was only there for a little while.

Went to the local trib to kil time. Tried those baits no one wants to talk about , and went 0 for 2. Those buggers are a handful. I don't want to buy any specialized gear, as I'm more of a warm water angler. Any recommendations on rod/reel/line that I should use that isn't specialized (i.e. that I might already own)?

How do I do this in flowing water, like tributaries? What about doing a modified drop shot rig with a heavy weight to stabilize it just off bottom?

Pretty basic setup. Thanks. I'll let you know how it works.

How do we rig these things or ear plugs though? What's the best way?

Well said! Like you, I just hope our fellow OFC member gets the best mortgage for himself. Sit down with a calculator, mortgage documents, and some elbow grease. If the discounted penalty to synthesize your own features (i.e. just paying the penalty to port, payout, etc.) is larger than the discounted incremental interest payments of a higher rate, than by all means do not use the interest rate as the gauge for choosing your mortgage. But if the discounted penalty is less than the discounted interest, or even equivalent as the interest will be charged with certainty, than rate shopping will always be economically rational. It's tough because there have been people close to me that are lay people in terms of finance, and I know they have made the wrong decision by a slick account manager who has some revenue trailer target, because usually what's best for the bank is what's worst for the customer in terms of borrowing. With so much experience selling property, you probaby have similar experiences.

I never knew it would get so heated, nor did I know marshmallows were so effective at catching. This thread has certainly been educational for me. Next time I'm at a trib, I'm going to give them a shot. Is the best way to present them with a slip sinker and swivel? I imagine I'd need a heck of a lot of shot to keep it at the proper depth. And do I use similar hooks as when I use roe?

True, but many customers ever use these features, and banks use them to aggressively (and artificially) differentiate their product. Most I have seen have prepayment and porting features of differing degrees. I think if the features are generally in line with expectations (e.g. if one can expect to paydown the entire amount early than get an open mortgage), then what the mortgage choice REALLY boills down to is cost of borrowing and risk tolerance. Since I had no idea of the risk tolerance (e.g. asset exposure, covariance of other assets, duration, interest rate sensitivity), I only commented on the cost of borrowing, which is the interest rate plus whatever fees the bank charges, and this is what I meant by rate shopping. Make no mistake about it, IMO banks intentionally put these bells and whistles to get some price sensitive customers to choose a higher priced mortgage than they would have otherwise. I believe so because I once developed bank products in a previously life.

Lining or not, I bet it's not illegal if hooked in the mouth. And charge or not, CO's are not legal experts. A charge does not imply illegal, it means the CO believes it to be illegal. Come court time, when a legal expert (i.e. judge or JOP) hears how an angler was using a marshmallow with hook, had a license, fished in a water body that allows fishing, fished in season, and acted on suggestions from numerous fishing-related sources (such as articles), I would bet a lot of money these cases would be found not guilty. A CO's beef with how one fishes does not mean it is illegal. Similarly, being charged does not mean the person has committed an offense. Courts are the true test of legality. I've never used marshmallows before, but I would not hesitate to do so if I wanted to. If one finds it repugnant, they are free to view it as immoral. But calling it definitively illegal I would argue is incorrect, regardless of whether a CO has previously charged this act or not.

I'd go with a broker who is an active member of whatever their association is called. I'd even go with 2 different ones to cast a wide net to make sure you get the best rate in town. In any event, I wouldn't accept one that isn't at least better than ING or PC Financial.

Hope CO's aren't reading this!

My bad. Thanks for the correction.

Here's an audit summary that was just released. IMO, a glaring example of how expenses can balloon under a bureaucracy that doesn't have adequate checks and controls. Cell phone and BlackBerry use at Natural Resources out of control: audit Sun Apr 27, 1:56 PM By Dean Beeby, The Canadian Press OTTAWA - Cell phone and BlackBerry use at a major federal department has been out of control, with costs skyrocketing in a chaotic, Wild West atmosphere, says a new audit. Natural Resources Canada failed to lay down any rules, lost track of the number of such devices, and let workers cut their own expensive service deals at a cost to taxpayers of up to $500,000 a year in wasted wireless spending. "There are no policies, guidelines and procedures for voice telecommunications devices and service plans," says the newly released document, dated last November. "Comprehensive corporate directives for the management and control of voice telecommunications do not exist." Oversight was so weak that department managers could not provide auditors with even a basic inventory of its wireless devices. Since the report was written, officials have determined that employees use 900 BlackBerries and 720 cell phones. Investigators found that about one in every five of these devices was used by workers who had no clear job-related reason for carrying one. Users were also allowed to make their own arrangements with Canada's main service providers - Telus Mobility, Rogers Wireless Inc., Bell Mobility Inc. - resulting in more than 1,500 individual contracts. The proliferation of these individual deals, instead of a comprehensive contract for bulk use, saddled Natural Resources with an annual bill of at least $1.7 million in 2005-2006, a third higher than it should have been. The auditors compared the department's wireless usage with that of the Manitoba government, which had arranged its own cost-saving, comprehensive deal. The analysis showed that Manitoba paid just $55 a month for BlackBerries, compared with $76 at NRCan; and $25 a month for cell phones, compared with $39 at the federal department. The report also found that Natural Resources had no clear rules for recovering costs when workers used the devices for personal matters. "Management and financial controls for voice telecommunications are inconsistent and there is limited monitoring of related activities," auditors concluded. "NRCan is paying a premium for these services." The department has since drafted a policy to lay down hard rules, although a final version is not expected until September after consultations, said spokeswoman Sonia Parent. In the meantime, Natural Resources has switched over all but 20 of its devices to Telus and Rogers, under a Public Works initiative launched last May to bring all government wireless devices under comprehensive corporate agreements. The two-year, $77.2-million Public Works deal is expected to wring annual wireless savings of up to 50 per cent for any department that signs on. Under the new arrangement, about 90 per cent of the devices will be serviced in North America by Telus. In completing its switchover to the Public Works deal last December, Natural Resources had to pay Bell Mobility - which had been the department's main provider - about $85,000 to tear up existing contracts for 850 devices, Parent said. Telus and Rogers, on the other hand, waived termination fees for the cell phones and BlackBerries that were transferred from individual contracts with their companies to the Public Works deal. Parent noted that under the department's new guidelines, employees who spend between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of their time away from their normal office will be authorized to use cell phones or BlackBerries. The devices will also be issued to "an employee (who) works in situations that have the potential to become threatening to their personal safety," she said. The federal government spends about $40 million annually on wireless products and services. The Natural Resources audit noted that, despite its poor performance, the department is among the few in the federal government to take steps to properly manage its wireless devices. The report was obtained under the Access to Information Act.

Awesome! You've convinced me to add another that on my fishing to do list.