Just one more cast

By Charlotte MacAulay

All the poles are ready and the dew worms were dug up last week said Gordon Gallant, Montague.
Mr Gallant is an avid fisherman to say the least and he is ready for April 15, the day angling season starts on PEI.
“Where there’s water and fish I’m there.
“I’m always ready,” Mr Gallant said.
He started fishing when he was about nine years old.
“Back then I’d just get a stick out of the woods and tie a string to it.
“There was no such thing as a reel.”
The improvements since then have made it easier to catch fish , said Mr Gallant.
Even so some times it takes hours to catch something.
“If I go to a place I know there’s big ones and fish, I’d stay all day to get just one.”
Mr Gallant has the patience to sit and wait when he knows there will be a big pay-off in the end.
“It’s quite a thrill when you hook a big one and have to fight them.”
Mr Gallant use to fish both trout and salmon, but he doesn’t enjoy the catch and release that is now mandatory in the salmon fishery.
“When I catch a fish I like to take it home and eat it.”
He said the best way to cook a trout is to dip it in flour and then into the hot oil in the frying pan.
What Mr Gallant and his wife Helena don’t use they can always find someone who would like a feed of trout.
These days grandson’s Max and Willis VanWiechen are usually Mr Gallant’s fishing partners, but in the past there have been many times when Helena and their four children would join him on the water.
“They didn’t have much patience for me.
“When the boys were growing up they’d say, ‘Let’s go home Dad,’ and I’d say ‘just one more cast.’”
Mrs Gallant confirms this story.
“I’ve heard ‘just one more cast’ a lot more times then I can remember,” she said.
Mr Gallant has been retired for 15 years so fishing is isn’t just a hobby anymore, it’s a way of life.
“There’s not too many days you’ll find me home during the fishing season.
“I miss it during the winter, but the fishing shows on TV help me through.”