By Kyle Curtis

Local salmon fishers are chomping at the bit to get back out on the river. Salmon fishing has always been a part of Newfoundland’s culture. This year the salmon fishing season opened on June 1st and closes on September 7th. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador issues over 30,000 licenses every year.

Avid anglers are very optimistic about their success for this upcoming season.

‘THE ANTICIPATION’

Shawn Anderson, a 41-year-old salmon fisherman from Kippens, has been salmon fishing since he was five. He says when he picked up the rod he was immediately hooked.

“It’s the anticipation of the rise of the fish. Just being on the river is peaceful, it’s relaxing and it’s stress-relieving. I recently got my little guy into it and he’s really starting to enjoy it. It’s something that I can pass on to him that my father and grandfather passed on to me,” Anderson shared.

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Scott Grant, a 43-year-old angler from Steady Brook, says he is fairly new to the sport and has only been salmon fishing for about seven years. He shared that he wishes he started salmon fishing early in his life.

“One thing about salmon fishing is that it’s not like basketball or baseball where you have to learn a certain skill set. Salmon fishing is different. Salmon fishing is a lifelong obsession,” Grant said. “You learn something every time you go out. If you think you know everything you’re absolutely mistaken… There’s a million things to learn. It’s an absolute lifelong learning experience.”

STRESS RELIEF

Newfoundland is known for its nature. Many anglers say that salmon fishing is the best way to explore what is in your own backyard.
Brenda Tuff, an angler from Kelligrews, has been proudly fishing for 31 years. She says that being on the river is very relaxing.

“You got to concentrate on what you’re doing so much. You concentrate on the water and your fly on the water and have to be ready to react when you see a fish come for it. You’re concentrating so much that there’s nothing else in your head,” Tuff said.
Anderson has been out on the river a couple of times since the season opened, but wasn’t lucky enough to hook a fish. He uses fishing as a form of stress relief.

“It gets you outdoors and you lose focus on everything else. Everything kind of melts away and you listen to the water. And you focus on the fly and the casting. It releases all the tension you’ve got and it feels nice to be outdoors,” Anderson shared.

‘OUT IN NATURE’

The community around salmon fishing, says Grant, is one of the main reasons he continues to fish year after year. He loves meeting people from all aspects of life out on the river.

“I live a fairly stressful life,” Grant said. “My favourite part isn’t hooking fish, it’s just being out in nature. It’s the peace and quiet, it’s the wind blowing through my lack of hair, it’s the sun in my face. Just being out in nature is what I love about it. Also the conversations you have out on the river and the people you meet, that sort of thing too. I don’t salmon fish just to catch fish and that’s the truth.”

Tuff shares that she loves to see more and more women on the river every year.

“It’s typically always been a male-dominated sport. There’s more women on the river every year, Most of the men that salmon fish are now taking their wives or daughters. If a girl wanted to get into salmon fishing I’d be more than happy to take them out with me,” Tuff said happily.

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Tom Moore, an award-winning local author, has a new book — My Father’s Son. Moore has been a writer for over 50 years. His first novel, Good-Bye Momma, became a Canadian bestseller.

In 1994,  Angels Crying (self-published) became his second national bestseller and was required reading at schools of social work, including Memorial University.

In 2000, Ghost World won the inaugural Percy Janes award for best novel manuscript. His latest novel, The Sign on My Father’s House, won the NL Reads 2020 competition, and the Margaret Dooley Fiction award.

Moore is the only writer to win both the Percy Janes award and the Margaret Dooley award for fiction.

Moore explains he has always had a special passion for writing.

“Well I was sort of interested in things that excited me and I wanted to pass it on to other people. I wanted to share the experiences in my life with other people. The things that I thought were important and things I thought people may have been missing,” Moore shared in a one-on-one with The Newfoundland Herald.

‘A MIDLIFE CRISIS’

Moore says it took him just over two years to write My Father’s Son. He believes that this is his best book yet, explaining that all of the skills he has developed over the years have been put into this book.

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“It picks up in a man’s life. He’s having a midlife crisis. He is a high-school teacher, which I have some familiarity with. He’s on the edge of a cliff and he’s thinking about his life and how the dreams and hopes he had from childhood haven’t really come to reality,” Moore said.

“He gets a call from the past, his ex-girlfriend. She calls him back to a new situation that’s brewing in his hometown. Where the oil company from North Dakota has come in to start fracking. It becomes an environmental question where his father, whom he [has] been getting along with pretty well, become reunited in a battle against a man called John Barron and his big oil company.”

“Besides entertainment it’s good if you can inform on areas that they may not be familiar with, for instance the environmental battle, for instance the rural-urban shift that most of Newfoundland is going through.”

-Tom Moore

Moore explains where he gets his inspiration for his novels.

“The things that I feel are important in life. Stuff that I think about when I get up in the morning. For me I think about how my life is going, is it good or is it bad. The people, the important people in my life, the relationships I have. Nature, Newfoundland, rural and urban all the troubles that we are having now are making its way into all of our writing … Life has got its complexities and we can show that in writing through metaphor and symbol,” Moore said.

A SPARK IN THE READER

Moore says readers can learn a lot from his new book.

“I think a book should entertain. People like number one to be entertained; they like a book to lift them right out of their world. Besides entertainment it’s good if you can inform on areas that they may not be familiar with, for instance the environmental battle, for instance the rural-urban shift that most of Newfoundland is going through. I think third, if you can inspire. If you can spark something to make them say ‘wow’ and the hair goes up on the back of their neck. They read a passage you wrote and it moves them emotionally,” Moore said.

Moore shares his favourite part about My Father’s Son.

“I think it’s probably the relationship that he rediscovers with his father and with Newfoundland. The battle over the fracking and the environmental concerns brings them together, but deep down I think it’s the relationship between the father and the son,” Moore said.

You can pick up a copy of Moore’s new novel My Father’s son on bookshelves and online beginning June 10th. You can also follow him on his Facebook page for updates.

Story by Kyle Curtis

Hockey card collecting has formed a strong bond between fathers and sons. Since the ‘90s card collecting has been a popular hobby amongst sports fans. Personal collections have been passed down from father to son for decades. Opening packs of cards has created memories that will last a lifetime for most fathers, especially when they get a valuable card or even just a card from their favourite team.

‘A REALLY COOL HOBBY’

Joshua Bonnell and his five-year-old son Declan Glover started collecting at the beginning of the pandemic. 

Bonnell says they are both big hockey fans and when they were stuck in the house and had nothing to do they decided to pick up a new hobby. 

“Ever since we both ripped open our first pack we’ve been hooked on it,” he explained. 

Bonnell is a member of the CardBreakNL Facebook group, sharing a big reason why they are so invested in the hobby is the community that surrounds it.

“The card collecting community here is amazing. Anybody is willing to help you out, buying, selling and trading cards or even if you just have a question to ask,” he said.

Shawn Mathe has been collecting since he was a little kid. He decided to introduce his

five-year-old son, Gavin, into the hobby over the past couple of years. Mathe says the community plays a big role in keeping him engaged in the hobby.

“The hobby brings a lot of people close. It’s a tight-knit community and it’s nice to be a part of that comradery when it comes to collecting cards,” Mathe said, adding that his son loves opening packs. 

“I just wanted to show him that it was a really cool hobby. I think it’s really neat and you can learn a lot. He knows every NHL team now,  just by their logo, so it’s teaching him as well.”

Mathe says that his son is learning a lot from collecting cards.

“It encompasses a lot when you think about everything that’s involved with collecting. There’s math for statistics, there’s colours, there’s cities and there’s patterns.”

RING RING RING!

Josh’s favourite team is the Carolina Hurricanes and Declan’s is the Pittsburgh Penguins. Josh says they both like collecting cards from their favourite teams.

Declan brought some of his favourite cards to show me. He looked so proud of his collection. He says he loves collecting cards with his dad.

“It makes me so happy,” said Glover. 

Collecting cards with his son, he adds, makes the hobby more enjoyable.

“It’s someone to share it with. It doesn’t matter if we are opening expensive boxes or Dollarama packs. He just loves opening the cards, he goes ring ring ring if he thinks it’s a good card. Just seeing him engaged with it like when I was a kid, is great.”

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GENERATIONS OF CARDS

Mathe says the hobby isn’t about making money, it’s about enjoying it with your friends, family, and the community.

“For me when I open up packs with him I don’t look at the dollar signs associated with it anymore. It’s a hobby,” he shares. “It’s what I love to do. When I retire I would love to open up my own hobby shop. I would love to have that enjoyment of seeing people pull these massive crazy cards and know that it came from my shop. It gives me so much enjoyment seeing Gavin’s face light up when he is opening packs.”

Bonnell says that this hobby provides him and his son with so many memories.

“It’s nice to let him do things I wasn’t able to do as a kid and share these moments with him,” he said.

Mathe adds that card collecting has also provided memories that last a lifetime for him and his son.

“My favourite card is that card I pulled with my dad because he has since passed away. It’s something that when I look at it, it always brings me back to that time when I pulled my first jersey card. No matter what value people put on cards, that card is the most personally valuable to me,” he admits.

Collections getting passed down through generations, says Mathe, is one of his favourite things about the hobby.

“It’s good to have that person to always give back to,” he said. “Whenever I do pass away I know that all the things I worked hard

collecting are going right to Gavin. Hopefully, when he has a kid  he can give all the cards I gave to him to his son.”

Declan says he has started collecting for his soon-to-be-born little brother.

Mathe adds that seeing his son share the same passion for card collecting as he does is amazing.

HOBBY HANDED DOWN

“To see him have that same interest in hockey cards and to just have him sit with me in openings on Facebook is awesome. 

“We’ve been doing it since he was two years old, so we have almost three years of videos up now,” Mathe said. 

“I love to see every time he has the same little twinkle in his eye. He’s reaching people that just add me on Facebook to see the videos we do. He shows the same passion about it and it really makes my heart feel full.”

By Kyle Curtis

Rotational working fathers have always found it very difficult being away from their kids, but the pandemic is making it harder.

TEN DAYS AT A TIME 

A lot of Newfoundlanders have to travel in and out of the province for work on a two-week or one-month cycle. They are away from their families for two weeks and then travel home and have to isolate for four days, leaving them only getting to see their family for ten days at a time.

Brent Hewlett, a heavy-duty mechanic from Shoal Harbour, has been doing rotational work in Fort McMurray for nine years. He works on a two-week rotation.      When he’s home he likes to spend time with his three children, Olivia (8), Tyson (5) and Connor (1). He says he likes the new restrictions the government has recently put in place.

“They changed it two sets ago. So now I have to go home and get tested and isolate from my family until I get a negative test,” Hewlett said. “Once I get a negative test then I’m allowed around my family. I can go for walks and drives but I’m not allowed around other people. After one week I get tested a second time. If that comes back negative I’m allowed to be around other people but not big crowds.”

Terry Jones, a heavy-duty mechanic from St. John’s, has been doing rotational work in Northern Ontario for ten years. He works on a two-week rotation. He has three children, Emma (15), Jermey (23) and Kaitlyn (23). He says a few rotations ago, when the restrictions made rotational workers isolate for two weeks, he didn’t travel home. He stayed with his sister in Ontario because if he was home he wouldn’t be able to see his family anyway. He says it has been very challenging for him and his family.

AWAY FOR CHRISTMAS

“I miss a lot. This year I’ll be away for Christmas and New Year’s. We just make it work. If I miss a special occasion we will celebrate when I’m home,” Jones said.

Hewlett says as a rotational worker you miss out on a lot. “I’m missing out on big moments of their lives. Birthdays, graduations, first steps, first words and all that good stuff.”

Hewlett says when he had to isolate for 14 days it was really difficult for him as well. “When they made us isolate for the full 14 days from our families, it was really hard. I’m a stay-at-home father

on my days off so it was really hard not to see them at all,” he said.

Jones says he spends a lot of time on video chats with his family when he is away, but his kids still hate to see him go every two weeks.

“It’s been hard on them because when I’m home they can’t do any school or work activities because the school or work doesn’t allow them to,” Jones said

It’s definitely harder for people with young kids, shared Hewlett.

“ It’s really difficult because they don’t understand. My kids are eight, five and one so they aren’t at the age that they can’t comprehend what’s going on,” Hewlett said. “I don’t know what that effect is going to be long term, but right now short term it makes them sad that I’m not with them.”

Hewlett says rotational working dads need to stick together and that they will get through it together.

“Put it in the mindset that even though it’s turning into long term right now. Always try to put it in the mindset that it’s short term,” Hewlett said. “I guess the saying is short term pain, long term gain. We’ll get through this together.”

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