THE
REEL THING November
2003
First we would like to welcome our newest ‘about to become’ new
member, George Monroe. George lives in Rochester, N.Y. and with no casting
clubs in his area was told by Steve Rajeff to get in touch with us up here on
the other side of Lake Ontario where he would be able to work on his desire to
become a proficient fly caster. With his head office in Buffalo, he believes
he will be able to join us in the gym on the nights when we are working over
the targets with only an hour or so’s drive across the border. George also
professes to being interested in the tournament side of things and we are
looking forward to assisting him in polishing his skills and technique. George
joins our other new member, Harold Higdon who also came aboard recently in
order to improve his fly casting mechanics. Thanks, Steve, for the referral!
With Jay Hackney commuting from Peterborough, Hans Eckart driving from
Hamilton (although he hasn’t been around lately) and now, George, coming up
from Rochester, there really should be no excuse for our other members, living
within a stone’s throw of the gym, to miss an evening of the casting
activities.
Our fall schedule is moving along rapidly with Bob Tanaka, Scott Owen
and Paul Becker all in various stages of completing their bamboo wands, while
the fly tyers are adding to their creative arsenals on their own nights in the
shop. Hopefully, Leon and others, who been missing lately will also soon be
plying their skills with cane, fur and feathers on our Tuesday evening shop
nights. Our new schedule seemed to produce the desired effect of increased
attendance in the gym for our casting practice, probably because, with fewer
evenings to work on their games, folks did not want to miss out on their
chances to improve their casting prowess. Please keep in mind, folks, that the
next evening in the gym, Thursday, November 13th will be the last
chance to sharpen your strokes before our annual Christmas ‘do’ and club
competition on December 11th.
*Please make every effort to attend on that evening, Nov. 13th,
to welcome our new members and to get your own games sharpened up.
Fishing
has been wonderful for those of us who have been able to break away from
raking leaves and planting bulbs in the past few weeks. Starting things off,
Robert Beaudoin and I had a fine day in Haliburton. Although not too
productive, we did see enough trout feeding and teasing us with follow-ups to
refute our suspicions that the lake was getting ‘fished out’. However,
that was followed by a super day of fishing the same waters a week later, when
four of us, Jim Lloyd, Ray Cockburn, Paul and I all caught trout, with several
in the four and five pound class. This trip also produced a couple of
remarkable fish story highlights for the four of us to relate down the line
when comparing ‘fish stories’ with other fishermen.
Somehow
or another while tinkering with his tackle bag, Paul had managed to elbow his
rod and reel overboard and although he made a futile lunge for it, the tackle
went for the ‘deep six’ to the bottom in about six to eight feet of weedy
water. At the time a stiff breeze had come up complicating factors without an
anchor to stabilize our position, but fortunately we quickly triangulated our
location visually with trees on the shoreline, about fifty yards away.
Scrounging in our tackle for large, heavy lures in order to drag the bottom
produced one an old Ruby Eye Wiggler in Paul’s kit that was fastened to my
spinning line, but by the time it had been found and tied on, we had drifted
at least a hundred yards down the shoreline.
Meanwhile
Jim and Ray were summoned from their position further on down the lake to
assist in the ‘recovery operation’. The triangulating procedure worked
perfectly and fifteen minutes or so after Paul sculled back and held the boat
in position, three of us scoured the bottom with heavy lures. The ‘lost’
rod and reel soon broke the surface after it was snagged by my lure raking the
bottom. This was definitely not just luck.
It was a result of the immediate visual triangulation of the location,
something to remember if a similar incident to should ever occur to you
Here’s
another one for the ‘fish story’ collection: the largest trout caught on
that outing, a twenty-inch long, five pound ‘bow, was caught at ten in the
morning and not cleaned until back home at ten in the evening. I counted
seventeen crawfish in its stomach along with the usual assortment of minnows,
nymphs and the customary single leech. Unbelievably a half a dozen were still
alive. This, after being in the trout’s gut all day long! They were
thoroughly rinsed and kept alive for a couple of weeks to display to the folks
in the shop and so on. A couple of the well-travelled crustaceans lasted two
weeks before they finally departed as well.
Not
to be outdone and encouraged by the reports of our previous outings, Paul
Kennedy joined me for another assault on our ‘not so secret’ lake in
Haliburton, yesterday. Another wonderful day of fishing! With a little more
luck Paul could have landed at least a half-dozen trout, with one of the fish
he ‘released’ almost leaping into the fold-boat during its frenetic
efforts to get away. However despite all the missed strikes and so on, he did
catch one of the prettiest Brook Trout, we’ve ever seen from those waters, a
gorgeously coloured twenty-inch male brookie in full spawning colours. A four
and a half and another five pound ‘bow also fell to my efforts. While I’m
certain Paul’s brookie will be providing him and his wife, Tressa, with a
couple of excellent cooked meals, mine are already being processed into
Gravlaax for our future enjoyment.
We
would like to take this opportunity to express our admiration for the
wonderful job Jim Chapralis, the new editor of the American Casting
Association’s bulletin, The Creel, is doing with its new format. In
conjunction with his buddy, John Seroczynski, owever
thaHHthe association’s new president, these men are shaking up
the somewhat dormant old casting body and breathing new life into it with
their efforts. Congratulations, gentlemen and please keep up the great work.
*A
few folks have yet to get their club dues in to us for one reason or
another………it would be greatly appreciated if this oversight were looked
after at your first opportunity, gentlemen
Thanks
and tight loops,
Gord
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