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

   The Reel Thing – January 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Season’s greetings to all our friends, casters, fishermen, et al, out there from all of us in the Scarborough Fly and Bait Casting Association. We hope it’s a bang-up year for you and you catch that trophy fish or win that gold medal that you’ve been seeking over the years.

           The biggest news on our club’s home front was our Christmas party and annual club casting ‘do’. It was easily the best we have ever experienced in the twenty-three years since the club’s inception. Here is a bit of a summary that was sent out to our members following the wonderful evening just before Christmas:

                                    Christmas Party 2006

Our 2006 Christmas Party and Casting Competition was easily one of the best we have ever had, largely due to the hard work and persistence of Maria Voltsinis and Sharon McIntyre. Both were determined that it would be a success and it certainly was with the best turn-out…..more than twenty attending and participating….that we have experienced since the club’s inception way back in 1984. Now, if we can convince these gals to put the same effort into getting everyone out for our club tournament at Milliken Park, the first weekend of June, that will be another feather in their caps.

Here are a few of the highlights, not in any particular order, but as they occur to me: great attendance, folks we hardly ever see the rest of the year, Rick Matusiak, Paul Quarrington, Roger and Margaret Cannon, Dawn Pantridge, eight Broadback River veterans in all, flashbulbs going off all evening, all kinds of great snacks and munchies, the wonderful and graceful exhibition of ballroom dancing by Carolyn and Kent Taylor, Bob Tanaka’s bringing his daughter, Mitsu, along, Jim’s pitching in and taking charge of the casting and scoring, Paul Kennedy’s enjoying the evening…even though his Blackberry kept him busy, Paul and Maria sneaking out for a smoke every half-hour like clockwork, Lee’s remarkable 96 score in dry fly and overall winning the club championship, Roger Cannon’s casting expertise putting him just behind Lee, Ray’s winning the plug casting by one stroke over Sheila….despite screwing up with his rod and weights, George driving 200 miles from Rochester and finishing second in B Fly, Kent Taylor’s score of 81 in his first fly accuracy competition, Sheila’s chewing the fat with Margaret Cannon instead of practicing and still almost winning the plug event, everybody’s pitching in with the tables, targets etc., watching Jurgen and Rick (our two super-fishermen) comparing notes, Sharon’s listening in and wishing she had her tape recorder there, Jurgen sketching stream locations for the two Pauls, Maria’s deserved win of the main prize in the draw, the dinner for two at the Mandarin.

For the record, here are the individual scores:

A - Flies    A – Plugs
Gord 97 Gord 93
Jim 95 Jim 90
Jurgen 94 Jurgen 89
Paul K 91 Paul 83
 
B – Flies     B – Plugs  
Lee 95 Ray 83
George 91 Sheila 82
Roger 87 Roger 81
Bryan 86  Lee 77
Kent 81 George 75
    Sharon 74
     Bryan 74
    Maria 69

***Now we all have scores that we can attempt to better in the Club Tournament in June.***

 

           Our regular gym casting evenings will begin again on Thursday, January 11th, under the capable hands of Jim Lloyd and Jurgen Brech as I will probably still be hospitalised after my January 5th surgery. However, our weekly, shop activity should be get underway once more on Tuesday, January 16th, a couple of days before my 77th birthday…..maybe I’ll have a cake and you can help me blow out all those candles.

           It’s been a rather stupid winter, weather-wise, but Jim Lloyd and I got our skidoos all primed and ready for action to take us into the wilds of Haliburton as soon as the trails and lakes are up to the task. Yesterday, Tas Candaras and I took both machines and the big skiboose up to Ross Lake and stored them behind the locked gate at our old friend, Joe’s place. Obviously, I won’t be able to hit the trails myself for a few weeks at least, but Jim has agreed along with me to allow any of our club members (male and female) wishing to hit Harburn, Limit and Beanpole Lakes for trout to use our skidoos and equipment, including ice augur and everything else stored in the skiboose up north.

           The only proviso is that anyone wishing to take advantage of the opportunity to get away from the dreary ‘wintrifried’ city for the superb skidooing and fishing call either Jim or me and, most importantly go with one of the following folks who are familiar with both the skidoos and the trails to the lakes: Jim Lloyd, Paul Kennedy, Lee Pantridge, Ray Cockburn, Jurgen Brech, or Tas Candaras. You will have to see either  Jim or me to get the key to the gate, pick up the minnow bucket and gas cans for the machines. I hope that just because I will be otherwise occupied for a few weeks that doesn’t prevent our folks from taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity to test their mettle on the trout up north.

           With only a couple of months left to work on the bamboo, it is to be hoped that those who are into their new sticks will put their noses to the grindstone and get out to the shop early and often to get these magnificent wands completed before we close shop up in May. When Sheila and I were in Panama a couple of weeks ago I ‘picked up’ some gorgeous Peacock tail fronds and they are here for the first of our fly-tiers to ask for them on our next shop night.

           We would really like to hear from several of our members to whom we still send out the Reel Thing and all club correspondence if they consider themselves to be continuing club members so we can continue to keep in touch with you accordingly. If so, please drop us a line folks and send along your ’06 – ’07 club dues: Ashok Kalle, Robert Cressatti, Don Brownlee, Leon Schwartz.

           We still have not heard if the A.C.A. has had a firm bid for the 2007 National Casting Championships, but if they do not then we would like to put in a teaser here, that perhaps Scarborough could still be considered……with a big proviso…..there would have to be much more than the normal amount of outside assistance given by other clubs to operate the event as our club just does not have sufficient numbers to the job properly by itself. If the A.C.A. is interested in pursuing this they will have to let us know now, so that permits, hotel, sponsorship, etc. can be arranged.

           One of the best gifts we have received over the holidays and past few months (and there have been many) is a solemn promise from one of our favourite and most exciting new club members, Maria Voltsinis, to absolutely and unequivocally quit smoking on February 1st, 2007. We all congratulate and admire her in committing herself to this acknowledged, extremely difficult task and wish her the very best of luck in the endeavour.

           I personally have guaranteed Maria that with our club experts’ assistance and instruction, she will win a casting gold medal in one or more of the up-coming competitions in the year 2007….as that is another of her big ambitions.

           Once again, Best of the Season to you all,

Gord

                                                        

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