kind of a grumpy lookin sort

Early December, 1964..............I really wanted to get back to the rural life and gladly took a job with my friend and Mentor Chuck Earl, who owned a small sign business in Chilliwack. Things were out of hand for him ...he was just to busy and he need help...That fit into my plans just fine as I had 4 years working and learning hand lettering in Vancouver as an apprentice etc. I was happy working in Vancouver but not living there....you can take the boy out of the country but you can't take.....yeah I reckon that was true with me.....I thank Shirley for agreeing to us moving and raising our babies in Chilliwack as she was okay with the city as a home.
We were busy, busy moving to our rented house on Broadway st. in Chilliwack......I wave to a guy one empty lot over, and I can see he is looking us over carefully and I am sure he is wondering what in heck his new neighbors would be like.......I was in the carport eyeballing him back and I called over hello , he was at his vehicle doing something.....He had a hunting cap on and a 4 wheel drive Jeep....hmm...he may like to fish, that would be cool....kind of a grumpy lookin sort tho...after I knew him a few days he said he was going to put up a fence with blades on it to keep my kids out.......He never did that but he had a couple of dogs in a fenced kennel that warned off intruders... As it turned out Roy Huband liked to fish.... plenty.....he was also a director on the Fish and game club that I was soon to join.....he told me about this lake fishing that he liked to do .....fly fishing ...I did not know much about that.....I never had the opportunity and was strictly a fan of river fishing at that time.......anyway we get settled in and make it through a brutal January, we were busy raising a family, getting on with the new job . When May first rolled around Roy headed for some lake near Kamloops.....after being away a weekend in mid May he called me over to look at some trout he had caught...okay...great...let's have a look...jeez, he had a cardboard box with a whack of brute trout in it....my eyeballs klanked around .....wow, where did you get those.....Tunkwa lake....Tunka Lake?.....where, what ,how......so he told me about it...oh, how he told me about it......O man...you get em on a fly...a halfback...wot's that ...a good fly......yeah...it was pretty good this week....I guess....you want to go next week?...Oh hell no....It could not come fast enough....Shirley and I decided we could afford it...money was so tight.... go for a couple of days...Roy had a little tent trailer and apparently it was parked at the lake so the price was affordable....split the gas......take some food.....I got no flies...I got nuthin ....Spin and glows, spinners, floats and salmon eggs...I got that ....nope no good...I can get an outfit together for you....great....and flies and a boat...hey........music to my ears....the weekend came.....away we go in the Jeep...I learned how to get to Cash Creek in 57 minutes....naw...not that fast...but pretty fast........We get to the lake, the trailer is parked out on a spit right across from and near the fishing resort.....he has this camping spot all to himself....it was great, the weather was great...life is good.....We went to see Grant Sommer, the resort owner...my first meeting of many with a really likable man......it was interesting listening to the banter back and forth , the latest fishing news ....you shooda been here last week....Roy was.....fooled him that time. The digs were not the Hilton, but.....that little trailer and the food was just the way I liked it. The next morning.... oh boy...let's go...how do ya do this?.....well most of the fishing was done by the slow boat row and wind drift, dragging a fly on a light monofilament line ....that can very productive. We stopped and flung flies around a bit but could not stay at it without someone taking a hook in the nose......and besides that the fish were off...off....oh so off....
We were skunked...unbelievable.....I was wondering if he really was at this lake last week.....he musta bought em...hhmmmmm.......we were so skunked.....nobody caught anything....oh yeah...one ..we seen one fish.........5 boats went to that spot.....a miller moth? you got a miller moth...naw...something white.... try this......forget it...so we did....to tough...so back home early on Sunday....that's fishing.....but thanks to Roy I was shown Tunkwa lake ....little did I know then how many, many times I would be out on that pond....It is a fine fly fishing lake with lots of nooks and crannies and the Rainbow trout certainly can test ones patience and smarts...also as crowded as it gets, one can find a place to fish with hope in their soul.
In 1965 Roy and Jerry built a cabin on the lake ...they built it out of used 4'x8' 3/8" plywood . The Chilliwack Golf Driving Range(Cherry Motors location) was dismantelled and a great supply of building material was at hand....very reasonably priced......with a deal on rough lumber they packed the stuff up there and chainsawed together the best fishing cabin one could hope to have. A room with a bed and bunks on each end and a bigger room in the middle .... that had to be heaven on earth...they put in a propane fridge and the cookstove provided cozy heat to frozen fishers when the weather was bad.
There was a shed on one end and the outhouse was a telephone booth. I cannot believe I don't have a photo...
The Cabin was there until a few years ago....now a big house stands on the location ......for many years I looked forward to the first of May...opening day ......to a 4 or 5 day stay at the Cabin with Roy , Jerry and other pals....my... what great times ...Tunkwa lake has a special place burned in this old guys memory.