THE
REEL THING December
1988
Well,
as this is the last day of the 1988 year we thought it was time to review some
of the year's highlites and going-ons, as far as our club's members and
activities are concerned, anyhow. I
promise, there will be no mention of the 'Ben Johnston fiasco' or
'Free
Trade fiasco' in this bulletin.
All
in all it was a fine, if not spectacular, year for the club, beginning, I
guess, with a couple of great ice-fishing trips in January where the quantity
might have been lacking but the quality of the catch more than made up for it.
A twenty-two inch brook trout, pushing the five pound mark, turned out
to be not only the best catch of the winter, but as far as we know, the best
of the whole fishing season. The
casting activities began with a bang after the Christmas holidays last January
and an injection of enthusiasm was injected into the Monday evenings with the
addition of a number of new members. Quite
a few of these folks came to us from the Cousin George store and entourage -
largely with the idea of sharpening there casting techniques and out of
curiosity. Some moved on after
awhile and, as usually happens, a few really appreciated the club's ambience,
other members and direction, quickly becoming important cogs in the overall
scheme of our operations.
The
casting 'competitions' at the Sportsmens' Show in March proved once again that
we must be doing something correct as we continued to garner our share of the
awards. The Juniors once again
led the way with our older plug and fly casters also raking in the trophies.
The
first club trip in May turned out to be an exciting one for Marty Calvert (his
nineteen inch brook trout ended up in the taxidermist,s hands) but the weather
played dirty tricks on us by blowing the still-unmelted surface ice onto the
access shore so that we were prevented from fishing A/B for the first half of
the trip. However, fishing was
great, even though the catching was not up to snuff.
The
spring rainbow trout season began with a bang for most of our club members
with some of the more notable catches, in my memory, anyhow, belonging to Rod
Noble, Ian Hay, Steve, Brad and Allen, Leon Schwartz, Rick Madden and so on.
Casting
tournaments also began in May, continuing on through the summer, with some
surprising results from all of our more competitive-minded members.
Medals and trophies were captured by various sectors of our casting
fraternity and not just the more experienced tournament casters. A few of the
newer members who showed that they were quite capable of staying with the 'big
boys' were Jack Dean, Rod Noble, Dave Stone, Rick Green, Rick Madden, Leon
Schwartz and so on. I appologize
if there is someone whose name has temporarily escaped me, because I know
there were quite a few others who also exceeded their, if not our,
expectations.
Our
own efforts on the targets and the distance casting fields proved rewarding
this past season with overall titles in most of the major competitions that we
were lucky enough to participate in.
A
North American record in the National Championships in August turned out to be
our personal casting highlite.
The
outdoor Monday evening casting sessions at the pool were very rewarding for
those who took part in the activity and several new members and in some cases,
their families, also helped make the evenings even more enjoyable.
Our fly casters, Rick Madden, Fred Bigioni, Leon Schwartz, Jim Smith,
John Alexander and all the others improved and polished their fly casting
prowess immeasureably. The plug
casters, not to be outdone, also honed their techniques.
Some of the regulars hardly ever missing an evening at the pool were
John Birch, rod Sills, Barry Scannel, George McConnachie, Greg Gungner, Jack
Dean. Sorry guys and gals, I just
don't have room here to mention everybody.
Many thanks are due to those members who supported these activities
over the season while commiseration is offered to those, who for one reason or
another, were not able to participate as often they would have wished.
As
the summer wore down and the fall season progressed many splendid catches were
being reported, with smallmouth bass in the five pound class (Rick Madden)
twenty pound salmon on flies (Rick Madden) jumbo pike and pickerel (John
Birch) leading the hit list. Our
fall annual club trip to the Saugeen River was once again a successful outing,
although as is usually the case, we had to 'work' for everything we caught.
The
indoor casting season this past fall picked up right where we left off at the
summer pool with a resurgence of interest from vely lady from Calgary,
Alberta. We hope to renew our fly
tying sessions and instruction as
soon as we get the rod making completed.
As
usual, we wound up the year with a lovely Christmas party, attended by most of
our members. It was a fine
evening of conversation, great food (courtesy of Ian Hay and Irene Johnston),
a fun competition (Sheila and Rod came up with the top scores) some of my old
fishing movies, some nice prizes and gifts and a lot of laughs along the way. Again, many thanks to John Alexander and all those who helped
organize the party.
As
I look outside and see my snowmobile loaded and ready to go (A/B Lake) I
realize that it is also that time of year when we must begin the onerous chore
of collecting membership dues. Hopefully,
this year, it will not be the difficult task that it has become in former
years. Please, either mail a
cheque, or preferrably bring it out to the school along with your tackle, as
soon as possible. Club dues are
due as of JANUARY 1. Unlike most
things nowadays, there is once again no increase in our fee structure: Junior
- 20.00, Adult - 25.00 and Family - 35.00.
We encourage the family (35.00) fee wherever it if financialy
comfortable, as first of all we would like to see more women and children
partaking in the club,s activities and secondly, our association can use the
extra few dollars to the benefit of the whole club.
Casting
re-commences after the school holidays on January 9th.
We are all looking forward to seeing you then.
Some of our members have adopted the habit of calling us when they
cannot attend the Monday sessions for whatever reason - a very thoughtful and
courteous gesture and much appreciated by the rest of us.
Sheila,
Rod and I want to wish everybody a very best of the season and an absolutely
super year in 1988.
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