THE
REEL THING March
1995
I
guess everybody is getting itchy to get out there and wet a line on their
favourite water. There are only a
couple of spaces left on our ice-out trout fishing trip to Haliburton.
Please get your deposits in to me as soon as possible if you want to
join us for this one. Should be a
super weekend. (May 6th through 8th)
It's
been a ridiculous winter, but it appears to be finally kaput.
The sap is running, (I have already made over a gallon of beautiful
maple syrup) the mountains of ice alongside our driveways are almost gone and
the Sportsmens' Show is over. Spring
must be here!
Our
club once again did itself proud in the casting events at the show, with Scott
Purcell leading the way with the finest casting of his career to date.
Scott captured the All-Round Fly Accuracy in the three games in his
category to go with a third place finish in the Open (A) Class in Trout Fly
Accuracy. Paulo Conceicao
repeated his fine results from the last few years at the show with first place
honours in 1/4 Ounce Accuracy and a second place in Dry Fly. Dave Collins snuck in with his first fly casting award, a
fourth in Dry Fly Accuracy. Rounding
out our team at the show were Steve and Doug Ryder and, of course, Sheila.
Both Steve and Doug knocked about 30 points off their scores from last
year and cast beautifully in all six accuracy fly and bait games.
Sheila cast two phenomenal games in 3/8th and 5/8 ounce achieving
personal bests in both and coming extremely close to casting a perfect score. Congratulations to all of you.
We have many other fine casters in the club and it is to be hoped that
they will make a more concerted effort to attend these casting events in the
future. After all, fly & bait
casting is certainly one of the raison d'etres that are club exists.
The next casting competition will be in St. Catharines on Sunday, June
4th, followed by our own tourney, the Scarborough Open, June 11 & 12, and
the Canadian Championships the next weekend.
The North American, week-long Championships will be held in Toronto
Aug. 8 to 12.
We
are back at the school this week (fly tying).
With not too many nights left to sharpen your skills, let's see you all
giving the targets a good workout for the remainder of our schedule.
Toronto Star Outdoor Writer, John Power will be our guest for the
evening of April 6. This should
be a very entertaining session. Please, let's not embarrass the club with a
poor turnout! You asked for guest
nights, so now is your chance to reciprocate by making a firm committment to
show up for this one. *
Unbelievably, we still have a few members who have not paid their annual dues. This will have to definitely be the final bulletin sent to
these folks unless their dues are remitted forthwith.
The
maple trees are in bud and the sap's no longer dripping.
It won't be long before all the ice is off the lakes and streams and we
will all be wetting our lines on the water - not just banging at targets in
the gymnasium. Speaking of sap,
Scott Purcell (no double entendre intended) realizing that I wasn't utilizing
the sap from my own maples this year, asked if he could have it, then made
almost a quart of delicious maple syrup, himself.
Great!
Our
casters did a fine job of representing us at the Sportsmens' Show once again
this year, with most of them achieving personal bests.
The result: a hatful of medals taken by Matt Ross, Steve Ryder, Scott
Purcell, Peter Durnford, Chris Seipio, Sheila and the rest of the gang.
Way to go everybody! He
didn't win a medal, but competing against the grownups in the dry fly event,
Mike Dinner's son, Brandon (12 years old) certainly established his
credentials with a wonderful round of 86 finishing well up in the overall
standings. Special kudos must go
to Chris Seipio, who after only a couple of months in the gym, participated in
his first ever competition and won the all round fly accuracy championship.
Congratulations, Chris, and to Steve who pushed him all the way,
finishing just one stroke behind him to take second place for our club as
well.
We
have a couple of new members to welcome into our fold: Donald Cox, who joins
us from the Winterhatch fly tying club and Kip Van Kempen, whose firm Van
Kempen Insurance, supplied us with the club's All Round "B"
Championship trophy. Don's enthusiasm is great to see and we know he will
definitely be an asset to the S.F.& B.C.A.
Kip's late father, Bill Van Kempen, was the President of the old
Toronto Anglers and Hunters Association for a number of years and was a fine
tournament caster and excellent fisherman as well.
Bill was a fine friend of mine and travelled to a number of
competitions with us in the States back in the fifties.
Watching Kip rack up the perfects in the gym the other night, it's easy
to see that he is cut from the same mold as his old man.
Welcome aboard Don and Kip.
Things
are moving along splendidly for the A.C.A. Championships, July 31st to August
5th, with everybody pitching in and doing a great job.
However, if you haven't let Steve, Paul, John or myself know as of yet
whether you will be able to give us a few hours, or a day or so, to assist
with all the little things that have to be done, before and during the
tournament, PLEASE DO SO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
We NEED all the help we can get.
Time
is moving rapidly and we will be heading up to Haliburton in about a month
(Weekend of April 22nd) for our best club trip of the year, fishing for
speckled trout in A/B Lake at ice-out time, U.L. Spinning or fly fishing.
Two nights at beautiful Windermere Lodge with room on this one for only
eight or ten folks. The fishing
this year promises to be better than ever - the lake is well stocked and the
brookies were averaging 20" back in January!
The evening visits to Windermere's huge hot tub and whirlpool are worth
the price of the trip alone. Cost,
including meals, only $110.00! If
you want to join Sheila and me on this trip we must have your cheque - first
come - first served - no later than April 5th.
Our
own Scarborough Open Casting Championships will be the next item after the
ice-out trip on our club's agenda, two days of accuracy and distance events at
Milliken Park and Pond on June 10th and 11th.
Please earmark this weekend on your calendar as we need everybody
participating, one way or another, in this annual club endeavour.
* There is also a two day
tournament in Lexington on the first weekend in June which Sheila and I will
probably be attending. If anybody
would like to travel with us to Kentucky for two days of accuracy and distance
casting please get back to us as soon as possible.
* The Canadian
Championships are the week after our Scarborough tourney followed by the Great
Lakes Championships in Ohio, June 24th & 25th and a tournament in Buffalo
the next weekend.
It
looks like we will have the best representation in these events that we have
ever had before, with all the new members and the great enthusiasm that they
have already shown for the competitive side of our sport - in addition to
simply learning how to master the use of their tackle in order to reap maximum
pleasure out of its use - whether on the stream - or on the targets.
Just
a reminder about the club's angling library.
It's quite extensive and best of all, free.
Just call John Alexander the club librarian for information.
Thanks
to Debbie Durnford's efforts we have obtained a supply of 1995 Ontario Angling
Regulations for anybody who has been unable to locate one in the stores.
We
still have a substantial number of super buys on Jack Wilkings' tackle and fly
tying supplies. It's going down
fast however and we are anxious to clear it out so the prices are falling. If you are interested, please call me soon, as I will
probably sell the remainder to a dealer soon just to make room in my basement.
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