By Don Daniels
If you look around your house and dig through the closet or desk drawer, you may see a number of books that have not been looked at in years.
Last month, I had gone through my fly-tying materials and sorted materials out and made up packages and donated them to fly tyers here in Campbell River.
I know it was years ago when I first got a book about trout fishing entitled The Pleasure of His Company compiled and co-edited by Ralph Shaw. When I first moved to Campbell River I had met Ralph and had the opportunity to sit down and talk fishing and fly-tying with him. It was at Comox Lake. He was sitting down and tying up deer hair Tom Thumb patterns and donating them to the kids who wanted a fly sample from Ralph. This fly pattern was of interest to me for a couple of reasons:
At the time, Ralph was the oldest fly-tyer I knew, so I wanted to know how he got started tying flies and going fishing. His material list included deer hair, straw and fat. Today, I have a package of flies that include the Humpy pattern and I have never opened the package.
Ralph has written books and was well known for a fishing column in the Comox Valley Record. I was looking through the book and noticed that Ralph had signed the book. In all my years of fishing I was looking for a book that would supply me with information about fly patterns and fishing local waters for trout, and I found it after all these years.
When I hear the word diary, it means to me old handwritten information and not information from social media or Internet websites. My plan is to do a promotion and give the book away in weeks to come. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic there are no plans to do any fly-tying group sessions until further notice.
Fishing license renewals will happen at the end of March and many anglers will be waiting for information pertaining to chinook retention regulations, to be announced in April. Halibut opened Feb. 15 with a maximum length 126 cm, daily limit of one and annual limit of six per license. Some good catches of chinook salmon have been reported in the area but some bigger fish, 16 to 18 pounds, have come out of Comox.
The herring spawn later in the month will see birds, seal and most all of nature going after the herring balls and people can view the herring spawn spectacle south of Comox. it’s a sight to behold when the sea lions and eagles go after the available bait.