Spiel

Hahahahaha, LMAO, I'd pay well to see pictures of that! Glad to see you got a few fish, I may try my luck out there this evening.

Spending your B'day trout fishing with your daughter and getting a few as well, sounds like a perfect B'day Jacques.

Yep, fishing with Mr. Dunn is on my bucket list.

LMAO off at, and I quote, "the fish is moving but it's dead." Okay......

I'd be all over this one if the choice was mine. Regardless of what you choose Cliff I hope it becomes the fishing trip of your dreams.

Sounds like you're good to go Sam. To clarify I didn't build the rod but I did win it and it had never been used before I gave it to Sam.

Yep, #89 runs East West. Perhaps you were on #24?

Mayfly mayhem on shores of Lake Erie is a sign of good water quality Thursday, June 24, 2010 Micheal Scott / cleveland.com If you think this summer's mayfly madness is madder than most, you may be right -- depending on where you live along the Lake Erie shoreline. And if it turns out that these funky-looking, nonbiting bugs are a big batch which have molted from the underwater sediment offshore from Cleveland, we might be witnessing the next stage in an ongoing ecological recovery of Lake Erie. So holster your fly swatters, everyone: This is the kind of bad bug problem that's really a good thing for Northeast Ohio. First of all, more mayflies means bigger fish, including prized Lake Erie yellow perch, which feast on the insects just as they are emerging from the water. And an exploding insect population coming out of the lake each summer is also considered a sign of a healthier, oxygen-rich waters, lake scientists say. "That's true: A thick emergence of mayflies might be a symbol that we've cleaned up our act on Lake Erie," said Don Schloesser, a veteran mayfly researcher who at the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. who said the insects returned in earnest to Lake Erie only in the last 20 years. "But it will take a little longer to see whether this is a permanent comeback -- for the bugs and for the lake." Bug bodies piling up on lakeshore Temporary or not, the annual invasion of the bothersome insects often overwhelm some lakeside neighborhoods: • Suburban observers from Rocky River to Bay Village to Euclid began noticing the long-legged pests gathering around street lights and screen doors over the last week or so. • In Vermilion Lagoons, ducks and other shorebirds have been seen gobbling up piles of mayfly carcasses. "That's fine for the birds, but the mayflies smell fishy when they die and I had a pile about two or three feet in diameter by my garage door," said longtime lagoons resident Tody Root, 82. •Workers at Lakeside, a small resort community near Kelley's Island, pushed the bugs off streets with a front-end loader and then off sidewalks with leaf blowers. "The worst day was probably last Wednesday -- every light in town had a cloud of mayflies around it at night," said Alex Kontos, marketing director for the Lakeside Association. "But we get it like this almost every year, so we're used to getting bugged." Most everyone on the west end of Lake Erie would agree -- and has a big bug story to tell. • The most notable was the brownout of June 1996, when mayflies actually briefly conducted electricity across insulators after they were drawn to the lights of Toledo area lakeshore electrical substation. * In Port Clinton, one former mayor actually secured grant money in the 1990s to compost the rotting mayfly bodies. • In 1999, a Pennsylvania researcher teamed up with meteorologists at a local TV station to capture Doppler radar images of the clouds of bugs coming ashore near Erie, Pa. Bug biology tells a story But the story of those big bugs also mirrors the history of changing water quality conditions of the lake, Schloesser said. "The mayflies were abounding in the 1920s and '30s in the Western Basin, but then almost completely disappeared in the late 1950s" because of worsening pollution, he said. They returned in the 1990s, researchers said, because the lake was generally cleaner following the pollution control measures of the 1970s. Scientists were also pleased to find mayfly nymphs in the sediment of the entire lake -- beyond just the biologically rich western side of the lake. But something happened again in about 2001 to practically eliminate the nymphs everywhere but in that far west end. "We suspected environmental factors, focusing in on the lack of oxygen," said Ken Krieger, acting director of the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg College. Krieger and others suspect the role of algae die offs, which create an oxygen-depleted "dead zone" in the lake. Krieger had also written an Ohio Sea Grant publication (pdf) in the 1990s heralding the return of the mayfly. But suspicion isn't proof. Since Krieger's lab and others haven't sampled the central basin of the lake for mayfly nymphs much since then, no one knows for certain if mayflies found near Cleveland are just the ultralight, wind-blown refugees from the west or a new emergence of a central basin population. New theories on mayfly life Schloesser has suggested another explanation for the up-and-down appearance of mayflies in recent years: A four-year cycle -- one year of abundance followed by three years of lesser populations, sometimes dramatically so. He says that might be evidence of a cycling of oxygen availability -- either because of the rising tide of quagga mussels in the lake or because of the mayfly nymphs themselves who use vast amounts of oxygen in their peak year. Or maybe the the mayflies are telling us something important about Lake Erie. "It's good news that there are so many mayflies, but we know the cycling is not part of the their natural system," he said. "So maybe something else we're unaware of is teetering in the balance. "That teetering could go backwards and they'll disappear again or it could be what we're all hoping for -- that Lake Erie is really recovering and on its way to being fully restored."

FAA clips pilot's wings June 24, 2010 Chris Paschenko / galvestondailynews.com CRYSTAL BEACH (TEXAS) — The Federal Aviation Administration revoked for a year the license a pilot accused of buzzing beachgoers in March, a spokesman said Wednesday. The FAA claims Joseph B. Kirbow flew a Diamond Aircraft DA40 so low it broke a fisherman's pole by snagging the line and wind from the plane twice knocked the hat from a man's head, according to a June 16 letter to Kirbow. Kirbow had two passengers aboard the plane when it left Beaumont and buzzed Crystal Beach on March 13, the FAA said. The plane was registered to Kirbow Transportation Enterprises, according to FAA records. "When you were asked by one of the passengers where you were going, you replied that you were going to buzz the beach," the revocation letter states. Kirbow flew at altitudes as low as 15 feet above anglers wading in the surf and made multiple passes over a group of occupied vehicles and others on the beach, the letter states. One witness, Terry Rodery, told The Daily News that the plane buzzed a group of Jeep enthusiasts. "I think it's encouraging the FAA did the investigation and sided with general public and acknowledged the pilot endangered himself and innocent bystanders," Rodery said. "I thought a harsher punishment would have been better, but the FAA knows best." During one pass, Kirbow banked and made a steep decent directly toward a man on the beach, the letter states. "You flew so low over him that the wind from your aircraft blew his hat off on two different passes," the letter states, noting the man saw the pilot smiling and a passenger waiving. "You flew so close to another individual on the beach that you broke his fishing pole when your aircraft snagged his fishing line," the letter states. Kirbow is accused of telling a passenger he wouldn't be disciplined and had buzzed the beach many times. After learning of complaints to the sheriff's office, Kirbow also is accused of phoning a passenger and telling her, "she was never on that plane," the letter states. "When you next spoke with the passenger, you told her that she should go along with the story that the aircraft was experiencing engine trouble," the letter states. "You laughed each time you made a low pass that caused people on the beach to duck in fear of being hit," the letter states. The FAA accused Kirbow of actions that were reckless so as to endanger life and property, yet the agency considers the incident a federal civil matter, which it doesn't refer to law enforcement. Kirbow has 10 days to appeal the revocation to the National Transportation Safety Board, Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the FAA, said. Although there is no fine associated with the revocation, Kirbow could face civil penalties up to $1,100 a day for each day he fails to surrender the license, the letter state. The Daily News was unable to reach Kirbow for comment, being unable to find a listed telephone number for him. No public listing for Kirbow Transportation Enterprises could be found. "Losing your certificate for a year is a pretty serious consequence for any pilot that values the privilege," Lunsford said.

Same sentiments for you Ron.

I agree, nicely done Dave, nicely done!

No worries mate!

You're killing me Alan but don't you dare stop.

Hi Sam.

Crikey, me thinks I need a new puter.

Sheeeeesh, how many pictures you got in your post Joey? Every time I try to see 'em (3 times now) my ole puter freezes right up.

Perhaps a quick perusal of the classified rules would explain things.....just sayin. http://www.ofncommun...ction=rules&f=5

I believe you're right JB, but it would be a harrowing trip for her.

Deals are always available Lew, the two of you can split the cost of two rods right down the middle.

It's moving day for Mike and family so I expect we'll just have to wait.....patiently.

Read this, this morning. "The epicentre of the quake is located on an active fault known as the West Quebec Seismic Zone, a region Godin describes as one of the more quake-prone regions in the country." Hamilton Spectator

Declining smallmouth bass population gets attention of DEC June 13, 2010 LEO ROTH / democratandchronicle.com The sharp decline in the quality of smallmouth bass fishing on Lake Ontario has caught the attention of state aquatic biologists. And they are casting a net for help as they begin an extensive study as to why a smallmouth fishery that produced an average of 13.4 catches per boat trip during the early 2000s had dropped to 3.08 catches by 2008, and continues to slide. "Smallmouth bass fishing on Lake Ontario used to be fantastic. Anywhere from, say, Sandy Creek all the way to Oswego you could catch a lot of bass and catch them easily," said Matt Sanderson, Region 8 senior aquatic biologist for the Department of Environmental Conservation. But the smallmouth fishing has been in sharp decline since 2004, about two years after the documented arrival in great numbers of the round goby, an invasive species that eats bass fry but also has become a primary food source for adult bass. Well-fed bass are less likely to bite an angler's artificial lure or live bait. Meanwhile, the voracious gobies seemingly bite anything, frustrating many an angler who used to be able to catch smallmouth bass with simple worm rigging. Some bass anglers have experienced better success by changing their techniques — bigger swim baits, suspending live baits farther off the bottom, trolling small stickbaits. In 2008, however, more than half of the boats targeting smallmouth didn't catch a single fish and the catch and harvest rates were the lowest on record. "The past two years, even guys who changed techniques weren't catching them," Sanderson said. "We have limited data about smallmouth on Lake Ontario so we're taking measures to see exactly what's going on out there." In addition to conducting netting surveys this summer to determine the relative abundance of bass and their health, the DEC is launching the Lake Ontario Black Bass Angler Diary Program to enhance their study. From opening day June 19 to Sept. 30, volunteer anglers are being asked to keep a detailed diary of their bass fishing activity (from a boat or from land). The data will be crunched after the season and each participant will receive a report. The lake's goby population is said to have peaked but like many invasive species is here to stay. In places such as Lake Erie and the eastern end of Ontario, goby-fed smallmouth are growing to trophy size and the quality of fishing hasn't suffered. If there's an imbalance around Rochester — more gobies than bass — the DEC wants to know. Anglers interested in participating can send their name, address and e-mail address to [email protected]. Or go to www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/65533.html or call (585) 226-5343

Downward trend for water levels continues GEORGIAN BAY June 23, 2010 DOUGLAS GLYNN / midlandfreepress.com The Georgian Baykeeper has warned that water levels of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Georgian Bay are on a critical downward trend. Mary Muter says the latest forecasts by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers indicates water levels could drop below chart datum by October. "At the end of May, Michigan-Huron levels were about five inches above chart datum, which is the reference point used on navigational charts to measure the depth of water throughout the lakes," Muter says. "We could be setting record low levels by this fall. "What's unusual about the latest graphs for Michigan-Huron-Georgian Bay is that the normal down-up-down line has been replaced by almost a flat line. "Anyone who has looked at the water level graphs over the years notices a familiar pattern. Water levels start off low in the winter, go up steadily in the spring and then start dropping off gradually from July until the end of the year. "But this typical rise hasn't happened and the Corps is predicting only a very slight rise in June and July, followed by the usual late-season decline." She says Michigan-Huron water levels in May were 10 inches below those of last year and the Corps report indicates they were 14 inches below the long-term average. "All the other Great Lakes were also below the long-term average, but none as much as Michigan-Huron. "I've have never seen water levels flat line like they have been doing since January," she added. "Lakes Michigan and Huron are suffering a double whammy. There is no control of the outflow from Michigan, Huron and Georgian Bay, while the outflow from Lake Superior (into Michigan- Huron) has been reduced because Superior's levels are down. "Without any control of the outflow and the reduced supply from Lake Superior -plus the dry winter with little runoff -we are getting hit from all sides. Muter says water levels have been hovering around chart datum for about 10 years. "The International Upper Great Lakes Study Board likes to compare this past decade to the 1930s and says it has happened before; it's no big deal. "The reality is," Muter says, "that in the 1930s they dredged, deepening the St. Clair River channel -Detroit River channel by five feet. They knew that they were lowering lake levels. During that decade there was a severe drought in the Great Lakes area. "Those were two compounding factors that caused the 1930s low water levels. "But, we have not had anything like that! "We've had some dry years in late 1990s and 2001. But we recently had two years of above average precipitation and cooler temperatures. But we've not had droughts, or the channels officially dredged five feet deeper. "Yet, we have been hovering around chart datum for 10 years. And now it looks like we are in very serious trouble." "The reality is we could be facing the perfect storm by the end of the summer. "Researchers from McMaster University recorded a temperature of 22 to 24 degrees in Georgian Bay a month ago. "Normally, around the long weekend in May the temperature is 10 to 12 degrees." Muter says the combination of low water levels and high temperatures will have an impact on enclosed bays. "We are going to have much more algae than in previous years and that will affect water quality, fish life and recreational activites. Boaters will also be affected if water levels drop below chart datum," she said. "The Canadian Coast Guard establishes channel depth at 176 meters. At that depth," she points out, "there is a minimum of two meters depth for navigation in small craft channels along the east and north coast of Georgian Bay. "In the past decade we have had several years where channel depth has been below chart datum. When that happens the Coast Guard puts white markers in the the channels indicating low water. "It's scary for boaters because they don't know how deep the water is. They have to go slow and tilt up their boat's motor. Large sail boats can't navigate the small craft channel because a lot of them have a two meter keel. That affects the local economy big time." Georgian Bay Forever, a Canadian environmental group, has been urging the International Joint Commission to act to stop the loss of water from Lakes Michigan and Huron. The IJC held a series of public meetings earlier this year to hear comments on the December 2009 report of the International Upper Great Lakes Study Board. Muter noted the Study Board report acknowledged the outflow of Lake Huron into the St. Clair River had increased compared to 1962, lowering the levels of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Georgian Bay by about five inches. But the Board called the loss of water too insignificant to justify any action to prevent further loss." The International Join Commission (of which Canada is a member) is reportedly still deliberating. " We are supposed to have some sense of where they are going early in July." However, she adds, the appointment of the new U.S. chair by President Obama is being held up by the Senate.

Potential World record Wels June 21, 2010 / www.great-lakes.org Guided by IGFA Certified Captain Alberto Bartoli MERGEFIELD "CaptGuide" and using shrimp for bait,Roberto Godi of Arcole Veroma, Italy landed a potential IGFA All-Tackle record after catching a wels (Silurus glanis) on February 5. The giant fish weighed 113.5 kg (250 lb 3 oz) which Godi caught while fishing Italy's River Po. He said the fish fought for 45 minutes before he was able to pull it to shore onto a smooth surfaced mat where it was weighed, photographed and released alive. The current IGFA record is 242 lb 8 oz (110 kg) caught February 2009 also from the River Po.

Millions of litres of pollutants dumped in cities: analysis June 13, 2010 Steve Rennie / www.thestar.com Far more sewage has been spilled in Canadian urban centres over the last six years than any other harmful contaminant, newly released figures show. An analysis by The Canadian Press reveals hundreds of millions of litres of sewage, as well as many other dangerous liquids, have been dumped right under Canadians' noses. This never-before-released information has been kept in a classified government database called NEMISIS. The acronym stands for National Enforcement Management Information System and Intelligence System. Federal enforcement officers use the database to go after polluters. It took The Canadian Press two years and a complaint to the information commissioner to pry the data from Environment Canada under the Access to Information Act. The news agency then created its own spills database using the government information, which covers the period from January 2004 to this past April. The analysis looked at spills in 18 cities and metropolitan areas across 10 provinces. They include the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and the cities of Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Hamilton, Windsor, Ont., Quebec City, Fredericton, Moncton, N.B., Saint John, N.B., Charlottetown, Halifax and St. John's, N.L. The database lists 6,555 spills in those parts of the country since 2004. Some spills are minor, while others run over hundreds of millions of litres. The most frequently spilled contaminants are petroleum products. They account for 3,596 spills, or about 55 per cent of all entries. The database contains 538 sewage spills. That's eight per cent of all spills in the database. While sewage doesn't appear as often as other contaminants, more of it is spilled each time. The largest spill was at Calgary's Bonnybrook wastewater treatment plant, which handles much of the city's sewage. The database says a storm and flood led to a 300-million-litre sewage spill on June 17, 2005. Heavy floods hammered southern Alberta that spring. Edith Phillips of Calgary's regulatory affairs branch said the floodwater overwhelmed the city's sewers and treatment plants. She said the flooding damaged ultra-violet lights used to kill bacteria, so treated wastewater flowed into the Bow River. Phillips noted the sewage had gone through two stages of treatment before it spilled into the river. By that point organic materials and nutrients would have been removed from the wastewater. "It wasn't raw sewage," she said. "It certainly had been treated to the secondary stage, which is equivalent to what most treatment plants in Canada do." In Edmonton, an equipment failure at the Gold Bar wastewater treatment plant caused 160 million litres of sewage to be discharged on April 18, 2007. The city did not respond to a request to comment. Environment Canada said a power outage shut down the Edmonton plant's ultra-violet lights for eight minutes, so 160 million litres of wastewater was only partially treated. "Otherwise, the effluent was properly treated," the department said. Meanwhile, the government database cites a 2,191-day sewer leak in Ottawa that discharged 190 million litres of sewage. It shows the spill began Jan. 1, 1998, and wasn't reported until Sept. 10, 2008. The entry baffled Michel Chevalier, Ottawa's manager of wastewater and drainage operations, who said his figures don't jibe with the federal government's. "I've had problems in the past with databases from the feds," Chevalier said. "They're entering the data in a funny way, and it's not necessarily reality, or it leads to conclusions that are false. Like in this case, it looks like it's been flowing for 2,000 days. No. I don't know where they get that 2,000 days." He said city records show 190 million litres of sewage was spilled into the Ottawa river over a four-day period in 2004. A faulty sewer gate was to blame. He cited even larger sewage spills — such as more than a billion litres in 2006, 19 million litres in 2008 and 26.5 million litres last year — which aren't listed in the federal database. In each case the untreated sewage flowed into the Ottawa River. Chevalier said the city has replaced the faulty gates and significantly cut down on sewage spills. Little is known about a 116-million-litre sewage spill in Richmond, B.C., on Dec. 20, 2009. The responsible party, reason, cause, source and clean-up time are not given. The government database cites another 64-million litre sewage spill in the Vancouver area on July 5, 2009, at the Lions Gate wastewater treatment plant. But Metro Vancouver officials dispute Environment Canada's reporting of the spill in its database. Paul Lam, the municipality's wastewater treatment plant division manager, said the spill was not of sewage but rather treated effluent, or wastewater. He said a ruptured valve in the plant's chlorination system was to blame. "That resulted in the release of 64 million litres of treated, but unchlorinated, effluent," Lam said. "So that volume of discharge had been treated through the plant." He added environmental testing found no ill effects from the spill. Environment Canada said "evidence provided by Metro Vancouver clearly demonstrates that the unchlorinated wastewater effluent discharged from the (wastewater-treatment plant) … was not acutely lethal" and didn't violate the federal Fisheries Act. Faulty equipment is also to blame for a 50-million-litre sewage spill from Saskatoon's sewers on July 19, 2008. The city also had a 10-million-litre sewage spill on Sept. 15, 2006, due to a "storm, flood." City officials were not immediately available to comment. The database also lists spills of other contaminants. More than 1.4 million litres of a chemical called acrylonitrile was spilled after a marine tanker caught fire and exploded in Saint John, N.B., on Nov. 1, 2005. Environment Canada's website says "acrylonitrile is considered toxic to human health because of its potential to cause cancer." It has been declared toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Close to 76,000 litres of hydrochloric acid leaked from a train in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., outside Montreal on March 17, 2005. Hydrochloric acid can irritate the skin and cause chemical burns. A pipe leak at Edmonton's municipal mobile equipment services branch on Dec. 11, 2006, released two million litres of chlorinated water into the city. Chlorine can react with organic matter found in water, such as decaying vegetation, to form a group of chemicals known as disinfection byproducts. Some of these byproducts are thought to raise the risk of cancer and cause other health problems. The database lists Areva Resources Canada Inc. as the responsible party in an Oct. 25, 2007, spill of 10,000 litres of "radioactive material." The company says a road to a uranium mine site was flooded by heavy rain, and contaminated mud and rainwater leaked through a raised barrier. Areva spokesman Alun Richards said the mud and water contained "low levels" of radioactivity from vehicles that pass over the road to and from the uranium mine. Richards said company records show 100 cubic metres, or 100,000 litres, of radioactive material was spilled — 10 times more than Environment Canada lists in its database. He added the spill was cleaned up immediately, and there were no lingering health or environmental effects. In another case, a company called IMTT-Quebec Inc., which handles bulk liquids, is named as the responsible party in a spill of 126,000 litres of jet fuel on Oct. 4, 2007. Marc Dulude, the company's executive vice-president and chief operating officer, didn't respond to questions about the spill. Environment Canada said the jet-fuel leak occurred in a tank dike and nothing leaked out. The contents were pumped out and stored in another reservoir. The city spills troubled one environmentalist. "It's the sheer number of different kinds of pollutants being spilled here that's striking," said Rick Smith, the executive director of Environmental Defence. "We're talking about bacterial pollutants, cancer-causing pollutants, hormone-disrupting pollutants. All of these things being spilled accidentally, or in an unplanned fashion, in an illegal fashion into the environment on a regular basis." A spokeswoman for Environment Canada said the sewage and wastewater spills are unacceptable. "We need to stop dumping raw and under-treated sewage into our waterways," Ashleigh Wilson said. "Today we have about 400 facilities dumping at least 1.5 trillion litres of raw sewage directly into our waterways every year causing impacts to everything from our beaches along waterways to commercial fisheries including shellfish. Under our new regulations this will stop." She was referring to new wastewater-system regulations that set timelines and baseline standards for sewage spills. In the past, Environment Canada has defended the NEMISIS database, which is riddled with missing, incomplete and inaccurate entries. In many cases the type and amount of contaminant spilled isn't known. But the department insists it has all the information it needs to track and prosecute polluters.