Ainsley

I wish I could have gotten an XT, mine is just the XS.

Not to drag the thread off topic but those 06-08 forester XTs are very nice. I would have loved to pick one up but they were way out of my budget.

What is your budget? Would you consider buying used? An older forester to suit your price range would be a great investment.

Another forester? I have a 2004 I bought last year and love it.

When I did my switch plate u just got a piece of 1/8" aluminum from metal supermarkets cut to size. I then drilled it out, sanded the corners round and smooth on a belt grinder then primed and painted it.

I pick up car parts from the US pretty often. I have a 2004 subaru forester and do all my own work on it. In the past two months I've spent about 300 on parts and fluids that would have been quite a bit more if I'd purchased here. Mobil 1 full synthetic is ridiculously more expensive here.

I use a 1x42 belt grinder and a series of progressively finer belts up to a compound loaded leather one. I should add that I make my own knives so the investment in the machine and belts is worth it for me. Before that I used the spyderco sharpener and was moderately happy with it.

I have a big anges tent that I've been happy with. Not cheap but great quality. Plus they have a wide variety of sizes and models

What are you guys using floro on and for? I use the larger diameters (10-15lb) on my bait casters and really like it over standard nylon mono.

What is everyone using their mono rigs for? I only use it floating or for topwaters. Otherwise I'm throwing floro.

I picked up some sunline super natural to try this year. Haven't even spooled it yet but I'm looking forward to using it for topwaters. In the past I've used XT or silver thread.

Thanks everyone. It was a blast catching those down there. I was using my calcutta 100dc on a st. Croix 9'6" wild river rod. 12lb floro mainline and 10lb leader. The 7 fish day I was by myself which makes landing them quite tricky.

Waterproof merrells for me.

I like the gamakatsu split/drop shot hooks. I use a swivel above it to reduce line twist.

All but one were caught on a kwikfish on a 3 way rig with a 3/4oz pencil weight. The last one today was caught on a streamer I tied. Pretty much any minnow imitator will work.

After not getting out fishing much over the winter I've had the chance to fish the lower Niagara at the glen three times over the past few weeks. These were some of my best days I've had for lake trout, the first I went 7/7, then 2/3 with the biggest laker I've caught. Today was the most recent, I went 3/3. Here are the highlight pictures: This was the biggest. Fought for a good 20 min and I ended up running 3-400 ft down the shore to keep up with it

That's pretty good. What reel are you planning on using with it?

I have a st. Croix wild river 9'6" casting for bottom bouncing and throwing hardware and a quantum cold water 10'6" for floating. The st. Croix is too fast for floating but they may have other models that are a more moderate action to suit both. I'd also choose an avid over the wild river if you can find one in sale.

My dad got his done at eagle probably 15 years ago. They did a nice job but I was never a huge fan of their slide solution. They may have changed by now though.

Musky, I know you've mentioned you're a big fan of the 765cb glass, have you compared it to many other rods? I'm looking to replace my Powell max glass 7'6" crank rod with one.

Fishing world has some selection, not great though.

Got my first 110 a few weeks ago and I'm really looking forward to fishing it. Used some lucky craft pointers last season and really enjoyed them. What is everyone's fav colour in the 110? I'll mostly be fishing Erie, Niagara and Ontario.

I started getting into dobyns rods last season. Started with a DX744 mostly for spinnerbaits. Then came a dx743 for senkos. Both are amazing rods. Since then I've picked up a champion 702c and 765c which I have yet to fish. Up next is a 704cb for jerkbaits and topwaters and a 765cb glass for deep cranks. Still trying to figure out my reel pairings for all these rods

The product I use is called tech-flex. I use it to dress up single cables or groups of cables. I think I picked mine up online.

I was in a similar situation a bit over a year ago and decided on a Subaru forester. I preferred it to the escape. I ended up with a 2004 with around 130k km. I have snowies on it in the winter and it handles great! Towing capacity on the auto is 2000lbs so it should handle a short run with a light boat.