THE
REEL THING March
2006
We’re
a little early once again with The REEL THING, because Sheila and I are off in
a couple of days to Costa Rica for a little R&R after a very busy last couple
of months. We might even do a little fly fishin’ for tarpon while there. They
look just like a big herring so shouldn’t be too hard to catch on a Despair.
Speaking of tarpon, Paul Quarrington left this morning for Cuba for a repeat
of his bonefish and tarpon experience there last summer. We also heard awhile
back that Jack Walmsley after driving his big RV all the way down to Mexico
got into some heavy saltwater fishing down that way. Paul Kennedy is in New
Brunswick for a few weeks on business, but was planning on doing a little
hard-water angling down there.
Back up here
in God’s country, the ice fishing’s been spotty, but Jim Lloyd managed to take
brook trout on a couple of trips up to Harburn Lake in Haliburton and old
buddy, Leon Schwartz and his grandsons took a fine catch of jumbo perch from
Lake Simcoe, several of which they gave me for breakfast as payment for
showing them how to prepare a perch for the pan in less than one minute. Tas
Candaras took a nice lake trout from Lake Joseph near his Muskoka cottage.
Sharon McIntyre is back from her trip to Southern California so we should have
more fishing info for you in the next bulletin.
We welcomed
our newest member, Maria Voltsinis, in our last bulletin although he had yet
to meet her. Maria is a young lady who says she is a fishin’ addict and wants
to learn everything she can about her first love from all of us in the club.
Maria has already shown she is an ardent pupil and is well on her way to
perfecting her casting technique and has the cane split, measured and
staggered to build her first fly rod, the popular Broadback model, all this in
less than a month with our club. Bob Tanaka has his cane fly rod glued up and
ready for the ferule, guides and handle while Lee Pantridge, after he and
wife, Dawn, bought their first house – and dog – finally got back to work on
his bamboo and along with Maria, should also be able to get their sticks
finished in time for the trout opening in May.
Weather in
these parts this winter has been weird to say the least; last Thursday
afternoon, even though it’s still very early in the Maple syrup season, I had
a hunch the sap would be running and hand-tapped the big maple on my front
lawn. The sap literally ran….not dripped. I knocked in a spigot, hung a sap
pot then took out an extension cord and drill and hung eight more buckets
before heading for the gym for casting practice. By the time we got home in
the evening most were from a quarter to a half, full. Yesterday the
temperature never got above –5 and the taps shut down, leaving the pots all
containing a few inches of frozen sap.
Jane Gibson,
the senior editor at Natural Heritage Books, the publisher of my MAGICAL
MEMORIES AND WATERS *note the slight title change, and I, have spent a great
deal of time working on the photographs and their captions for the new book
which should be arriving from the printer in a few weeks now. Quite a few of
you folks who asked to have your name put on the list of those wanting one of
the first 100 Collector editions of the book will be pleased to discover your
own picture - or pictures - in the book.
There are
still a dozen or so of these very special editions unaccounted for. I heard an
interesting story from good buddy, Jim Chapralis, that another friend of his,
also an author, had one of his similarly marked and signed Collector editions
of his own book selling on E.BAY for several thousand dollars. There you go
folks, here’s your chance to make big bucks! (Jim didn’t say if the fellow’s
name was Steven King, or what)
How about
three cheers for all our Canadian Olympians, especially the gals - record
breakers all.
If you
haven’t seen it yet, get hold of the March copy of Outdoor Canada
Magazine…..there is a great photo of editor (and club member) Patrick Walsh,
with a gorgeous lake trout pushing forty pounds, that he took on casting
tackle in Northern Saskatchewan last summer. The April edition of the same
magazine has a couple of pieces from my pen in it as well, one on Gravaadlaax,
the other on the Despair Trout Fly. Not sure if the magazine is available on
U.S. stands, but they could probably be obtained by contacting them in Toronto
at
editorial@outdoorcanada.ca .
Big George
Monroe came up from Rochester to work with us on his fly accuracy this week. I
suggest that this fellow is going to surprise everyone with his competitive
skills this year. Not only is he dedicated, but is in terrific shape working
as a basketball referee this winter. George will be making waves in the
distance games as well as his accuracies.
We have eight
folks booked for the ice-out trout-fishing trip to Kennesis Lake on the last
weekend in April. We could take as many as four more, providing we are told by
March 15th. We would then utilise two cottages instead of the one
big one. This should be an excellent fun and fishing trip and produce a few
really big brookies if the weather’s good. We will be fishing two lakes,
Kennesis and Burdoch.
Tight Lines,
Gord
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