I would hazard a guess that not many of the Board Members have a chance to read the Napanee Guide.
Here's an article I found on the Fishing News-wire and a regular contributor is mentioned.
"Ice fisherman has good advice for people nearing retirement *PIC*
Spiel -- Sat, Feb/12/05
Jim Sarazin
Napanee Guide - Thursday, February 10, 2005 @ 12:00
Jim Mitchell appears to be enjoying every minute of each day since retiring from Dupont Canada in 1998.
If you want to find him at this time of the year, head over to the Deseronto Yacht Club some morning and drive out on the ice about a kilometre.
He may be there, he may not.
“One morning I might get up at 7 a.m., but if I feel like sleeping in, I do,” said the 65-year-old retiree.
This past Monday, with the temperatures hovering around 6 C, Mitchell headed over to his favourite fishing hole.
“Right now, I’m fishing just about every day,” said the Napanee resident.
Around lunch time, he drove his ATV machine up a ramp into the back of his pickup truck and called it a day.
No fish but still a great way to spend the morning, he said.
“I do enjoy fishing, getting out with friends and meeting people,” he said.
Mitchell has been a regular fixture on the Bay of Quinte ice since early January. He hasn’t been pulling too many walleye up the hole until last week, that is.
“I finally caught a big fish out there,” he said.
It was February 3 and after fishing for a couple of hours he felt a giant tug on the end of his line.
“I knew it was a bigger fish than what I had wanted. I don’t keep big fish to eat, they don’t taste well and they also help to repopulate the walleye,” said Mitchell.
A slot limit allows him to keep a fish over 25 inches in length.
Mitchell said the one he landed was almost 30 inches in length. The fish is being mounted.
Sometimes you will spot Mitchell out on the ice with his buddies Lyn McKeown or Cliff McBryde.
A few weeks ago Mitchell managed to land a walleye about 18 inches in length, but he said fishing hasn’t been too promising.
He said it goes in spurts, one week they’re biting and the next week their not.
“I come out quite regular. I don’t want to miss the day they come onto your line,” he said.
“Last year, it was really good for a while then it stopped near the end of the season,” said Mitchell. “Then it picked up again just as the season wrapped up.”
Mitchell will fish in the Bay of Quinte region until the end of February. He will then head north to fish the back lakes until about mid-March.
If he’s not out on the lake you will likely spot him riding around on his ATV.
Last fall he joined members of the Napanee ATV Club and headed to Sharbot Lake for a fall outing.
“I still like to fish in the summer and go camping,” he said.
Like this past summer when he and his wife Bev enjoyed a two week camping outing in the fall.
Many employees at Invista, the company that took over the Kingston plant last year, can rest assured that Mitchell is doing just fine in his retirement years.
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Jim Mitchell relaxes on his ATV after spending Monday morning fishing in the Bay of Quinte.
Photo: Jim Sarazin"
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