Archive for March, 2007

Just spoke to a woman who had a very disappointing experience with a fly fishing club in St. Paul, MN.  She has kids who apparently have taken a keen interest in fly fishing and fly tying – so she took them to two meetings of this club.

Now, to be fair, I haven’t spoken or contacted anyone from the club – but according to my caller, while most of the club members were helpful and happy to assist kids with their fly tying, there were some members who wanted no part of having teenage kids as part of the club.

Can you believe that?  I was stunned as this woman related to me her story.

Anyhow, subsequently others have heard about this, and there are some positive great things happening as a result of the experience. I hope to have more to report on this shortly.

Here in my part of Ontario we’re still experiencing freezing cold weather. Last week, we did have temperatures up into the mid teens (Celsius) but not for long enough to melt everything away.

Yesterday, I thought I’d take a drive out to the Grand River to see how she was looking. Although there was some open water in places, the Upper Grand around Waldemar and Grand Valley is still quite frozen over. There are places where the sun spent some time managing to shine down on portions and melt the ice, and the views downriver of the jagged ice blocks all piled upon each other were interesting.

I imagine when it all breaks up, and the spring thaw sets in hard, there could be some flooding this year if the ice damns aren’t broken up quickly during the thaw.

I then drove down to Fergus – where the river flow is much higher, and there was no ice – but downstream of Elora at “The Flats,” most of the river is still covered in ice.

Opening Day is exactly 6 weeks away, today. I cannot wait! I may get a chance to head to some “Open Season” water before Opening Day, but it’s never quite the same as fishing my favorite spots on the Grand, the Saugeen, or some of the wee streams that hold fiesty brookies.

Update: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Look at this! Opening Day on the River Kelvin in Scotland was March 15th. And The Urban Angler has a picture – showing – NO SNOW! It amazes me sometimes to realize how far north Scotland is, latitudinally of Southern Ontario – yet parts have such a more moderate climate. I’m envious. Maybe time to plan a trip to the UK for next spring. Scotland and Ireland… I’d have to book a month though, in order to get in all the required visits to friends and family in Ulster and make sure none are miffed that fly fishing the “auld country” took precedence.