THE
REEL THING January
2005
General
Club, A.C.A., Patrick Walsh, Patrick Crean, Bill Crich, Irene, Louie
The REEL THING January 2005
We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all the
wonderful folks out there who prayed for me when I was at death’s door last
spring. I received messages from virtually all over the world, from people I
barely knew, some I have not had the pleasure of knowing and, of course, my
many friends and acquaintances in the fishing and casting worlds. I have also
since learned that my predicament was announced, somewhere along the line, to
something called the prayer circle and apparently people all over the
world who participate in it would have said a prayer for my recovery.
I am not a particularly religious person,
but their prayers certainly did not hurt and I am now here to offer my
heartfelt thanks for their thoughtfulness…..as well as re-thinking my
previous doubts about the power of prayer.
Heh! It’s 2005, wow! Thought I’d never
get to see it, so a happy, successful, healthy and prosperous New Year to you
all. Oh yes - and tight lines and tight loops to everybody, too. I trust,
also, that 2004 and Christmas was kind to you. It certainly was to Sheila and
me!
Our season wind-up casting ‘do’ and
Christmas party was one of the best that we have ever had, with almost
everybody participating in the fun evening. Some impressive results were
turned in by a few of our club members. Jim Lloyd, as expected, easily kicked
Paul Kennedy’s and my butts in both the plug and fly ‘A’ class
accuracies, while one of our newer members, Harold Higdon, had a more
difficult time edging out another of our new folks, George Monroe from
Rochester, to take the all-round “B” title away from last year’s winner,
Paul Becker. Ray Cockburn repeated as the plug accuracy champion and Scott
Owen defeated George for the fly title.
The results all auger well for the
tournament trail next summer, beginning with our Scarborough Open Championsips
on the first weekend of June and winding up with the North American National
in Michigan in August. We’re anticipating taking a team to the National and
I would not be at all surprised if we finished in the top five.
I am actually putting this bulletin
together on a pool-side table at the Decameron Marazul resort on St. Andres
Island off the coast of Colombia in the south-west Caribbean, but a couple of
days after we return, Jim Lloyd and I (perhaps with a few others) will be
heading deep into the Haliburton Highlands to do battle with the brook trout
in A/B Lake through the ice.
We have no fishing results to report for
December, but I am sure we will make up for that in the next bulletin with
January’s ice fishing results. Yesterday I finally finished roof-reading and
editing the book that other than a four month hiatus when I was ill last
spring, I’ve been working on for two years now, MAGICAL WATERS AND MEMORIES.
Fisherman, or not, I think you will enjoy it. The book covers sixty-seven
years of my most memorable experiences in the world of angling.
It should be a winner!
All of you folks were invited by Sheila
and me to participate in our Survival Celebration and 75th
Birthday Party on Saturday evening, January 22. If for some reason or
another you didn’t receive the first invitation, please consider this to be
an Official one. We hope to see as many of you at our place as the
walls can contain. There should be folks there with whom I’ve fished, going
way back in my memory and should be a lot of fun as experiences are recalled
and more than thirty photo albums are perused.
Although
he is now in a Seniors’ residence, one of my dearest fishin’ buddies, Tony
Whittingham, who suffered a debilitating stroke a year ago will be there to
reminisce along with others with whom he fished on a number of occasions.
Although the party will be a B.Y.O.B. affair, there will be drinks and snacks,
but if you haven’t already confirmed that you’ll be coming, please do so
as S.A.P. It’ll be a big help with the planning. Please, no birthday gifts,
though, if you wish though, you can bring a cheque made out to the Scarborough
Grace Hospital, the folks who saved my life.
Cheers
Sheila and Gord
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