Beans

Yup...even at my age (74)... I get as excited as a teenager about to get .... for the first time !!!

Awe...Ya! Nothing like country livin'... I just came in from putting the run on the damn fox that kept me awake last night with it's catterwallering...Don't know if it was calling a mate or was after my cat... Horrible sound...Sounds like a mix of a baby crying and a cat hacking up a furball...

I know how you feel Lew... I'm that way just going to P'boro lately... Mostly to see some specialist or sumpin' or to the hospital every three months for the urologist to take a look inside my bladder...You wouldn't believe how he does it unless you have been through the procedure... The house looks great !

I got a pain in my side from laughing so hard... There are times I am glad I was an only child...Great stuff Joe...

I still can't listen to old Hank Snow sing this without getting all teary-eyed... Great reminder to all you lucky ones that still have your moms... My sincerest condolences Joe on your loss...I still miss mine after close to 30 years...

I'm sure I've posted this memory before but us old guys got a way of repeating ourselves so here goes... MY FIRST BIG FISH... I was born and lived in Toronto but come summer holidays I was shipped off to the family farm at Port Perry (beside the causeway) to stay with my grandfather and his sister (my great-aunt)... The odd weekend my grampa and I would put-put our way up to Caeserea to an uncle's cottage in his old model "T"...They had an old wooden punt that we would paddle out to a tall stake they had put in the mud near a weedbed to tie up to...not sure how old I was but old enough to take the boat out by myself and catch mostly perch, sunfish, and bullheads with a four foot bamboo stake with about the same length of line...this time I thought I was snagged on sumpin' but somehow by tugging real hard I managed to flip a 3 to 4 pound Largemouth into the boat...Boy...I couldn't get back in to shore fast enough to show my grampa...I think half the neighborhood was waiting at the dock as I was hollering Grampa!...Grampa!...Grampa! all the way in...I guess they thought I was in trouble or sumpin'... I can still see the look on my great-aunt's face when I showed her the fish on Sunday afternoon back at the farm...She said "Oh...did your grampa catch that?"...As she was hard of hearing all I could do is shake my head for "no" and pointed to my chest...Oh! Oh! Oh! she cried and her eyes lit up...We dined on bass for supper that night...nice change from catfish and panfish, or sausages or headcheese...

And to all you new fathers out there...don't forget to at least give your wife a card if it is her first Mother's Day...I missed completely and the "but you are not my mother" didn't cut it...not for many years...

Many of us seniors would adopt a pet in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the cost of veterinary services...We can become foster parents and all costs are covered but it is too hard to have to give them up when they get adopted...even the cost of pet insurance can be prohibitive on a fixed pension...

I wish I could think of sumpin' original to help stop your hurt Cliff but nothing comes to mind other that I'm sorry for your loss...

Step down after putting Wil Wegman in charge...then we would at least have someone in charge that knows which end of a fishing rod/rifle to point...instead of some appointed twit that has never fished or hunted...

Check out a map...407 to no 7 then cross over 12 at Brooklin, Ont. over to Kirby, Ont...(just past Simcoe Street you make a short jaunt south at Harwood Road to Conlin Road then continue east on over to Kirby)...cross over the 115 and continue east on county road 9...You did not mention where you were staying on Rice but if you cross over 28 it will take you all the way over to 45... Hope this helps...took this scenic route for 30 some odd years...

Great reports guys...Carp should be starting in the Kawarthas shortly... Question for Lorne: Noticed you landed yours using a baitcaster...can you use it on an alarm set-up like we do with our bait runners? Pressing the release button to "free spool"? Enquiring minds want to know...

In my younger days fishing for pike down that way at openers, we would run upwind over any weedbed we could find and cut the motor and drift and cast on a 45 degree angle using a Dominion 36 or 197 spinner with no leader as these had a long shaft but a good snap swivel to avoid line twist...Keeping the lure just below the surface... Doubt these lures are made anymore but a Mepps # 5 or large spinner bait would suffice. A leader would be required for the Mepps... Nowadays...my back would only take 10 minutes of this type of fishing but it sure was fun back then... Have fun and catch lots...

Congratulations Mathew...I hope your future holds all you worked for...

Sorry for extra posts...was trying different ways via OPERA and INTERNET EXPLORER... Us olden farts got to help each other...not sure which Jack uses...

anudder test...

Got both and had to make it portable as I can't leave stuff in the boat... only use the bilge pump if there has been a lot of rain...also use the battery to run a light off the stern at night...

The "Tin of Beans" always passes the inside-out water test but put her in the water and sure as hell I gotta bail her out a bit every hour... Drives me nuts !!!...must have spent over $100 on different goop (including 3 coats of marine paint) to no avail...easier to accept a bit of bailing...hopefully a zebra mussel will find a home at the leak and seal it for me...

Hey Roger...I guess if'n you got to work for a livin' that's a good way to do it... Me...I'll stick to retirement...the pay is no hell but you can't beat the hours.. Best of luck in your new endeavor...

I hope this was clearer than mud old pal...

Great thread and reports...Nice to see my pals catching some kitties...Gotta try them smoked ones Cliff... I just wish it wasn't such a long drive to Dunnville...

No apologies needed Stephen...my bad for not knowing about keepnets... Match fishing is still all greek to me... I still think of a "Whip" as sumpin' a harness driver uses to make a horse run faster...

Thanks for a straight answer... And if they were kept for food then I have no quarrel with that...