Spiel

Local anglers tops at four man tourney October 1, 2009 Allyson Snelling / www.bracebridgeexaminer.com For the third year in a row, Bracebridge anglers Chris Marling and Gary Franklin have been among the winners in an Ontario Bassmasters team-style fishing tournament. For the past two years, the tournament has been known for its six-man format, but this year changed to a four-man team format. Held on Georgian Bay on Sunday, Sept. 20, the tournament saw 40 anglers on 10 teams competing for top spot. Franklin and Marling fished from one boat, while teammates Mike Reid of Gravenhurst and Tim Ellis of North Bay fished from another. Each boat weighed in three fish for a total of six entries. After eight and a half hours on the water, the team weighed in a total of 44.1 pounds for a first-place prize of $1,500, which they split evenly among the four anglers. Marling said each duo brought in about 22 pounds. “The fishing was fantastic. Georgian Bay is a great fishery,” said Marling. He and Franklin had not competed on Georgian Bay before, he added. The fishing was so good that Marling said he hooked one fish and it jumped right into the boat. The fish was covered with the net by Franklin. Several local teams participated in the tourney, including the team of Steve Bossence, Phil Curtis, Craig Stuckless and Scott Thomson, who earned a cash prize for their third-place finish. All the anglers belong to the Muskoka Bassmasters club and rivalry between the anglers kept the competition fun. “Phil Curtis said at the beginning of the tournament that all they wanted to do was beat me,” Marling laughed. “Steve replied, ‘you just jinxed us’, and it did jinx them.” The following weekend the duo competed against each other in the final Muskoka Bassmasters club tournament. Held on Lake St. John in Rama, the tourney, which was open to non-members, saw seven teams compete. Franklin topped the pack with Brock Robertson at 12.54 pounds, while Marling came fourth with Glen Boyd with 9.17 pounds.

Angling for justice Two years after a human rights commission exposed 'nipper-tipping' in cottage country, zero tolerance has led to the trial of a 12-year-old boy. Wednesday, Oct. 07, 2009 JOE FRIESEN / www.theglobeandmail.com LINDSAY — The 12-year-old boy shuffled toward the judge with the timid reluctance one would expect of a child called to answer before authority. Barely four feet tall with a bird-like frame, his tiny stature - unusual even for a boy his age - took the Lindsay, Ont., courtroom by surprise. The judge, peering down from the bench, explained that he had been charged with a criminal assault. "Do you understand what that means?" he asked in a tone adults reserve for small children. "Yes," the boy replied. The child stands accused of being the latest and youngest villain in a peculiar crime wave. "Nipper-tipping," as it is known to its perpetrators, emerged into the public eye two years ago during a spate of attacks on Asian-Canadian fishermen. At first, the act of pushing an unsuspecting angler into the water was viewed as a sophomoric, racist prank: The name itself combines an anti-Japanese epithet with the rural hilarity of cow-tipping. After increased scrutiny and public pressure, a zero-tolerance policy seems to have emerged, culminating in the trial of a frightened, pre-adolescent boy. His alleged involvement could be described as a copycat crime. In April, 2007, an Asian man and his 13-year-old son fishing at Jackson's Point on Lake Simcoe in Georgina, Ont., were accosted, the latter pushed in the water. That summer, four similar events took place from July to August. Each time, the victims had only their hobby and their ancestry in common. The breaking point came on Sept. 17 of that year when a similar incident at Jackson's Point led to a car chase in which a racially mixed group was pursued by locals. Their car crashed, leaving 23-year-old Shayne Berwick with a serious brain injury. "Nipper-tipping" became a political flashpoint. Chinese-Canadian leaders demanded that the cases be prosecuted as hate crimes. York Regional Police responded with helicopters to patrol popular fishing holes and Asian police officers went undercover as fishermen (they weren't attacked but reported being subjected to racial slurs). The Ontario Provincial Police responded by assigning hate-crime investigators to any incident involving Asian fishermen. The Ontario Human Rights Commission weighed in with a report, Fishing Without Fear, that graded more than 20 organizations involved in the events. Did tolerance end at the GTA border? Or were white locals applying vigilante tactics to outsiders they accuse of illegally depleting fish stocks? As the multicultural city extends further toward areas relatively untouched by immigration, these flare-ups may be a symptom of deeper unease. Fisheries have long been a source of conflict between whites and Asians. At the turn of the century in B.C. there was a fight over Fraser River salmon that led to violence, and in 1907 there were anti-Asian riots in Vancouver. There was also an anti-Chinese riot in Lindsay, Ont., in 1919. Patricia Roy, a historian who has studied the history of the Chinese and Japanese in Canada, said these kinds of tensions are not uncommon anywhere in the world. Locals are often hostile to outsiders if they believe they're infringing on a scarce resource, and that hostility is more easily focused if the outsiders belong to an identifiable racial group. "I wouldn't say it's what Canada is, I would say it's what people are," Prof. Roy said. "I think it's more human nature than Canadian." In the Lindsay courtroom last week, the 12-year-old's parents stood with him in court, laying their hands on his shoulders as though trying to keep his fidgety torso pointed in the right direction. They told the judge they planned to hire a lawyer to defend their son, but declined to speak with reporters for fear of jeopardizing his case. The decision to prosecute a child is the strongest signal yet that police and justice officials are serious about cracking down on a practice that remains an open wound for many Asian-Canadians. The victim is a 46-year-old Chinese-Canadian from Markham who was on a day trip this August to the Kawarthas with his family. Fishing at the side of Canal Lake, he was approached by two boys. When he turned his attention to his fishing rod, one of the boys allegedly ran up and knocked him into the water, which was two metres below. The victim's wife, who along with his son and daughter watched the attack unfold, chased and caught the boy and then called the OPP. Still, a criminal-assault charge in this case is somewhat surprising. Officers typically have a great deal of discretion to either arrest or caution young suspects. But with the scrutiny of the Toronto media and the Human Rights Commission, as well as governments pledging these attacks will be taken seriously, the police may feel they have no choice but to lay charges. While the authorities have been cracking down, prosecutors have been criticized for easing up. Last week another high-profile assault prosecution came to a sudden and - in the eyes of the Chinese community - unsatisfactory end. Scott MacEachern, a 21-year-old business student from Georgina, had been charged with three separate attacks on Asian fishermen in York region during the summer of 2007. In each case, he had allegedly shoved someone into the water. Mr. MacEachern pled guilty to only one of the charges, the others were dropped, and he walked free with a sentence of 12 months probation. "I'm shocked that he was let go," said Mike Ma, co-ordinator of the Peterborough Community and Race-Relations Committee. The news of the sentence was splashed on the front pages of Chinese-Canadian newspapers, and call-in shows lit up with angry responses. York police said they did their best, but witnesses in some cases couldn't identify the accused. Mr. Ma, who has lived in Canada nearly all his life, said he worries about his own safety now when he fishes in the area outside Peterborough. "My sister and brother-in-law and their family came to visit me a few weeks ago and we went fishing," he said. "The whole time in the back of my mind I'm thinking, 'Am I safe?' because of the way I look." Very few locals are willing to speak on the record for fear of being branded as racists. But they say their complaints are legitimate: Many Asian day-trippers are fishing without a licence, trespassing on private property and ignoring catch limits. Some of the fishing is happening at night, which can only mean they're up to no good and the catch is being sold in Toronto's Chinatown the following morning. In their view, a centuries-old local fishery is being depleted by outsiders, and the Ministry of Natural Resources is doing nothing to stop it. Confronting the fishermen, pushing them in the water, spraying graffiti - such as the message on a Hastings, Ont., bridge that read "damn You Nips!!, fish thieves" - are all misguided but understandable attempts to redress injustice, they argue. Mr. Ma said he's still shocked by the number of people who characterize these incidents as youthful pranks or a legitimate conflict while down-playing the racial overtones. "Why is it that these attacks are uniformly on Asian-Canadians?" he asks. "It's been quite uniform." The attacks have been concentrated primarily in the Township of Georgina, near Lake Simcoe, and more recently to the east in the Kawartha Lakes area. While Toronto has a visible minority population of 45 per cent, it's just 3.9 per cent in Georgina, and 1.6 per cent in Kawartha Lakes. The number of incidents reported to police involving Asian fishermen has declined, from 10 in 2007 to five in 2009 - but the threat hasn't abated. This week a Toronto woman born in the Philippines was fishing at a Pigeon Lake resort when she was approached by three men who demanded to know what she was catching and whether she had a licence - typical harassment many Asian fishers describe. The police said the woman fled the area and called for help. The OPP said the incident "may have involved physical contact," but they didn't have sufficient grounds to lay an assault charge. They later issued a press release asking people who fish not to resort to vigilante enforcement. Concerns should be taken up with natural resources officers, they said. Ontario's Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield said one of the most important steps taken by her ministry was to meet with the Asian anglers association and have the province's fishing regulations translated into Cantonese to prevent misunderstandings. "Obviously there has been some level of discomfort in the communities - both communities - it's not one or the other," Ms. Cansfield said. "We live in a very cosmopolitan world, especially in Ontario, and we have to find ways and means of how we live together." Thanks to Kickingfrog for the link

Too funny....

I too am glad I was able to get out there Joey.

Read the exceptions/extended seasons for fall trout fishing in your region.

I got to admit I was tempted to jump on this offer Harrison, but alas the timing is not right. Though I've never met Sinker I feel confident that Wyatt has indeed found a good home. I hope you (Shayne) and your family have a great many years of enjoyment with your new friend.

Your life SUCKS ! I thought you'd be used to it by now.

And here I was thinking of banning hockey threads!

Weevils take bite out of Lake Scugog weeds Scugog Lake Stewards say summer pilot project a success Oct 02, 2009 Chris Hall / newsdurhamregion.com SCUGOG -- The jungle of weeds lying beneath the surface of Lake Scugog has proven to be a tasty buffet for the large army of weevils that now call the lake home. According to the Scugog Lake Stewards, a pilot project carried out this summer, using 20,000 additional weevils introduced to the lake in an effort to combat the unruly weed problem, has been quite a success. The effort, which began in early July with the release of the small bugs, has proven to not only be an effective tool in the battle to get bogged-down boats across the lake, but has also revealed a new species of milfoil, said Jamie Ross last week. Mr. Ross, president of the stewards group, summarized the project's results while speaking before a collection of Scugog Chamber of Commerce members attending a breakfast meeting on the Woodman tour boat on Sept. 24. "It's not a quick fix, but it does work and we're happy with our progress to date," said Mr. Ross. The project stretches back almost two years, said the SLS president, pointing to complaints in recent years about weeds so thick "that you could almost walk across" the Port Perry bay to Scugog Island. That got the SLS members thinking about a biological control that would be effective in reducing the tangle of the unwanted underwater plant life, he said. A trip to Puslinch Lake, near Cambridge, in August 2008 to review a success story there sold the group on the idea of increasing Lake Scugog's weevil population. From there, the idea continued to grow and, thanks to $30,000 in support from the Baagwating Community Association, the pilot project got off the ground this past summer, said Mr. Ross. And while a paperwork mess nearly derailed the plan before the weevils could even get their first bite of Lake Scugog weeds, the project came together in early July. With the help of two American biologists, 20,000 weevils were transplanted into Lake Scugog near King's Bay, where they were left to work as milfoil gluttons. At that time, it was also discovered the milfoil that inhabits Lake Scugog is hybrid of the invasive Eurasian variety and the native northern species. "The plant that has taken over the lake is a hybrid between the two," said Mr. Ross. "It's a lot more aggressive, it takes over quicker and grows quicker." Almost two months later, at the end of August, the biologists returned to survey the weevils' work, said Mr. Ross. "The bugs really did like this hybrid," he said. While at first glance it's hard to tell that the weevils are making a huge difference, further scrutiny has shown that the bugs are quickly mowing through the weeds, stressed the SLS president. "The weevils work, the weevils like to eat the hybrid which is critical," he said, noting the weevils have not impacted the local fish population. Reducing the amount of hybrid milfoil in the lake will also make room for native plants, he added. The next step in the project, continued Mr. Ross, is to see how well the weevils survive the winter, how the weed test plot fares next summer and to carry out a study of all the underwater vegetation in Lake Scugog. If all goes well, the group hopes to continue to gather evidence in favour of the weevil work and pursue government grants to continue efforts in the future. Related Articles.... Scugog Lake Stewards reel in funding for weevil pilot project Weevils the answer to weed woes in Lake Scugog? Scugog volunteer group doesn't wobble from weevil project Population boom for Lake Scugog weevils Lake stewards to pitch natural remedy for Scugog weeds

Great Lakes biologists brace for hydrilla, the next big invasive water weed Oct. 1, 2009 Jeff Gillies / Great Lakes Echo Editors note: This story is part of a series relevant to the International Joint Commission’s Oct. 7 and 8 biennial meeting in Windsor. Hydrilla is an invasive species that hasn't made it to the Great Lakes. Biologists want to keep it that way. Photo: Collete Jacono, USGS When Matt Preisser thought he saw a photo of a potential Great Lakes invasive species in a Michigan newspaper, he tracked it down and checked it out. “The plants in the photo were suspiciously similar to hydrilla,” said Preisser, who works for Michigan’s Aquatic Nuisance Control Program. “It was close enough that I didn’t want to pass it up and miss the chance to find out if that’s really what it was.” It wasn’t. But Preisser’s willingness to sniff out a fishy looking plant in a newspaper photo shows how serious Great Lakes biologists are about keeping this invader out. Hydrilla is just the kind of organism requiring a coordinated response that will be discussed next Wednesday in Windsor at the biennial meeting of the International Joint Commission. That’s a binational group of scientists and policy advisers who advise the U.S. and Canadian governments on Great Lakes issues. Hydrilla can form floating mats as large as 100 acres. The mats block sunlight from other plants and are too dense to serve as fish habitat, Preisser said. They clog drinking water and irrigation systems. Native to Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia, hydrilla grows in ropy stems covered in green leaves. It first invaded the U.S. in Florida around 1960 when unwitting aquarium enthusiasts likely dumped the plant into local waterways. Once it took root, it reproduced like mad and crowded out native plants and wildlife. It has since spread to 19 states and is knocking on the Great Lakes’ door. Hydrillia is almost impossible to get rid of once it’s established, Preisser said. “In Florida and some of the other southern states it’s very extensive, and they’ve spent millions and millions of dollars trying to control it,” he said. “It’s still there, and these are annual efforts.” So Great Lakes officials want a basin-wide plan that spells out exactly who does what when someone spots hydrilla so they can oust it before it gets too comfortable. That plan will resolve key issues well ahead of invasions so they can’t bog down the response once the exotic species show up. Those issues include permits, conflicts between local, state and federal regulations, working out who’s in charge of a response and who’s going to pay for it, said Mark Burrows, an International Joint Commission scientist and secretary of the Council of Great Lakes Research Managers. Clearing up those potential show-stoppers ahead of time will help prevent a messy situation where one state or nation knows about a hydrilla outbreak but its neighbors don’t find out until it’s too late. “It causes a lot of bad relations and missed opportunities for response if everybody’s not fully informed on both sides of the border,” Burrows said. The Joint Commission isn’t the first Great Lakes player to hatch a plan anticipating hydrilla’s arrival. In 2004, Michigan’s Hydrilla Task Force drafted a “rapid response” plan to determine which state department would do what if hydrilla was found in the state. But the plan still doesn’t say who will pay for it. “We can’t say that we would rapidly respond to hydrilla if it was found because we have no source of funding,” said Roger Eberhardt, environmental quality specialist in Michigan’s Office of the Great Lakes. Luckily, Michigan is still hydrilla-free. But the plant has reared it’s head in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Indiana. When Indiana officials found hydrilla in Lake Manitou in 2006, they followed Michigan’s plan to squash the outbreak. Three years of chemical treatment and restricted boating access later, the infestation is more than 90 percent controlled, and it hasn’t spread to any other lakes in the state. Indiana’s success is encouraging for cash-strapped states like Michigan. “In Indiana, they didn’t have funding either,” Eberhardt said. “But they kind of cobbled together some money from their current programs.” Some federal help could be on the way. Congress is considering $475 million for Great Lakes restoration, $60 million of which would go to fighting invasive species. One priority for that funding is rapid response plans, said Hugh MacIsaac, co-chair of the International Joint Commission’s rapid response work group. “This would, for the first time, give states money to develop the types of plans that…should be done to prepare for when the next bad invader comes in,” he said.

Pinks attract anglers in one of world's best salmon fisheries Sept. 24, 2009 ERIC SHARP / www.freep.com SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario -- They're a bit late, but the salmon pouring into Michigan rivers from the St. Joseph to the St. Marys will offer some of the finest fishing in the world over the next month at bargain-basement prices. Michigan's Pacific salmon runs rival many in Alaska and are better than most rivers in Lower 48 Pacific streams from whence the ancestors of our fish came. In addition, anglers who come to the St. Marys River rapids on the border between the Soos still have an excellent shot at catching Atlantic salmon that are the quest of the rich in most places. They might even catch one of the rarest fish in the world, a pink-chinook salmon hybrid called a pinook that is found only in the St. Marys system. "When pinks first showed up 30 here years ago, they ran every other year, like they do out west," said John Giuliani, a St. Marys River guide. "Now they run every year. One year there are huge numbers of them. The next there aren't as many, but they're bigger. This is a year for the smaller run, but they're just pouring in right now, and we're seeing a lot that go 4 to 6 pounds." In the past week, anglers also have caught several fish that look like pink salmon but weighed 8 to 12 pounds. Fish that size almost certainly are pinooks, the hybrid that looks like a pink on steroids. "They're amazing," Giuliani said. "They get their size from the chinook side, but they look just like a pink. We're really doing well on them on flies right now, mostly caddis larvae, and there's hardly anybody on the river. We're out here today and there are, what, two other anglers?" Pink salmon were introduced to Lake Superior inadvertently in the 1950s by Canadian fisheries biologists and spread eastward from Thunder Bay, Ontario, along the northern shore until they reached Lake Huron. The St. Marys' runs of pinks and chinooks come from Lake Huron, and the river and its tributaries are the only place in the world where pinks and chinooks are known to hybridize, probably because it's the only place where large numbers of both species spawn at the same time. About 200 miles to the southwest, we had some good chinook fishing a week ago on the flies-only stretch of the Pere Marquette downstream from Baldwin, getting fish 15-20 pounds by sweeping big streamers like gray ghosts and bunnies trough the holes. I also saw anglers catching fish below the fly zone on crankbaits such as Rapalas, Bombers and Thundersticks, a technique that western and Canadian fishermen have used for decades but caught on here only a few years ago. Several anglers I talked with on the phone said fishing has since slowed on the Per Marquette. Due to the long spell of dry weather, relatively few bright fish were coming in from Lake Michigan, and the fish already in the river had been seriously harassed. The St. Joseph River, which enters Lake Michigan near the Indiana line, had a nice push of chinooks earlier this month, but the unusually warm weather of the past 10 days has warmed the water and also slowed that run. I'm hoping the result will be chinook runs in several Michigan rivers that last well into October and even November in the Muskegon and White, which with the St. Marys gets some of the last runs in the Midwest. "The St. Marys gets salmon of some kind almost every month of the year," Giuliani said on a recent outing where we landed chinook, pink salmon, steelhead and resident rainbow trout. The biggest chinooks were about 20 pounds, and the pinks ran 2 to 4 pounds. "We've even caught chinooks in June and July, so we may be seeing the start of a summer run like they get in Alaska. The chinooks just started showing up here three or four days ago, and we'll have them all October," he said. "The chinooks and pinks are really big this year, and I think that's because the smelt are coming back in Lake Huron. I figure we'll have pinks around for another couple of weeks because they started so late." We fished 8-weight fly rods, but anglers do just as well with 9- or 10-foot spinning rods casting spawn or a float-and-flies setup on 8-pound line. Longer rods allow fly and spin fishermen better control of the line in the fast currents. Pinks are fun to catch on a 6-weight fly rod, but while casting to these smaller salmon you'll almost certainly hook up with something a lot bigger, and landing a 20-plus-pound chinook on a 6-weight in fast water is very iffy. A final caveat is to take waders with felt soles or an artificial compound that sticks on slick surfaces. The St. Marys' bottom is pink granite, and after 10,000 years of polishing by swift currents and gravel, it's as smooth as a kitchen counter and as slick as the ice at the Joe Louis Arena after a Zamboni treatment.

Lake Erie algae blooms linked to underwater sediment shifts September 29, 2009 TOM HENRY / www.toledoblade.com A toxic form of algae that has overtaken Lake Erie's western basin in recent summers appears to be thriving not only because fertilizers are getting washed into area rivers and streams by rain but also because the silt doesn't stay put once it gets into the water. Tom Bridgeman, a researcher at the University of Toledo's Lake Erie Center, told members of the Ohio Lake Erie Commission yesterday the new finding is significant because it goes beyond the usual correlation between algae and rain. It also raises new questions about the federal government's long-standing practice of dumping silt dredgings from the Toledo shipping channel into the open lake water, which has drawn the ire of Michigan and Ohio politicians since the mid 1980s. The lake's western basin was blanketed by one of its largest swaths of free-floating microcystis algae this summer, even though seasonal rainfall was average. That apparently was because resuspended sediment made the warm, shallow western basin turbid enough to protect the algae from sunlight. Sunlight usually kills most forms of algae as it rises to the lake's surface. "We really think the turbidity of the water helps microcystis grow," Mr. Bridgeman said. Lake Erie has hundreds of types of algae, most of which are at the bottom of the food chain and are consumed by microscopic forms of life that fish eat. "In general, if there's no algae, there are no fish," Mr. Bridgeman said. But microcystis is one of two notorious types of blue-green algae that have taken a strong hold on the western basin in recent years. It has killed dozens of people in Brazil and has become a costly menace to control locally. Toledo spends $3,000 to $4,000 a day running a carbon-activated filtration system at its water plant to neutralize the algae when they are in bloom, according to Gail Hesse of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, who sat in for agency director Chris Korleski at yesterday's meeting. The commission was told by various people that algae blooms affect more than public health. They drive away tourists, hurt property values, and, in excess, can affect the region's multibillion-dollar fishery. Although most of the resuspended sediment that's aiding microcystis is probably the result of high winds and storms, Mr. Bridgeman agreed the research raises new questions about what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dumps into the lake after dredging the Toledo shipping channel. Toledo's harbor is the shallowest and most heavily dredged in the Great Lakes region. Most of the shipping channel's sediment is dumped in one area of northern Maumee Bay. But Jeff Reutter, director of Ohio Sea Grant and Ohio State University's Stone Laboratory, said the western basin is so shallow there is no place the dredged material can be deposited without it being resuspended and swirling up near the top of the water column again. He said it gets redeposited across the lake's western basin. "If it had stayed all in one place, you would have seen a big mountain of it [in the bay] by now," Mr. Reutter said. The Corps practice is more effective in deep bodies of water such as Lake Superior, he said. Duluth, Minn., has clear water near its surface and few signs of algae because Lake Superior is hundreds of feet deep. "An area like that doesn't exist in the western basin of Lake Erie," Mr. Reutter said. Fishery biologists have long cried foul over the practice of open-lake dumping, claiming that turbidity generated by suspended sediment has kept western Lake Erie - the most biologically productive part of the Great Lakes region - from achieving its full potential for fish production. The Corps has said it deposits about two-thirds of what it dredges from the Toledo shipping channel each summer, material which meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chemical thresholds. The most polluted sediment, typically that dug from Toledo's inner harbor, goes to a waterfront landfill called a confined disposal facility. The agency has said it has few other options unless nonfederal sources came up with millions of dollars to help the federal government build a new confined disposal facility. The question is not whether the Corps is having an impact. It's how much it is exacerbating the problem, Mr. Reutter said. "The Corps of Engineers will look with great interest at any study that involves the health and well-being of the Great Lakes," Bruce Sanders, Corps spokesman, said. Oregon activist Sandy Bihn, founder of the Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association and the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society, called upon the commission to build an "Eco Island" near the lighthouse. She said she envisions a pilot project in which geo tubes packed with dredged material are used to build a structure in the lake for fish habitat and spawning. Doing that quickly would reduce or eliminate the need for open-lake dumping, she said in a letter to the commission. "We need to think out of the box about ways to help Lake Erie and to enhance economic opportunities created by an abundant sport fishery, bird watchers, and lighthouse lovers," she wrote. The commission, a panel of state agency directors, meets quarterly. Yesterday's meeting was its first at UT's Lake Erie Center in Oregon.

Bass Pro CEO Morris brings passion for fishing to job October 1, 2009 Jayne O'Donnell / USA TODAY Johnny Morris is happiest with a fly rod in hand. He knows how to design stores that can become their states' top tourist attractions. / Photo by Richard Gibson SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Bass Pro Shops is "what most retailers only fantasize about," said Ethan Allen CEO Farooq Kathwari when he introduced Bass Pro CEO Johnny Morris at an awards ceremony last year. But try to get the details of the dream out of Morris, and you'll find he's conveniently "gone fishing." That may say as much about his love of the sport as it does about his disdain for anything approaching braggadocio. But it still took an army of company assistants and no small amount of arm-twisting to get him to agree to, and follow through on, giving his first national media interview in more than 12 years. Given the barrage of bad news that's hit retailers over the last year, it's hardly surprising that a CEO would want to lie low, especially when he's selling what many people — other than him — would consider discretionary items. But lying low has been Morris' position of choice since he started selling fishing lures out of his dad's liquor store here in 1972. Morris' retailing has come a long way: People drive for hours and will even stay overnight to visit one of the chain's 56 huge stores, which in addition to outdoors merchandise are filled with typically free activities ranging from archery to rock climbing. Several movies and TV shows have been filmed at its stores and, in the past nine months alone, nine couples have gotten married at a Bass Pro Shop. Even so, the firm is feeling the recession's pain. It has laid off workers at stores, its boat-building plants and its headquarters. New store openings slowed this year to two, down from eight in 2008; five openings are on hold. Back in the rosier retail landscape days, malls and cities competed and offered financial incentives to get one of Bass' big-box tourist magnets, but these days neither has the money to spend. Though the privately held chain doesn't disclose sales figures, Forbeslast year ranked Bass Pro at 138 on its list of the 441 largest private companies and estimated its annual revenue at $2.65 billion. Retail analyst David Magee says Wal-Mart's successful expansion into fishing supplies has likely hit Bass harder than competitor Cabela's, which is more of a destination for hunters. Magee says both Bass and Cabela's, which is publicly traded, are benefiting as all gun sellers are, from brisk firearms sales but hampered because hunting and fishing don't tend to be growth categories. And both face growing competition from sporting goods stores, such as Dick's, which are capturing more of the market. For its part, Cabela's is planning smaller stores to raise profitability, says Magee, managing director at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. That's not Morris' plan: "If anything, we're making stores better." 100 million tourists The Bass Pro concept stands out among retailers in at least one capacity: It draws tourists. The store here is about tied with the St. Louis Gateway Arch for tourists at about 4 million a year. Visitors to all stores are expected to top 100 million this year thanks to store openings in Altoona, Iowa, and Calgary. That compares with an estimated 60 million annual visitors for Walt Disney World in Orlando. The stores, themed to represent each location's geography, draw customers for the hunting, fishing and other outdoor gear, but also laser arcades, aquariums, fly-fishing lessons and wildlife exhibits. There are conservation lectures at every store in auditoriums named after Morris' beloved Uncle Buck, who introduced him to fishing and is memorialized with a bronze statue at the entrance to the store here. Morris says Sam Walton used to visit the store in the 1980s with no shopping cart, just a pad to take notes. Not that Morris is opposed to a little copycatting: A late '70s trip to L.L. Bean's Maine flagship that Morris and his sister Susie Henry took provided much of the inspiration for the store here, which was opened in 1982. "I thought, 'If they can attract all these people to Maine, I can do something similar in Missouri,' " Morris says. There wasn't too much to brag about in Bass Pro's early days, but Morris learned a lesson in the importance of knowing your customers. Already a regular contestant and finalist for the Bassmaster Classic tournament in 1970, he watched closely to see what "secret lures" the winners used and bought them, as he says many of the winners were "upstart manufacturers" who sold the lures as well. "It was far better than being a buyer sitting in an office at Wal-Mart," Morris says. Uncle Buck also made hand-tied lures and "eels" from sowbellies that were bottled in baby-food jars. Soon, Morris' bait and lures were squeezing the beer to the side of his dad's Brown Derby liquor store, where he got his retail start. Within two years, Morris was selling catalogs for $2, and his grandmother, aunts and sisters were holding "mailing parties." Family has always played a big role at Bass. Morris' father-in-law's company installed the first big aquarium; wife Jeanie, an interior decorator, helped design the gift shop at Bass Pro's Big Cedar lodge; sister Susie set up the company's computer system in 1976; and sister Carol Robinson continues to help with marketing and public relations projects. Humble and unassuming Morris, 61, can be a hard guy to pin down — even to work for — but his apparently authentic "aw shucks" attitude makes him a hard one not to like. He's casual and unassuming to the core, a slightly built man who favors khakis, open-collared shirts and listening more than talking. At breakfast recently at the Big Cedar lodge in nearby Branson, Morris' family got uncomfortably close to flattery. Jeanie said she's "never seen anyone as loyal as he is with friends and family." Daughter Meg, 19, says, "The greatest lesson he's taught me is humility." Says Morris with an embarrassed grin: "Stop it, that's enough." Jack Emmitt, who started 29 years ago as the first fishing department manager and now works as a consultant, says Morris "wasn't the best talker" back in the early days. Having accepted dozens of awards for both conservation and retailing since, Morris has developed if not the gift of gab, at least a bit more comfort at the podium. Accepting the National Retail Federation's Retail Innovator of the Year award last year from Kathwari, Morris was choked up as he gave most of the credit to his employees and his late father, who was his "biggest hero" and "the most savvy merchant ever to come down the pike." By the end of his remarks, in which he apologized for the video introduction — "sorry that big advertisement ran on so long" — Morris was hardly the only one sniffling among the thousands in the crowd. His employees may love him, too, but they may not always love working for him. It can be a "nightmare for some of those people," says Jan Riddle, distribution manager and, at 35 years, the longest-serving employee at the company. Clay Self, the country music singer who's been playing the Buzzard Bar at Big Cedar for 21 years, describes driving anywhere with Morris as a lesson in patience. If he sees a particularly interesting tree — especially a twisted cedar — Morris will insist the driver pull over and take what Self says seems like thousands of photos. Still, Self says, "It's twice the experience it would be if you'd gone out by yourself." It's not just a quirky habit. Morris is involved in the details of his store interiors, right down to the looks of the life-size trees, some of which are — you guessed it — twisted cedars. He sends his employees to museums around the country so the wildlife dioramas closely replicate the natural habitat where animals live in the areas around the stores. Emmitt recalls workers moving a wall at least six times during construction of the store here and realizing it probably wound up just 6 inches from where it started. "He sees things the average person doesn't," Emmitt says. Reeling in costs Morris is learning his share of flexibility these days. When the store here was built in 1982, "No sane banker would have ever approved it because we didn't have a payback model," he says. So Morris used revenue from selling all those lures and sowbelly eels and tapped a line of credit so he wouldn't have to "apply for a special line justification for aquariums and waterfalls." "We were having fun for our customers, rather than looking at what the financial return would be," says the man who calls himself "chief fishing officer" or "chief daydreamer." In 1978, Morris came up with the idea for the best-selling boat in the company's lineup, the aluminum Bass Tracker, and even sold them in a catalog, which people said would never work. They were the "biggest gamble the company ever took," says Morris, as they were sold with motors and trailers as a package, which had never been done before. Bass' boating business, Tracker Marine, has been merged with the store side of the company. The company also is working to promote boating as a lifestyle. The heck with the financial naysayers. "Buy a boat, get a return in the happiness it brings," Morris says. "You've got to sell the fun of things, too." Even if his costly and expansive vision of retail needs more adjusting in this economy, you won't catch Morris racking his brain for more ways to do it. President Jim Hagale, who joined the company in 2002, took on a more active role earlier this year in helping manage all of the Bass Pro properties, including Big Cedar and Tracker Marine. In an interview, Hagale said his job is to inject "some discipline around the vision" while being careful not to "dilute the concept, or we're going to be like everyone else who sells shotgun shells and rubber worms." Hagale laughs that Morris recently summed up their roles and relationship pretty well: "He said, 'I think we're a pretty good team. You stay here and work, and I'll go test the product.' "

Where's the "remove chinook salmon option"?

BINGO! Give the man a cigar. It's simply Gar.

You may have taught the family a few things in life TJ, but fishing ain't one of them. Nicely done Jaden.

I had my first dealing with him back in June of this year. I needed an anti reverse bearing for a Quantum spinning reel, and I needed it a.s.a.p. A quick phone call, my credit card # and 2 days later it was in my mail box. I was happy.

Wow, first the shampoo and conditioner rant and now 7 days later this! You lead a troubled life my friend.

I'm deeply saddened to hear of this Miss Joey. We'll talk soon.

Great pictures of a great fish, absolutely beautiful!

A GPS isn't enough to keep boaters safe in a heavy fog Sept. 25, 2009 TERRY CURTIS / www.northumberlandtoday.com Off and on. On and off. That's how the fishing is the last week or so in our neck of the woods and there's not much we can do about it until we get some consistent cold nights where the thermometer drops below the freezing mark. We need the cold, frosty weather to convince the bass and walleye to put the feed bag on for the duration of the fall season and nothing sets them off like the first really heavy frosts of the year that prompt the frogs to head from the grass and reeds down to the shallow water edges where they begin to bury themselves in the mud for the upcoming winter season where they hibernate until spring. These migrating frogs make perfect snacks for shallow-water fish and you can rest assured a lot of them get gobbled up as soon as they hit the water. Those sneaky walleye, especially, will be cruising the shallows in anticipation of some early evening dinners as soon as we get the weather we need to get the frogs moving. That said, though, I'm not saying the bass and walleye have really shut down with a complete case of lockjaw. We had a few cool nights with a nip or two of the much needed frost and the fish were stating to hit pretty good. Then, in came some hot, humid weather patterns that shut them down somewhat. But that doesn't mean they quit biting altogether. No siree! It just means you have to work a little harder to get them to take a slam at your bait of choice. A couple of hints? If you are throwing a buck-tail jig for walleye, don't rip it quickly through the water. Hop it and pop it at a slower, lazier rate than you would in the spring when the fish are very active. Let it lie on bottom before you start to retrieve it back to the boat. And watch your line closely for any little twitches or hops. Some of the bites you think may be panfish are actually walleye. They aren't smoking the jigs right now, just feeling them out very cautiously and it's easy to miss them. Throwing a crankbait for bass or walleye right now! Shame on you if you aren't! Smallies, largemouth and walleye are all hitting them, although very softly. Perch or craw patterns are tops without a doubt. Lures that have a very wiggly pattern like a Rapala Tail Dancer in the green hue are one of my top choices at this time of year for walleye. For bass, oversized, fat wide body cranks are without the way to go. Crankbaits aside, don't forget plastic tube baits and slashbaits for bass, either. They always take their share of bass at this time of year and can be deadly on frosty mornings when the fog is lifting from the water, especially the slashbaits. Just remember to fish them a little slower than you would in the summer, just as I said about the hair jigs. And speaking of fog, here's a little reminder to all boaters. One day this week I was at the boat launch at 7 a. m., ready to hit the water for some walleye but it was so foggy I couldn't see 15 feet off shore. So I sat there and talked to several other anglers who also knew it was too dangerous to venture out until the fog lifted. These were the smart anglers. But, as always, there were a couple of knuckleheads who hit the water anyway, saying they would use their GPS units to guide them too their spots. Unbelievably, they actually took off full throttle from the launch! Not even idling out, full bore! This in the thickest fog I've ever encountered on Rice Lake. I know that lake inside-out and I wouldn't even think about leaving the docks. Keep in mind, the visibility window was, at most, 15 feet. Any idiot can follow the arrow on a GPS unit to get to their fishing area, but what if some other boater was stuck in the fog that quickly moved in and was in their path? Or a dock had busted loose from its mooring or a log had floated into their travelway? No GPS unit in the world could relay that information quickly enough to prevent an accident. What disturbed me more was the fact two of the boaters who took off at full speed were tournament anglers, guys who are supposed to set an example for other boaters and know better. One in particular has done very well in tournaments and I used to think he was a pretty smart guy. Not anymore. A swelled head means a swelled ego and he sure proved it. The sponsorship for a tackle company he asked me to endorse for him? Gone! It's idiots such as that guy who give the rest of safe boaters a bad name and are the cause of the useless, money-grabbing boater's licence we're all required to carry now. Use your head out there! No fish is worth your life or, even worse, someone else's -- is it?

Nicely done Ryan. Read it here.

Frogmore resident learns the Facts of Fishing Sept. 25, 2009 Jeff Helsdon / www.tillsonburgnews.com When Ryan Bonin goes to work, he always makes sure he packs his camera and fishing pole. As a cameraman and editor for Dave Mercer Outdoors, the Frogmore resident has the type of job most anglers dream of. Not only is he traveling to some of the best fishing spots in North America, he is also learning to be a better angler with tips from television angler Dave Mercer. Bonin came into the job in a roundabout manner. Originally from Sudbury, he followed his brother’s footsteps showing an interest in video. “It was the only thing I really enjoyed in high school other than fishing, and there’s no courses in fishing,” he joked. Although he did a co-op placement with a conservation officer and loved it, his mind was made up for a future career when he was told job prospects, as game wardens were thin. He attended Fanshawe College and took television and broadcasting. There, he met his wife Ginny, who was from the Langton area. After graduating, Bonin was working at Technicolor in Toronto on commercials, when he chatted with Mercer through a message board on OFC. At the time, Mercer had produced videos and was looking at starting a television show, which launched in June 2007. “I was in the right place at the right time and was lucky,” he said. “He sent me a message on WFN and the rest is history. We worked well together so he asked me to come work full-time for Dave Mercer Outdoors.” Mercer’s Facts of Fishing television show aims to be more entertaining then other fishing shows. It’s also unique it is shot in one location in one day. Bonin is one of two full-time camera operators and the editor of all the footage. The show has taken him to the west coast of Canada salmon fishing, to northern Manitoba fly-in fishing for pike and walleye, the east coast of Canada shark fishing and to the Bahamas bone fishing. He also fished for bass in Alabama and alligator gar in Texas. When the filming is taking place, Bonin is behind the camera and isn’t fishing. But, when the work, is done he can play – or in this case fish. On Bonin’s first day fishing with Mercer, he caught two six-pound smallmouth. “I’d never seen a six-pound bass before,” he admitted. That trend continued, and he has set his personal best in every species fishing with Mercer. “I learned more with Dave in the first month than in my entire life,” Bonin said. “He’s an endless pit of knowledge. Just when you think he can’t do anymore, he throws out something else.” Asked if this was his life ambition, Bonin answered, “Always, in the back of mind, thought it would be great. My final project in college was a full half-hour fishing show.” With today’s technology, the Internet allows Bonin to live wherever he desired. He and Ginny decided to buy a house in Frogmore, near her parents. Bonin does all the editing from his home office Besides Facts of Fishing, Bonin is also kept busy editing Mercer’s tips and short video clips for the web site. For air times and more information on Facts of Fishing, go to the web site at http://www.factsoffishing.com.

Classic Muskoka boat changed and charged September 23, 2009 Cathy Cahill-Kuntz / www.muskokan.com SILENT RUNNING. Mark and Karen Harwood of Harwood Watercraft settle down in a disappearing propeller boat built by Mark. The boat is a traditional design combined with new construction techniques and powered by a 48-volt electric motor. / Photo by Cathy Cahill-Kuntz As Mark Harwood of Harwood Watercraft prepared to launch his Dispro into Muskoka Bay a passerby remarked, “This boat is so precious, I’d put it in my living room.” For good reason; the carefully handcrafted wooden boat, like any exceptional piece of artwork, draws attention wherever it’s taken. Its smooth, clean lines and beautifully varnished rails make it hard to resist running your hand over its surface. The first thing you notice about Harwood’s Dispro is the quiet ride it provides as it heads out of the bay into Lake Muskoka with only a soft purr of the electric engine. Trickles of water curl around the bow as it gently cuts through the waves. Its unusual seating arrangement allows boaters to sit face to face. The boat skims along the rocky shoreline of the bay; a Canadian flag flutters at the stern. “This is a great little shoreline boat,” says Harwood. “It has an efficient shape and graceful lines and the propeller is retractable.” The first Dispro was invented in the summer of 1914 in Port Sandfield by boat builder W.J. Johnston Jr. and machinist Edwin Rogers, both of whom were in the boat business. The patent was received in 1915 and a year later, the Disappearing Propeller Company Limited was created. During the 10 years the Dispro was produced in Port Carling, approximately 2,000 boats were constructed. “The Dispro is principally a Muskoka boat but they were also made in Tonawanda, New York, Lindsay and at Greavette’s in Gravenhurst,” says Harwood. Since then, Dispros have not only cruised the lakes of Muskoka but on lakes around the world. The invention of the disappearing propeller device allowed a small rowing skiff to be powered by a small, light gas engine. The boat could be hauled out of the water onto a beach because its propeller and shaft could be raised manually into a small box that fit into the keel of the craft. Harwood uses an electric engine but the concept is the same. Basically, his Dispro is a converted rowboat powered by an electric motor. Harwood and his partner Karen, have been in the sail and rowboat building business since 2004. The Dispro is his 18th boat. As well as keeping the business running and maintaining their website, Karen makes cotton boat mats, baskets, key floats and doormats. Over the past few summers, the idea of building an electric-powered, efficient, displacement hulled boat kept resurfacing. He was approached by a dippy owner and asked if he’d ever considered making a replica. “My acquaintance lamented that these lovely, old craft were becoming harder and harder to find,” Harwood says. “Dispro enthusiasts have been searching old boat houses and barns for years and there are very few of the originals left. But some of the original hardware, engines and machinery that have outlasted the hulls are still around.” In keeping with his boat-building philosophy, past meet present, Harwood’s Dispro is a Waterford replica built to the original mold patterns. The first Dispro model was named the Waterford because of the popularity of the Model-T Ford at the time. The biggest difference between Harwood’s Dispro and those made in the early 1900s lies in its planking. “I have adopted a modern technique called epoxy lapstrake,” says Harwood. “The hull is constructed of glued lapstrake marine mahogany plywood, a system that creates a strong, light hull without the traditional use of ribs found in the older model.” Lapstrake planking is a time-honoured system that dates back to the Vikings and is also how the original Dispros were built. “Instead of using mechanical fastenings like the Dispro builders to fasten primarily softwood planks, I use epoxy to fasten marine plywood planks,” explains Harwood. “My method produces a stronger, more durable, longer lasting and completely leak-proof vessel.” Harwood believes the electric motor will be attractive to customers because of current environmental concerns and high fuel prices. The four deep-cycle marine-sealed gel batteries provide 48 volts to drive the brushless electric motor. How long the engine can run is determined by the speed and weight of the boat. “The hydrodynamic hull is sleek in the water. It doesn’t take much energy to move this boat,” Harwood says. “I anticipated it having a three- to four-hour run time but it’s far exceeded my expectations.” The boat comes with a smart charge that plugs into a 110 volt household current. Owners can easily run an extension down to the dock. “A couple, cruising at 5 knots can cruise all day, seven or eight hours.” “The Dippy is a departure from what I’ve done in the past,” says Harwood. “I haven’t had to deal with propulsion and motors before. The most challenging part was sourcing the motor. I must have spent a month last fall researching.” It took Harwood four months to build the Dispro. Visitors to the website www.harwoodwatercraft.com can view detailed stages of the construction. “Building this boat has given me renewed respect for the Dippy,” he says. “I don’t think it has any limitations. It’s maintenance-free, fuss-free and user friendly. You don’t need support staff for an electric motor. There are no emissions. It has an added bonus in that you can put it in reverse; you couldn’t do that with the originals.” The boat is made from planking marine mahogany plywood. Its seats and floorboards are constructed from red cedar; its rail and breast hooks made from ash. “We’ve had a good response from staunch traditionalists,” adds Harwood. “They’ve invited us to their regatta. We’re now part of a culture.” “Everyone in Muskoka loves the Dippy,” Harwood says. “I think they’re one of the most distinguished and recognizable boats on the water.” Although Harwood appreciates people’s comments about the Dispro’s artistic qualities, he is hopeful that whoever purchases the boat will also appreciate it for its qualities as a strong, light and efficient boat. “With any luck, I’ll get to put a few more of these classic boats into the lakes. I’m really happy about this boat. I could cruise along until sunset,” says Harwood sitting back in the boat, his arm around Karen. “It runs so nicely, I have a problem taking it out of the water.”

The lure of angling and hunting in Muskoka September 16, 2009 Jake Good / www.muskokan.com TAKING THE BAIT. An exhibition on the history of hunting and fishing in Muskoka at the Muskoka Lakes Museum in Port Carling features a collection of vintage lures. / Photo by Brett Thompson The importance of Muskoka’s fishing and hunting history has been unveiled at the Muskoka Lakes Museum in Port Carling. The display focuses on the Sharon Club, a fishing and social club that dates back to 1891 in Milford Bay on Lake Muskoka. “The crest of the Sharon Club represents fishing, friendship and Canada, and it says exactly what the club was and is about,” said Muskoka Lakes Museum curator Doug Smith. “A lot of wealthy Americans were coming up to Muskoka at the end of the nineteenth century and fishing was one of the reasons they came here. The water was pristine and the fish were very plentiful. These fishing trips also helped establish Muskoka as a tourist destination. People, including Civil War veterans, would arrive at their fishing camps but would need supplies or even accommodation. Farmers, who were struggling to make a living from Muskoka’s soil, found they could supplement their earnings catering to these first tourists.” An early photo from the Sharon Club’s archives shows well-dressed individuals smiling around a long line of freshly caught fish. “The club developed ways of getting bait down to the bottom to catch lake trout,” said Smith. “Their methods really revolutionized fishing in Muskoka and members were very successful.” Part of the exhibition includes vintage lures. Patrick Daradick from Parry Sound, a writer for Bob Izumi’s Real Fishing magazine, has brought in his Busty Baits collection of fishing lures. The baits were created by William Flesher, who was born in Parry Sound in 1890 and was given the nickname Busty after being scouted by the Toronto Maple Leafs where fans liked his “bust-up” style of defence. The First World War put an end to his hockey career but Busty was a keen outdoorsman and a commercial fisherman on Georgian Bay. In 1947 he patented his Busty Baits and continued making his hand-made, hand-painted lures until shortly before he died in 1977. “Lures are fascinating,” said Smith. “People soon realized the right twist in a shiny piece of metal or a carved wooden lure would work better than another in catching fish. Lure making became an art form with successful designs getting top dollar. Vintage lures are very collectable today.” As with fishing, hunting has been important to the history of Muskoka. “The area was known by the first nations as a valuable hunting ground,” explained Smith. “Today hunting season is marked on a lot of calendars and it even gets a light-hearted mention in James Bartleman’s book Raisin Wine.”