THE COMPLETE ANGLER - DON LAMONT

EVERY evening for the past month, when I picked up the book to read a few more pages, it was like a breath of fresh air had entered the room, made dry and stale by too many days of -30 C weather.

People who know Bob Sheedy describe him as an iconoclast -- a person who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions. After reading a good portion of his two latest books: Bob Sheedy's Lake Fly Fishing Strategies and Bob Sheedy's Top 50 Stillwater Fly Patterns I would have to say thank goodness for that.

Born and raised in Ontario, Sheedy came to Manitoba with his family many years ago. Already an accomplished fly fisher, Sheedy soon discovered how good a trout fishery we had in the Parkland region of Manitoba. Along the way, he has made his own indelible mark on the landscape, almost single-handedly introducing people in this part of the world to stillwater fly fishing.

This all stems back to his iconoclastic attitude. To quote Sheedy, "an abhorrence for those who take the sport of fly fishing and attempt to turn it into an exclusive institution where only the elite can hold sway."

I have spent time with Sheedy on a number of the lakes in the Parkland region and I have visited his family in their farmhouse on the outskirts of Roblin. There is nothing pretentious about this man, other than a love for his family and for stillwater fly fishing -- a sport he says will continue to grow and, in doing so, strip away some of those old institutions steeped in snobbery.

One of my most memorable times with him was on a hot June day on East Goose Lake, which is right in Roblin. We had been out all morning casting the east shoreline in our float tubes when Sheedy spotted some surface feeding activity just down the shoreline

He told me to tie on a minnow pattern, in this particular instance I remember it as the Crystal Minnow (one of his 50 stillwater fly patterns), a fly that imitates a fathead minnow.

Once we tubed over, we could see a big rainbow trout busting a school of fatheads that had gathered in very shallow water around a rock.

Sheedy was ready -- not to catch the fish but to make sure I had a chance.

He told me exactly how to lay the fly out just in front and past the rock. I laid out a decent cast, careful not to lay the fly line near the fish, letting the big rainbow think another fathead had plundered past the rock in his direction. Wham! The fly line tightened up and it was game on.

I caught that fish because of Sheedy and he took just as much delight in seeing me hold and release that fish as I had. That helps sum up this man.

His two books, just published, are a wealth of information garnered over the past 50 years of time spent in the outdoors pursuing finned creatures. He covers all the bases, from equipment to technique to location. His best work, though, comes through his intimate understanding of aquatic forage, with more than 100 pages dedicated to telling you what Shamu eats.

He will stop fishing at any time to poke along a shoreline in hopes of finding some aquatic insect he has yet to photograph. Judging by the exquisite detail in the pages of these two books, including a stunning head-on view of a predacious diving beetle, I would say he hasn't missed much.

The books are available at www.mwflyfishing.net. It's well worth the visit.

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BOB’S BOOKSHELF

by Bob Jones

 BOB SHEEDY’S TOP 50 STILLWATER FLY PATTERNS by Bob Sheedy

Fly Fishing Canada Publications, $29.95

A self-admitted trout bum, Sheedy takes stillwater fly fishing for trout very seriously, indeed, and has done so for about 50 years now. That’s 50 years of fly fishing as often as possible from ice-out to freeze-up, and all the while keeping detailed notes on what he or others have caught; on which patterns; weather conditions; locations; productive tactics; and other information based upon his observations and experiences. All of which could become a tad dry and repetitious were it not for his writing style. All of the information is there, and it’s great stuff, but while he takes the subjects seriously he writes about them with subtle, often self-deprecating humour that produces smiles, chuckles and even a few belly laughs. It’s a pleasant way to learn.

This book is 6x9-inches, spiral bound so it will lay flat at the desired page, and has 148 pages. The foreword was written by Paul Marriner, a well known outdoor writer and book author from Nova Scotia. They originally met at the first National Fly Fishing Championships and Conservation Symposium, held at Russell, Manitoba, in 2003. Over a period of nine days they fished together as often as possible, and Marriner was mightily impressed. Especially when they arrived at a location where a fly-fishing show was being taped for TV. The host had been trying unsuccessfully to tempt a large trout that was cruising just offshore. When he got called away for a few minutes, he handed Sheedy his rod. Shortly thereafter, the cameraman taped him fighting, landing and releasing what proved to be a 24-inch rainbow.

Most of the patterns in this book were developed or seriously modified by Sheedy and his fishing buddies, but the late Jack Shaw’s Blood Leech is there, albeit in a somewhat brighter coat of mohair than we Islanders are used to using. Modifying existing patterns is what much of this book is about, but most of it goes on between Sheedy, who lives in southwestern Manitoba, Mac Warner from Saskatchewan, Mark Olinger from North Dakota, and Mike Andreasen from Utah, all of whom trek to Sheedy’s bailiwick to enjoy good trout fishing, swap lies, swipe each other’s flies, and modify them unmercifully. The results are often more productive than the originals.

Perhaps the most interesting concept that developed from all of this good-natured research is the weighting of hook shanks so specific patterns will ride properly in the water. It’s not simply a matter of winding lead wire around the shank -- far from it. Most times it is a precise length of wire that is folded, then bound into position on either the top or bottom of the shank at a specific location. Sheedy detail how certain nymphs, larvae, pupae and scuds move, and how the precise addition of weight to the shank makes a fly simulate these movements.

The fly illustrations are large -- four inches long -- leaving nothing to doubt. However, it is the text accompanying each pattern that makes this book a marvelous read. Yes, you will probably learn more than you knew beforehand, but you will enjoy Sheedy’s droll comments and observations about the antics of fellow anglers, and “armchair fly-fishing writers” who don’t really know of which they write.

A dedicated conservationist, Sheedy devoted the final few pages to Fly Fishing Canada, and muses about how he became converted to the cause of competitive fly fishing events. Interesting and thought provoking.... All of which is why this will be a great addition to anyone’s library.