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                                                                             July 2002

Happy ‘hot’ Canada Day to everybody.  We welcome our newest member, Mike Johnston, to the club.  Mike commutes from Whitby and hasn‘t missed a single night of casting since he joined our ranks.   Our club did itself proud in Peter Edwards version of the ‘Canadian Casting Championships’, thanks mainly to Sheila and a couple of our newer members.  Competing against casters with vast amounts of experience, Jay Hackney won bronzes in Dry Fly and ¼ Ounce Accuracy, while Sheila competing against the men, captured the silver medal in the 3/8 Ounce Accuracy event.  Scott Owen rounded out our contingent and did well in only his second tournament.   I managed to keep from falling into the pool, so considered it a success for me as well.

We are getting fine turnouts for our Thursday evening sessions at the pond in Milliken Park with as many as fourteen casters banging away at the targets.  So far, Sharon McIntyre is leading the contest to see who is our most active attendee at Milliken and is on her way to winning a nice prize for her enthusiasm.  Even more important, she says,  “I’m finally beginning to hit the targets now and then!”  Not bad for someone who had trouble hitting the water when she first joined a year ago.

Scott Owen, Jay Hackney and I worked over various sections of the Ganny the last few weeks, mostly with the little Ganny fly rods and Despairs.  Jay seemed to produce the most action with small browns and bows, but not too many big fellows surrendered to us for our frying pans.  I should mention that Leon Schwartz had a fine fly-fishing outing to Northern Michigan and took trout up to eighteen inches.  We’re still waiting to see the pictures, Leon. Scott also reports releasing a few Brookies in Pefferlaw Creek and Will Jin did likewise with small bows in Whitemans Creek, near the Grand.  Jay hit the Pigeon River and took a couple of nice 12” Brookies for the pan.  All in all, a fair bit of action, but few for the table. 

              Paul Kennedy, Rick Matusiak, Jay Hackney, our crew for this year’s trip to the Broadback River in Northern Quebec, had a memorable outing to Jim Lloyd’s Limit Lake in Halliburton a week ago.  The best trout taken was a lovely bow that fell to Jay’s enticement with several Splake giving up the ghost to Rick, Paul and me.  Thanks to Rick’s eagle eye we also spotted and collected a nice little feed of Oyster mushrooms, then another basket-full of giant Meadow mushrooms to round out our take for the day.  I would like to add that we also grabbed a dozen large Bullfrogs to add to our catch...........but I discovered later that nowadays there is a season on  frogs, so I had better not mention it.

                Thanks to Hans Gulde and his surfing the net regularly, we managed to pick up enough bamboo for everybody who wishes to participate in the rod building next fall.........but both space and supplies are limited, so please confirm as S.A.P. if that is your intention.

For the fungi collectors amongst us, these wild delectables finally began appearing  several weeks ago and a few of us have been indulging ourselves regularly ever since.  Delicious Saskatoon Berries are almost ready for the pickin’ as well and there are many places right in the city where they can be harvested.  It was also the best pickin’s for Wild Leeks in memory for the first couple of weeks in June with Jay, Scott, Sharon, Sheila and I filling our baskets with these tasty morsels.  Here’s a flash for you fungi folks, one of our members, who shall remain nameless reports that they had wild morels growing right in their backyard in late May and early June.  In the past, there have been reports of shootings over secret Morel locations.  Of course any of us could always just work our way down the club membership list next spring when these tasties are supposed to emerge.

I’m still hoping to get the shop and garage re-wired and possibly the ceiling insulated before we begin the fall fly tying and rod building sessions, but it’s looking like we will just have to proceed as is.

Sheila and I are going to Chicago at the end of the month for the North American Championships.  It’s a shame that our best all-round accuracy caster, Jim Lloyd, couldn’t go with us to the tournament.  I know he would open more than a few eyes with his finely honed skills on the targets.  Maybe if we all bug him enough with e.mails, jglloyd@rogers.com, he just might change his mind and drive down there with his camper for a  few days.

Another thing I would like to mention here is that I am not the only stumblebum in the club.  After I nearly killed myself falling backwards into the Ganny off a 3’ high embankment, back in May, Paul Quarrington, fishing with yours truly, decided to test the temperature of the water in the Ganny, for himself and tripping over a mid-stream log took a header, filling his own waders.  So there you go......who’ll be the next victim of the Ganaraska River?   Rick Matusiak goes in for another ‘adjustment’ operation on his back shortly but reports that the doctor assures him that he will be in fine shape for our trip to Northern Quebec in a couple of months.  Rick holds several trout fishing records, including his 34 pound Brown Trout...........after all the problems he’s had in the past couple of years, wouldn’t it be great to see him add a world record Brook Trout to his laurels.

There is another tournament in Buffalo in a couple of weeks and if we can muster up a few folks who would like to take advantage of Kevin Carriero’s hospitality (he runs a fine show) then we will head across the border to give it a go.  Please call me as S.A.P. if you’re interested in this one.   Lastly, a bit of good news:  we only have one club member now who has yet to pay his 2002 annual dues!

That’s all for now, folks,

                Gord

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