My day with Rosaire  #24

If you read my blogs, you know that I wrote one back in April about an older fisherman that I have spent time with over the years. Well, last week, TC told me that it was time to head back to the St John Valley and do some fishing. As you might expect, I jumped at the chance to get up there and to spend some time with Rosaire. Now he is 87 years young and is still going strong. He has been fishing all summer and at certain times, has been doing quite well.  Well, a quick call to him generated a favorable response and up I went.

When I got there, he was just about ready to go. Now, he doesn’t move as fast as he used to, however, he is quick on his feet when it’s time to go fishing. We also invited his oldest son Paul to join us. When I was on the phone with him, I asked where he wanted to go. As always, he said you choose. When we got ready to go, he let me know that we were going to McLean Lake.

Off we went to the lake with Rosaire in front and Paul in the back seat. When we got there, it was a short walk into the Lake from the road where we parked the truck. We carried all the equipment down to the Lake and let Rosaire walk down in his own time. When we got there, we inspected the shoreline and Rosaire did his walk around to make sure all was to his liking. We got in the boat and paddled out. I asked Rosaire where he wanted to fish and he responded, “You are the captain, I’ll go where you want.” That was short lived, because as I was paddling to a spot that I liked the looks of, he quickly told me that we needed to go somewhere else and that spot was not good.  My captain’s job was once again short lived.  

We fished for about 4 hours and Paul caught five trout, but we were fishless. Toward the end, Rosaire let me know, jokingly, that he was two fish short of his limit. That has significance, because the limit on that lake is two fish. At about 7pm, I noticed that Rosaire reeled his line in, took his reel off, and took his pole apart. I asked if that was a signal that he was done and he said yes. He let me know that there were no fish jumping and it was time to go. So, we paddled to the shore, got all the stuff and walked up the path to the truck. I went back to get the things Rosaire was carrying so as to lighten his load. He finally made it to the truck and we headed back to Fort Kent.

All in all, it was a good day. We had not caught any fish, but I got to spend time with an 87 year old man who had a passion for fishing. It has never ceased to amaze me that notwithstanding his age, Rosaire is very agile. He is not as fast as I remember him being in past years, but just being able to fish is a tall order and he does it well. I look forward to next year. Maybe he will really let me be the captain of the boat then. I think not.