Coatsville Blog Combo

I just got off the phone with Brandon. AJ has graced us with his presence. He and Cortney are both doing well.

He was 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 17 1/2 inches long with long, thick black curly hair says Brandon.

Brandon & Cortney: I'm so happy for you guys! Take care of that little guy!

All right, ladies and gentlemen... AJ is on his way! I just got the call from Mom saying that Cortney is in the hospital and I shall have a nephew today at some point! Woohoo!

I shall post again when AJ graces us with his presence! Good luck Brandon & Cortney!!

Continued from Part I and Part II.

So WHY would the trip get more expensive? Funny you should ask.

OK. We start this trip trying to do the right thing. We buy the camping permits (at $10/day/person - $350ish) and the fishing licenses ($25 or so apiece) like we should. We apparantly didn't know the "letter of the law" when it came to catching the fish. We've ALWAYS been told that each person could catch 2 Walleye per day and 2 Pike per day (we didn't care about other species).

I'm with 2 accountants and a financial advisor so we figured we could do basic math between us. 6 people times 2 walleye times 7 days... equals (gets calculator out) 84 walleye. We thought we'd NEVER reach that. Well, we didn't - luckily. So here's the STUPID thing about Canadian fishing laws... it's NOT 2 per person per day. It's 2 in each persons *possession* per day. So, if I caught 2 today, saved it and didn't eat it, I can't keep any tomorrow because I have it in my possession still. BUT, if I eat it tonight, I can catch 2 more again tomorrow. How retarded is that? It's not lowering the number of fish taken from the lake (assuming the fish is eaten each night). What the hell?

Where am I going with this? Funn you should ask. This is where the "almost being arrested" comes in.

Brandon and Cade are out fishing in the middle of the day on Wednesday, the day after the smashing good Walleye day. The rest of us are playing cards back at camp. I, of course, was trying to win a game (yeah, I'll get to that later). We hear a boat coming in to the island to dock. So, imagine our surprise when Uncle Dave says, "Uh oh, DNR's here."

We think he's full of crap and continue playing. "No really," he says, getting up. "It's the DNR."

We all collectively think "Oh f%*#."

The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) guys were cordial enough. They asked to see our licenses and we got them out. They asked to see the camping permit and we told them Brandon had it on him and he was out in the boat. They asked us how many fish we had. We said we weren't sure - probably 15 or so? They asked us individually and we all hemmed and hawed, saying we weren't sure.

That was when they sprang it on us: "We want to count your fish."

Uh oh.

So Dad opens a cooler and pulls out 2 bags of walleye fillets. They, and I swear to God this is true, then ask each of us if we can identify our fillets. I jokingly told him I could barely identify the fish when I pull it out of the water, let alone fillet slabs.

So the MNR guy proceeds to start counting the fillets while the skinny one asks to look around. He checks the other coolers in the kitchen area, checks parts of the island for other coolers and live wells (we had already told him we didn't have any, but he wanted to check anyway). Bob sat on the fish cooler while the one guy counted and the other guy looked around. Just as the skinny guy comes back from checking the fire pit and starts walking toward Bob (probably to ask to look in that one last cooler he hadn't checked yet), the other guy says to him, "I count 17 - can you count and see if we come up with the same number?"

So the skinny guy starts counting and yes, they come up with 17. Plus the one that was on the stringer still and that's 18 walleye. They then inform us we're 6 over the limit. Since there are six of us, our limit is 12. What? We were confused.

"No, we've been here 4 days," we said. "We should be able to have, what... 48 fish?"

So the guy then goes on to explain the retarded-ass "possession" caveat.

Looking back, I believe it was at that moment, we kinda looked at each other, thought about the THREE REMAINING BAGS OF FILLETS in the lone unchecked cooler and said to ourselves: "AHHHHHHHHHhhhh We're in deep sh!t."

We silently prayed that they forget about that cooler Bob was sitting on.

So, they decided they wanted to check the Camping Permit and bring Cade & Brandon back to go over things. After they leave and are out of sight, I snagged the 3 bags of fish and fled down the trail in the woods toward our makeshift toilet. I found a place that looked thick, found a big rock and stuffed the bags behind it. I proceeded to cover up the bags with a couple loose branches with leaves.

The MNR officers, along with Brandon and Cade, come on back to the island. The MNR officers explained our fines. The fine was $50 PER FISH over our limit. That was $300 for 6 fish. You can't even go into a restaurant and spend $50 on a walleye dinner! Not only that, they had to confiscate our 2 bags of fish to use as evidence in case we wanted to fight it in court! Oh yeah, there would be a $100 fee for the seizure of the fish. Plus, toss on another $90 for not having 1 square inch of skin on the fish and we're up to $490 in fines.

We told them that we were going to eat that fish, not take them across the border (we thought you only had to leave the skin on for border crossings). They then informed us that you must keep at least 1 square inch of skin on "until consumption" of the fish.

So, this oh-so-kind MNR officer then proceeded to explain to us that, technically, he could give us ALL $490 fines since we couldn't identify our fillets and nobody knew how many of the fish were theirs. But he would give us a break [gee thanks] and only ticket one of us and we could figure out between ourselves how we were going to split it up. My brother Cade, since he lives near Toronto, took one for the team and had it in his name.

So, during this whole monologue about how the rules worked and us arrogant Americans assume too much, blah blah blah, he proceeded to say that 6 fish over the limit is really bad and that if it was 8, it would be grossly irreponsible of us.

If he would have seen the other 3 bags, CHOCK full of fillets, we probably would have been about 30 fish over our limit. That likely would have meant one of use would have to call our spouse and beg for them to drive 11 hours to Wawa to bail us out of jail. Oh yeah, honey, they took our boats, motors and possibly our vehicles. Last but not least, honey, can you bring a couple grand in cash lying around to help pay our fine?

The MNR guys left, never to come back again. We've been going up there for about 18 years and had never heard of the possession limit - we've always been told it was 2 per person per day. We've never even SEEN an MNR officer up there in nearly 2 decades. What are the odds that, the day after we have our best fishing day, catching the most walleye we've ever caught, that MNR officers would happen upon us? Damn.

So, that's the story of the near-arrest and how our trip got $490 more expensive in just one afternoon.

Wrapup and Other interesting items:
- So, Uncle Dave posted a comment regarding who caught the biggest fish? Well, Uncle Dave caught the largest Walley at 22 inches. I caught the largest Pike at a paltry 27 inches.

- The lake level was up about 18 inches over last year. On one side of the lake, there was a large rock ledge last year. That was where the infamous event happened in which I got stranded in the middle of the lake. This year, the rock slab that was a good 14 inches or so above the water was about 4-6 inches below the water.

One morning, I decided to take advantage of not having to get up for work or kids and slept in while the others went for a morning fish. I finally got up, ate breakfast and decided to read a magazine. The mosquitoes were out so I grabbed a camp chair, put on my waterproof rubber boots and sat on the now-underwater rock ledge.

Within 3 days time, the water level of Pokei Lake dropped over 6 inches and the rock ledge started showing. Now, Pokei is a HUGE lake. If I remeber right, it's like 4 miles long by 2 miles wide or something - 8-9 square miles. I can't imagine how much water would have had to leave the lake to drop it 6 inches. There's no way it all could have evaporated - especially that fast. I can only think that somewhere in the river that empties the lake toward Lake Superior there was a beaver dam or fallen trees were removed and allowed water to start flowing back out of the lake.

- On our way out, it started to sprinkle and it wasn't particularly fun weather to leave in so we wanted to get out ASAP. So, Murphy's Law bites us again: As Cade is backing up Bob's truck, a root pops up and POP goes his tire. Yup, poppd tire right in all the soft, muddy clay dirt. Attempts to change the tire were slow as the jack would keep sinking into the soft clay. We finally found a couple hard, plywood boards and used that as a base and eventually got things going again. Ugh - yet another unforseen expense to share.

- So, my personal goal was to NOT get stuck in the middle of the lake without a working motor. I failed miserably - again. Ok, well, this time it wasn't my fault at least. Bob and I were out fishing Thursday night (our last evening before we broke camp Friday morning) and we were just trolling around a bend and BAM! the motor stopped working. It turns out, Bob's motor sheared a pin and we were stuck. Luckily, he did have a paddle. I paddled for about 30 or so minutes (total paddling time was about 45 minutes as Bob took a turn in the middle so I could rest my arms) so we could finally get in "rape whistle" range of Brandon and Dad. We finally got their attention and the SLOWLY TROLLED OVER to see what's up. They dragged us back to the island - yes, trolling all the way - and Brandon and I went back out and finished the evening fish.

- I mentioned previously that I was trying to win a game of cards. Why was that? Well, on the way up, Dad bet me that I would not win a single game of cards the whole trip. The bet was lunch on the way back home. I think I officially won the "Bridesmaid Award" as I finished in 2nd place FOUR different times, but never quite pulling out a victory. Twice, it came down to the last hand and I ended up bidding the wrong way and victory slipped through my grasp. I wasn't crushed very much. Dad won a few games, but he also finished in DFL (Dead Freakin' Last) more than me. I ended up in DFL once or twice, but I was usually somewhere in the middle. How frustrating!

Well, that's how the 2008 Canadian Fishing trip ended up. It really was alot of fun, even though the big fine (nearly $100/fish in total!) really put a damper on our attitudes for a few days.

I hope everyone enjoyed reading about our trip and enjoys the pictures.

Last year's trip was detailed here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Pictures from our trips: 2008, 2007 and 2006.

I love hearing from people so feel free to toss any comments out that you have. 'Till next year.... Go Red Wings!

Continued from Part I...

So, where were we? Oh yeah. Bob and I had just finished building the "Kitchen" area while all the others were out fishing.

The weather was great all trip (other than having to pack up and leave on Friday because a nasty storm was coming our way and we didn't feel like breaking camp in a thunderstorm). It was mid-70s all week with big, puffy white clouds scattered across the sky. The wind was reasonably cool and was refreshing during the day. This was significantly different from 2006 when Paul and I got burnt to a crisp and hid from the sun the last 5 days of the trip, stuffing t-shirts under our hat to shade our crispy necks.

At night, it was almost always clear. I love nighttime up in Canada. The amount of stars you can see up there is awe-inspiring. On clear days in Michigan you can see quite a bit, but for someone like my wife who's never camped that far from civilization, the sheer number of stars is amazing. We even saw a pretty cool satelite float across the sky on night - it was surprisingly bright.

Let's put the number of fish we caught in perspective. In 2006, we caught 2 Walleye for the whole trip. That's it. Two. Between 6 guys for a week, we caught two. That's about normal. We never really caught many. Last year, though, was a WINDFALL of Wally's. We caught 23 during the trip and was BY FAR more than we've ever caught in a trip.

We never have any problems cathcing Pike... well, except for Bob in '06 - he didn't catch his first fish until Thursday. I felt bad because I'd hand him a lure that I'd just been tearing it up on and he wouldn't get a hit with it. Meanwhile I or Paul would have been tearing it up on a different lure. We'd trade again and he'd get nothing while we caught fish. It was kinda funny, but not.

What about 2008?

Brandon and I fished together on Tuesday. Just in the morning fish, the two of us caught 17 walleye. Actually, the first 3 hours, we trolled where the White River empties into Pokei. It was cool knowing that 18 or so years ago on our first trip to Pokei, we floated down that river since we didn't know how to drive back. We caught a few pike, but no Wally's. As we were heading back, though, we found a hot spot we called "The Walleye G Spot."

Brandon and I caught about 17 walleye in about 3 hours just trolling the G Spot. There were several times where we'd each have one on the line at the same time. Now, remember, stringers don't HAVE 17 spots. We caught them so fast and furious that we had to double-string a couple and, eventually, we reeled them in too fast. We ended up tossing them into the back of the boat and, as Brandon describe it, "we've got 'em stacked up like cord-wood back here."

Dad and Uncle Dave came over after we had about 12 or so and asked us how we were doing. We said that we had a dozen, but "we got them all way over there [pointing toward the river entrance] so go try there and leave us alone."

For some reason they didn't believe us. They ended up landing about 5 of OUR wally's.

Tuesday night, Brandon, Dave and Cade had a large fillet job on their hands. We cleaned them and tossed them on ice - except for the ones we were having that night.

At that point, we had no idea that the next day, the trip would get aLOT more expensive. But I guess I'll save that for Part III.

Check out the main Photo Gallery page for the 2008 trip...

Link: http://www.politickernj.com/bguhl/22291/doherty-new-scientific-data-justifies-repealing-global-warming-response-act

The global warming crowd just keep getting pummelled with more and more news about the myth of Global Warming. Anyone want to bet whether Al Gore apologizes for the hysteria he's inciting and offers his Nobel "Peace" Prize back? And refunds the movie ticket or rental prices for all the dupes that paid money to watch his glorified slideshow that was wildly inaccurate? I'm not holding my breath.

Article:

DOHERTY: NEW SCIENTIFIC DATA JUSTIFIES REPEALING GLOBAL WARMING RESPONSE ACT

URGES STATE TO HOLD OFF ON DAMAGING NEW REGULATIONS AS CLIMATE CHANGE THEORIES CLASH

Responding to various new scientific reports questioning the concept of global warming, Assemblyman Michael Doherty today called on Governor Corzine to hold off on proposing any new regulations associated with the state’s Global Warming Response Act and urged the Legislature to repeal that act when it returns to legislative business after Labor Day.

“There are many credible members of the scientific community who have questioned the theory of global warming, and now we have some scientists actually suggesting the earth’s temperatures may be entering a period of dramatic cooling,” said Doherty, R-Warren and Hunterdon. “With this growing level of scientific uncertainty, it makes no sense to enact a new set of economically damaging regulations prompted by the global warming hysteria of recent years.”

The Global Warming Response Act was signed last year by Corzine, which requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. The law required the state Department of Environmental Protection to release a report detailing how the state would meet the goals, with recommendations now expected to be issued this fall.

According to recent news reports, a top observatory that has been measuring sun spot activity predicts that global temperatures will drop by two degrees over the next 20 years as solar activity slows and the planet drastically cools down. They suggest this could potentially herald the onset of a new ice age. Following the end of the sun’s most active period in over 11,000 years, the last 10 years have displayed a clear cooling trend as temperatures post-1998 leveled out and are now decreasing.

Earlier this year, John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel, stated that manmade global warming is “the greatest scam in history,” adding, “I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a scam.” Coleman said the theory of global warming is based on fraudulent science.

“New Jersey’s tax and regulatory climate is already chasing jobs from this state left and right and these new regulations will make matters worse,” Doherty said. “Rather than conforming our policies to questionable scientific theories, we should be looking at the concrete economic indicators that show our state’s economy is in trouble. And we should be taking steps to help people who are losing jobs and being forced out of their homes by this state’s anti-economic growth agenda – not making matters worse.”