Fishing with Dad

I took my Dad fishing today. He told some of his classic stories - one I hadn't heard in a while was the story of how Dick Gardner outsmarted the warden.

Dick caught a salmon and while he was playing it, the warden, Irving Hirtle, stepped out of the woods and said, "Now, sir, d' ye want I should gaft yer fish?"
"Go ahead!" said Dick.
After landing the fish, Irving said, "If I'm not mistaken, that's a Newfie nickel on yer line. I'll have to write you up for fishing with an illegal spinning device."
"Just a minute," said Dick, "if I'm not mistaken, you gaffed the salmon. That makes you an accomplice. Write yourself a ticket, too, while you're at it!"

We had a good 3 hours on the Medway. I caught and released some small trout from 6-9". Dad showed me how to get the job done right with his spinning rod, by hooking this 15" Brookie. We had no net in the boat, so it was a bit of a struggle getting it in. A couple of times his line was fouled around my rod or one of the oars, but he played it cool, and ended up keeping this one for the frying pan. Another beautiful day on the Medway!

Good Luck and Good Fishin'!
RP

The Newfie Nickel - a Medway 'Secret Weapon'?

I'd like to take a metal-detector, and a snorkel and mask up to High Rock or Sunken Pool and prospect for Newfie Nickels. Years ago, there was a Cat-and-Mouse game played on the Medway River among anglers and the warden. Although the law said it was illegal to use a spinning device when fishing for Atlantic Salmon, many local anglers carried a little insurance in their pockets.

The Newfie Nickel was reputed to be the deadliest method for taking salmon on a rod and reel. It was a legitimate five-cent coin of the Dominion of Newfoundland, with one slight alteration - a small hole drilled near the rim. An angler could inconspicuously thread his leader through it so the coin acted as a spinner ahead of the fly. If, as often happened, the angler hooked a fish, he didn't worry about being caught by the warden. When the warden stepped out of the woods, a quick tug would break the leader, allowing the nickel to sink to the riverbed.

Here is a story told to me by Irving Hirtle, fish warden on the Medway for thirty years. Irving told me this in his room at Queens Manor when he was 95 years old.

"I had a fireplace up at McGinty's camp. I made the fireplace and I made a table too. Even the doctors would go in and have their lunch. It was at the Gravel Bar on the Flat. And Ezzie Shupe, he would've been Gene's uncle, he was fishin' the Gravel Bar and he hooked a salmon. He said to me,

"If you don't mind, get a boat and help me with the fish."

So, I got a boat and I went out and I gaffed the salmon for him.

"Now, I want to show you" he said, "the spinner I catch my salmon on."

It was a little fly, one of Stillman Shupe's, not more than an inch long. When the deer hair opened up on that fly, it looked as big as an orange. The sun would catch it and make it shine. Anyway, I went up the river and Lester Lockwood was fishin' Little Salmon. He could look right down on the Gravel Bar from where he was settin'. First thing, he told me, "Ezzie Shupe got a salmon on a spinner."

I said, "He didn't."

And Lester said, "By Jeezus, he did!"

"Well," I said "Did he catch more than one?"

"No, " he said "Just the one, but he caught it on a spinner. I could see it shine from here."

I said, " He caught that fish on the same kind of spinner you probably have in your box ... one of Stillman Shupe's flies. I know," I said, "'Cause I gaffed it for him."

Post Script

Luke McGinty had this to add to the story:

"I was there when Ezzie Shupe brought his salmon in to get weighed at Lee Anthony's store. I saw it on the scale - it went 45 lbs. He told everyone he caught it on a small fly at the Flats, but I heard he caught it at Sunken Pool. 'Course you couldn't believe a word he said about fishin' or deer-huntin' either. Anytime you asked if he'd seen any fish - 'No, not a thing, nothin' at all!'"

Good Luck and Good Fishin'!

-Random Phrump

Good News for the Medway!

It's hard to grasp the richness of the Medway in bygone times. Early settlers journeyed on foot, by oxen, or by canoe. They traveled on paths made by native people who knew the land and the water, and where to find food. The first flyfishers found the river thick with life. During its heyday, the Medway was one of the finest Atlantic Salmon destinations in Nova Scotia, and one of the first of Canada's great rivers to be introduced to American flyfishers.

Nels Vaughan, Irving Hirtle, and Dave McKinnon were guides when Laurie Mack operated his salmon and moose-hunting camps on the Medway. They fished 'High Rock' and 'The Rolls', 'Sunken Pool' and 'The Gravel Bar' and knew every pool from Mill Village to Greenfield. Sultan of Swat - Babe Ruth, and American writer, Zane Grey, were among the well-heeled who came from south of the 49 to enjoy the sport.

"Salmon fishing - a despicable habit, afflicting those who are unencumbered by the necessity for work and burdened by the virtue of patience." - Random Phrump

The lore of salmon-fishing is a tradition that has been preserved through story-telling. Sadly, 1997 was the last year that flyfishing for salmon was permitted on the Medway River. I have been mourning the loss ever since - not so much the loss of angling opportunity as the virtual extinction of a vibrant local community and significant body of knowledge gained through human experience.

The Liverpool Advance (December 26, 2007) reported that 10,000 sea-run Speckled Trout, 7,000 Atlantic Salmon parr, and 270 sexually-mature gene bank salmon were recently released into the Medway River according to Medway River Salmon Association President, Darrell Tingley. The conservation group has reached agreements with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, McGowan Lake Fish Hatchery, and the Coldbrook Biodiversity Facility that aim to restore and protect traditional fish populations in the Medway. Tingley says they plan to begin liming the Medway in 2008 to offset low pH conditions caused by acid rain. Local residents are quietly optimistic that some day a Catch & Release season for Atlantic Salmon will be the result. Here's to that, my friends!
Good Luck and Good Fishin'!
-Random Phrump

Photo by W. R. MacAskill, "Medway River 1933" Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management.