You can learn a lot from an older fisherman  #7

I am fortunate to have been able to fish with a lot of different people over the years. I am also fortunate to have been able to fish so many places, some near and some far. I recall many great fishing experiences growing up, one in particular when I was young and my father took me up to Dead Brook in north western Maine. I can still remember wading in that brook with dad, and falling in, getting wet from head to toe. I recall the ride home that day, falling asleep as soon as we left the brook. That served as a teasing point for my father and Phil Dumond that they reminded me of for many years after. I still hear it occasionally. I was fortunate to have grown up in a Maine Warden family and to have had so many of them around me. There was always something to learn and I took it all in. But, that is for another day and another blog.

This blog is about a man that I have spent a fair amount of time in a canoe with. He has also taught me to tie flies over the past couple of years. Rosaire Cyr from Fort Kent is 87 years old.  For many years now, Rosaire and I would go fishing using his canoe to tackle some of the great fishing holes in northern Maine. Ponds like 4^th Pelletier, 3^rd Wallagrass Lake and many of the ponds in the Deboulie region.  I recall fishing with Rosaire many years ago when he would be there to drag the canoe into the pond and drag it out. Come on, he would say, we can’t catch fish at the truck. He always had a better way than me of doing things and was not shy about letting me know.  He always tied his own flies and if you were lucky, he would even share some with you. Over the years, Rosaire has slowed down, but he still has a very strong passion for fishing. He also has worked hard to outsmart the fishing population using as he calls it the most recent fishing technology. The best representation of that I can offer happened last year. For many years, we would drive by 1st Pelletier pond in St. Francis on our way to 4^th Pelletier or to our hunting grounds. As we passed, I would always watch his face as he looked at the pond. I waited every time for him to let me know that that pond was always a good fishing hole in his younger days and he would really like to try it again someday. That day came last year when I told him that it was about time we packed the truck up and made our way to first Pelletier to see what we could find. Now, several years ago, Rosaire started using a fish finder to locate his prey. He had that thing mastered a short time after he got it. He would tell you where to go on the pond and where not to go. It was almost like he had a sixth sense about where the fishing holes were. If I strayed away from where his fish finder told him to be, he would always let me know. Well, on this day, he topped that big time. As we were packing up, he brought out a camera. I asked him what he was doing with that thing and he proceeded to tell me that this was his new fish finder. He proceeded to tell me that it was going to tell him where the fish were. With this unit, you lower the eye into the water and watch a screen in the boat. The screen represents real time action in the water. Rosaire told me that he was going to scout first Pelletier and he was going to catch the big one. Knowing his past promises, I didn’t hold out any hope. But I wanted to make his experience a good one, so I went along with his theory.  Well, we got to the pond and I unloaded my canoe and drug it down to the water’s edge. See, Rosaire has slowed down a lot recently and cannot do any dragging. Mind you, he is still good about giving orders though. He put his gear in and I did the same. He loaded the camera and off we went paddling out into the pond. All the way out as I paddled, oh yeah, I do most of the paddling now to, he was setting up that camera. I could tell he was really anxious to get it out into the water.  Once he had it all set up, he began to give me updates on what he was seeing. He told me about logs he saw, he told me about marshy areas he saw, but never once did he tell me about a fish he saw. There was one time that he thought he saw something moving, but I told him that did not count. He kept telling me where I should paddle to because he had a feeling about where the big one was. He spent his entire time on first Pelletier pond that night playing with the underwater camera. He would from time to time pull his head up out of the viewfinder to cast his fly line, but much of the time, his pole was in the boat. The play by play went on all evening and I was really getting a chuckle out of his enthusiasm. As the sun set and the light started to change to dusk, we decided to paddle to shore and call it a night. We did not get one bite all evening and I don’t think he fished for more than 30 minutes total that day. It really didn’t matter though because for one evening, I was with an 87 year old man who had longed to once again be on 1^st Pelletier Pond, and he was there and had really enjoyed himself. That, to me was all that counted.

Over the past 15 or so years, I have learned a lot while fishing with Rosaire. I am still glad to be able to spend time with him on the water and he knows he is still very fortunate to be able to go fishing when he wants.  He is slowing down a lot now, and is not able to walk long distances in the woods without taking breaks. But he can still find his way down to the ponds, or surely tell you how it should be done, and oh yeah, he still keeps up with the current technology. It makes me wonder what he will come up with this year?