The Reel Thing – February 2007

Well I hope your January was more pleasant than mine.  As most of you know, I've pretty much been hospital or house-bound for the month, but did sneak out with Jim's help a couple of times to go to the gym for our casting evening last week and a spot of shopping and banking. Hans came to the rescue with that as well. Thanks, guys. I also want to offer thanks to Sheila who has had to put up with me in her hair since I came home and looked after me royally with all my little wants     and needs while listening to my whining about my aches and pains. Fortunately, the aches and pains are rapidly becoming history with all the physiotherapy and exercises I have to work at.

           Although the skidoos and ice-fishing equipment is all up north just waiting to be utilised, the weather kept the hard-water crew in the city until now, but that should be rectified in a week or so. If I get an okay from the meds. then  we'll be joining in on a hunt for Haliburton's winter goodies in the middle of February. Rick Matusiak, no stranger to hospitals himself the last few years, underwent an operation to clean up some of the left-over work done on his back in the last one. He says he didn't mind a couple of days in the hospital and being off work and now feels as fit as a fiddle. He says he is gung-ho for the trip to Quebec and the Broadback in August.

           We must take a moment to welcome our newest member, Bert Colp. He showed up in the gym last week and joined the club in the shop last night. Bert is an ardent fly fisherman and wants to improve his casting and catching success. We think, that with guys like Jim Lloyd, Rick Matusia and Jurgen Brech in our club, we should be able to assist him in both his endeavours.

           Jurgen reports that he has been selling his wonderful nymphs lately by the hundreds to a number of buyers which doesn't surprise any of us as we know the fly is a killer on steelies. For example, while I was out of commission in the Scarborough Grace Hospital, Jurgen along with a half a dozen others from the club hit Wilmot Creek one morning a few weeks ago and while Paul Kennedy was cooking up a storm on his portable hibachi, Jurgen hooked four big 'bows on his special nymphs, landing a couple of ten pounders for their admiration while they blanked out. We haven't had the pleasure yet of watching Rick and Jurgen go head to head against each other on the steelies, but hope that can become reality before too long. They are the two best fishermen in our club in my opinion.

           Bob Tanaka, following up on his success with his first bamboo project, a lovely 7' Broadback model, is beginning work on our very special split-cane spinning rod model. New member, Bert, is also contemplating building his own cane fly rod, while Jurgen and Lee are also planning to build their own beautiful, bamboo spinning rods.

           We haven't seen Jay Hackney for quite awhile since he moved into an executive position with his company, Pickseed and was sent travelling all over the place, but hope that changes soon. We now have four members who commute remarkable distances to our meetings in the shop and the gym. Jay rarely missed an evening while he was building several split-cane sticks in the shop, learning to tie Despairs and become one of the club's best all round casters although he has to drive eighty miles to get here. George Monroe makes that look like a jaunt as he has to negotiate more than two hundred miles of supper-time traffic through Rochester, Buffalo and Toronto to get here. Paul Kennedy lives in Uxbridge, close to forty miles away, the same as Brian and Jurgen. Tas has to come from a little less, about thirty miles and Bert, our new member, lives about seventy-five miles away. That is amazing that these gentlemen, having such long distances to commute to Scarborough, still manage to get here as often as they do. I guess we must be doing something right in the S.F.& B.C.A.

           Plans are underway for our Spring Ice-out trout trip and if you have opinions as to when and where, please get them in to us soon. At the moment it looks like it will be a camping trip for speckled trout to Jurgen's 'secret' lake, but nothing is finalised as of yet.

           The National Casting Championships will be in Cincinnati at the end of July this year and we might have a full team in attendance if we're lucky. It appears that Maria and George will accompany Sheila and me to the Kentucky Bluegrass Championships on the Victoria Day weekend and with that and the Scarborough Championship tournament, June 2nd & 3rd, under their respective belts should be eager to go to the National to test their own skills, while studying the best in the business.

 

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