Memories
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Magical Waters
Memories
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Magical Waters
Gord Deval
Foreword by Paul Quarrington
NATURAL HERITAGE BOOKSTORONTO
Copyright © 2006 Gord Deval
All rights reserved. No portion of this book, with the exception of brief extracts for the purpose of literary or scholarly review, may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher.
Published by Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc.
P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Deval, Gord, 1930-
Memories_of_Magical_Waters / Gord Deval; foreword by Paul Quarrington.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-897045-12-3
1. Deval, Gord, 1930-. 2. Fly fishing–Ontario. 3. Trout fishing–Ontario. 4. Fly fishing–Québec (Province). 5. Trout fishing–Québec (Province). I. Title.
SH415.D88A3 2006 799.1’2’092 C2006–900881–7
All visuals unless otherwise identified are courtesy of the author.
Cover and text design by Neil Thorne
Edited by Jane Gibson
Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Book Printing of Winnipeg
Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) and the Association for the Export of Canadian Books.
I would like to dedicate this book to my
best fishi’n buddy, my lovely wife, Sheila.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The Waters of Uxbridge
Chapter 2 Fishing on the Ganny
Chapter 3 Land O’ Lakes and Land O’ Fish
Chapter 5 Up Pefferlaw Way
Chapter 6 The “Pigeons” of the Kawarthas
Chapter 7 A Mystery At Tedious Lake
Chapter 8 Blue Lake of Temiscamingue
Chapter 9 Sullivan–A “Pot-of-Gold” Lake?
Chapter 10 Poaching Pierces Pond
Chapter 11 The Phenomenal Echo Creek
Chapter 12 Pleasurable Pursuits on Grenadier Pond
Chapter 13 The Magic of Sludge Lake
Chapter 14 From Novice to Accomplished Angler
Chapter 15 The Trout of Loughborough Lake
Chapter 16 Lake Simcoe: A Most Fishable Body of Water
Chapter 17 I Always Wanted to Fish in a Stream Called Piss Creek
Chapter 18 A Wonderful Lake With No Name
Chapter 19 More Trout Fishing in Haliburton
Chapter 20 Saugeen Country Booty
Chapter 21 The Mighty Broadback River
Chapter 22 Other Magical Memories
Epilogue
Appendix: Casting Records
Notes
Index
About the Author
Other Books by Gord Deval
My father, Roy Ward Dickson, an extremely intelligent man who unfortunately never passed those particular genes on to his son, nevertheless set me on my career path prescribing courses I took and giving me a pocket allowance based on a weekly essay I had to write for him, and monitored it accordingly as long as he was able to do so. My parents were separated when I was seventeen.
My dear mother, Helen, although having few opportunities to wet a line herself, had a love of the outdoors and made the most of every chance she had to go fishing or take a stroll in the countryside. Bob Wilcox, my uncle, loved fishing, especially for trout. His ardent pursuit of trout and different places to go after them was possibly the greatest influence on my love of fishing during my early years.
I owe much appreciation to my children, Connie, Wendy, Randy and Ronnie, all of whom enjoyed fishing with me during their own early years, I have vivid recollections of my daughters’ times on the water with their old man, while my sons both became experts with rod and reel, learning how to read and appreciate whatever they discovered in the outdoors. Another huge influence in my fishing and casting pursuits was my first wife and the mother of my children, Joan, a fine fisherman in her own right.
I wish to thank Jim Gifford who suggested I write this book and Bill and Jamie Gairdner who sponsored me for years at the Fitness Institute and to the World Casting Champions, and Clive Caldwell and Steve Roest of the Fitness Institute