Fishing & Salmon Fishing Charters
If there was one hobby Roy could have chosen as an alternate career, perhaps he would have run a fishing charter company. He was especially fond of sports fishing and salmon fishing. He was never happier than when — fishing rod in hand — he was fighting a sockeye salmon, chinook, or better yet a 46-pound tyee (which was his record catch). He was an avid angler who also loved going after deep-water lake trout up at Lake Temagami, Ontario. Before moving to Victoria, British Columbia, Roy fished for pickerel in Bobcaygeon, Ontario and took many a trip to a variety of fishing resorts with his old studio buddies.
Accompanied by his first wife Helen and their two children, Roy also liked to hire a guide in Ontario's Kawartha Lakes district for a week of muskie-fishing once a year. Moving to the west coast, with his second family, upon his retirement in 1968 gave Roy many more opportunities to fish for salmon. He was a regular at Campbell River's Painter's Lodge, a popular fishing spot located on the northern part of the Island. Roy often took his son on fishing trips and the two of them spent many hours fishing for sockeye and coho. The fishing guide always knew the best spots and every fishing trip had a story about the one that got away! The less elusive catches came back for the barbeque or the freezer. Others were smoked, or canned to savour during the winter months.