THE
REEL THING
November 1989
The snow is on the ground,
But have no fear,
There's still lots to do
And ice fishin's near.
There's rod-building and fly-tying,
Enough for a career,
Or just come to learn and practice
casting,
'cause, you see, winter's finally
here!
So
come on out to the club,
And see what we're all about.
Then tell all your friends,
Don't whisper - just shout!
Well
if you could tolerate the stab at poetry then it's to be hoped that you will
take the time to look over the rest of this bulletin carefully.
First
we would like to welcome a few new members to our association and we hope that
they bring the same enthusiasm along with them that the last few additions to
our club have shown. Greetings, tight lines and best of luck to John Morand,
Tom Lang and Jim Lee.
Jim
has already become quite involved in the club's activities and is working hard
on his fly casting skills, showing steady improvement week by week. Hopefully, by the time of the next Sportsmens' Show and our
annual spring-time trout fishing weekend, Jim's talents will be honed to their
maximum and he will be helping to teach others how to obtain the most pleasure
out of those treasured hours spent on the water, fishing.
Tom
and his wife are expecting a baby before long (in fact they may have already
experienced that thrill) and this has obviously played havoc with Tom's
fitting the club activities into his busy schedule.
I am sure that once the newest 'Langler' has arrived on the scene, we
will be seeing a lot of Tom at the Monday evening sessions.
The
third member of our new triumvirate, John Morand, has fished in many of the
more exotic locations in Canada and should have much to offer to the rest of
us when his own busy schedule slows down enough to allow him Monday evenings
out. I know that you want to work
on your own casting skills, John, so it is to be hoped that we will also be
seeing more of you before long.
Several
of our club members, Leon Schwartz, Rod Sills, Peter Durnford, Paulo Conceicao,
Reinaldo Eusebio, Sheila and myself have worked over the Beaver, Bighead and
Nottawasaga Rivers, flowing into Georgian Bay, a few times this fall with
varying degrees of success. Although
the catches were down, somewhat, from previous autumns, enough Rainbows and
Salmon were taken to keep us going back for more on several occasions.
Too
bad we couldn't move our whole club, lock, stock and barrel, down to club
member, Bill Hooper's, stomping grounds on the Miramachi River in New
Brunswick. Why, we'd show those Atlantic Salmon a thing or two!
Just
found out that Bill Black hooked, landed and released a lovely Lake Ontario
Lake Trout that had wandered out of its territory, up the Ganaraska River,
seeking one of our members and looking for a good fight.
Well, Bill was happy to oblige and estimates that the Trout would have
tipped the scales at 'at least' 10 pounds.
There,
sadly, has been a dirth of fishing reports from the rest of our anglers. Come
on now, folks, let's share both the good and the bad times, fishingwise
anyhow, with the rest of us.
We
featured a short session at the club one evening on how to repair broken glass
or graphite rods (stronger than before the break) and will be repeating this
valuable hour as soon as we can fit it in again.
The
fly tying is going great guns! By
spring-time everybody's fly boxes and fleece patches should be well stocked
with 'killers'. Leon Schwartz's enthusiasm for the fly tying lessons has
proven to be quite infectious with others taking advantage of this
opportunity. We hope to have Phil
Kettle of the Izzak Walton League as a guest fly tyer on one of our up-coming
evenings soon.
Any
members wishing to learn how to assemble their own rods from blanks should
contact me shortly as we hope to begin work on this project early in January.
We will likely target a light-weight spinning rod and a medium action
fly rod.
In
casting, so far this season the emphasis seems to be on fly casting rather
than spinning or bait casting (revolving spool).
There appears to be a very definite trend in that direction and most of
our newer members fall into that groove.
That doesn't seem to deter those who still like to work with the
shorter rods and trickier reels though. The
competition amongst the target bangers in the gym has been heating up a bit
lately with Rod Sills and Sheila posting the best scores in recent weeks.
Congratulations
here to Peter and Debbie Durnford who recently added another fisherman to
their own clan. Our youngest
caster (not yet three) Kyle Durnford now has a younger brother, Jamie, to
contend with on future fishing trips. Jamie's
arrival coincided with the final preparations for the club's Saugeen River
Rainbow Trout trip, keeping dad, Peter, at home to guard the ship. But he made
up for the loss of the trip the following week when he accompanied Rod Sills
and myself to the Beaver and had a bang-up day, hooking and releasing a number
of giant Trout and Salmon.
The
Christmas party is just around the corner - MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 18 - at
Samuel Hearn School. PLEASE
notify either Rod or myself if you plan to attend, hopefully with your wife,
girlfriend, mistress or whatever. I
hope for the sake of those working hard to make this a successful evening,
along with the rest of us, that the party is well attended this year.
There will definitely be some form of entertainment as well, but we
intend to keep you guessing on this one.
There
will be small fee to cover food costs; individuals
or families - $5.00. Kids under twelve, free. Hopefully, we can once again
impose upon Ian Hay and John Alexander to look after the food and beverages.
Irene Johnston could probably be conscripted again to lend a hand.
Please let us know as soon as possible if you will be able to enjoy this
evening along with the rest of us.
We
are presently making tentative, personal, plans for the January 1st opening of
Speckled Trout fishing. This
junket will, as in the past few years be to A/B Lake.
A number of our members have expressed an interest in having a club ice
fishing trip up into this country some time later in January.
If you are interested in joining this foray into the hinterland with
the rest of us, you must let me know by December 18, the night of the
Christmas party, so that we will have time to make all the necessary
arrangements.
As
most of you will remember we have had quite a bit of trouble getting the
annual membership dues in over the years.
The dues are payable on an annual basis, based on the calendar year and
commencing January 1. Please save
us a lot of headaches this year by sending along a cheque, dated January 1,
1990 if you wish, or as close to that date as is possible.
Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.
Although
we have been able to hold the line on dues increases since our club was
formed, it has become necessary to adjust the dues structure somewhat in line
with our increasing costs of operating the association. Annual dues for
Juniors, under 18 years of age, will remain at $20.00, while the annual dues
for Adults is now the same as for Families, $35.00.
A
sliding scale of fee and dues structure as is practiced with many clubs in the
U.S. was considered but for now, anyway, it has been put on the back burner. A recent survey taken by me of our club members indicated that
they felt that they were easily getting far more than their money's worth from
the Scarborough Fly and Bait Casting Association and all its activities.
That's
all for now, folks - let's hope we see a few more of you out on Monday
evenings in the near future and even if you are unable to attend soon, please
give us a call and let us know what's happening.
P.S.
By the way, I still have a few Fish-O-Buzzers left for the ice
fishing anglers in the club. These
sell in the stores for $19.95, but they
can be purchased directly from me for $12.00, including
P.S.T.
P.P.S.
Next year's North American Casting Championships are to held
in Oakland, California in mid-August, providing they aren't
hit with another earthquake or something.
It would be great if some of our
better casters would consider making this a part
of their 1990 holiday plans and join Sheila and myself in representing Canada and the Scarborough Fly and Bait
Casting Association.
P.P.P.S
If you haven't tried the fresh fish dinners at the FISH
HOUSE RESTAURANT on Sheppard near the D.V.P. yet then you
are surely missing a bet. It
has been rated by many as the finest
seafood house in Metro Toronto. Make yourself known
when you go - after all they are our sponsor, you know!
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