THE
REEL THING February
2005
A special thank-you once again to all those beautiful people who helped
Sheila and me celebrate both my 75th birthday and survival from
death’s door last spring. It was easily the biggest and best party we have
ever had in this old house since it was built for us back in 1952. Almost
forty folks were packed in, all comparing notes and fish stories with each
other going back at least fifty years. My thirty-odd photo albums got one heck
of a workout as everyone searched for pictures of the many fishing trips we
have gone on together over all those years. The same way I treasure all our
shared memories, I will always treasure that Survival – Birthday Party
evening. For that many folks to attend, many of them driving long distances -
as much as a hundred and fifty miles - in what was one of the biggest snow
storms and blizzards of the winter was mind-boggling to say the least.
A special welcome from all of us to the
club’s newest member: Angelo Dsouza. Angelo comes to us with a not too
secret agenda in mind. He wants to learn as much as he possibly can - in the
shortest time - about everything we can teach him in the club about fly
fishing. In less than two weeks, he has already had his equipment reviewed and
learned some fly tying basics, tying up a couple of nice streamer flies in the
process. I’m sure the targets will also be getting a thrashing when we go
back in the gym in a couple of weeks. Speaking of which, will be Thursday,
February 10th. Angelo is planning on opening up his own fly fishing
store, hopefully this spring or early summer.
Meanwhile the shop activities are going
great guns! Scott Owen finished building his fluted, split-cane, Broadback fly
rod and it’s a gorgeous piece of work that could probably bring him more
than $2,000.00 if he were to put it on the market. Bob Tanaka is carefully
well on the way to putting the finishing touches on his Ganny rod, while
Jurgen who just began his, splitting the bamboo only a couple of weeks ago,
already has the butt section of his own Broadback wand glued up. It, too, is a
great bit of craftsmanship. What a treat it is for me to see these sticks all
coming together from a bunch of old bamboo culms up in the ceiling of my
garage! I guess I’m going to have to get off my butt and see if I can still
put another one together myself. Maybe a six and a half-foot three
weight…….now there’s a challenge!
The hard-water fishin’ season is well
underway, with some great results so far. Paul Kennedy and I had a fine day up
in Haliburton a couple of weeks ago……six fat trout and a bit of adventure
when we couldn’t get out from the lake because of an extremely iced-up hill.
Eventually, the skiboose and some of our heavier gear had to be stashed in the
bush for a couple of weeks to lighten the load on the machines.
Jim
Lloyd and I went back last Saturday and discovered that nothing had been taken
or disturbed and with a new load of snow had no trouble whatsoever negotiating
the trail and hills. As is his custom, Jim thoroughly out-fished me once again
catching six lovely trout to my measly three. It was such a lovely day that we
probably lost at least that many more because we were too relaxed to rush to
the buzzers when the trout struck.
In a couple of days, Wednesday, Paul
Kennedy, Paul Quarrington and I are going to hit the trail again……maybe
this time we’ll give Beanpole a workout for some of its big rainbows. A week
later, Pat Walsh, the editor of Outdoor Canada magazine, under a threat of
death if the lake’s whereabouts are revealed in the magazine, will be going
up to do battle with its denizens. Patrick made mincemeat of the biggies up
there last October, catching ‘bows between five and six pounds, his biggest
ever.
Meanwhile, Sharon McIntyre, doing her own
thing hardly ever goes more than a day or so without wetting a line. One story
she swears is true, is that she went up to Lake Simcoe last week to catch a
feed of perch for her and her husband, Sam, who is unable to get around as
easily as our club’s most ardent angler, his wife. This was a few days after
attending regional Ministry of Lands and Forests director, Wil Wegman’s
annual ice-fishing course. I’m not sure if she was conducting the seminar,
or looking for more tips…..she’s one heck of an ice-fisherman already!
As Sharon tells it, she already had a nice
string of perch for the table when she hooked into a giant whitefish!
Now, the whities in Lake Simcoe are running anywhere from four to ten pounds
these days so we have no reason to doubt that part of her story, however,
fishing by herself in a hut (she usually disdains fishing from a hut,
preferring to drill her holes and fish out in the open) she managed to get the
big whitey up through the hole and into the hut, whereupon her four-pound line
broke and the big whitie began thrashing around all over the place.
If
you’ve ever tried to grab a big slippery, still active fish with both hands
after dropping your rod, you’ll know what a challenge that can be. Squirting
out of her clutch several times, she was unable to kick it out the door and
onto the ice and the big fish eventually flopped into the second hole in the
hut, dove, and got away.
No pictures, no fish, just tears and
another thrill and fish story that she will remember and relate for many years
to come!
It’s beginning to look pretty certain
that our club will be able to field a complete team at this year’s North
American Casting Championships in Dundee, Michigan, next August. We have at
least ten casters who could finish well up in the standings in this one and
several who are capable of finishing in the medals as well. They are George
Monroe, Paul Kennedy, Jim Lloyd, Ray Cosburn, Jurgen Brech, Harold Higdon, Jay
Hackney, Paul Quarrington, Paul Becker, Sheila and possibly, myself. Some of
our newer members, such as Lee Pantridge and Angelo Dsouza may also find that
they have the potential to represent Canada and ourselves in this one when we
begin our practice casting sessions with more vigour in a month or so. We are
hard at work attempting to raise commercial sponsorship for the tourney to cut
the individual expense.
****There is room for three or four others
who might like to join me for our weekly skidoo and ice fishing trip next
weekend (either Saturday, or Sunday), but please get back to me no later than
Thursday evening so we can plan accordingly.
Gord
p.s. My newest book, all re-worked and edited, is now at the publishers and
hopefully I’ll have some idea of, if and when, it will be available for all
to enjoy. At roughly four-hundred pages (many of you are in it) the book,
MAGICAL WATERS AND MEMORIES is easily the best I have written and those who
have reviewed it so far all declare it to be a great read! If only half the
folks from all over the place who read this bulletin are lucky enough to get
and read a copy, I should be able to afford to get away fishing a little more
often (yuck, yuck) maybe even to the tip of South America with Paul
Quarrington. He and I have kicked around ‘doing’ Tierro del Fuego,
several times.
Tight
Lines,
Gord
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