CONTEST

HUNTERS & FISHERMEN
BEST STORY OF 1972

Sharon and Jo-Anne
Co-perpetrators of a hoax
Asbestos Sheet
Casstar, B.C.

At noon today when I
first glanced at your banner
headline on the distributed
sheet saying "HUNTING AND
FISHING CONTEST", I thought
thts should be easy to pos-
stbly win. Then as I read
on I was appalled by your
description of a, fisherman.
Obvtously you girls don't
fish or know anything about
MEN, I mean real MEN, fisher-
men. Then I thought I shoul-
dad write and send you the
exact details of a sttuatton
that happened to me while
tee-ftshing on a very cold
day when I caught an except-
tonally large ptke. Well
anyway, I hooked this large
fish and after a momentous
struggle managed to get the

fish up to the hole tn the
tee which was just slightly
small for the stze of the
fish. Perseverence won out,
however, and the fish's

head was squeezed up through
the hole and further pulled
up several feet above the
tee, where due to the very
low temperatures, the part
of the fish above the tce
imnedtately froze solid, .
wntle the lower part below
the ice continued to thrash
about in a very alarming.
manner. As I was fishing
alone, this left me in somé-
what of a quandry as I could
not find the strength to
remove the ftsh or hotst tt
higher out of the hole.
Thinking quteckly, I ran for
the shore paying out my line
as I went so as not to loose
the fish tf tt sltpped back
doum the hole. Once on
shore I tted the line toa

stout tree and ran on to
where my car was parked.
Rummaging through the car
for something to subdue the
fish, I came across'a saw I
had used to cut firewood,
and carrying the saw ran’
back to the lake. It was
but a minute's work to cut
the fish off just above the
tee and pull the still strug.
glying after-part of the
fish on to the ice.”

Now from the general attt-
tude of your advertisement
for fishing and hunting
Stortes, I know that you wili
not belteve, or accept a
true story like I have just
related, but other true fish-
ermen have accepted it, espe-
etally after I showed them
the saw that I used to cut
off that fish whieh I would
now never part with.

Most people who do not
fish seem to labour under the
same unfortunate idea as you
do. Don Marquis (1878-1937),
the American journaltst and
hunortst who satd, and I
quote, "Fishing ts a delus-
ton enttrely surrounded hy
liars in old clothes." *°

Personally I have never
met a true ftsherman who
Lied although I might conce-
ed to the fact that, due to
the popularity of the sport,
there may be a few liars who
tsh. :

Wishing you the best in’
your efforts to gather fish-
tng stories. I will gladly
enter a story when you spect-
fy tt must be a factual happ.
entng.

Fred Cousins
P.S. I also have a dog that
I have trained to
"point" fish, but that
is another story.......

Note:

Stewart Highway

You know the Stewart ‘High=
way don't you, I'm the reason
they opened it:_

One day about eight years
ago, I was hunting and came
across a grizzily cub on its
own. Not far away lay the
mother and it looked like she
had been killed by lightning,
so I decided to take the cub
home and look after it.

After a few years the bear
cub grew to be quite a size
and all my friends teased and
joked about this and his
strength.

Then I bought an old D-8
cat and because of all this
‘teasing and carrying-on, one
day when all my friends were
visiting, a tug-a-war contest
between the two was somehow
arranged for the following
day.

Well, the next morning in
the drizzlying rain, we har-
nessed the bear and D-8 cat
together, started the motor,
and the race was on. At the
start, it looked like the cat
had a clean victory, but all

of a sudden there was a flash
of lightning and the bear -

took off like a bat-in-hell.

Well, that's the last
I've seen of the Cat as well
as the bear. I followed the
rugged trail left by them
as far as Stewart, but had
to stop.

If anybady sees an-old
bear tugging a D-8 Cat,-
don't shoot, he loves to
have the back of his ear
scratched - it's been a long
time. Oh yes, please return
the D-8&,

Gene Storoschuk

Stortes by M. Jones and lm. Dobie will be

published in our December issue.