I just got logged on for the first time too since the go-live.

Looks kinda strange around here. But it’s still the best spam talk around.

Simple answer is NO.

If I were to buy another one right now, I’d get the Milwaukee Li-Ion battery powered grease gun.

But, the old style cartridge or bulk guns still work too.

Worst thing about the NRX rods, is the really good rods you now own, will become something you do not look forward to using. Maybe you’ll have some GLX’s for sale cheap soon?

They are nice rods, fished with a friends NRX’s a couple times in his boat. But I have not justified the purchase yet myself.

I thought it was 2012 when the Tullibee had the large die-off? 2012 was an extremely early ice off year, summer got started early, and mid summer surface water temps were over 90 degrees, for an extended period of time. Low dissolved oxygen levels too with the warm temps.

There hasn’t been much of a perch population for years. But Tullibee are a primary “forage” food source for game fish.

There was very good numbers of Tullibee (small ones) last fall. It took a year or two, but they are rebounding with good numbers.

Forage, as a whole, has been credited with being the primary factor in having a successful year class of walleye that reach adulthood.

The winter of 2012 had a very good walleye bite on Mille Lacs. The winter of 2013 had a very poor walleye bite. The Walleye population was not significantly different. The Tullibee forage base was at opposite extremes.

My mother sold the family farm to – well not really Grand Casino, but the developers who implemented their plan and there is a Grand Casino on what used to be our farm. So does that make me a business partner?

I’d hate to be boycotted, I’d end up fishing by myself a lot.

Quote:

---

I couldn’t agree with you more Brian, just stating some of the likely reasoning behind their decision on the pike… it seems a lot of the focus on the issue is going into “Why not this size?” or “Why so many?” The real question should be as you mentioned, “How is this going to help the walleye population?” But we know their answer on that will be “We don’t know.”

---

There is a regulation in effect in MN that does not allow the DNR to set Northern Pike slot limits on any additional lakes until the year 2021.

There are 116 lakes in MN that can have slots – the total to pick from, of which 100 of those lakes can actually have a Northern Pike Slot limit.

I do not know if Mille Lacs is one of the 116 lakes? If not, that certainly is an explanation to why there is no additional slot limit set for the Northern Pike on Mille Lacs.

As stated above, one of the best methods of controlling an abundant small pike population is to have a healthy population of large pike. Large Pike keep small Pike numbers in check.

The DNR can change Pike limits, and the 30″ Pike regulation is statewide, but additional Pike slot regulations are not allowed on any “additional” lakes when the bill was passed. The bill was not supported by the DNR when passed.

I’m not sure where that line is between small pike and large pike? But to help the future Walleye fishery on Mille Lacs, small pike removal will help, large pike remaining will also help.

Part of the reason to relax the pike regs on Mille Lacs was to give the commercial interests something to work with for survival.

So how was the trip?

You could just call Famous Daves and have them cater. Probably increase attendance.

I’ll know more by next week, but the LW discussion is now mentioning 18″ extensions. I’ll know what it is after the weekend.

If you’ve ever stuck an auger, you know. If not – any time the ice dust covers the flighting – clear the auger. You don’t want to stick an auger in the thick ice.

Lotion is the key to warm hands in the winter. Without it the heat just escapes, with it, your body heat will stay in your hands.

Still looking for hand lotion that smells like gulp, mmmmm.

I don’t have much more to say, but here’s a couple more pics. On the one you can see the Lipless crank I was fising with. That fish is a 28 that most likely goes over 10 – didn’t weigh it. The other is a true monster – over 14. I’ve only been close to a couple that big over the years.

Quote:

---

I will be up march 15-19 so I will try and post a report when I get back. I’m already getting excited, modified some baits last night. I switched all my blade baits hooks out with mustad triple grip treble hooks. Anyone else do this? I did it last year on my live targets and definitely didn’t drop as many fish as I did with other lures with regular hooks. Taz, if you have any questions about anything feel free to PM me. I’m no veteran but I went last year so I might be able to help out!

---

All you need is the one that is top center. Pinky.

Blades were my hottest last year – sounds like spoons are hot this year.

I’ve got some new spoon creations for this year. If they work, I’ll spill it.

I thought I edited some of my grammer issues with the above post, but evidently I didn’t apply them right.

Thought I would add – maybe you understand the vastness of the body of water, because you are close to one of the great lakes. But keep in mind – when people say they are fishing out in front of where the Red dumps into LW – that means they are at the closest – 3 miles out in front of the Red – and with frequency out to 7 miles in front of the red.

You can load up Navionics mapping disc on your electronics, and see that there is contour. Then you head for the area – and realization sets in that the contour you are looking at on your electronics – is over a 2.5 mile stretch.

It’s big water, or ice.

When talking about big fish – I’ll say this. 10 lb’rs are there, there’s a good chance to catch a 10 lb eye. But I feel it’s still rare and you put your time in for an over 30. As good as it is, over 30’s are a whole different challenge than an over 10. Master Angler Eyes are basically over 28. One year, I caught 18 Masters, the next 16 master – none of them were over 30. The next time I went – I caught 2 over 30. Masters – you should get. Over 30 – I still think you view that as a very special fish, even on LW. They are hard to come by. Unless your James Holst. That group has always got an over 30. Their wives are laughing and dancing, making all kinds of racket, hard to believe they even find time to fish they’re so chatty, then they catch another over 30. ya, ya, yadda. lol…

Get your licence in Winnipeg – name of the place is Pro Am Tackle – owners name is Bobby. Call him. He generally closes at 6 pm – but if you will be going through Winnipeg later than that he will often arrange to meet you at his store so you can get licenses out of the way on the drive up. He will probably have you call him when you are leaving customs – he knows how long it will take you to get to his shop from the time you leave customs. Bobby’s a great guy.

You should decide if you want cell phone service when you’re in Canada – see what your service provider says.

Call you credit card companies – let them know you are traveling to Canada. It seems they all turn your card off if you are out of the country, and wait for you to call to verify you have not lost the card.

I forgot to mention above – it is legal to clean fish on the ice in Manitoba. That seems to work well – clean them on the ice, and you can leave the skin, heads on the ice.

Well, lets see if we can find another pic now. Here’s Dave with a few 21’s on the ice. This was a couple years ago in March – our last day there most all the snow had melted off the ice, it was really close to over. It’s nice when it’s like that, you can just drive around and stop to fish holes that have already been drilled.

Gimli will work. This is what I will say about Chalet beach during any Feb and especially March weekend. It get’s crowded. Lots of people access at Chalet, and the parking can get congested. Sometimes they have a large area on the ice to park – but it still gets really crowded – if I was headed for Chalet beach on a March weekend, I would be at Chalet at LEAST an hour before sunrise, get your vehicle parked, and facing the right way so you drive straight out when you want to leave.

But I would not put in at Chalet on a March weekend, a couple miles north of there is a place Called Mattlocks. From nobody, to very few get on the lake at Mattlocks. You will NOT be able to drive a pickup onto the ice there – which I never do. I ride my quad on the lake, and park my pickup on dry land. So I would put in at Mattlocks and be fine arriving a half hour before sunrise. Not as crowded.

Staying in Gimli I would only consider accessing the lake from the west side – it’s too far of a drive to get to the east, or south east access by land. Even if you wanted to fish the east side – which there will be no reason to – ride the snowmobile across.

If you run a quad with tracks like me – carry extra gas. A snowmobile or quad on wheels should be fine on a full tank for the day. I need some extra gas at times, but keep in mind I move a lot. Some days I will put on 65+ miles in the south basin.

I have been told by MNR to have a helmet, as others have, but not been ticketed. Wear a helmet. I have not been asked for a snopass – I think that only applies for groomed trails, not public land. I have not been asked for insurance, but you would want to have than anyway I would think. I have it, just never been asked for it.

It’s been my experience you WILL be checked by the MNR on your trip in March. It’s simple, just be legal, all the time, and don’t worry about it. If a lure is hooked up to a rod, the barbs have to be pinched. The ones in your tackle box don’t need to be pinched. When you realize the MNR is going to check you – believe me, it’s already to late to do anything about it. The MNR is really good about setting up some where when you are right on top of them, and there they are. I’ve never had a problem with them, but I make the effort to always be legal. Don’t get lazy doing what you know needs to be done – keep the trip enjoyable.

For first timers fishing there – I’ll give you this warning, as I have seen it happen several times before. You are allowed 1 fish over 21 1/2 inches in your 4 fish limit, conservation license. (55 cm or something like that). A 28 inch fish is going to break that 10 lb mark. So if you dream of a 10 lber – and you get it in that 28″ fish and decide to keep it – that means your done. So when you catch that 32″ fish later on that day, or the weekend, you throw it back. That’s easy for me, because I throw most everything back. But it’s not “always” easy for others. Also, as adults, we have to prepare our kids for that situation if it happens. I’ve seen an 11 year old kid, absolutely as excited as he could get with his first ever 10 lb Walleye, 28.5″ – he could hardly stand up he was so excited. There was not question in that kids mind he was keeping his 10 lb’r. Then, yep, you guessed it, 2 hours later he pulls in a 30.5″ eye. He cried when his dad explained to him it had to go back. The kid was suggesting – well my brother can say he caught it – and Dad had to reason with him – “but that would be a lie.” You have to be prepared to catch big fish, because you WILL catch big fish – no doubt – none.

If you have a 24″ fish on the ice – that’s your one fish over 21 1/2 inch.

So for the most part, if you are keeping fish, you’re looking for 21″ fish. Those weigh 4 lbs. Bigger fish are for the joy of catching them, and if you get that fish of a lifetime, then it’s take measurements for a replica, or care for it to mount it – and that’s your one. Go back to my other post – if you want to keep that big fish to be mounted, have a 3 foot long board, a garbage bag, a towel, and some duct tape with you to pack it on the ice. The ice is so rough there is no way you can possibly get a frozen fish off the lake on a snowmobile or quad without having it packed, and froze onto a board to protect it. Unprotected, you’ll break all the fins off it before you get to shore.

You WILL catch big fish, just be prepared for it. Now, I don’t know you from Adam – maybe you know all that – but I’ve been around lots of people that have fished LW for the first time – they are not prepared for that decision making in many cases. It broke my heart to see that 11 year old cry.

Our club is going to be up there the same weekend. There will be about 150 people from FM Walleyes there that weekend. I’m not sure I will be making the trip, as I’ve got some family issues, sunset years of life things going on. So I am not making any ice fishing plans in advance. Doesn’t mean I won’t be there, just means I won’t commit to anyone until a few hours before I’m rolling out of town. It’s only a 4-5 hour drive for me. And I think the border has a special asterik next to my name I cross that border so much.

From Mattlocks – head straight out about 3 miles – drill a hole and start there. Move in and out to test depths – if you find a good depth, then move North and South. Just North of Matlocks is a point – not really sharp or anything, but still well defined. If it’s dead straight out from Mattlock – you might want to move north by that point, or you will see lots of people fishing east and south from there too. It’s not completely out of the consideration to just skip all that, head straight out to a little bit south and about 7 miles you will be in front if the Red. It’s actually not real well defined because the Red kind of dumps into a swampy marsh type area and there are lots of little canals that carry water to LW.

Don’t make the mistake of drilling a hole too close to shore – you can drive out a mile, and still not have any water under the ice. You drill one hole through the ice and into dirt – and your auger is done – it won’t drill another hole if your life depended on it – yep, I’ve done it. Remember I said to bring a spare auger if you have it – and blades.

Anyway – here’s another. This time it’s me. That morning when I was leaving the motel room I said to myself – I shouldn’t have grabbed this hat. Now just watch, I’ll end up catching a big fish and have this ugly hat in pictures for the rest of my life. Well… 10 lb 10 oz 29.5″

Where to fish is not as critical as what is used to fish them up there. There are specific locations that are hot spots and consistent spots, but it’s a big basin and you have a pretty good chance of finding fish by yourselves in the vastness of what is called Lake Winnipeg – without the help of a guide. There will be thousand anglers out there spread out all over, that will give you an idea how far off shore, the depth most are fishing. Hot spots are hard to find, but catching fish is pretty easy without the help of a guide.

What they use to catch fish is where a guide may help – it’s probably not what you have used in your home area. Live Target, Lipless rattle baits, large spoons, blade baits, Jit-R-Jigs – salties for bait. Run 2 holes, have one line down that aggressively calls them in (Rattle baits, vibration baits), and if they don’t hit the aggressive presentation, switch over to a more subtle presentation in your second hole and finesse them on the hook. I highly recommend running 2 flashers per person.

You will need extensions, probably will need the 12 inch extension. An 8″ extension might not get through the ice that time of year – it has not in past years often.

The fish can move a long way overnight. Every day is new start. It took me a long time to learn that. I would figure out the fish, through moving a lot, and drilling lots of holes one day, and think I knew exactly what to do the next day. Next day comes along – and they’re gone. Every day starts a new search to find them.

It’s not uncommon to catch a fish or two shortly after drilling a new hole – and then really struggle to get another. But move 100-200 feet and you will catch a couple more fish right away again. That’s happened to me often. To catch fish, you simply identify an effective direction, and watch your clock. Fish 15 minutes, then move, fish 15 minutes, move, fish 15 minutes, move. I call it ice trolling – just let your watch tell you when it’s time to move.

If you camp on a spot – you’ll catch fish, but most likely your numbers will be down.

While the fishing does get better the later in the year – it really does not matter. You can catch fish up there all winter long. I would never expect to be skunked. A bad day will be 15-20 fish. Good days are 60-70+. But you will work for them, and keep in mind the days are long in March.

You may have a very hard time finding rooms. South Beach Casino is probably the most popular locations – Feb and March have been fully booked since Christmas. That does not mean there won’t be a cancellation and you might luck into a room. Selkirk might have rooms, there are a few small motels close, but you might end up with a longer commute to the lake. I would consider Pine Falls as a backup location. Your equipment will be safer than staying in Winnipeg, you will be limited to accessing the lake from the east side, or be in for a really long drive in the morning. Don’t plan on taking vehicles onto the ice. You can, but eventually you will be up against a ridge that prevents you from going any further.

There’s fish all over up there. If you have 3 guys that fish well together, and you are mobile, you’ll find fish. If you are struggling, just walk up to another angler, tell them you are new at Lake Winnipeg fishing, and I’ll be they share some good information with you.

If all else fails, just look for the IDO group up there. Seems like they are on the ice every time I’m there in March – I’m starting to wonder if they ever go home during the month of March.

Stick together, being careful means don’t get in a hurry because the cold, rough surface, and thick ice can be hard on equipment. Tie things down on your snowmobile, quad, or whatever you are using – or it will fall off and get run over. Don’t get impatient and drive too fast on the rough ice – I run a tracked quad and normal travel speed is 7-8 mph – it’s just too rough to go any faster (unless you want something to break). If you have a back-up auger – bring it. Lake Winnipeg is hard on augers. Fish big baits, more aggressively than you ever imagined possible. I’ve laughed before when I see a guy tie on a 4″ long 5 of diamonds daredevil – and a few minutes later watch him pull a master angler fish up. Big fish will eat what ever they want to eat, it’s not finicky.

Not me in the pic – but a true giant from earlier this year.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Ouch just picked one up at scheels for my SM. $40 bucks what a kick to the balls. Wish I had time and any mechanical skills seems to be pretty easy to make. I figured I better be safe then sorry not worth losing a day of fishing over not having one.

---

I would question that price, if you look on their website it’s listed for $27

http://www.scheels.com/shop/m20ProductDisplayView?pageSize=12&resultCatEntryType=2&searchTerm=Strikemaster+extension&catalogId=10051&beginIndex=&langId=-1&productId=147185&storeId=10151&sType=SimpleSearch&pgGrp=search

---

Too bad their out of stock. Probably raised their prices in store due to demand.

---

The Scheels extension is made for the SM Augers, but it’s not SM’s extension. I would have rather bought the SM brand extension, but they are out of stock at every store I’ve visited. Previous years have shown me I better put my hands on whatever I can at this point, because nobody is re-ordering at this time of the year.

The Scheel’s one is very heavy duty, and plain and simply heavy if that is your thing, and yep, $10 more than the Strikemaster extension – which is not in stock.

But no, Scheels is not taking advantage and jacking the prices. Same price on it in November. As of last Saturday Fargo Scheels had about 15 on the shelf.

42″ MH weight, MF action.

Because I don’t care if it is too long for James’ rod case.

On the Vex side I don’t think you will see some of the older legacy models go away very soon. Units sold is still a good predictor of what will remain in the lineup. FL18 is by far the highest sales numbers, showing consumers still prefer a good balance of technology, reliability, and an attractive price.

I suspect the same for the Marcum LX5.

The simple answer is, strikemaster blades don’t sharpen well, just replace them. It’s not uncommon to have blades that feel sharp, that simply won’t cut like they are supposed to.

Before I say the rest – I’ll qualify it and say I love strikemaster augers, but there are some longevity issues.

I’ll suggest you first get a new set of blades, try it again. I know in the last 10 years, I’ve done more than one thing that I’ve forgotten. If those blades you have are already worn, then all that you’ve experienced makes sense.

You not only should not “have to” lean into your SM auger, you should NOT do it, imho. Especially the 10″ bit. I feel the 10″ bit is easily thrown out off in the attack angle of the blades, and it’s common to end up with an auger that won’t cut until you replace the flighting. It’s like the angle gets thrown off just a little bit, and it’s no longer a good cutting auger regardless of blade sharpness.

One thing I’ve done to get a little more life off an auger bit is wedge a match book cardboard between the auger and the blade, just to give it a little more of an attack angle. Don’t go overboard, just the thickness of a single match book makes the auger extremely aggressive. If your flighting is out of tune, it will get it cutting again. If your flighting was not bent out of tune, you may need to bring a small army to hold on to that thing as it’s going to really attack the ice hard. It’s a last resort thing to try you may damage the bit by doing this. Don’t try it to experiment. Only try it when everthing else has failed and you’re ready to throw the bit away.

If you know you’ve bent the auger – you’re toast already. The 10″ bits are far from durable.

Be really careful borrowing out your auger. One 250-300 lb friend that is used to leaning into the auger can wreck it, imo. Let the auger do the cutting. The only force you need to apply is to hold it back a little before going through.

I don’t think the 8″ bits are nearly as picky.

I’m going to be really careful with my 2 new 10″ bits to see if I can get life. So far the 10″ flighting has been about 1000 holes and it’s done. Not just me.

That’s the reasons I have 2 new strikemasters. 2 new 10″ bits, I still have 1 old 10″ bit that is marginal, and an 8″ chipper that I will keep new so I have something to sell with the powerhead if these go bad as quickly as the last 4 flights have. At $200 a flight, I can’t see any logic in buying just the flighting. I purchased new units instead.

Quote:

---

… As a side pot/ side tourney you would pay the $50 directly to TWF and they handle the paying back 100%. When I say paying back 100% its not in the form of cash or a check its in the form of a paid NTC spot, travel funds, etc. That money only gets “paid back” to those who entered that portion and paid the extra $50.

You can still only pay the original $60 entry fee just like every other year and have the same pay back. You wont be required to enter into the side pot for the extra $50.

It would be similar to a big fish pot. It is an optional pot you can choose to get into buy paying $5 or $10. For all those that choose to enter that they have a chance of winning that money back by catching the biggest fish. Same thing with the NTC invite, your choosing to enter it and pay the extra $50 for a chance of winning the invite and other prizes if you have the biggest weight out of the teams that entered that optional pot.

Does that clear it up at all?

---

Thanks for making the post. I don’t fish your tournaments, but I run some and we’re faced with the same NTC qualifying rules.

I scratch my head, and sorry to say I’m not sure if there will be much interest in the process. I know we don’t have enough interest to meet the minimum 12 TWF members to be granted a NTC invite.

I have a really hard time turning over payment for the side pot to an outside party. Hard enough giving away the contestants contact data to another party, harder to let go of financial responsibility, has always been hard that our anglers only have interest in the NTC 1 out of 3 years when the tournament is in our region of the country. I got trumped with so many of our TWF members being pulled away from our TWF Club when the MWC collected the membership ahead of us.

Now I can get those members chased back into our TWF club by contacting them and TWF, I’m not sure the additional time investment is worth it.

We have a bonus payout already – $50 optional to the anglers if they want to enter that portion of the payout – but it doesn’t have a $40 membership fee that’s paid back $0.00.

I have one person that’s interested in an NTC invite, but I need 12 to get one. So we won’t be sending anyone.

The NTC to me was a large field of anglers, from all over the US, that got together for one tournament a year. We would pay the entry fee for our season points champion to fish it, so it was entry fee paid for one of our contestants. Now, I’m afraid it’s going to become a tournament with very few teams, and loose it’s luster. Once it’s dies off, it will be hard to bring back. I don’t see very many teams signing up – but I’ll hope I’m wrong.

I was told there were @100 teams that had qualified through side pots “already”. Well, there are basically no more tournaments until the NTC – so the “already” imo is that’s all there is to “invite”. If 50% of those invited make the trip, that’s a 50 boat tournament. I fear most of those 50 boats will be disappointed in the field size and rewards available for such a small field. How long is a sponsor going to give out a boat for a 50 team tournament?

Lots of questions with the NTC Qualifying changes, but it looks like we’re not going to be a part of it any longer. If our contestants want to sign up for TWF – I hold our club open so they can do that by paying the membership fee. If we get 12 signed up, I’ll run a side pot – at this time, the only member we have left in our TWF club is me. (To hold TWF club open we have to have at least one member, so I pull money out of my pocket to keep an active TWF “club”. Feels like I’m taking $40 out of my pocket and throwing it in the trash.) Interest has gone away from the NTC completely.

Sounds like you use your tools quite a bit. I went with the Dewalt 20V system this time around. I was pleased when they introduced a brushless motor for the impact driver. The main benefit of the Dewalt is they make so many tools to use the same battery, and that’s a benefit I could not ignore anymore. Dewalt is not my first choice, but they have so many tools to hook up to the batteries they make themselves hard to ignore.

4 amp hour battery that weighs the same as the 3 amp hour battery they’ve had for a while was nice too. I will say the brushless impact driver is a fast beast – it will drive 3 inch screws in a hurry. The variable speed setting is a needed feature if you switch over to driving screws into metal siding.

The 20V reciprocating saw has much longer run time than the 18V LiIon Dewalt. Carrying a battery operated reciprocating saw is a lot easier risk now that the run time has gotten better.

I like the 20V, the brushless is a bigger improvement than the 18 to 20 volt – but it’s expensive to make the transition when you’ve got a lot of tools built around a different battery pack.

How this hire will be interpreted will be determined in about three years.

Who get’s fired, Trestman, McCarthy, or Zimmer? At least one of them will.

Yeah on cleaning the hole when drilling deep. Anytime I get over the flights I’m pretty disciplined to clean the hole from that point down. I helped unstuck a bit once for someone else, so I don’t need to make that mistake ever.

I would think the Honda will pull over easier than the Lazer Mag? You can skip the decompression button on the Lazer or Magnum power heads, but not so much on the Lazer Mag. I’m thinking the Honda will be an easier pull start?

It’s hard to explain how hard Lake Winnipeg is on equipment, glad a couple of you understand what I’m trying to convey as intended usage. The lighter weight, when running a 12″ extension is part of what is going through my head.

I always have 2 augers, one stays in the truck just in case. Thinking about getting a Honda instead of another Lazer Mag this year. My old Strikemaster is going away.

One gas can is another attraction, I need to carry gas for the Quad anyway.

In 2011 I had the rod holders mounted on my drop basket, moved them to the front auger rack the second year. Like them on the auger rack. Will be adding an Otter box (medium size) this year to move more of the weight on top of the suspension. I put heavier shocks on the rear.

Like the front auger carrier, but I’m going to add a clamp down to both sides. Like the rod holders in front, very mobile, fast, and protects the rods from damage. With the tracks the Otter box will guard items from getting snow dust on them. It’s a lot worse with tracks than it was with wheels.

I’ll leave the drop box on if it fits, mostly to not put some of those items inside the Otter box. But the drop basket will be used very lightly – if it fits when it gets here. If the drop basket doesn’t fit with the Otter, I’ll get a gas carrier, and bucket carrier attachments for the Otter.

It’s nice having one Ice fishing rig instead of 1 quad and 1 snowmobile.

Other upgrades are some electrical things, including hand warmers.

On the subject of commercial business above the lock that is proposed for closure – Without looking up my sources from about a year ago, I’ll try to paraphrase the commercial and recreational use.

Last year, the Mpls city council, that grants the license for the tour boat business, basically negotiated with them and eventually renewed their license with the agreement the tour boat business would not run their tours through locks. That reduces the total number of non-commercial lock passages by a large percentage – something in the range of 30-40 percent.

The commercial locks – the land the business’ are located on is owned by Mpls, leased under a long term, 30 year lease. There are 2-3 years left on the lease. Neither MPLS or the companies operating on the land have the intention to renew the lease when the current/active lease expires. The buildings/facilities are for the most part in very poor condition, going to be tore down, cleared when the lease ends. The business’ have not expanded on what their intentions are to locate a different site, or simply close down. The only statement I’ve seen from them is that they do not intend to seek an extension or renewal of the existing lease for the land they operate on.

There are approximately 60 total jobs affected.

With the impending closure of existing commercial lockages, the reduction from tour Boat lockages, the lock passages that are left are termed recreational. In number, it would be expected to be about 200 as compared to 1200 locages in 2011.

Being consistent with the theme of not wasting money, I’m not sure there is any future cost effectiveness to continue locking through – the necessity is going away, the feasibility is not profitable to continue supporting with our taxes, imo.

Instead of attacking me for this info – ask a question if you have one. It may be hard for me to locate the documents from when this was actively being addressed a year or so ago, but I could probably find most of it. Again, this is paraphrased to the best of my recall.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

I feel a good angler should use line/rod and reel combos like a good golfer uses dif. clubs! With that being said – here are my preferences with lines:

Trilene XT 14 to 17 for bass and big walleye cranks (Salmo #6 Hornets and DT-6 through DT-16) spooled on a baitcaster – lighter cranks – XT 10.

Trilene XL 8 on a spinning rod – when you need to cast smaller cranks like a #4 or #5 Hornet, Flicker Shad or Shad Rap. I prefer mono over superline 80% of the time because of the stretch (Less fish come “unbuttoned”).

Fireline 14lb – On a spinning reel – when you really need to get the crank back (IE Devils Lake, Mississippi River wood, Etc) IF Northerns or clear water become a factor – 20 pound Fluro Leader – 3 to 6 feet in length.

Berkley Nano Fill 10 lb – when you really need to chuck a light crank a LLLLLOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG ways. Careful not to “overcast” to avoid ending up in the “salad” on shore.

---

Does tha nanofil really go that good off the reel?

Wow…

It does off a spinning reel, I have never tried with a baitcaster though. It’s not recommended for baitcasters.

For the OP – I was going to suggest fireline braid, but then you said no braid. When I don’t want braid on a baitcaster, it’s 10 or 12 Sensation.

Cuz you want to start a reloading hobby?

Quote:

---

Awesome boat! Do you know the side rod storage length/rod capacity? Many hours of searching and I have come up empty.

---

Center rod storage is 6’6″ and 7′ tubes.

So, as opposed to a “humane” way to bring about the death of an animal?

As Jeff Foxworthy would say, Here’s your sign…