Monday, December 31, 2012

Good Riddance 2012

  Does anyone know where to get a 2013 Mayan calender?

  Contrary to popular belief, Deadfisher is alive and doing a little better every day. It's been close to eight months since my last post and an update is long overdue.

  As the spring slowly warmed and turned to summer, Tackle Shop and I turned our focus from the crappies of Lake Simcoe to the unexplored regions to the southwest and the Grand River. Our first visit to the Grand was in late March, fishing for channel cats in Dunnville and we returned two months later to wet wade the river below the dam in Caledonia.

     It didn't take long to realize that the spillway was swarming with one of my long time fly fishing goals and favorite fish, the longnose gar. It seemed everything I threw at them got their attention, but their bony mouths and short strikes prevented me from getting a solid hook set. We finished the day with a few largemouth bass and crappies to show for our efforts and a vow to return and figure out those toothy critters!

    TS and the Russian returned later that week while I prepared for my return by tying more "gar appropriate" flies and acquiring some stinger hooks.


  Armed with a new arsenal of flies, buoyed by my friend's success, and starting my long overdue vacation, I returned to Caledonia and almost immediately found a large slippery rock with my name on it! In a blink of an eye I found myself in a heap on that rock with the "gunshot" sound of my exploding ankle ringing in my ears. Needless to say my day on the river was done.

   In typical fashion with regards to medical matters, I hurried to seek treatment...eight days later, when the self delusion that everything would be fine finally wore off. For the first time in all my fifty something years I found myself wearing a plaster cast. After a week the plaster was replaced with a sportier fiberglass, racing cast.

   Meanwhile... the crew continued to expand their horizons.  

      I spent twelve weeks during the summer laid up, wrapped in glass, watching TV, tying flies, and getting fat. A month after the cast finally came off, I returned to work, and found the physical demands of the job completely wiped me out to the point that getting out of the house after work or on the weekend was the last thing on my mind!

   Of course TS was having none of that, so my first time back on the water was near the end of summer at the scene of my near demise...Caledonia. Wading with a leg the size of a large tree trunk was a new experience I'd not wish upon my worst enemy. Truth be told, I could have gotten out fishing at any time after the mishap but I've lost almost all wish to use spinning gear, opting for the fly has become near mania.

   As the summer changed to fall my focus shifted from far off rivers to the local tributaries and the annual salmon run. Again, because of reduced mobility, I wasn't able to search the local rivers to the extent necessary to locate fish. I managed to get in one afternoon of stumbling after fish in the shallows, with a few hook ups, but nothing landed.

   By mid October it looked as if my fishing year was coming to a dismal end when TS announced that he was getting a boat. He located one for sale north of Peterborough, so after the deal was done we spent half the day fishing new waters. Again... another shut out, but something to look foreward next year.

  Late October found us back where we started the open water season, Cooks Bay Marina on Lake Simcoe.

 I never dreamed I would open an episode of the Blue Ice Report!

   Anyways... the perch seemed willing to play if you had the right "toys", and it so happened that some flies I'd tied for carp were to their liking.


   So... that's whats been happening here since my last post. 2012 kind of sucked! Stupid Mayans and their lame predictions. Lets hope 2013 is better. 12 hours from now TS and I will start the new year on 4 inches of ice on Little Lake.

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE 

3 comments:

  1. Great to hear that your still alive and kicking John,some lovely looking Gar there, certainly wouldn't mind catching one of those.

    Here's to a more lucky 2013. Keep up the blogging.

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  2. Good to have you back, John. I was wondering why you dropped off the radar, but now that I know about the ankle, I understand completely. I'm sure 2013 will be much better.

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  3. awesome recap, glad to hear your your back banging away. cant wait to see you back after it in 2013

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