Newspaper Page Text
THURSDAY. MAY 18. 2023 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 9A
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0'N€ILL OUTDOORS
By O'XRILL WILLIAM!
My grandson Travis with a 48-inch Northern.
Social Security Matters
From the Association of Mature
American Citizens
Have you tried
Canada?
Have you tried Canada
yet? If you haven’t, do!
First of all, the destination
for my little group was, has
been most often and will al
ways be Carroll Lake Lodge.
All you have to do is go to
their site, leave a message
and a fellow named Steve
Brinkman will contact you
and will handle everything
from the time you land in
Winnipeg and will advise
you about all you need to
know.
After that, a van will pick
up your party and head for
the floatplane. It’s about a
one-hour trip to the plane and
about 45-minutes to the
lodge and you start fishing
that evening.
Carroll Lake is six thou
sand pristine acres of clear
water in the Woodland Cari
bou Provincial Park on the
border between Ontario and
Manitoba.
When to go? I’ll be there
yearly in late May for four
days and probably will be the
first group visiting for the
season. The lodge will be
open from then until mid-
September.
I like it early. The ice has
just broken up and the North
ern Pike and Walleye are
shallow and hungry. I have
visited most often in middle
to lake August. Fishing is
fabulous no matter when.
Who goes? The great
thing abouts Carroll Lake
Lodge, to me, is that it’s
small, exclusive (only your
group of 8 or 10 can be
there). The faulty personali
ties present for evening con
versations and mealtime
chatter will be the people you
recruited so you can’t blame
anyone but yourself. If they
are unpleasant and aggravat
ing, it’s your fault.
What will you be catch
ing? During the August or
early September visits, using
small l/8th oz Road Runners
on light line, fished in about
15 to 35 feet of water, you’ll
be catching Walleyes up to
about 24 inches with most
being 14 to 18 or so. If you
insist on catching Walleyes
in the 30 inch or over range,
you can troll over the deep
structure with large deep div
ing plugs, but that’s incredi
bly boring and your partner
will get tired of seeing you
get hung up and likely losing
the baits he has loaned to
you.
After getting the knack of
it, you’ll catch and release
about 50 or so per day. For
Northern Pike, you’ll cast
into the weedy coves around
the grass and lily pads with a
spinnerbait or even a week
less spoon and plastic trailer.
I like the spoons to be gold to
kind of match the color of the
little Perch that the carni
vores feed on. Most of the
Northerns will be in the 22-
to-28 inch level with an oc
casional gangster topping 30
to 50 inches.
You and your boat mate
will catch about 40 North
erns per Vi day. Needless to
say you will catch a whole lot
of fish.
What else do you need to
know? Only your group will
be there. Boats, cabins, food,
heat, everything is furnished,
and you do not have to use a
guide. If you are an experi
enced angler at all and you
can’t catch 100 fish per day,
you should just go play golf
and cheat.
Wanna go? www.carroll-
lakelodge.com.
{O ’Neill’s column ap
pears twice monthly in the
Progress, generally the first
and third weeks of the
month.}
Should Octogenarians
Tell Social Security
They Married?
We were married two
years ago at age 78 and 81.
Do we need to do anything
with Social Security?
Signed: Blissfully Happy
Dear Blissfully Happy:
Congratulations on your
fairly recent marriage and,
yes, there are some things
you should do. Specifically,
you should contact Social
Security to inform them of
your marriage, see whether
any additional benefits are
available, and to make any
changes needed to your con
tact information. Here are
some things to consider:
• If a name change has
occurred for one of you, that
person should contact Social
Security to report the
change. A copy of your mar
riage certificate (and other
ID) will be required, and a
new Social Security card
will be issued.
• If a change of address
has also occurred for one or
both of you, that must be re
ported. It’s important that
Social Security has the cor
rect mailing address, email,
and contact phone number
for every beneficiary.
• If there are any other
changes to the contact Infor
mation on file with the So
cial Security Administration
for either of you (e.g., your
banking information), the af
fected person should inform
Social Security of the
changes needed.
• Social Security will
evaluate whether any benefit
increase is available as a re
sult of your marriage, which
may be the case if one of
you is entitled to a “spousal
boost” (an additional
amount from the other now
that you’re married). A
spousal boost may be avail
able if one has a monthly
Social Security payment
which is more than twice the
other’s benefit. Social Secu
rity can answer that question
for you when you call.
You can contact either
your local Social Security of
fice (find the number at
www.ssa.gov/locator) or call
the national number at
1.800.772.1213 and tell them
you need to inform them of
your marriage and update
your contact information. If
you have (or if you create) an
online “my Social Security”
account at www.ssa.gov/my-
account, you can initiate
changes to your contact in
formation online, but you
will need to call Social Secu
rity directly via phone to
record your marriage and see
if any changes to monthly
benefits are available.
It is very important that
Social Security be made
aware of your new marital
status and to ensure that they
have the correct contact in
formation for both of you.
Even if the contact infor
mation is unchanged for one
of you, the other should con
tact Social Security as de
scribed above to update their
contact information and to
determine if any changes to
monthly benefits are appro
priate as a result of your mar
riage. Doing so now will
avoid future issues and will
make sure you are both get
ting the correct monthly So
cial Security payments as a
married couple. And if one of
you is entitled to a higher
spousal amount, you should
ask for the increase to be ap
plied retroactively (SS will
pay up to 6 months retroac
tively). I suggest you call So
cial Security as soon as
possible to inform them of
your marriage and make any
necessary changes to your
contact information.
To submit a question, (amac-
foundation.org/programs/social-
security-advisory) or email at
ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org
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Weight
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