Wayne in BC
New member
When OJ asked me about living in North Vancouver as a little kid it brought back some interesting memories.
My father was in Korea at the time so my mother was making do with very little money and two mouths to feed. A soldiers pay in the fifties barely provided even the necessities of life but as a 5 year old kid i knew nothing of this at the time. I remember being quite happy and only a great many years later did i understand what it took for mother to cope.
The only thing i remember knowing for sure was that i desperately wanted to fish! Why i do not know but it was a fixation with me and thinking back as hard i may, no early memory explains it.
It was very tough for my Mom, she had to watch me from the time i started walking as i would head for the nearest water. She would provide me with the obligatory piece of string and a bent pin. Now even at the tender age of 5 i knew that a "real" hook had to be better but having lodged one in my hand once and causing mother to do some nasty home surgery did not dissuade me although it prompted mother to ban barbed hooks for her little fish fanatic
I believe i may have posted part of this story before but please indulge me repeating myself as it is part of a more interesting escapade that i got into.
One day while i was sitting on the bank of Mosquito creek and trying to wind a yard or so of nightcrawlers onto my bent safety pin in order to tempt one of the literal hordes of rainbow trout below me that could not possibly open their little mouths wide enough to get past the great wad of worms and near my hook, i heard something like a "harummphh". Kinda like the old "Major Hoople" of comic strip fame
I looked up to see a giant standing over me! He was all brown serge with huge shiny brown boots, an equally huge belt from which hung a shiny black holster with a fancy lanyard on it. All this was topped off with the "Mounties" famous hat......and underneath that hat was a wonderful "daddy" "uncle" "grampa" kind of face with a good humored grin on it, and that of course was what kept me from breaking into tears and confessing every little old sin my young brain could recall
You see, that crick was posted no fishing! I had been told by the other kids that the cops would not bother kids, but now i was wondering, even tho he seemed quite friendly as he said.....
Whatcha doin sonny?.....um, fishing sir.
Catching any?.....No Sir!
Let me see your pole,.....hmmmmm, what is this, this is not a proper hook, you will have trouble getting a fish with this and you have way too much bait on it.
I said nothing and he stood up and to my surprise, because i was expecting to be in trouble, held out his hand and said kindly, come with me and we will get you some hooks. The little Chinese corner store was only a block away, and off i went went hand in hand with this giant RCMP.
In those days a couple pennies bought you about a dozen fishhooks and i was soon not only the proud and happy owner of said hooks but also in possession of about 15 ft of real "catgut" fishing line! Back down to the creek we went and he set up my line properly, showing me how to bait it. I do remember catching several big trout (likely 5-6 inches) and after a bit he said come along and i will walk you home.
Of course he never occured to her proud and happy son just what his mother would think about him coming home in the presence of a policeman!
The rest of the story comes from my dear mother as i do not remember this part....She told the story many times in later years of how shocked and embarrassed she was as the Mountie explained that he had bought me some hooks and line. As she put it, all she could think about was how he must have thought she was a bad and cheapskate mother who would not spend a penny for her child! I am not sure if she explained further
.....poor mother!
Well the next part of the story involves the other of the two creeks that we lived between, i am sure it was McCaulley creek although i am not sure of the spelling. It was a much larger stream and had a large Salmon run and a native reserve on it.
One day i was walking near this larger stream and to my shock i saw huge fish! Everywhere they were, jumping out of the water or just finning quietly right in front of me! I had not seen such a thing as this, being used to tiny trout that one must sneak up on lest they scatter and disappear, never had i seen a run of spawning Salmon. To my increasing astonishment, they came in colors! Some being bright silver blue, while others, wow! they were bright red!
As i stood there, my young eyes taking in these wonders, a voice said....hi kid! And i turned to see what i later learned was a young native man, i had no idea in those days who was what or which, (too bad the world intruded in later years) and said Hi, back to him. He said, do you like fish? and i guess the big smile on my little face was answer enough when he followed it with.....which one do you want? Without hesitating i pointed immediatly to a bright red spawning male Salmon and just as quick he said.....nah kid you don't want that one! I nodded and said yes, he tried again and again to talk me out of it but finally shrugged his shoulders, grabbed his "jighook" and a moment later my prize was flopping on the ground with me on top of it and holding on tightly to the slimey, weakly struggling creature! That fish was barely alive and already starting to rot, a big hump on his back, lower jaw heavily "kyped" with jagged teeth protruding and to me he was beautiful and a real trophy!
Thanking my benefactor and slinging the heavy mess over my shoulder i struggled proudly home to what i was sure would be a happy and impressed mother! The native guy said, if your Mom don't want that fish then i will get you a "good" one......Mom was not in the house and maybe at a neighbors so i plunked the critter in the kitchen sink then ran and found Mom in the garden, all the time babbling happily about my monster fish.
I will never forget my Mothers face when she saw my prize! She let out a loud squawk! Then said, where did you get that thing!? Shocked that Mom was not excited about my triumph, i told her the story and she calmed down some but said i should take the fish back and if i could get a Silver one, well that would be good. I was kinda pouting cause i figured a fish that nice and red should be real good but packed the critter back down the lane heading for the creek. I did not get far and encountered a "telephone man" in the lane. I tried to sell him the fish for a nickel and he was still laughing when i was a few houses down
The native fella also laughed when i showed up but he promptly jigged me a nice Silver fresh run Salmon, he was was still chuckling when i headed back home. Mom was pleased with the new fish and i learned some strange things that day, the biggest was for sure that fish came much larger than my world had imagined and i am still chasing them!
Hope you enjoyed the fishing trip, my thanks also to Fred Kelley, Royal, and Sunny for motivating me!
My father was in Korea at the time so my mother was making do with very little money and two mouths to feed. A soldiers pay in the fifties barely provided even the necessities of life but as a 5 year old kid i knew nothing of this at the time. I remember being quite happy and only a great many years later did i understand what it took for mother to cope.
The only thing i remember knowing for sure was that i desperately wanted to fish! Why i do not know but it was a fixation with me and thinking back as hard i may, no early memory explains it.
It was very tough for my Mom, she had to watch me from the time i started walking as i would head for the nearest water. She would provide me with the obligatory piece of string and a bent pin. Now even at the tender age of 5 i knew that a "real" hook had to be better but having lodged one in my hand once and causing mother to do some nasty home surgery did not dissuade me although it prompted mother to ban barbed hooks for her little fish fanatic
I believe i may have posted part of this story before but please indulge me repeating myself as it is part of a more interesting escapade that i got into.
One day while i was sitting on the bank of Mosquito creek and trying to wind a yard or so of nightcrawlers onto my bent safety pin in order to tempt one of the literal hordes of rainbow trout below me that could not possibly open their little mouths wide enough to get past the great wad of worms and near my hook, i heard something like a "harummphh". Kinda like the old "Major Hoople" of comic strip fame
I looked up to see a giant standing over me! He was all brown serge with huge shiny brown boots, an equally huge belt from which hung a shiny black holster with a fancy lanyard on it. All this was topped off with the "Mounties" famous hat......and underneath that hat was a wonderful "daddy" "uncle" "grampa" kind of face with a good humored grin on it, and that of course was what kept me from breaking into tears and confessing every little old sin my young brain could recall
You see, that crick was posted no fishing! I had been told by the other kids that the cops would not bother kids, but now i was wondering, even tho he seemed quite friendly as he said.....Whatcha doin sonny?.....um, fishing sir.
Catching any?.....No Sir!
Let me see your pole,.....hmmmmm, what is this, this is not a proper hook, you will have trouble getting a fish with this and you have way too much bait on it.
I said nothing and he stood up and to my surprise, because i was expecting to be in trouble, held out his hand and said kindly, come with me and we will get you some hooks. The little Chinese corner store was only a block away, and off i went went hand in hand with this giant RCMP.
In those days a couple pennies bought you about a dozen fishhooks and i was soon not only the proud and happy owner of said hooks but also in possession of about 15 ft of real "catgut" fishing line! Back down to the creek we went and he set up my line properly, showing me how to bait it. I do remember catching several big trout (likely 5-6 inches) and after a bit he said come along and i will walk you home.
Of course he never occured to her proud and happy son just what his mother would think about him coming home in the presence of a policeman!
The rest of the story comes from my dear mother as i do not remember this part....She told the story many times in later years of how shocked and embarrassed she was as the Mountie explained that he had bought me some hooks and line. As she put it, all she could think about was how he must have thought she was a bad and cheapskate mother who would not spend a penny for her child! I am not sure if she explained further
.....poor mother!Well the next part of the story involves the other of the two creeks that we lived between, i am sure it was McCaulley creek although i am not sure of the spelling. It was a much larger stream and had a large Salmon run and a native reserve on it.
One day i was walking near this larger stream and to my shock i saw huge fish! Everywhere they were, jumping out of the water or just finning quietly right in front of me! I had not seen such a thing as this, being used to tiny trout that one must sneak up on lest they scatter and disappear, never had i seen a run of spawning Salmon. To my increasing astonishment, they came in colors! Some being bright silver blue, while others, wow! they were bright red!
As i stood there, my young eyes taking in these wonders, a voice said....hi kid! And i turned to see what i later learned was a young native man, i had no idea in those days who was what or which, (too bad the world intruded in later years) and said Hi, back to him. He said, do you like fish? and i guess the big smile on my little face was answer enough when he followed it with.....which one do you want? Without hesitating i pointed immediatly to a bright red spawning male Salmon and just as quick he said.....nah kid you don't want that one! I nodded and said yes, he tried again and again to talk me out of it but finally shrugged his shoulders, grabbed his "jighook" and a moment later my prize was flopping on the ground with me on top of it and holding on tightly to the slimey, weakly struggling creature! That fish was barely alive and already starting to rot, a big hump on his back, lower jaw heavily "kyped" with jagged teeth protruding and to me he was beautiful and a real trophy!
Thanking my benefactor and slinging the heavy mess over my shoulder i struggled proudly home to what i was sure would be a happy and impressed mother! The native guy said, if your Mom don't want that fish then i will get you a "good" one......Mom was not in the house and maybe at a neighbors so i plunked the critter in the kitchen sink then ran and found Mom in the garden, all the time babbling happily about my monster fish.
I will never forget my Mothers face when she saw my prize! She let out a loud squawk! Then said, where did you get that thing!? Shocked that Mom was not excited about my triumph, i told her the story and she calmed down some but said i should take the fish back and if i could get a Silver one, well that would be good. I was kinda pouting cause i figured a fish that nice and red should be real good but packed the critter back down the lane heading for the creek. I did not get far and encountered a "telephone man" in the lane. I tried to sell him the fish for a nickel and he was still laughing when i was a few houses down
The native fella also laughed when i showed up but he promptly jigged me a nice Silver fresh run Salmon, he was was still chuckling when i headed back home.
Mom was pleased with the new fish and i learned some strange things that day, the biggest was for sure that fish came much larger than my world had imagined and i am still chasing them!Hope you enjoyed the fishing trip, my thanks also to Fred Kelley, Royal, and Sunny for motivating me!
