THE REEL THING,  July 1, 2007

Fishing, for most of us in the club anyhow, although great as always left a bit to be desired in the catching department, but heh isn’t that the real reason we get up in the middle of the night to get out in the pouring rain and compete with the deer flies, mosquitoes and black flies for space in the great outdoors? It’s not just to put food on the table is it, because if that was all there was to it you could make a quick trip to the supermarket and get your fish for a lot less money and discomfort.

           Nevertheless, there were a few moments to ponder and recall: an interesting outing with Ray Cockburn to the Ganny where we hit three different stretches and although only tiddlers were caught, a few brutes were raised that helped us maintain our enthusiasm. Then, Sharon McIntyre and I repeated the Ganny exercise with similar results, but the ice was finally broken when Jim, Paul Sheila and I Jeeped through the pouring rain and mud to give Limit another go and I struck pay dirt with a fine twenty-two incher that provided Sheila and me with three meals and enough left-overs to make up trout salad sandwiches for the next two outings to the Ganny.

           Our annual Scarborough Championships was as always a great success with three ladies helping out this year. Maria got things rolling, Sharon took over the second shift and Deb wound things up for the grand finale, the awards presentation, featuring a great assortment of fishing tackle and equipment supplied by Roger Cannon of Normark Canada and our new trophies and medals. Oh yeah, the casting was pretty darn good, too, with as expected, Harvey Beck winning most of the laurels, but chased right to the finish by John Seroczynski and I a distant third, my only gold, a win in bass bug accuracy.

           Paul Kennedy had another fine day with medals in most of the accuracy games. Jurgen Brech in his first tournament in thirty years also hit the medal podium in the fly accuracies. All in all with fifteen participants all enjoying themselves, our 2007 Championships were considered by all to be a success.

           Sheila and I went to the beautiful Cabela’s lake in Dundee, Michigan for the state championships last weekend and despite my somehow leaving our suitcase and all our medicines at home had a fine tournament with my tying Zack Willson for the gold  in bass bug accuracy then settling for silver when he cleaned my clock in the cast-off. That, along with another silver in trout fly accuracy eased my pain somewhat over the ridiculous beginning to the weekend without our medicines. Hopefully, we can talk Jurgen, Paul, George or Maria to join Sheila and me for our next hike to Dundee in a couple of weeks for the Great Lakes Championships, again at the Cabela’s lake in front of the giant store.

           We still have a great stock of graphite rod butts, tips and guides if anyone wants to take advantage of whatever is left after several of us have already pored over the material to put together another rod or two. Heh, gang, it’s free, you know.

           The date for my revolutionary cancer treatment operation is still uncertain, but expected in the next week or two as I have completed all the pre-op treatments and examinations successfully.

           See you all soon,

Gord

                                                                                                 

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