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                                                                                  November 1992

It looks like our plea in the last bulletin to get more of our members out on Wednesday evenings to participate in the fly tying, rod making and casting sessions has met with the desired reaction.  We, once again, are getting a nice complement of folks sharing in the club's principal activities.  Members missing out on these fun evenings are certainly not getting full value for their dues, speaking of which reminds me that I must inform you that there will be quite a change in our club dues structure commencing January 1, 1993.

I have discussed this change with a number of our members and the general reaction is quite favourable.  I hope that the overall response is equally positive.  With the recession of the last two years making it extremely difficult to obtain (and keep) a sponsor for our association, we have had to move in a different direction to produce enough funding to keep the Scarborough Fly and Bait Casting Association afloat and operating in the same manner as we all desire.

I have had suggestions that we increase the annual dues to $100.00, but before you all have coronaries, take note of what a well known three week (I think 6 evenings) fly tying course charges - 1991-2 $65.00.  Another (somewhat similar) club to ours charges $40.00 basic fee and $15.00 activity fee for each activity participated in.  Another 'angling' course charges $300.00 (three weeks 'instruction')!  We have been told many, many times that we were under-evaluating our club with the $35.00 annual fee.

In the past we were able to absorb personal losses and write them off as being worth it - if only to keep the club afloat and retain our highly valued membership core.  Of course, having a sponsor in the past was a necessary requisite in order to defray overall operating expenses.  Last spring we were almost in the embarrassing position of having to cancel the Scarborough Championship tournament as there just were not enough funds available for insurance, permits, trophies and so on.  However, after spending the better part of three weeks attempting to acquire a new sponsor we were able to get help on a one-shot basis.  I simply cannot afford the time necessary to go through this procedure again so obviously the only recourse was to change our fee structure.

On a different note, our in-house club casting tournament was held last Wednesday and featured a record turnout for this event, 17 participants.  Dave Collins regained possession of the All Round Championship trophy after surrendering it last year to Paulo Conceicao.  Dave captured first place overall with the fewest demerits in both the fly and bait casting to go with his first place finish in the plug event. Pete Durnford finished second overall in the combined, mainly due to an excellent score of 95 and first place in the Fly Accuracy.  Third overall by just one demerit was Steve Ryder with Paulo Conceicao and Fred Bigioni a couple behind him.  Second place in the bait event was Sheila, six strokes ahead of third place finisher, Steve Ryder.  Paulo finished second in the fly game, just ahead of Fred B.  It was great to see such a large and enthusiastic turn-out!  One highlight of the competition was Irene Johnston finishing in fourth place in Bait Casting - ahead of a dozen men including - Rod Sills, normally one of our best casters.

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Dave Usher to the club.  Dave has already demonstrated his enthusiasm by participating in the competition after only a couple of evenings of practice.  Dave is an expert at Karate, amongst other things, so he will be a fine asset to have around during the summer tournaments and fishing trips.

The bamboo rod building is coming along quite nicely and several of these beautiful casting instruments are rapidly taking shape.

ATTENTION The next big item on our calendar is the annual Christmas party and the school has offered us the use of the auditorium for the occasion.  There is a nominal charge of $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for kids to cover the cost of the treats.  Please let us know as soon as possible if you plan to attend and if you are bringing others, so that we can plan accordingly on the amount of food and goodies.  This is always well attended and one of the highlights for us as well as being an evening where we all get to swap stories, complain about the dues, and generally have a good time.  Also let me know if you want to suffer through some of my fishing movies on the big screen again.  Please take note of the date and write it on your calendar...............CHRISTMAS PARTY - TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 7 P.M.

Our last regular evening at the school will be the day after the party, December 16.  We will start up again on January 6/93.

We had a phone call from one of our members from the past the other day and it looks like he will be re-joining the club any day now.

Paul Kaye had to quit the club a few years ago due to a badly deteriorating heart condition.  What a pleasant sensation it was to hear from him and that he will be coming out again shortly.  Paul is an ardent trout fisherman and eager to improve on his fly casting abilities.  He will be able to do that now with us AS HE INFORMED ME THAT HE IS NOW THE ONE HUNDREDTH TORONTO RECIPIENT OF A BRAND NEW HEART - AND FEELING GREAT!  Exciting stuff, eh!

Pretty hard to top the above when it comes to news so we'll sign off for now with a request that you study the new fee structure carefully, then get your dues in to us as soon as you can.

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