I cooked up the rainbow trout and baked it in tinfoil. Very tasty!

I like trying out different ways to prepare food - this I kept fairly simple:

4 medium sized mushrooms, chopped

1 green onion, chopped

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mixed all the above up together then stuffed the cavity of the trout.

Wrapped the trout in tinfoil and baked for 30 minutes in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees.

After it was cooked, sprinkled with pepper to taste and enjoyed.

Here’s a photo of David and I with the fish David helped fight and land yesterday:

Due to some other pressing issues, I’ve been unable to get in any fly fishing this spring until this evening. My good friend Ernie Kalwa called me up to remind he was heading out to the ponds at Humber Springs for a couple of hours this evening along with my other good friend, Arron Varga.

I figured it would be a perfect evening to get on the water for the first time this year and also take along the “wee man,” David.

David, who is not yet six years old, can’t quite handle a fly rod - but no problem. He can strip line. And his line stripping method was the secret. We stood on the casting platform together, me with my lovely Meiser System II rod and DI 3 line on the spool. David likes the black leech pattern he helped me tie up, so that’s what we tied on the end of the leader.

First cast - ahh.. this is what I remember! I love that Meiser rod! I started stripping in line and David decided he was going to help. “Absolutely! Go ahead and we’ll fish together with one rod.”

So it was quite the random stripping pattern - but that was fine - it was very nice to have him enjoying this time with me.

Second cast - David starts stripping the line for me again - and next thing, a solid hook up and the line started running back out through David’s hand. He looked up with bright eyes and a smile and yelled, “Is that a fish, Dad?”

“You bet it is!”

And that fish fought hard. I’m not sure of its length but it was quite a bit larger than the 19 incher we caught later. The rod was bent almost double and David was excitedly pointing to it and when the fish jumped, each time David’s eyes grew wide open as he exclaimed, “Wow!” The scrappy rainbow trout must have cleared the water a good five times during the fight - pretty sweet for the young man that I am… and even sweeter for a 5 1/2 year old to watch.

This went on for over five minutes - and every time I’d get that trout (with David’s help) close to the casting platform, the fish would take off on yet another run.

Finally, with another jump into the air, the fish managed to lose the hook - but nevertheless it was some exciting minutes for a dad and his son, that’s for sure.

And the second cast of the season - it felt great to have a fish on the other end.

We continued casting from the platform - at one point David got a little tired of stripping line so he got into his lunch box that we had packed with some snacks and watched the swallows diving and darting close to the water as they ate hatching insects.

Finally, another fish on! This 19 incher fought pretty hard too - and we almost lost it as we both held onto the net - I attempted to help guide David with the net. It was a brand new net with a “button” that held the handle - and with both our hands on the net, one of us must have pressed the button. There we are with this fish close to the platform, the net in the water… and the next thing I’m holding a handle of a net while watching the net itself sink to the bottom of the pond. And I had a sinking feeling another fish was going to be lost.

But together, David and I managed to bring the trout to hand - and this one will be lunch or dinner tomorrow.

David told me that he had a great time! He decided that fighting fish was “like playing tug of war, Dad.”

I think we’ve got a real angler on our hands here!

Well, I had been looking so very forward to fly fishing this spring  - and especially to Opening Day and carrying on a tradition that goes back more than half my life of spending the day with my long time friend Dave Moore - and a newer part of that tradition - my 16 year old son Colin joining us.

But it was not to be, and I have a case of excusitis - actually, good reasons why.

Sadly, my father-in-law (my sons’ Colin, James and Alex grandfather) passed away after a battle with a tumor.  His memorial service was held on Opening Day.  Brian McCleery was a man that I respected and loved and who continued to be my friend even through matrimonial issues with his daughter, my ex-wife.  Although not much of an angler, Brian McCleery was quite the sailor and for years would sail and race his Wayfarer throughout Canada and even represented Canada at a World Championships in Denmark.

It was a very sad day when I received the news of his passing.

Since then, there have been a few other personal issues that have kept me from being able to get out on the water - and I’m itching like crazy to do so!  I was going to take out my “wee man” on Saturday, but he likely wouldn’t have enjoyed the cool weather with the pouring rain that came down like “cats and dogs.” But the weather forecast for the next few days looks like it could be perfect spring fly fishing weather, and I’m hoping to get in a few hours at least.

One thing I noticed on my errands yesterday was that at least near by here, the water levels that were so dangerously low last summer seem to have recovered and then some! All that snow and the wet spring we’ve had have brought up the water levels of the lakes, ponds and rivers here which should be a very good thing.

I’ve spent some time cleaning fly lines and tying up flies with the “wee man” (very encouraging when your five year old son wants to spend hours at the fly tying bench!) the past few days and am hoping very much that I’ll be able to wet some of these flies tomorrow - or at least by Tuesday!

As well, some other events to look forward to - some months ago I referred to a certain woman here -  and there are some plans in the works for the not so distant future to stand in a river or sit in a boat and cast flies to trout together.  I’m very much looking forward to that!

But hopefully - tomorrow - I’ll be able to report back that I’ve brought trout to hand and I can look forward to more regular updating of the blog and site.

I woke up early (for me) this morning and went for a long walk.  If you can’t fly fish, long walks are a good time for contemplation, de-stressing, and getting your thoughts together. It’s not quite as enjoyable (to me) as spending some hours alone on the river but a long walk can still be a pleasant experience.

And what can make it even more pleasant than sunshine, milder temperatures after a long harsh winter, and the prospects of temperatures above freezing forecast for the next week?

In my part of the world, it has been a long harsh winter - although in the past week we have had some days where the mercury hit above the freezing point as well as some sunshine.  I think I can count on one hand the number of days of full sunshine between the first week of December and mid March.  This morning, before I went out for my walk, I noted that the weather predictors have forecasted  above freezing temperatures for the next five days, except for one where it will dip below freezing at night.

This is good. Although we’ve had a significant amount of snow melt, I still have six inches to a foot in some places covering my front yard.  My front yard is on the north side of the house - I’m envious of those who’s front is on the south, and who have much less snow than I do.

The signs of spring are very encouraging - right now I am peeking out my window and watching a chipmunk scrounging in the bird seeds I recently put out - for birds of course.  I’ve also seen small flocks of Canada Geese flying north. Daylight hours are increasing and I’m looking forward to being on the river at 9:30PM some spring and early summer evenings!

Time to get at my tying bench! I promised myself I would do more tying this winter - but didn’t do so.  I failed at keeping a lot of promises I made to myself - but plenty of time to contemplate all that when the water is running against my waders.

Years ago, my parents would take me and my siblings every year to the Toronto Sportsman’s show. Sometimes we enjoyed it so much and didn’t get to see everything the first day, my dad would take me the next day so that we could take it all in and take advantage of the amazing deals one could have on fishing and outdoor gear.

Back then, the show closed at 10PM, and if you waited to leave at the last minute on the last day of the show, you could often get some even more amazing deals on stock left over that the exhibitors didn’t want to pack up and take away with them.

When I was old enough to drive as a teenager, it was not unexpected that my fishing and outdoor pals would be at the Sportsman Show in Toronto three days of its week long duration.

In the past 15 years, for a variety of reasons mostly including distance from the show and work requirements, I’ve only attended once - and that was to meet some clients. I didn’t get a chance to take a look around.

Today, I decided to attend with two of my sons and to say I was a bit disappointed would be an understatement. Although many were talking about how good the show was - it was nothing like it used to be! It seemed to be about a quarter of the size that I remember and we seemed to manage to walk up all the aisles as well as take in a short time of some dog shows going on in about three and half hours. Unless I missed something, but according to the guide I had, we did seem to hit just about every section of the show.

Some of the exhibitors that I would have liked to have spent more time in just were not set up very well as far as also having a five year old along. Too small. And where was what used to be the mighty LeBaron exhibit that used to have what seemed like bazillions of items for sale? This year, although it had a lot of floor space, there was very little product on display.

I also missed sitting in the old coliseum where we used to sit up in the stands and watch the Retriever trials.

Probably the absolute worse part of today’s show was the parking fiasco. I remember attending the show years ago, and there would be parking attendants that would direct you right into a parking spot. Traffic flow was excellent. Today, it took OVER AN HOUR from the time we arrived at the Exhibition grounds from the west to where I finally was able to park my car. Over an hour! It was pathetic. When we finally arrived at the parking entrance, only one of the parking attendant booths out of three were operating. That is just unacceptable.

I don’t know if the parking issues were the responsibility of the Sportsmen Show organizers or Toronto Exhibition management - but I certainly would be very hesitant to ever attend another Sportsmen Show in Toronto based only the parking experiences and the length of time it took to get there once arriving at the grounds.

One highlight of the show were the staff at the Tent City Outfitters exhibit - especially William. Due to a number of moves of residence, I seem to have lost a great sleeping bag I used to own. A sleeping bag that was very light, rolled up into a small space, yet was able to keep me warm outside in a tent when the temperatures dipped below 0C. I also have misplaced my very handy single burner Coleman Stove that runs on Coleman gas.

As well, I wanted to get my five year old a good quality light sleeping bag. William of Tent City helped me out on all three counts, and as well, I was extremely happy with the prices they had these pieces at for the show. I’ve always enjoyed shopping at Tent City when I’m in the area of their store in Vaughan, Ontario.

Having said all that, David and Colin both seemed to enjoy the show - perhaps because they had nothing to compare it against - although they were quite frustrated with sitting in the car for an hour after arriving at the Exhibition grounds before we could park.

“Authorities say the dikes around the Holland Marsh may not be enough to prevent serious flooding this spring.Tom Hogenbirk, with the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, said today that there has been so much snow and ice this winter that Lake Simcoe is effectively full.

He said that anyone living along rivers, streams and even drainage ditches should report ice jams or clogged culverts to their municipality.

The last major flood in the Holland Marsh was in 1960.”

~ The Toronto Star

Going from one extreme to the other - from major drought last year to more moisture than can be handled even by Lake Simcoe.

I’m watching out the window as the beginnings of another foot of snow are falling. Yes, that’s a foot over the next 25 to 36 hours.

I wonder what conditions will be like on Opening Day, last Saturday of April around here. But whatever they are like, I will probably be out fly fishing! Spring thaw can’t come soon enough for me.

Update: Now they are suggesting that the area I live in could receive as much as 50 CM of snow.  That’s almost 20 inches.

“Rules that allow only the catching of larger fish may encourage their replacement with slower growing, more timid varieties.That, at least, is the concern of researchers who studied test populations in two artificial lakes and report their findings in this week’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Peter A. Biro of the department of environmental science at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, explained that it’s the fast-growing more aggressive fish that tend to get caught, removing them from the breeding pool.

That leaves reproduction up to slower-growing fish who are more timid, he explained in an interview via email.”

~ More at The Toronto Star

Not fly fishing related - but my cousin sent me some pictures from high school. Here’s one:

The school had a competition to see who could come up with the best “Hill Billy” costume. I had an advantage as I worked on a farm (probably why I was so skinny - using up thousands of calories haying and cleaning stalls). The hat I wore also had some fishing flies and other lures attached to it. As well, I had a corn cob pipe.

Imagine taking a rifle to school today, too? Yes, I’m holding an old .22 rifle.

One of my most proudest moments! Winning the Hill Billy Competition!

The Bait

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run
Warm’d by thy eyes, more than the Sun;
And there the enamor’d fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be’st loath,
By Sun, or Moon, thou dark’nest both,
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs, with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net:

Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest,
Or curious traitors, sleavesilk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes’ wandering eyes.

For thee, thou need’st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait;
That fish, that is not catch’d thereby, Alas, is wiser far than I.

~ John Donne