SmokestackLightnin

Congrats Craig on your article in the May CL magazine. I was happy to see your name as one of the contributors. It's unfortunate but I feel that magazine has really lost its direction. One can really see that with the lineup of shows they have on their TV channel. Not really reflective of the masses. Around 20 years ago when I had a cottage in eastern Ontario we used to enjoy the magazine and we looked forward to each new issue. We also enjoyed the old Cottage Life Television Show with Tony and Linda Armstrong. Then there seemed to be a changing of the guard and the direction of the publication went away from I feel is mainstream cottaging. As a result I stopped buying it. Getting a subscription as a gift last year has brought the magazine back into our house but I still think the direction is not my cup of tea. Craig, I'm glad to see you are contributing and I hope that it continues for you. It is unfortunate to have to read past articles like "5 steps to enlightened curry" in order to get to your work.

Hi Mike, welcome to the board. Better hold off on your camping adventure as the fish you are looking to target are out of season until May 17.

But not all Cabelas have Boat Centres, not sure what is in the plan for Barrie.

Some US stores have Boat Centres. Each Boat Centre carries different brands but I have seen Ranger, Triton, Lowe, Alumacraft and Stratos

Finally completed the first boil. Everything is jarred and ready for storage. Turned out real well this year, one of the best batches I have ever made. As you can see from the picture we still have a lot of snow and you can also see that the river behind my house and not crested the banks. Next boil will go on after this weather system goes through tonight and tomorrow. I have to say, doing syrup is therapeutic for me. Yesterday afternoon we sat out in the back yard, listened to all kinds of birds, heard the river flowing and listened to snow melting and the arrival of spring with a cold Coors Light and a few friends stopping in.

Due to the heading to the tackle swap we did not collect yesterday. Went this morning and collected 11 of the blue water jugs, almost half of my buckets were overflowing. I believe those blue jugs are 20 litres each so all I can say is it"s a whole lotta sap.

Brian, a good starting point is a turkey fryer burner and the pot. And right TSC has all maple syrup supplies on for 20% off which is cheaper then Atkinson, but only slightly cheaper.

My son and I went down and spent time going through all the goods. There were deals to be had that's for sure. It was a pretty good turnout, both buyers and sellers for the first time around. I suspect next year will be bigger and busier. Great job to Dave and all the volunteers, hope you enjoy the syrup and thanks for bringing my rod wraps. I liked the picture outside the firehall with all the donated food going to the food bank.

It's likely due to it being in the tree for a while during a cold snap and it has been tinted. I also find late season sap is tinted and it produces darker syrup. It is still good but what I do is I will store it in a different container then the clear sap and then boil it later in the season. I like the light syrup that comes with early sap. My theory as to why it happens is I usually see it after going through a cold snap that lasts a few days and stops the sap flowing. I think it's from sap that get stuck in the tree during the cold snap and when it start moving again it is tinted from the tree itself. It might sound weird but it is only a theory, nothing has been proven. And no sap was harmed when I thought up the theory.

Started my first boil yesterday afternoon, around 250 litres of nice, clear sap. I should be taking it off the main boiler around 3 into a large pot for the finishing boil. I usually filter it when it comes out of the large evaporator, I get most of the sand but there is usually a little bit of sediment that sinks to the bottom of the jar.

Here is one where the seller has put a picture of the ULC stamp in the ad: http://ontario.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-other-WOODSTOVE-WOOD-STOVE-W0QQAdIdZ579412618

Personally, I would shop on Kijiji, there are always woodstoves for sale. When emailing the seller make sure the one you buy has the appropriate stamping.

Nope, not in 2days, I have that much in total. We had a bit of a run about a week ago and then it got cold again. I got around 50 litres then and the rest from the past 4 days. Sunday it really started to run. Yesterday was my best day collecting with almost 100 litres of clear sap. I am heading out shortly to get today's haul. Although it was sunny and 7 degrees today the wind would have slowed things down a bit.

Guys who do syrup don't find that funny.

FYI, any IGFA record must be caught on a rod 40" or longer so a tip-up would not qualify for an IGFA record. Not sure who is the source behind the "tip-up world record".

Nope, Elmvale, I still have 3 feet of snow on the ground but lots of sap flowing around here.

A strong run yesterday and Sunday, so far I have collected 250 to 275 litres. First boil will be later this week.

Thanks for the feedback folks, it was a great. Fished with my cousin who I have not wet a line with in years. By the looks of the forecast the back lakes will be fishable for some time to come. Likely heading back in 2 weeks. The tracks on the UTV are simply amazing. That one belongs to my cousin. After spending 2 days fishing with him and my son and some of the places we got to I came back and put an order in. They are not built for speed but can go anywhere, even in deep snow. We came off a small speckle lake on Friday afternoon and followed a set of moose tracks up an embankment back to the access trail. The snowmobile that was with us got bogged down and had to turn around and take the long way out. Oh and the fish tasted amazing.

Congratulations on the fish and the mount. One of the concerns I have with replica mounts is what they are, a replica. For me, they loose the realistic charm that a skin mount provides. There is no doubt that Shawn and James at Advanced are very good at what they do, and many think they are the best, I don't dispute that. I think the reason why skin mounts get a lot of bad press is because there are a lot of bad skin mounts out there. Around 25 years ago I signed up for a special interest night course on taxidermy at a Toronto high school and it was there I met Grant. He seemed passionate about his craft and confident in his ability. He always stressed quality. The next year he held the class in his shop at Queen and Ossington and what an experience that was. Anyway, making a long story short, with Grant's help I did a skin mount on an 8lb walleye which to this day looks as good as the day it was completed. I even used the real gills. IMO nothing beats a properly done skin mount. I could only find a couple pictures of it where it now temporarily rests as you can see from the one photo, I am in the middle of renovating my cottage.

I now have 30 taps in and it started a run yesterday, had 60 litres collected by the end of the day. I will need 4 times that amount before I begin my first boil. I am hoping for 2 boils this year.

My son and I along with a couple others hit the back lakes for Specks/Splake Friday and Saturday. Fishing was pretty good. The first 4 fish on Friday broke us off but ended up with a few nice keepers for our trouble. I could not believe how orange the meat was. Fish were caught in depths ranging from 4 to 15 feet and they seemed to be travelling in packs. All would be quiet for a while and then the excitement would start and then they were gone. Also picked up a Brinkman charcoal smoker off Kijiji and on the plate is fresh smoked splake and lake trout.

I tapped 6 large trees on Friday, just checked today and not a drop. Lots of snow insulating the roots so likely a little while before it really starts to run.

Depending on the setback of the jack plate you may need to either replace the steering cable or install hydraulic steering. As mentioned above, change to 3-blade and maybe start with a 19 pitch.

We will see what the temperatures will be by the end of this week, the forecast still says -1 highs so the sap won't be running here. I will start tapping next weekend. Hope everyone has a good season. I'll post my progress.

And then there's Patrick Chan. The guy tanks on his short program and puts the team in a hole. And instead of trying to win it back he quits the team event so he can "focus on the individual skating portion of the games" (his words). That to me was pretty un-Canadian, I hope the guy tanks and Kevin Reynolds gets a medal. Reynolds knocked it out of the park when he had to step up after Chan quit the team. And that is the Canadian way to do it.