THE
REEL THING March
2005
Is
this winter flying by, or what! I hear some folks saying that it’s not going
fast enough for them. As far as I’m concerned, however, it’s going by much
too quickly for me. I’ve somehow managed to get out seven times ice fishing
up to now but there’s only three or four weekends left before the ice starts
rotting around the edges…..oh well….I guess we could always move further
north.
All kidding aside, it has been a fine
winter of hard water fishing so far with nice catches all round for our crew,
Sharon McIntyre, Ray Cockburn, Paul Quarrington, Paul Kennedy, Jurgen Brech,
Lee Pantridge and Outdoor Canada Magazine Editor, Patrick Walsh. Jim’s
normal winter activities have been substantially curtailed though, because of
a surgical procedure that’s left him laid up substantially for a month or
two. He’s on the mend nevertheless and chomping at the bit to have a go at
the lake he put the moniker to in Haliburton, Limit Lake, before the rest of
us deplete it of all its gorgeous trout.
February saw a fine turn-out for our
casting exercises, with new members, Lee Pantridge and Angelo D’Souza
working hard on their fly casting fundamentals, while George Monroe coming all
the way from Rochester, N.Y. and braving our winter weather continues to show
how much he has improved since he joined the club a year ago. We would also
like to take this opportunity to welcome another new member Lloyd Porter who
has been working hard on his casting skills while learning rod repair skills
in our weekly bamboo and feather classes.
Lee and Angelo, with only two or three
sessions on the fly tying vices, have already learned how to tie Royal Wulffs,
Brown Hackles, Bi-visibles, Deer Hair nymphs, Caddis nymphs, Muddlers,
Muscarovitches and the mighty Despairs. Excellent work, guys! Jim, Jurgen, Ray
and Hans Gulde have been helping them fashion these wonder-flies. One treat
for the gang last week - and probably again this week - was the appearance and
participation of Paul Quarrington in the shop to work on his fly equipment. Q
is getting ready to do battle with tarpon and bonefish in the Carribean in a
couple of weeks. By the way, I have a number of various colours of squirrel
tails that are free for anyone just for the asking.
Only one of the bamboo rods underway this
winter, Scott Owens’s, has been completed so far and it’s a beauty, but
Jurgen’s, Bob Tanaka’s, Paul Becker’s and Sharon’s are all moving
along nicely and should be finished in time for the trout opening in a couple
of months. Our next casting session in the gym will be in a couple of weeks,
March 10th and with only a couple more indoor nights to polish
techniques before we move outdoors to the targets at Milliken Pond it’s
paramount that all our fly and bait casters take advantage of the remaining
opportunities to enhance their skills…..especially those folks who are
considering going to Michigan in August for the North American Casting
Championships.
We have every reason to believe that we
could have as many as seven or eight of our casters placing in the top ten or
twelve in one or more of the disciplines in this one. Wouldn’t it be nice to
be able to tell your friends and working associates that you are rated in the
top ten athletes in North America in any sport – and especially, our sport.
It could very well happen with a little effort and practice over the next few
months.
I should mention that some of you folks
may be wondering why Rick Matusiak’s name hasn’t been popping up regularly
as has been the custom in the past and it’s because, like Jim, he, too, had
surgery scheduled for February, a serious spinal fusion, but he opted out in
lieu of extensive physical therapy. It has put a damper on his fall and winter
fishing, but he reports that he appears to be improving by leaps and bounds
and may no longer be a candidate for surgery…..in fact he’s even
considering a fourth Broadback River trip this year with us….amazing!
Sharon had an exciting day at Lake Simcoe
a couple of weeks ago. Opting for a two-hole ice-hut as her shoulders were
sore from having to drill holes through almost thirty-inches of ice, she
hooked a basket-full of perch then got into one of the lake’s legendary,
brute whitefish. Using only four- pound line, she still managed to wrestle it
in, through the hole and into the hut, just as her line broke. Pouncing on the
slippery two-feet or so of flopping fish, she eventually put the grab on it
with both hands, only to have it squirt out of her clutches and disappear down
the second hole in the hut, back from whence it came. Like I keep telling
everybody, Sharon, the memory is even more important than the fish and
you’ll always have that one.
Speaking of ‘memories’, my fifteenth
book, MAGICAL WATERS AND MEMORIES, has been purchased by Natural Heritage
Books and is scheduled for publication early next spring. The initial
one-hundred printed copies will be numbered and personally signed by the
author……who knows, they may be worth a few extra bucks some day. We’ve
already received almost two-dozen requests to be placed on the “MAGICAL 100
ORDER LIST”.
Please let me know as S.A.P. if you would like to
have your name on that list (obviously, no money required until the book’s
published and available). Interestingly enough the first request we received
was from Paul Quarrington, one of the country’s best known authors and
recent short-list nominee for the Giller prize Canada’s biggest book award
(for his last work, GALVESTON).
I’m still thrilled and haven’t got
over the excitement of having almost forty people here a few weeks ago come
from all over the place to help us with our SURVIVAL CELEBRATION and
SEVENTY-FIFTH birthday party. I would like it known already that you are all
invited to my eightieth ‘do’ in five years, hopefully without the SURVIVAL
PARTY appendage.
That’s all for now, folks,
Gord
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