THE
REEL THING October
1998
Our
Web-site has been down for several months now, but that situation is about to
be rectified by our master internet provider, Pathway Communications and
it’s president, our own club member, Ashok Kalle. it should be back with
links to other sites and even more information about the club and a bunch of
stuff about yours truly. It
should be fun and interesting, with a lot of angling and casting stuff.
Our
club trip to the Saugeen River last weekend was enjoyed by most of
us……….at least those of us who were smart enough to have brought decent
rain-wear. It began to rain just
as we got out of the boats and started casting around the little rocky island
about three miles up-river from Lake Huron. The rain pretty well continued
until we all decided we had had enough and left.
There are lots of trout and salmon in the river, yet!
There must be because we didn’t dent the stock at all.
Richard Sluce had fun with a smallmouth, Len Connelly had a brief
tussle with a nice ‘bow and I managed to scrape a few scales off another one
and I believe that was it. Lots of spin and fly casting practice though and it was a
ball watching how well Andrew, Kyle and Richard handled their outfits and
worked the water. All that
practice in the gym and the park seems to be paying off for the kids in the
club. Too bad the barometer was
so low……..the fish simply all had lockjaw and there was little we could do
about it. Even Sheila, using her
trusty Crocodile couldn’t raise a trout during almost seven hours of
tireless casting! Oh well, maybe
the next trip two or three weeks from now will be more productive in the creel
department.
Sheila
and I didn’t go home empty-handed, though.
We managed to fill four baskets with delicious mushrooms on the way
home. We gave a couple of baskets
away to Jim Lloyd and a neighbour, but were still eating fungus once or twice
a day for the balance of the week. Mighty
fine dining even without a feed of trout.
We picked one meadow mushroom that measured an almost unbelievable 31
centimeters across the cap……..the biggest I have ever seen in twenty-five
years of mushroom collecting. For
the doubting Thomases out there, I took several pictures of this Goliath.
We
will probably manage to squeeze in another couple of trips to the rivers up at
Georgian Bay and Lake Huron before Christmas and freeze-up, but the trip I
think should be a real winner will be in about three weeks to a Lake in the
Eastern Haliburton, Tory Hill area that we know of.
If anybody is interested in joining us for this one, please let me know
as S.A.P. (Pssst…..bring your
rainwear!)
There
were twelve of us hammering away at the Saugeen in the rain the other day, one
of the best turn-outs we have had in some time for our little fishing trips.
Those who stayed dry claim they enjoyed themselves, even without a lot
of action, while learning a little at the same time about one form of trouting.
Unfortunately,
Len informs us that we will be unable to use his workshop for the bamboo
rod-building afterall, but we should be able to manage in my own little shop
and garage, beginning in about two weeks.
I simply have to enlarge the working surfaces so that several of us can
be splitting and planing bamboo at the same time. I’ll stay home Sunday (fish Saturday only) and see if I can
get it done this weekend…….maybe Len or Jim will give me a hand.
Although
our fall season has hardly begun, Leon has been doing great work with the fly
tyers and his enthusiasm is catching. By
next spring I won’t have to tie my own Despairs…….I’ll just buy them
from the kids. They are doing
great work! Andrew and Richard
were fly-fishing with their own Michigan Wiggler nymphs on the Saugeen and
they looked as good as any I’ve ever seen.
Jim
Lloyd and I checked out Beanpole Lake a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful day, interesting trip, saw Whiskeyjacks, wonderful
fall colours, shot a partridge, picked baskets of Honey mushrooms……but not
trout.
It’s
supposed to drop below freezing tonight so you fellows with skidoos better get
them tuned up soon. It won’t be
long before you’ll be able to take them into the bush.
Trout opens January 1st in Haliburton and the Land O’
Lakes areas and we will definitely be scheduling and ice-fishing trip for the
opening weekend. Call me or Jim
if you want in on this one
Our
club members might like to know that The REEL THING now goes out on the
internet to clubs all over the world, courtesy of Bill Van Natter’s
fantastic web-site, Fly Fishing Forum http://home.att.net/~slowsnap/
Bill is a fine fly caster on the west coast, actually Seattle,
Washington. He’s spending all
his spare time correlating fly fishing and casting sites from around the world
and linking them to his own. Tons of stuff here to read on casting and
fishing. Great work, Bill!!!
Our bulletin is also sent to quite a number of casters in the American
Casting Association via E.Mail. I’ve
actually been communicating with Ulf Jansen and the International Casting
Federation in Sweden lately via E.Mail. Boggles
my mind!
Where
is Rick Matusiak? We miss you,
Rick…….also Jon Gill, Paul Quarrington, Craig Blundon, et al!
You gentlemen should really try to get out occasionally to throw a few
with the rest of us or tie up a few feathers.
Not only that, but you’re missing out on some great fish stories and
we’re missing out on yours!
I
know it’s still quite early but I’m putting out a request for somebody to
host this year’s Christmas party. Maybe
Paul Quarrington could arrange to have it in a T.V. or movie
studio…….or…..anybody else got any ideas?
Unfortunately we haven’t received any other tid-bits to put into this
month’s REEL THING so I guess that will be it for now, folks.
FLEA
MARKET:
If
anybody has any equipment they would like to trade or sell, or is looking for
something in particular in tackle and outdoor stuff let me know and I’ll
include it in this corner in next month’s bulletin.
e.g. A nice Berkley fly
rod 8 1/2’ 5-6 wt. $75.00 (416.755.5663
- Gord)
Felt-soled chest waders, size 9
$25.00
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Nylon down-filled parka, x-large
$30.00
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Leather Greb boots, size 7
$18.00
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