Pothole fishing photo sparks memories

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This article was published 04/07/2022 (1283 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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A recent Winnipeg Free Press photo of Chris Thompson angling in a pothole in the middle of Route 90 brought interesting and humorous comments from readers, and there’s no doubt he gave many passing motorists a good reason to smile. Thompson said he likes to do things that make people laugh, and we need his kind of humour.

The image took me back to another humorous but possibly more successful fishing experience.

We were ballasting the CN Rail track into Thompson and I was operating a D6 Caterpillar equipped with a front end V plow. My job was to run through the side-opening gravel cars, forcing the gravel out to drop out along the rails. A gang behind us shovelled the gravel into place. As there was heavy rail traffic bringing in construction material for the mine, we often had to pull into a siding to let the priority trains pass. During one of these downtimes, one of the train crew caught a mess of walleye in a nearby river. We had a feast that lunch — all the walleye we could eat — with a a lot uncleaned fish left for another meal. Sitting on the steps of the caboose after lunch, contentedly digesting my meal, I noticed seagulls squabbling over the over the remains of the fish we had cleaned and tossed there. Because I had my fishing tackle nearby I tied a chunk of fish skin to the end of my line and sat back to angle for sea gulls.

A gull would grab my bait, try to take off and I would tug it back without harming the bird, causing it to squawk indignantly.

As I enjoyed my impromptu gull angling a truck full of construction workers on their way to the mine after lunch passed and hollered “How’s the fishing?”

I reached over and held up the string of uncleaned walleye and hollered back “Not bad!”

They drove off, no doubt puzzled by the strange goings-on in Thompson.

Ron Buffie is a community correspondent for Transcona. Email him at ronbuffie@shaw.ca