Too Much Monkey Business!
Chuck Berry, “The Father of Rock & Roll”, now 84, sang in his anthem for 1956 youth “Too much monkey business for me to be involved in!” Me too, Chuck, me
too. I hear you.
Our first item of monkey business is Canada’s long-gun registry. To make a long story short, the long
and the short of it is: Due to the outcome of our federal election, the registry’s future is now thought to be very
short. In short, history will shortly but forever reveal the registry as the classic Canadian example of useless and expensive
regulation that went on far too long. End of short story!
Our
2011 angling season also suffers from monkey business, more useless and harmful regulations. We won’t know until June
1st or thereabouts what type of closure will be imposed on the Guysborough County sea-trout fishery, but it seems
certain that there will once again be no open salmon season, same as last year. It also seems likely that there will some
type of closure of the trout fishery as well, possibly closure of some popular salmon pools to ALL fishing.
If this happens, we’ll still be able to fish trout on most of the rivers, but it’s
far too close for comfort to a complete closure. One more step and there’s no fishing at all on wonderful rivers like
the St. Mary’s. We’re living in an era of regulation – if we perceive a problem, we create another regulation.
We actually could have better solved the by-catch issue by scrapping another useless regulation, the one that eliminates our
live-release salmon fishing season.
Friday’s DFO ZMAC meeting in Sherbrooke attracted
a full house, ready to defend our community and our sport fisheries. Many thanks to all who attended!
Unfortunately, despite requests to reorder the agenda, DFO first launched a far too lengthy discussion of
the science behind DFO management’s recommendations. If DFO strategy was to numb the audience, it worked well. Half
of us slept while the other half departed!
The afternoon session played to a
much smaller audience, somewhat refreshed by a good lunch. Management’s Greg Stevens got the job done promptly with
a strategy that offered us little choice, so it generated little discussion. At least it’s over, though. On Friday afternoon
that became our goal, to make it to the end of the meeting and the long week-end. We did feel very relieved because the news
could have been worse. No need to put a FOR SALE sign in the yard just yet. But we retired here because of the St. Mary’s
River, and if complete closure happens, the sign will be out there.
Too
much regulatin’ and too little fishin’ for me, Chuck!
St.
Mary’s Academy student Chris Sinclair and I have a bet about how the St. Mary’s will be regulated this year. The
winner gets a fly tied by the loser. Since we’ll hopefully have some sea-trout fishing, let’s check out a great
sea-trout fly. The fly is by Chris Williams, who operated a fly shop in Newfoundland for a time. It’s inspired by the
Newfoundland salmon fly called “None of your Business”, a very simple little sparkly creation that works its magic
on salmon and sea-trout.
The “None
of Your Business” Fly
Hook –
Mustad 36890 or Tiemco 7999, size 6 - 10
Thread –
Black
Tag -
Flat silver holographic mylar tinsel
Tail -
Light blue Krystal Flash
Rib -
Flat silver holographic mylar tinsel
Body –
Black wool
Underwing -
Light blue Krystal Flash
Wing -
Moose hair
Throat hackle -
Light blue Krystal Flash
Head -
Black thread finished with 2 coats of Angler’s Corner Wet Head Cement
Please
send comments and suggestions to slim@rivermagic.ca
Please stay on the line
…
