The Old Fisherman

The Old Fisherman told MacKenzie, the guide, to be ready at 11 a.m. MacKenzie was ready, but the Old Fisherman was not: he rarely appeared before 3 o’clock in the afternoon. They fished from a launch in Lake Huron, in the clear blue icy waters around Birch Island in Canada’s famed Manitoulin district. First trip out the Old Fisherman took five smallmouth black bass, one medium-sized musky. His tackle: a light trout rod, a pearl spoon.

They took along sandwiches: egg-&-pickle, cheese, and ham. The Old Fisherman liked the ham sandwiches best.

Khaki windbreaker buttoned crookedly, white cloth hat drooped around his ears, the Old Fisherman was all grins as he rode back to his special train at Birch Island Station,— Ontario, in an Army jeep. He spread out his palms in the classic fisherman’s gesture, shortened the distance between them, leaned back his head and laughed.

On the second day the Old Fisherman began calling Guide MacKenzie “Mac.” But when a big Catalina flying boat roared in with a new arrival there was a touch of formality. “Mr. Harry Hopkins,” said the Old Fisherman, “Meet Mr. Donald MacKenzie.” The fishing got even better: “You certainly know the holes for these beauties,” he told Guide MacKenzie. All in all, around 100 bass were taken (biggest: 4 lb. 2 oz.), five pike and pickerel. The Old Fisherman got most of them. Some others who wet a hook: Admiral William D. Leahy, Vice Admiral Wilson Brown, Major General Edwin M. Watson, Rear Admiral Ross McIntyre, James F. Byrnes.

Fish-fries followed fishing. For dessert there were bowls of Manitoulin blueberries. In the background constantly hovered Royal Canadian Mounted Police, members of the U.S. Army, Secret Service men. The inhabitants of Birch Island Station (three summer cottages, two farm dwellings, one church) kept mum about the Old Fisherman, the warplanes that zoomed in & out.

Said the Old Fisherman, back home this week at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.: “This is the first, tan I’ve had this summer. I thought I might burn on an outing like this.”

* In the Ojibwa Indian Reservation. Special tracks and a platform were built to accommodate the Old Fisherman’s special train.