Symmetre

You do realise that "brackish" means a mixture of fresh water and saltwater? It doesn't exist in Niagara.

Who's gouging you? The store? Doubt it, since they're paying a lot more for stuff these days too. I work in a store, I see the invoices. Our prices have gone up like crazy. Is Rapala gouging you? Doubt it. For the past 18 months all we've heard are stories about higher raw material costs, higher shipping costs, and supply chain meltdowns. I'd bet Rapala's costs have also gone through the roof too. If you're getting gouged by anyone, it's a certain group of people in Ottawa. Inflation might be a worldwide problem, but we're making it much worse than it has to be by adding a pointless carbon tax to fuel. Every single thing you buy gets to the store in a truck, and trucks need fuel to run. So higher fuel bills jack up the price of absolutely everything.

You guys go on and on in threads like this about 'keeping the jobs here" while at the same time whining about how much things cost. How much do you think your Rapala knife would cost if it was made in Niagara Falls instead of China? By some union plant no less, where no one makes less than $35 an hour with benefits? Stuff is made in China because consumers are cheap. Consumers won't buy a Canadian made T-shirt because it's going to cost $45. Instead, they whine about how expensive it is, then rundown to Walmart to buy a Chinese t-shirt for $5 - and think "that's more like it." There is no free lunch here. If you want to support Canadian manufacturers, and you want people working there to make a fair wage, then stuff HAS to cost more than it does coming from China. If you want stuff to be cheap, then guess what, it won't be made here. That's reality. Get used to it.

You can get a $40 NAAT test at any Walgreens or CS pharmacy, even right through the drive through window. Results in 3 hours, good for 72 hours. Not worth it just to save $20 on a box of suds, but if you're there for a couple of days to fish then it is.

And if you want to read further you'll note that the "waters of the basin" Michigan tried introducing cutthroat trout into were inland lakes in the UP, not the Great Lakes.

Merc's factory in China builds 50hp and 60hp only. They opened it in 2005.

Peter's is good. So is Grimsby Tackle. Support independent dealers, they will look after you right and give you good advice. People at Canadian Tire don't know anything.

Look man from 11 years ago, I don't want to pee on your parade, but that isn't even close to being true. Cutthroat trout have never been stocked in any of the Great Lakes. Write to MNR if you don't believe me, they will tell you the same thing. No one - not MNR, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Wisconsin - no one has ever stocked cutthroat trout in the Great Lakes. The fish in your pic is just a heavily spotted rainbow trout. Again, ask MNR. Any biologist will tell you that. Spotting, color and overall appearance on rainbows is highly variable. Some fish have lots of big spots, some have fewer fine spots, some have hardly any spots at all. Still all rainbows. You can't identify them by just color pattern or spotting alone. For what it's worth, the so-called golden trout or palamino trout that Pennsylvania used to stock in the 1990s were also just a color phase of rainbow trout. They were not a different species at all. Email your photo to MNR and ask them. They will also confirm that cutthroat trout have never been stocked in any of the Great Lakes, by anyone. They don't get "accidentally mixed in with some rainbows" that is not how fish hatcheries work. Not trying to be a dick, but that is just complete nonsense.

Most fish scales aren't even close to accurate.