THE
REEL THING October
2004
Hi:
In
case you haven’t heard, the 2005 North American Fly and Bait Casting
Championships will be held on the first week of August in Dundee, Michigan,
about a half-hour west of Toledo, Ohio, or if you wish, about an hour’s
drive from Detroit. This is the premier casting event in North America and
draws some of the finest casters in the world to test their mettle against
each other.
Just
watching some of these gals and guys, like Alice Gillibert, Steve Rajeff,
Henry Mittel strut their stuff makes attending this event worth the effort.
But – and it’s a big but – every now and then they get knocked off their
perch by one of the lesser lights, such as at least a half a dozen of the
folks in our own Scarborough club. Along with many of the smaller clubs in the
States and Canada, I know for a fact that we have a few skilled members who
could rise all the way to the podium in these championships.
However,
even if they didn’t medal, just finishing in the top ten or so in North
America in any competition should be considered a real ‘feather in their
cap’ and I firmly believe that we have a number of folks who could easily be
in that position. Here’s something for all the folks to think about: Sheila,
even with all her problems, has won a number of bronze, silver and gold
medals, along with at least a dozen plaques for finishing in the top six in
the ladies plug accuracy events.
If
she could do it, you know darn well that you could, too! So let’s see a
concerted effort by all the folks in our club to take their games (casting
games, that is) to their highest level between now and next August and go to
the ‘National’ with confidence and determination to do well – and have a
good time while doing it.
Ray and Jim had a wonderful wrap to the
Ganaraska River season a week ago, with brown trout and Chinooks. They both
caught a number of browns with Ray catching, landing and releasing one of the
best browns we’ve heard of from the Ganny in several years, a twenty-four
incher, pushing the scales past the four pound mark. They both had tussles
with the salmon, but using the ultra-light equipment we normally do on small
streams found it almost impossible to prevent the big Chinooks from
‘busting’ their tackle, although Jim did manage to land several up to
fifteen pounds or so.
Meanwhile, Pat Walsh and I had another
great day of casting practice on a trip to the Saugeen River which was also
full of Chinooks. It was difficult, but we both managed to avoid hooking the
salmon in order to concentrate our efforts on the rainbows in the
river…….the trouble was there were none! Oh well, Patrick has proven to be
a fighter and patient and hopefully he and I will break out of our fishing
funk when we hike our buts up to Haliburton in a few weeks to do battle on
Limit and Beanpole Lakes.
Speaking of which, who would like to join
us for one of these jaunts to Haliburton? Paul Kennedy and I both have Jeeps
now and Harold and Jim have canoes to go with my two Instaboats, so we could
mount a serious challenge to the trout up there on one of the up-coming
Saturdays. Just get in touch with Paul, Jim or me and we’ll set it up. I
have the photos from our recent Broadback trip, mine and Rick’s and if you
haven’t seen them yet, come out to one of our shop nights for a look-see.
Mine are okay, but Rick’s are sensational. I can’t wait to see the new
video movie he is working on.
Robert Tanaka and Paul Becker have got the
bamboo flying in the shop and Hans Gulde, just back from Switzerland, will get
the feathers flying for those wishing to learn how to fashion their own trout,
bass and pickerel flies, next Tuesday. We are back in the gym on Thursday
October 14th, so let’s give the targets a shellacking that night.
Bring your own equipment or use ours, but most importantly, bring yourself.
Almost half our membership dues have
already come in and I thank you all for that……hopefully the remainder will
be coming along shortly as well. Here’s something else for your
consideration: bring a friend, relative or whomever out to one of our meetings
as our guest and if he or she joins the club, you’re invited to join us on
our next trout fishing trip at no cost. We’ll provide lunch and pay for the
gas.
My newest book, MAGICAL WATERS AND
MEMORIES is rapidly nearing completion and I’m looking for either a
publisher, or an agent. If anybody has any personal contacts along that line
(nudge, nudge, Paul Quarrington) please get back to me soon. This is by far
the best work I’ve done so far
and a great read!
*A reminder; I have supplies, purchased
from the A.C.A. in Kentucky, accuracy flies, plugs and leader kits that are
for sale on a first-come-first-served basis.
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