Ray Blades

A Criminal Code amnesty period protecting gun owners from liability until Oct. 30, 2026 while they dispose of newly prohibited firearms will be extended due to the Supreme Court of Canada process, Public Safety Canada announced on Tuesday, June 9. The amnesty will now expire three months after the top court announces its decision on one of four consolidated appeals it agreed in March to hear related to sweeping firearms prohibitions.

I'’m drawn to so many aspects of the outdoors that I can’t even begin to cover them here. One that has always resonated with me is our ability to handcraft — be it shaving a longbow from a tree, building a canoe from bark or canvas, crafting a fishing rod from a willow branch or a high-modulus graphite blank, or carving a bluebill decoy from a wood block. Creating with raw materials connects us with the natural world.

In my Nov.-Dec. 2024 column, I wrote about bucket lists and rattled off some locations and fish species that I’d like to check off mine. Sturgeon was suspiciously absent. It’s not that they haven’t been on my angling radar. It’s just that that my to-do list has always leaned more toward salmon and trout. At heart, though, I’m a river rat, and prefer anything that swims in moving water. Sturgeon fit that bill.