Scarborough Fly & Bait Casting Association

Scarborough Fly & Bait Casting Association
23 Willowhurst Crescent, Scarborough Ontario M1R 3R7
Phone & Fax - 416/755-5663
E Mail - coachman@pathcom.com
Web Site - www.pathcom.com/~coachman

Happy New Year Everybody

Wow! Did that year ever go quickly, or what! It’s amazing, but each year as I get older, the days, weeks, months and year seems to fly by even faster, so approaching my seventy-sixth birthday next month, 2006 will be over and done with before we get half the things done that we would like to.

Anyhow, I hope that ’05 was good for you folks and ’06 will be even better. Sheila and I wish personal bests for all of you.

All things considered, ’05 was certainly a fine year for us and our club, with a number of personal bests achieved by our members, both in our piscatorial pursuits and on the targets and distance casting fields.

Just a few of the highlights here, as we don’t have enough space to list them all: our club, with the addition of ‘new member’ John Field, ‘fielded’ a team in the National in Michigan and didn’t embarrass ourselves one iota. Ray and George performed remarkably well, considering the pressure of the competition overall, placing well up in the standings in a number of the disciplines. The Devals didn’t fare too badly in all the competitions last summer, beginning in Kentucky and winding up in Dundee at the National, winning a few medals, etc.

Looking at the performances and results of all of our members over the year, it’s encouraging to see how the scores and performances of our members have all improved considerably and we’re looking forward to even better results this year.

Fishing-wise, there were many highlights, but old buddy, Jurgen Brech has to win the gold medal for his results over the entire year. Jurgen had phenomenal results on browns and rainbows, no matter where he wet a line and produced most of his catches on flies he tied for the purpose. He has rapidly become a MASTER fly tyer and one of the most active folks in the club, helping everybody with his skill and knowledge. Paul Quarrington, although we don’t see a great deal of him, reported that he also had fab-fishing this year on everything from tarpon and bonefish, to giant rainbows in B.C.

New member, Pat Walsh, had personal records with his largest ‘bow ever to go along with his biggest laker, a thirty-eight pound beauty. A number of new split bamboo wands were completed with several others in various stages as well. Hans Gulde took time off his sharp-shooting exercises where he gleaned medals to work diligently on his fly tying prowess as well. Another new member, Angelo D’Souza, almost has a wrap on his new fly fishing store opening in Mississauga and Lee Pantridge, despite a big change of residence move, has managed to improve his skills in all departments angling-wise with the club.

We are all looking forward to our club championship, the Scarborough Open, on the first weekend of June, while hoping that a number of casters from below the border will live up to their promises to hike up to these parts to participate in our club’s biggest event of the year. We will definitely be making every effort to participate in as many tourneys as possible in the States, as who knows how many more kicks at the cat are left for us in the future.

Once again, we would like to offer our sincere condolences to LiseLotte on the loss of her husband, Ulf Janson. Ulf did a fine job as president of the International Casting Federation during his tenure, only matched by his personal performance as an international competitor over the years. It will be difficult to replace him, although Ulf Person, another gentleman with great international experience is waiting in the wings to possibly take over that responsibility. Good luck to you, Ulf.

John Seroczynski completed his year a president of the A.C.A and what a wonderful job he did during his time in that hot seat. Great work, Zero and we all wish new president, Pat McFadden good luck as well.

On a more personal (club-wise) note, we are a little disappointed that there are still a few folks, long-time members who have yet to pay their annual dues. We’re hoping that this oversight will be corrected shortly now that we’re into the new year.

Our shop activities will re-commence on Tuesday, January the 10^th with casting operations starting up again on the same week, Thursday the 12^th in the gym. See you all there, folks. Also, if you are interested in going along on one of our ice-fishing jaunts in the next couple of months, please give either Jim or me a shout accordingly.

Gord