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Topic: Down Time (Read 417 times)
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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Posts: 3435
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Nice Fish!!!!!!!
Oh yes, brother, I've fished the bar alot, specially when smallie season is off and the trout and salmon are not in the river. I'd go more but they have no public launches close and it takes about half a tank of gas to drive there from Queenston or Port Dahlousie.
My favourite is to turn right at Queenston, cruise up past the powerhouses and then fish the eddies between the white water and the hydro zone. Woooo, weeee, the boat is just drifting warp drive and the fish are wacking anything in site. Specially the smallies, which are river bass, very muscular and prone to aerobatic displays...
I never realized how great the fishing was around here till after I was released and my dad and I bought a half decent boat. He's from timmins, lordy, we use to drive forever to catch less fish that I get now driving twenty minutes away. Go figure.
Anyhow, my budz has got a new scanner, I'll have him scan and email me the pictures then post em, How much did that beastie weigh?
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3435
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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I call it extreme fishing, Geof, and that is an apt description, let me tell you!!!
Frankly, I get off on the rush. The moment the bow slices through the first whirlpool you get a slight surge of adrenaline and, by the time yoiu reach the base of Devil's Hole rapids, man, you are ALIVE! Bass is always good up there and I am not lying when i tell you that I have not been skunked there for over five years.
But its when the big salmon and rainbows first come up where it really gets exciting. Man, you'lll hook up with one of those buggers at the base of Devils Hole rapids and sometimes you have to drift down to or past Queenston by the time the beastie is ready to come to the boat. If you know the river, you know it is dangerous through there with whirpools large enough to inhale a lesser boat from the three powerhouses and the converging where the river narrows between the escarpment.... You got to be aware of the river, the position of the boat, the actions of the fish (they sometimes turn around and head back upriver), the changing current, Whewwwwww, pure adrenalinooooo!
This time of year in my favourite. My dad is seventy eight now so he don't really like fishing the big ones but, coversely, the bass are really on the feed and yellow and bklue pickerel are pooling in the back eddies around the powerhouse. White three inch grubs with a spinner jig is the most effective as the bait caters to all species. I take him usually for a couple of hours in the morning, come home and rest my back for a couple of hours, then go out with my buddies who are into Salmon. There are also no tourists in the form of those freaking jet boats at this time of year so, if your past the powerhouses and keep looking south, by god, you feel like your on some wild and untamed river in the middle of nowhere..... Its wild!
We are going out this afternoon, weather permitting, on Lake Erie. Im more partial to the river but my friends want to hook up the down riggers and go for walleys once more before winter strikes and it gets to dangerous to go out six, seven miles. Theres another stretch of water you don't want to dick around with but they got freaking huge smallies all over the damn place as well as perch and picks. I'm hoping its windy and it rains cause I'd rather be in the river but the lads are paying for the gas for both boat and truck, munchies at Miner's fish store (If you are EVER in Port Colbourne, stop in for a plate of fresh fish.... most excellent...) and beer after....
Thats an offer I don't usually refuse!!! Bwahahahahaaaaaa
How far away are you from Niagara?
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3435
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Hey John, that is really cool. I have a buddy who is a pilot, him and three others guys went in on a nice cessna, but Im not sure of the model number. Just out of curiosity, how long does it take to get your ticket?
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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JohnBergen
John Bergen
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It's more hours than time. Other than ultralights, the basic license is a Recreational Permit, which allows you to fly anything up to 4 seats (can only take one passenger thought) can't go to the states, Visual Flight Rules only...minimum total flight time is 25 hours. For a Private Pilot licence, which removes the restrictions on passenger numbers, cross border travel etc, the minimum flight time is 45 hours.
If you could take your flight training full time, flying a couple hours a day, you can hit the minimums or close to it. If you only fly once a week or so, you can expect to add about 10 hours.
It's alot of fun, for sure.
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RCR 1982-1987
AE/AVN Tech 1987-1997
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Ghalsey
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Mike I live about 1/2 hr south of london  I know the spot your talking about and I can sense the excitment in your typeing. A few drown there last year by the power house 16 footer just won't cut it. 3 weeks ago a buddy charters out of Bruce weekend total 4 1/2 day charters was Like 45 Eyes and 30 Bows flat lines in 45 ft of water.  |
Geoff Halsey 1 RCR 1981 - 1991 Fin 831 - 1991 - 1996 CD, UN Cyprus  |
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3435
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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I have a sixteen and a half foot sylvan rodmaster. Aluminum, side console, for and aft chairs ala bass boat. Just bought a newer fifty horsepower Merc, 4 strokem to push it along. The US coast guard sticker says its unsinkable.
Oddly enough, I was on the river earlier that day when buddy flipped his boat. Bizare as he had a pretty good boat but, bwteen the natural current induced waves and the freaking wake off the jet boats, who knows.
I know I have gone down with paddles four times in the past decade when motor or battery problems interfered... first time was in February when we first got the boat, beautiful day but cvold , ton of fish, mucho happy till we decides to call it a day.... battery's dead, so's the one on the front. No problem, I's still eben half decent shape, Ill pulll it. Holy crap, no pull chord, electronic ignition.... by this time weve drifted to the powerhouses and had little choice but to ride it out. We each put on two lifejackets, grabbed a paddle and kneeled on the floor to keep a very low center of gravity. I tell you, it was quite the ride. Once we got sucked into a fair sized whirlpool. ass first so me a pops were sitting up front... but it didnt matter. I think I have about three feet freeboard, there was never a problem... Anyhow, there about eight boats doing the quuenston drift, one of pulled us to shore where we broke out the coleman stove, green, two burner, a pound of butter, fying pan and munched some fresh rainbow troutski... man, that was good day....
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3435
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Salmon are up... was out for a couple of hours this afternoon... nailed three, all small, on blue fox #4 vibrax in yellow. Also caught about eight smallies, half over four pounds, on the same lure. Pop got tired (he's 79) after a couple of hours so we fished from three to five.  some from other times....  This bass was over six pounds and came on a day where my dad and i caught over thirty in the span of an hour and a half.  |
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3435
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Lake trout... full of contaminants and live released.  Blue pickrel... thought to be extinct but now around in sizeable numbers. This one was bleeding from the gills so no live release. It was quite tasty cooked right beside the boat launch with a can of ice cold beer.  and this little bugger never even made it to the launch and, compliments of the ole green coleman stove, went into the frying pan about thirty seconds after this picture was taken. Notice the parka!  |
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3435
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
What ever do you mean! snicker.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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(Ever fish the Bar)
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ranrad