My name is Andrew Myles. I grew up in Garnish, Newfoundland, and left there in 1944 to attend the University of Mount Allison in Sackville, NB.

I was ordained to the Christian ministry by the United Church of Canada in 1950 at Grand Falls, NL. After serving the church in Newfoundland and New Brunswick, I accepted a call to Islington United Church here in Toronto in 1960.

I have lived in Toronto since then and celebrated my 90th birthday on July 3rd of this year 2009.

I was fortunate to have as neighbours William and Janna Adair and family. William and Janna hail from Minnesota, USA. As luck should have it, William is an avid fisherman. After he acquired a boat, we took some fishing trips around the province (Ontario).

Previous to this, my wife, Stella Mauger, from Petites, Newfoundland, now deceased, and I did some "serious" fishing at Lake DeMille, Ontario. We would stay in a cabin at the fishing camp for a week, for several summers and catch our quota and then rush home with the frozen fish. One summer we did the trip back to Toronto without a night stopover (a thousand miles). We were a bit wobbly when we got out of the car, but the fish kept well. Consequently, I had some experience when William and I got together.

Lake DeMille is a hundred miles west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Such was the state of the road (trail) into the camp that it took close to half an hour to drive the three miles. There were encouraging signs along the way and at the end the sign read, "Congratulations, you made it."

The photo is of the pike we caught on July 12th, 2008, at Lake Muskoka near Bracebridge, Ontario, about two hours drive north of Toronto. It measured 3 feet, 2 inches in length, and weighed approximately 12 lb. I am on the left side of the photo, and William is on the right.

It was caught on an 8 lb test line with a Williams Wobler (3 inch) - a bright metal lure. It took 15 minutes to bring it in. My friends William and Janna Adair had rented a cottage and I was a happy guest.

The boat we were using was a termonog, an antique wooden boat belonging to William. The fish was quite tangled in the net, so we "towed" it to the dock.

After William cleaned the fish on the rocks at the shoreline, it was cut into nice juicy filets and distributed to friends.

It was early afternoon on the day we had to vacate the cottage when we decided to make one last troll. We trolled for an hour with a repella without any luck. Then William said it was time to go, but we will troll to the dock. We were in easy sight of the cottage. I decided to change lures and put on the Williams Wobler, with which William wasn't impressed.

We had trolled for just a few minutes, when I said to William, "I have hit a log," and William said, "No, you have a fish because the line is running out." We were surprised and happy when we eventually saw the "catch."

(Rev.) Andrew Myles   Submitted By: NULL