Thanks for the compliments, wanted to go up today but I'm fighting a pretty bad head cold...oh well the seasons runs all winter and into early, early spring depending on the temps....as for geeroc's question, dealing with the PCB "Warnings".....My father (now passed) ran a Charter up Lake Erie (more of a hobby, he was retired) and I was the "First Mate"....actually I did most of the work but he had the license....:-)...........anyway, I was always asked about the PCB and other contaminant "Warnings" and I would answer like this: "Most of the warnings are put out based on fish sampling done by the Fish and Game Agencies, (Dept. of Natural Resources here in Ohio) and those samples are based on both scale and some meat lab sampling reading. So, if you consider that most of us, whether it's Walley, Perch or Steel Head don't eat the skin (proper filleting) and also that most of the contaminants are heavy metals which on the older, larger fish (which we keep) have a tendency to settle in the lower belly portion of the fish, which we always cut away, the remaining contaminants are minuscule if any. Add to the fact that we're not eating fish everyday the personal consumption is low. Now before I get tons of replies on this subject let me also say that (by profession) I am a Private Environmental, Safety and Health Consultant, so I know a little about exposure, amount of exposure and TL (Threshold Limits), so again, I don't worry about the so called "Warnings"....wow, all this and I could have simply answered "No" to the question.
Thanks for the reply catchem. I, too, am in the environmental field so it just happens to come across my mind when I see "Great Lakes". When I was much younger I was doing a lot of fishing in Erie from the shores of Oswego and some folks would say you'd be dead in a week and others said they'd been eating fish from there all their lives. Being young back then I knew I was going to live forever anyway so I enjoyed eating the catch. Now, 30 years later and I'm still here I guess it wasn't all that bad, hey? In either case I'll bet that there wasn't a scare they could throw at you that would ever have changed your mind about being a first mate on Dad's boat. Must be some of your fondest memories. Thanks for the answer to an inquiring mind. All the best to you.