NOW IS THE TIME!
It may be a shed, workshop, laundry, dining, bedroom, what have you. And it may be all yours, but it can be more than the dank cave where fishing and hunting gear endures a long-suffering death. Let’s assume it is a garage, any refuge where you make all the noise. You alone decide who and what stays and goes. Eventually, the walls may start closing in with season after season of the essentials of every variety. So much potential. Endless possibilities at the ready. But where does that get you?
Spring cleaning is a dangerous undertaking. If you do too good of a job, your spaces might be reclaimed for other nonsensical purposes like parking cars. Careful what emerges and how it is organized because if you put all your fishing rods together, this is an impressive sight. Too impressive, because it might elicit a complement that might then draw attention from eyes that cannot see the beauty, only dollar signs. This is also the garage sale season, so very dangerous indeed.
The neighbours are certainly familiar with the lair of a hunter and angler. A driveway and garage bursting at the ready for outdoor adventures certainly adds to curb appeal, but there are some less obvious downsides. Being downwind, in particular, and disoriented when that garage door lifts and an aquatic or terrestrial funk approaches in an animalistic fashion.
Hunters and anglers let our presence be known. These smells are friendly reminders to the well-trained nose of the offending party. The consummate angler can discern if those rancid minnows are salted or unsalted, if that is a jerky leech or a jerky nightcrawler, and is that water in the boots of those waders? We do not intend to present these as airs of superiority, nor are we marking territory. We putter for hours to explore our history and fuel memories by engaging our senses and absorbing all it has to offer.
THE GARAGE
Here in the garage, there are old lures to rediscover, not just old live bait. Try catching fish on tackle that is as vintage as vinyl records. Not everything ages so well. Not the fiberglass rod with metal guides and dreadful pushbutton reel. Not the handtied homemade fly concoctions that now resemble owl pellets. These items still have far-off potential, perhaps in a survival situation. But there are rod and reel combos that hold memories of a great battle or epic trip or a family member long past. It feels good to put your hands on those.
We used to shoot a lot of clays and I got into reloading. Ever since I’ve harboured many of empty shotgun shell hulls awaiting their rebirth. And probably enough gun powder and primers to find me on a list. Cleaning the garage helps you step back in time. I found enough camo patterns to disappear from every decade since the 70’s. I hasten to use the term museum-quality, but these spaces could be a study for the ages.
Often the refuge of an angler and hunter is where you will find a category of cultural artifacts best described as “wall-hangers”. For those who are more established, the quantity and quality of such merchandise often offers structural support and extended building life. And they don’t all have to be trophies. We have a weasel stuffed in menacing pose. I do not know where it came from, but if it was a plant, it has proven most effective in instilling a fear of weasels and a respect for their ferocity. We also have a collection of old fish mounts that over time have borne out odd deformities, lost fins, and acquired mouthfuls of rusted plugs and spoons.
If this macabre scene were not enough, the garage holds more reminders of what we get ourselves into sometimes. Projects of all sorts and all stages of progress. The stuff of dreams. The fishing rods with broken tips now accepting of their demotion to utility grade. The box of whitetail antlers that will one day grow into a chandelier. The homemade hang-on stands, the fur that will become flies, these are the raw materials for contemplation and deep thinking out of the box.
When all is said and done, it is about the readiness. Having the right gear at the right time in the right place. So what appears to be a complete gut pile of fishing and hunting stuff, is in fact success-in-progress. In anticipation of the season opener, a Sunday afternoon cleaning the garage feels like an accomplishment worthy of recognition.
John is the writer and a producer of Giants of the Boreal Forest, a one-hour documentary film about Dr. Vince Crichton and moose in Manitoba that is available for free on-line at CBC Gem.