Who knew recession would hit us fishermen so hard?
This past summer gas prices were over $1.60 a litre here in Eastern Canada. Even though I drive a pretty economical car, those prices kept me fishing close to home. I’m sure many boat owners fished less then usual this year due to the gas prices as well. Now gas prices are under $0.70 a litre, and I should be happy about that I guess, but I’m really just annoyed! Am I the only one that fished less as a result of the high gas prices?
They say you learn something new everyday. Today I learned that fish are the kittens of the sea. I also created my own sea kitten. His name is Rubarb, and he likes to eat other sea kittens.
Sea Kitten Fact: “Like their surface-dwelling cousins, the land kittens, sea kittens enjoy being petted. Their lack of arms makes it difficult for them to pet back, but they often gently rub against each other as a sign of affection.”
Fishing Fury has been around a few years now, and incredibly we have never had any hate mail. I think the first sign a site is getting popular is when hate mail starts to show up, so I’ll consider this to be good news!
Lisa writes,
“You are horrible people. Fishing JUST to Fish, and Feel the so called ‘rush’ it gives to KILL an innocent animal is WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should be ashamed of yourself!”
I think it’s pretty weird that people go out of their way to say something mean instead of something positive. Sure out site may show some dead fish, but we are advocates of conservation and catch and release. To me, keeping your catch is no different then buying a hamburger at the grocery store, an animal is dying either way. I guess people forget that a lot of the food they eat was once a living breathing animal.
I guess I’ve been reading too many news letters from Jon’s favorite site PETA.
Maybe we should all be ashamed of ourselves…nah. Can’t we all just get along?
Earth Hour is on Saturday night (March 29th). In case you don’t know what Earth Hour is, it’s when the world shuts off all their lights and electronics for one hour, starting at 8pm. I’d like to believe that this will somehow magically end global warming, but lets be realistic - Its a Saturday night, do you really expect everyone to stop their partying (not to mention Hockey Night in Canada nights), turn off the lights and sit quietly for an hour? Why didn’t they make it at 4 am Sunday morning, that way everyones a winner.
I’m not certain when I started to dislike Canadian winters. To be fair, it isn’t winter itself I hate, its the cold. I mean, I love Christmas and the holiday season, I love snow, and I love winter sports like hockey (which I just started playing again). I remember the first time I saw snow, I was about seven years old and we were temporarily living in British Columbia with my uncle and fisherman extraordinaire, Stephen. It was one of those heavy snowfalls that rarely occur on the west coast and we played for hours in the snow, making snowmen and snow angels. It was incredible. Until that day, I had no idea what snow was. My sister and I grew up only knowing of white sand beaches and turquoise colour oceans. From that day forward, I looked forward to every winter and the first snow fall, that is until I grew up.
On really cold days I ask myself, why would anybody want to live in a place like this? Why not live somewhere that has warm weather all year long? In 2005, in the middle of the winter I decided that I had had enough of winter, and packed my bags and headed south to La Paz, Mexico to meet up with Jon and fish the Sea of Cortez.
I’m glad I did, it changed my life. After a month in the desert I met my wife to be, Gillian, but after almost six months we both agreed that La Paz was not the place for us. We headed back to Canada, specifically Mississauga, Ontario - the town I grew up. I had friends and family there, and got my old job at the bank back right away. By the time the chill of fall was in the air we both decided that staying for a freezing winter was not an option.
September 2005 marked one of the happiest time in my life, my return to the British Virgin Islands. Since my sister, mother and I left the BVI when I was five, I had only visited a handful of times. We arrived with nothing more then the shirts on our back, a tent, a camera, a laptop and of course, my fishing rods. We spent our first several weeks camping near the beach at Brewers Bay during hurricane season while we looked for an apartment to rent. After a few months settling in, things were going great. We lived in a small apartment on a mountain top with a brilliant panoramic view of several islands. Best of all, the ocean was a five minute drive from our apartment, and the sea was full of tarpon!
British Virgin Islands tarpon
Our time in the Virgins Islands had a lot of ups and downs. In the end, financial difficulties and health problems ultimately caused us to leave. We returned to Canada, and spent a year in Ontario, and have since relocated to beautiful Nova Scotia. I currently have two jobs, (three if you count Fishing Fury, but this is a labour of love, and as you can see by the lack of advertising, this doesn’t exactly bring in any income). Things are going great since we moved to the east coast, but it’s winter, and it’s cold and I don’t like the cold.
There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about life in the BVI. Since I can’t experience it in person, the next best thing is to read about others enjoying the sunshine and fishing. There is one blog that I check regularly to get my BVI fix, The Captains Log Blog. If you plan to visit the BVI or the Carbibean, these site will give you a taste of what you will get to see. And if you are looking for a sailing charter (with fishing), look no further!
This one should be filed under What Not to do With Your Fish. Apparently these guys from Poland thought it would be a good idea to give an under-aged pike some alcohol. Apart from the pike being underage, there is some kind of law about cruelty to animals. Maybe this is where the term Drunk as a Fish comes from. PETA is investigating the case, but rumor has it that these guys are with PETA.
I can’t help but wonder if that would make a pike taste better.
While rod repair is at least a yearly occurrence for me, nothing major of course, but a few dings here and there happen and it’s important to stay on top of them if you want your gear to last for years to come. You don’t normally come home from buying a brand new rod wanting to repair it. Unfortunately, such is the case with the Pete Maina Signature Series Musky Rods.
The holes you see pictured above could be part of the manufacturing process, but is highly unlikely since I’ve never owned a rod with such a hole and every photo I can find of the Fuji TCS real seat (example 1, example 2) is lacking such a hole. It just doesn’t make sense from a manufacturing or design process. Not to mention that the hole is off center, has a suspicious looking unfinished lip, almost like it was drilled out and not sanded down, and the simple fact that quite a few of the rods on display had their triggers broken off at this hole.
So because I was tired of looking at it and feeling it, I decided to do something about it. While I may not recommend doing this to your rod, it’s the solution I came up with using items I had around my house that I knew were suitable for the job. All you’ll need to replicate this repair is a few plastic bags, some tape, a round file and some car bondo. What, you don’t keep bondo in your medicine cabinet?
Then just file out the hole a bit, maybe a little extra tape so you don’t get bondo all over the place, especially on the cork. Mix up your bondo, do this part outside because the fumes are pretty noxious, you’ll only need a little bit since it isn’t a large hole and start filling. Be very careful, this stuff generally sets in about 3-4 minutes so work carefully and diligently, don’t worry about excess because you’ll need to sand it all down anyway. Let cure for about 20-40 minutes and you’re ready to sand it down and remove the tape.
Either Pete Maina, missed out on the quality control of these rods, and is quite possibly kicking himself for them being “Signature Series”, or Bass Pro Shops manufacturing process is about as obscure as their naming conventions. I might even go so far as to say they have a mystical drilling gnome wandering about their factory.
We’ll see if it breaks, and how it performs, as we run it through the Northern Pike Gauntlet.
Holy Cheese n crackers! This website has to be my new favourite, I check in on a daily basis now just to see the crazy n cool stuff you guys have goin on! A true top notch site! keep up all the hard work(if you could call it that)! When i get my hard drive fixed i'll start to upload some of my pics! Finally some passion for fishing!
Thanks a lot for the article.I've been living King/Strachan for 10 years and never heard about fishing on TO Islands.Can't wait untill May.To Andrew: e-mail me for the good spot to catch carp in Toronto,please.Thanks again to Jonathon and Clive.
That's the trouble right there, the finish on these Lures!...I started buying Rapala jointed and when i had a couple i just had to buy them in all the different finishes (Hot Perch, Perch, Walleye etc etc), i had so many in the end it was like i was collecting them to put in a glass case or something, i didn't dare use them, a Pike won't care if your Lure cost 5 quid or 30 quid, it's still gonna scratch all that fancy artwork/paintwork either way!...I sold all mine as a set on ebay in the end as i [...]
I have a friend whose cottage is on Lake Chemong, never fished in it although I've heard all the stories. I was walking in it this weekend past, paddled it too, with Alexander directing.....check out the Curve Lake Powwow sometime!!!!
I worked so hard this weekend, the shirt fell right offen me, so I need that shirt more than ANYONE else!
Love your site!
Fishing Fury - A fishing blog about two guys with a serious passion for fishing, the great outdoors, crazy adventures, and heart-pounding entertainment.(3 months ago)
I'm not much for a pithy comment, but I thought I'd leave a note about how honored I be to wear Kromer on my upcoming annual pheasant hunting trip to South Dakota.
I'm sure that my hunting buddies will joke about how silly I look while they wear their stylized broad brim hunting caps, but I'll be laughing on the inside as my head stays nice and warm. I'll be laughing al the more when the stiff South Dakota wind picks up and Kromer is staying put.
Finally, with the fall bite on, I know my new Kromer will call the [...]
Hi all,
I am Dick van Hattem. The men who caught this wonderfull pike in the Netherlands.
The pike was actualy 120 cm long, weight exactly 16.5 kilo's and was caught on a death perch on 10 meter deep water on 27 december 2000.
But now.... the photo was shopped for fun. I had a reading for a fishingclub and this was the last picture of the reading I had for 100 quest. Name of the picture.... I have a dream..... Everybode was laughing. Really funny, never claimed the world record. Because it is not by far.
http://www.metersnoeken.nl/inde x.php?option=com_content&task=s ection&id=13&Itemid=48 here you can find [...]
