The Pirate and his bride made the arduous trip to the wilds of
Canuckistanni land, to fish for steelies.

Awake at dark thirty on Firday morning, we left at 5:30 with one short
delay 'cause I left my sunglasses behind, and one long delay as I
inadvertantly took a new route to Walkerton. We made it by 8:00 am,
met the guide, bought cofffe and used the facilities at TH's, then
off.

The Pirate nymphed and I swung the spey. Hooked up and landed one
nice hen almost immediately and we thought we were off to a roaring
day but it was illusory. There were loads of fish about but the
majority had lockjaw. These fish get pounded and most had had enough.
Rob later said that my early fish was the jinx.

We wanted to get over to the island where we had the most fun last
year. There were a number of float rodders, two guys in pontoon
boats, plus two Grindstone boats (ours included) so the island was a
bit crowded. I picked up and landed another, almost at the feet of
the other Grindstone sport. What made it worse, he'd been pounding
away at this fish and not getting any and I pull one out within a few
minutes of fishing the riffle. I did feel kinda bad about that -- for
a little while.

Meanwhile, our intrepid Pirate is doing his nymphermaniac routine and
after the other sport moved on, he did tie into and lose a nice big
buck in the same riffle. During the day, I had trouble turning hits
into hookups, despite having some really solid takes. We boarded the
boat for the last part of the drift before heading into the frog water
and the pullout, when Dave hooks into a big hen on his last cast.
After much toing and froing, a 30+" bright hen was landed and the
pictures taken (to follow in a little while). Our guide Rob, promptly
pinned the Pirate with his Grindstone 30+ club pin. No decoder ring
required.

During the drift down through the frog water, Rob suggest I hang the
fly out the back and "troll". He says he'll buy me beer if I catch
one and the Pirate offered to kiss my ass if I did. Too bad, but I
went beerless and kissless. Could've been the picture of a lifetime.
)

A good day in all - - -

Peter

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