by David Giblin
Nelson climbed the ladder. As he reached the branch where the eagle sat, it turned its head toward him. There was a mechanical whir and it stretched out its wings. Its head turned in the other direction and it started to make its strange, high-pitched, wickering cry. Then the head stopped abruptly. The eagle kept wickering the same note over and over as its head went back and forth. Then there was a metallic click and the head turned back to the starting point. There was another whirring sound and the wings came back down. Before it could start another cycle Nelson reached out to a plastic box at the bird’s feet.
“You know, those old-fashioned eagles may have been nothing but flea-ridden scavengers, but at least they didn’t take this much damn maintenance,” he called out to me over his shoulder.
Nelson took hold of the knob on the front of the box and turned it to OFF.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
WHEN I LEARNED not too long ago that “creative non-fiction” was a writing category, I thought it was the perfect description for fishing stories. Now, such stories are perceived as tall tales in which the fish grow bigger after they are dead, but that is not the case. Among fishing guides there is an unspoken understanding that we always tell the truth when it comes to the size of the fish, and that is what I have done. That part is the non-fiction. I had to get creative with all the rest. Dates, places, people, all were treated with a certain artistic license. Three or four people might be combined into one character. Events that took place over several seasons were condensed into one summer. Liberties were taken. In fact, after careful consideration, I had to tone down some of the stories—if the real truth came out, people wouldn’t believe it. Skepticism might creep in and undermine the non-fiction part. I didn’t want that; my reputation as a guide might come into question.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THIS BOOK IS for Kim—without her love, support, and encouragement, it would never have been written.
I want to thank Ruth for letting me be “that guy,” and Jamie for his help with some of the technical details.
I also want to thank Roger, Jim, Mike, Tommy, Nick and Henry, Rob, Bob, Helene, Donna, Heidi, Dahl, Jode, Keith, and all the other Stuart Island guides who helped make me a better fisherman.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KIMBERLY DENNESS-THOMAS
DAVID GIBLIN was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England. His father, a merchant seaman, ran away to sea at the age of sixteen and worked on the North Sea on a Norfolk sail-powered fishing boat, and later on freighters that visited Vancouver and Port Alberni. In 1957, when David was six weeks shy of his sixth birthday, his family moved to Canada. He grew up in Horseshoe Bay, on Vancouver’s North Shore, and began messing around in small boats early on. In the ’70s, while living on Cortes Island, he heard about Stuart Island from a neighbour who worked as a cook at Big Bay Marina. He did his rookie year there before getting his own boat and going independent. He worked as a guide for fifteen years, the last five as head guide at Stuart Island Resort. This book grew out of the stories the guides would tell. As an unpublished manuscript, The Codfish Dream was a finalist in the Cedric Literary Awards in the creative non-fiction category. David studied art at the University of British Columbia; Kootenay School of the Arts (now Selkirk College); Capilano College (now University), with Allen Wood; and Victoria College of Art, under Jim Gordaneer and Bill Porteus. He lives in Cobble Hill, BC.
Copyright © 2018 David Giblin
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, audio recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher or a licence from Access Copyright, Toronto, Canada.
Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd.
heritagehouse.ca
Cataloguing information available from Library and Archives Canada
978-1-77203-242-0 (pbk)
978-1-77203-243-7 (epub)
Edited by Kate Juniper
Proofread by Sarah Weber
Cover and interior design by Jacqui Thomas
Cover images by Alfiram/Dreamstime.com Dedication page illustration by David Giblin
The interior of this book was produced on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, processed chlorine free, and printed with vegetable-based inks.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
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