Former American President Jimmy Carter, who only recently turned 98, has fished his entire life. On this date in 1983, the former American Chief Executive was in British Columbia where landed a mighty Canadian salmon. The experience so impressed him that Carter later wrote a lengthy account of his Canadian conquest. You will find it below.
President Jimmy Carter: The next morning, April 14, was clear and cold. I got up early, before the others, to walk down to the sea in Copper Bay. There were twenty-seven-foot tides and vast expanses of exposed rocks between the water and the cliff on which the Ernst cottage was built. The entire shore was lined with hundreds of large logs, either lost or abandoned by the Queen Charlotte logging crews ….
Having already caught several the previous day on natural bait, I decided to stick with flies for today. On the creek bank that morning we’d met a young man named Bob Long, who, hearing I was there, had brought us three dozen of his special files, small patterns made of a multicolored woolen blend – red, pink, green, and yellow – which he exchanged for our promise to join the Steelhead Society.
Late that afternoon, having had two strikes but no fish, I was floating one of the small woolen flies under a great log lying diagonally across the Deena. We had lost many of the flies to the swift current, rocks, and snags. Now I was hung up again, about ready to give up on the fly altogether as a lost cause. Just then, the “snag” began to move. I had a fish on my line, large enough that for a few minutes he was uncontrollable. I could only try to conserve as much line on my reel as possible while that steelhead did as he wished.
I tried to remember what I had learned about handling big fish on relatively light tackle. After getting the slack out of my line and on my reel, I maintained steady but firm pressure, moving down the shallow side of the creek whenever possible until I was downstream of the steelhead. Nevertheless, I almost lost him as he made two hard runs, one up a small tributary stream for a short distance. I applied as much restraint as the tackle would bear, although at other times I tried to moderate the tension to prevent the frantic runs.
Time dragged on. The fish and I moved slowly but inexorably down the stream. Fortunately, I was able to follow him, using the bank when possible and wading at other times. At this point the other fishermen came together to watch our pas de deux. On occasion they gave me some quiet encouragement – or laughed rather impolitely when I stumbled or fell. The steelhead jumped several times, and we could see from its bright colors that this one had been out of the sea for a number of days. I was mostly worried about the line getting fouled on one of the many snags in the stream, but each time the fish swam into an old treetop or among some roots the line later came clear. Because of the difficult footing and cluttered bank, I was engaged in a more sustained and difficult contest that I’d had with the much larger Atlantic salmon, but after half an hour the fish was obviously tiring. Finally, Walter was able to slip his net under the big male. We let him rest for a few minutes heading upstream and then watched him swim away, estimating his weight at fourteen pounds.
Clearly, it was the climax of this day’s fishing. For a while, I had forgotten about the rain and cold. Now, trembling with excitements and fatigue, I decided to rest on my laurels and watch Rosalynn and the others fish for a while.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.