Welcome to Week XLVII of 'Fishing Parkland Shorelines'. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I'll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don't have access a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
They, whoever exactly the proverbial 'they' are, say all things are cyclical. If you live long enough you are likely to retrace paths from your past.
That might be the case, when you consider a show such as 'I love Lucy', or 'The Andy Griffith Show' seems to show up in popular reruns every few years, and who am I to argue against the proof provided by television.
In some respect the past few months of writing this weekly article is a retracing of my past.
I grew up loving to fish.
One the farm, three hours from the closest good fishing, that being Tobin Lake, we did not go often, but I loved every trip we made.
At the time I couldn't quite grasp the patience my father had for the enterprise though. He also wanted just one more cast, a mantra repeated over and over through a dozen final tosses of the day, more if the fish had bested him that day and the stringer was sparsely populated, or worse still empty. On those days the last casts could extend until dusk, pushing evening chores to being done near midnight some trips.
I was antsy on those no fish days, distracted to poking the skeletal remains of burbot left on the shore for the birds and bears, or searching out flat stones to cast across the water.
Since then patience has finally come to me when I have a rod in my hand, and that is a good thing.
The love of fishing has remained too.
Oh there have been years the fishing I have done was scant, even some years when the rod never had the dust of winter shaken from it by a cast, but I still loved the mere thought of fishing.
I suppose it is one of those gifts my Dad gave me that I am proud to say I successfully passed onto my son, although he is still waiting for the patience factor to kick in.
This brings me to something else I was gifted from Dad. Something that like fishing waned after I became a teenager, but now is suddenly re-blossoming as an interest.
In the basement of my grandparents home there was an old wooden cupboard. It was a purplish colour, made of cheap wood, which meant in terms of value it was worthless then, and remains so today, even as it now sits in my home.
But inside that old cupboard was the world for a young boy.
It was in that cupboard I found my Dad's few copies of the Hardy Boys, which I devoured with enthusiasm, perhaps planting the seed for my own detective The Black Wolf in the process.
Those books are lost, although the copy of the Three Musketeers I found there remains a prized book in my modest library.
And then there was a small collection of stamps. They were mostly Canadian, with a few from England, the United States and Newfoundland before it became a province. Those little snapshots of a world far removed from a farm near Tisdale caught my attention, and for a time I added to the collection my Dad had started. It was, at the time fascinating and highly entertaining for an only child.
However, again as I reached my late teens, the interest in philately waned in favour of a blue Ford Torino car, and fastball.
Flash forward a few decades and I am back fishing with a renewed passion.
And as happens in our world today, I was recently surfing the net, actually ebay to be exact, looking at collector trout flies after reading 'The Gray Ghost Murders' by Keith McCafferty. The Gray Ghost in the book was a valuable fly by a renowned fly tier Carrie G. Stevens. The search took me to a framed picture of a set of Canadian postage stamps, each depicting a fly.
The thought of a stamp with a trout fly on it hooked me slicker than the actual fly would have been taken by a hungry rainbow.
And so I began to search, and quickly discovered sport fish; trout, salmon, pike, have been depicted on stamps in countries all over the world.
The old philately itch was acting up pretty quickly.
A topical collection of sport fishing-related stamps had a nice ring to it in my mind.
Topical or thematic stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps relating to a particular subject or concept. Topics can be almost anything, from stamps on stamps, birds, trains and poets on stamps, to famous physicians and scientists, and historical people, so why not one on my loved sport fishing?
An individual stamp holds a lot of history for a country in its detailed art work, but just a page of fish stamps didn't really grab my interest completely. It seemed a bit thing in terms of something to look at enjoy over and over.
But then I came across a few First Day Covers (FDC) with fish stamps attached.
Ìý
Wikipedia gives this simple explanation of an FDC. "The stamp was issued, and has a cancellation indicating the same. The cancellation will often be specially designed for the occasion and frequently will say "First Day of Issue" or something similar."
"Collecting First Day Covers is a popular aspect of stamp collecting and has a well-developed body of information and resources. One of the most well-known components of First Day Cover collecting are cachets. Cachets are the artwork that is added to the envelope, complementing the stamp subject. In addition to numerous commercial artists and firms that produce cachets, individual collectors will often design their own artwork. Certain cachets are sought after and cachets in general will enhance the value and the collectability of the first day cover."
The cachets are really what re-sparked my interest in stamps, and in particular sport fish related FDCs. The art which is on the FDC, along with the stamps is often stunning. Few things are more startlingly beautiful, with the excitement caught so-well, as a fish on the line, and a fisherman into the fight to land it.
And in the world of sport-fishing stamps FDCs often depict such struggles with trout and pike and tarpon.
Of course punch 'fish fdc' into the search on ebay and you find tonnes of stamps depicting deep sea fish and aquarium fish, and commercial fishing fleets, so it took some time to wade through just how large an undertaking the hobby might be. There are after all lots of countries, producing dozens of stamps annually and they have been doing it for decades, so if the pile of material was too massive it would be too daunting to even start.
I also realized one search with the word fish was not covering the bases, so words such as 'angling/angler/lures and of course specific first species, sturgeon, trout, pike and others helped glean a better 'feeling' for what existed.
While diverse in terms of countries, most which have sport fishing have stamps, the list was not huge either.
As an example Canada, which has some nice stamps depicting fishing flies, the list of Canadian stamps with a connection to sport fishing is rather limited.
Of course that is a challenge a 'topical' collector faces, determining what they deem fits the topic. As example, does salt water sport fishing for tarpon and marlin fit? Do fishing flies? Or stamps showing key rivers where fish are caught?
The broader the definition, the more FDCs to seek out.
Ìý
The good news, most fish FDCs are five bucks, or less and they ship cheap too, so it is an affordable endeavour.
The bad news is finding a great looking stamp from Poland depicting sport fish, but not as an FDC, which leaves me wondering if an FDC was issued? Or is it just rare that is not easily found online?
So, as the accompanying pictures belie, I have taken the plunge, and have found the experience completely relaxing. The late evening online searches, the expectation of an FDC arriving in the mail, the joy of adding it to the collection album, are all gratifying.
Of course as is the case with most hobbies, it's natural to look for fun ways to broaden its appeal.
I was in bed one night when an idea struck me.
How cool would it be to have Keith McCafferty the author of 'The Royal Wulff Murders' autograph an FDC which has the American stamp which depicts the actual Royal Wulff fishing fly?
I actually got up out of bed and emailed McCafferty asking him if he would do it if I mailed him the FDC.
And if it was a good idea with McCafferty, who I am a huge fan of, why not other favoured fishing authors?
So I contacted Derek Grzelweski, the New Zealand author responsible for 'The Trout Dairies' another amazing book, with the idea of sending him a FDC with New Zealand trout stamps. He was gracious enough to quickly agree.
Such author-signed FDCs will be a very personal addition to the collection, and really bring two aspects of fishing-related interest together, stamps and good books.
