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                                                                             May 2002

All the trout streams are now open, the fiddleheads are popping up and the wild leeks are in prime shape.  While I’m busy scribbling this bulletin there’s a nice mess of trout in the smoker and fiddleheads and leeks bagged in the fridge.  Sheila and I have been gorging on these prime greens for a couple of weeks already, along with a couple of feeds of grilled trout.  The streams seem to be in the best shape that they have been in for several years which is good news for all our trout fishermen.  The pike and pickerel lads can get into action next Saturday with season openings on several fronts.

Jay Hackney and I had a great day of fun and fishing on Beanpole Lake a couple of weeks ago but we were a week too late to get the prime ice-out action.  A couple of earlier trips with Paul Becker and Jay to the Saugeen and Bighead Rivers also provided a lot of excellent casting practice, but I did manage to sneak away by myself for a few hours a couple of days ago and lucked into superb fishing on our favourite old stream, the Ganny!  The score on that one: hooked 9 rainbows, landed 7, kept 4. 

          Tonight and next Thursday we’re in the gym then on the 16th weather permitting we will be outside on the pond at Milliken Park.  With our tournament just weeks away, everybody should attempt to get as much practice in as possible.  Scott Owen offered to paint and refurbish our floating ring targets for the pond and we all owe him a thank you for that.  We have also had a number of folks confirm that they will be in attendance for the tournament and it appears we will have an excellent turn-out.  In addition to the medals and trophies, there will be merchandise awards courtesy of Roger Cannon and Normark.  See the story in today’s Mirror Newspaper.

          The long Canada Day July1st weekend will be a camping excursion for those who would like to camp and fish A/B Lake for a couple of days.  Please let me know if you are interested in joining Sheila and me for that outing.  Also, anybody interested in hitting Lake Simcoe for Lake Trout on Sunday, May 11th?  They should still be in shallow water where they can be caught with spinning tackle.

          Now, here’s a little fish story for you.  A few days ago, Paul Kennedy and another gentleman who shall remain nameless decided to fish the headwaters of the Ganny for bows and browns.  In minus 7 degrees F temperatures, they parked their car where the stream crosses the road then fought their way through 3 or 4 miles of dense bush before setting up their tackle.  The idea was that by the time they were finished fishing they would re-appear where the car was parked, saving the long struggle through the bush when tired after fishing for 4 or 5 hours.

          The plan was okay, but shortly after they began fishing and had lost three big rainbows, Paul’s buddy, attempting to negotiate a rather high and undercut stream-bank alongside a deep and cold (38 degree F) pool made the stupid and careless mistake of grabbing a branch for support as he worked his way backwards along the edge, about 4’ above the water.  The branch turned out to be dead!

          It broke and he crashed in to the river, backwards, sank to the bottom and emerged frozen, completely soaked and sputtering profanities, never heard before.  Paul dragged his sorry and waterlogged carcass along with his water filled boots up on the bank at the bottom of the pool and lifted his legs to drain the boots which of course promptly filled up again from the draining clothes.  Fortunately, the pool was one of the deepest in the river, for if it had been shallow the fall could have broken his neck, back, shoulder and whatever.

However, with no bones broken, just a few muscle strains and a bit hypothermic, they made tracks for the car with the exhausted and near-frozen fellow painfully dragging his soggy, ice coated and sore body back through the densely tangled bush to the car.

          Paul drove the poor chap home with only a brief coffee stop and after a hot shower and three cycles in the hot-tub, I felt fine!

          Gord

 

SELECT ANOTHER ISSUE

HOME