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This should lure them in

Centre dedicated to sport fishing

By: Bill Redekop

Posted: 07/21/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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Sioux Narrows July 10 2012 - the sport fishing centre with array of solar panels. Photo by Tom Thomson

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Photos by Tom Thomson / Winnipeg Free Press Jeff Port with the Molly the Musky drinking fountain, which he says stops everybody. The brand new interpretive centre includes an exhibit of vintage outboard motors (below).

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Sioux Narrows July 10 2012 - one of the carved totem poles w the antique outbard motor collection in the background at the sport fishing centre. Photo by Tom Thomson

SIOUX NARROWS, ONT. -- In 1906, a Detroit taxidermist took a whole month off to go fishing in Northern Ontario.

One problem: The lures he used would revolve in the water and twist up his line. So, he developed a spoon that flipped back and forth instead. The result: the invention of the famous, red-and-white Dardevle, also known as the Red Devil Spoon.

It's not trivia if it has to do with fishing! Those nuggets of information and more await visitors to the new Northern Ontario Sportfishing Centre.

"There's nothing like this across Canada in terms of a tourist attraction: an interpretive centre that celebrates sports fishing," said Jeff Port, director of planning and development for Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls.

The $2.6-million centre opened on June 21 in Sioux Narrows, about an hour's drive southeast of Kenora on Highway 71. The first thing you see on arrival is the Molly the Musky drinking fountain beside the doors. It's a drinking fountain built into the mouth of a statue of a large musky.

"You've got to be careful with kitsch. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We ran this by all our colleagues first," he said.

As if on cue, three people walk up to Molly, take turns sticking their heads in her mouth for a drink of water, snap pictures, laugh. "See? They love it. Everybody's got to stop," Port said.

Five vintage outboard motors, all restored by Jim Geddes of Kenora, make up one of the centre's displays. The oldest looks like a Star Wars robot, with a squarish head and a flywheel on top. It's a Super Elto from 1929.

"There are six (Super Elto 1929) left in the world. Jim tells you this is the best. This seven-horsepower was the racing motor in its day," said Port.

The Elto was the brainchild of Ole Evinrude, a Wisconsin machinist who started Evinrude Motors in 1909. He sold the company in 1913 to be with his sick wife but later started another company, ELTO (Evinrude Light Twin Outboard). By 1925, he was outselling his old Evinrude company.

The exhibit includes a 1946 Champion outboard (its propeller blades folded together when in neutral so they didn't push water), a 1955 Johnson in stylish red and white design (Evinrude and ELTO eventually merged with Johnson), and a white 1963 Mercury, the last year it produced white outboards; they've been black ever since.

Another good move was hiring Winnipeg writer Jake MacDonald to write its panel boards. Display panels are typically a narcolepsy-inducing experience, but not in MacDonald's hands. The write-ups are colourfully and incisively written by a man who's lived the life; MacDonald was a fishing guide on Lake of the Woods in another incarnation. MacDonald gives background on everything from outboard motors, famous lures (including the Rapala and the Len Thompson spoon, but, alas, no Canadian wiggler), the five sport fish -- pickerel (walleye), jack (northern pike), trout, musky and bass -- and how to catch them.

MacDonald and Winnipeg musician Greg Lowe are also completing five videos, one for each sport fish, that run continuously. The videos can also be watched on an available iPad in the lounge area. Other exhibits include an old cedar-strip fishing boat built by local boat builders, the Haas family; wildlife carvings and paintings; and a mural fishing cabin, circa 1950s.

While the centre is still a bit thin content-wise, more is on the way. The centre hadn't yet procured all material before the grand opening, Port said. Yet to come are fish mounts -- it seems strange there are none -- and a collection of vintage lures. Also in the making is a video of old-timers telling fish stories and other tall tales. There are plans for an aquarium of pan fish -- sport fish no larger than the frying pan, such as perch and sunfish.

Visitors will note the striking exterior wall of solar panels, 48 in total, on the building designed by Kenora architect David Nelson. Solar energy is much more prevalent in Ontario, where electricity prices are higher. The solar panels will net about $10,000 annually for the centre, with most of the electricity sold back to the grid.

"We didn't want to build a log cabin. Been there, done that," said Port.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 21, 2012 A13

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