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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/~coachmanNEW!! E-Books Web Site - www.gordondeval.com
The Reel Thing May 2008
We don't have a lot to tell you about in this issue of "The Reel Thing" because we haven't accumulated enough information for you since, although the trout season opened last week, all the reports are not in from the rest of the club. We can tell you however that the club's best trout fisherman (that would be Rick Matusiak) did manage, despite a great number of medical difficulties, as he has always done on 'opening day' take a nice feed of brookies. His son, Alex, didn't manage to top the gorgeous speck he took from his favourite stream last year, but the two of them caught enough to put several feeds on the table for them and Rosemarie to grill to enjoy the rest of the week.......until he can get back to the creek.
Paul Kennedy and I continued our string of fishing almost all our trout 'opening days' together ever since we fishing together . He connected with a highy coloured male steelie that put on an credible show for him, but due to Paul's well practiced skills in landing big trout, quickly surrendered to the big fellow's initial power. Paul nailed the trout on his very first cast. Then, after doing the gentlemanly thing, as always, he then left the next, second, third, fourth and so on for me but I was having an absolutely horrible time just getting my lure in the water. It would fall everywhere but the water, the bushes, the other shore, behind me and so on. It was because I hadn't fished since I had the stroke, almost six months earlier. It seemed hard to believe that the stroke and lack of practice for so long could have dulled my "former superior skills" so much. But Paul managed to avoid breaking into laughter after what was becoming a real challenge.
Nevertheless, after Paul finally brought the show to a grinding halt I passed the torch back to him and took a breather. We proceeded on up-stream and sure enough I soon began hitting intended targets once again ...... occasionally. The reward then came to me in about an hour or so when a properly placed cast was finally made and the fun really began. A huge and powerful silver of bolt of lightning surged into the middle of the stream and the trout took off powerfully downstream. Somehow or another the trout avoided all the snags, logs and so on and we held on although it only took moments for the fish to force me to regain almost two hundred feet of line even as it continued to rip off more line every time I managed to regain a few feet. Then I eventually was able to lead it into a quiet pocket of water where it was finally subdued. Paul and I simply knelt in the shallows while the fish, finned gently as it recovered and neither a word was spoken in silent admiration at the thirty inches, or so, of the great fish as it was led carefully back into the main current......words were unnecessary as we exchanged high fives then continued on up-stream where Paul was finally able to continue fishing after I had finished my own half hour of fun with my own trout where he promptly landed a more appropriate catch, a colourful stream brownie that was quickly dispatched and creeled on a little greenery to keep it fresh for the pan.
After we poked around an hour or so, simply enjoying the enormous number of steelies, one of the largest runs we had ever observed in the Ganny, decided to move on and check out several of our other favourite fishin' holes in the river.
Fifteen miles upstream from our own whereabouts on the Ganny, Jurgen was threatening to soon have to check into a hospital after hooking and landing one after another giant rainbow of his own, as he reported he had already taken more big steelies in a couple of hours of fly fishing than he, too, had ever seen on that wondrous watershed. Jurgen estimated that he saw more than a hundred that took his fly in a couple hours of fishing.
The rest of the gang are getting pretty restless waiting for our spring trip in a couple of weeks. We would have lots to report on the fishing front after that one, the lake trout opening and the first few weeks of working over the Ganny. Other news; Bert finished and glued-up his Broadback butt section and I'm happy to say that it turned out splendidly, despite the false conjecturing in some quarters about his rod building skills. Hans, Maria, Robert and all have also contributed to the efforts of our feather and bamboo production in the club.
The next big news on the home front however, is that the ice is finally off the lake and we are about to resume our casting activities. The dock will be in place this week at the pond and we will be able to cast in earnest now as our SCARBOROUGH FLY AND BAIT CASTING CHAMPIONSHIPS WILL BE IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS, ON JUNE 7th. and 8th.
We are hoping that the enthusiasm shown over the last few months will continue now that our shop activities have come to an end until we resume in September. It is very important to the success of our club that our fishermen and casters continue to participate in our weekly casting practice and competition. Our club charter and permits can only continue to function if we have reasonable participation. Okay then, we'll see you at the pond.....next Thursday. We will try to be there by 6:00 o'clock.
Tight lines and narrow loops...........
Gord
