After retiring 13 years ago, I muddled my way through
several hobbies from flying RC models to robotics and even ended up writing
about them in several mainstream magazines. Prodded by my grandchildren, I’ve
now fallen into a new avocation; I fly fish Monday to Friday, 9:00 to
5:00...weather permitting. Wet and sometimes slimy work but oddly satisfying
and as the cliché states, “someone’s got to do it”.
Fishing this much would be impractical given the way I used
to fish; long trips to trout or smallmouth lakes or overnight excursions to far
away waters in search of trophy fish. My
new rule has become “within ½ hour of home” and although I do break it on
occasion it has generally become my mantra. I live on the Assiniboine River
west of Winnipeg so most of my fishing these days is in this river, the Red and
major tributaries of these two rivers. Naturally my focus has gone from the
fish of cooler waters to warm water inhabitants; a surprisingly large number of
species here in Manitoba. Another shift is the movement from trying for large
fish to numbers of species caught on a given day. I understand this wouldn’t be
for everybody but I get a thrill every time my change in presentation or
location on a stream successfully targets a different species. I now keep track
and have had 9 specie days on one river but am sure I topped that on a couple
of days earlier in the year.
I’m living proof there are as many aspects to fishing as
there are fisher people.
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