Bob Melrose succumbed to cancer this month. Our deepest condolences go out to his soul mate and partner Maria Brown, and to his two daughters Marni and Jayme and their families.
If we consider Bill Nation and Jack Shaw as pioneers of fly fishing in B.C.'s Southern Interior, Bob deserves the title in our Central Interior. He was the guy you would seek out for information if you wished to fly fish B.C. north of Williams Lake during the 1970s through to the present.
When I published my book Fly Fishing BC's Interior in 2009, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bob for a chapter I wrote on fly fishing history in the North. Born in Eastern Canada, Bob's family migrated to Lethbridge in the early 1950s, where he grew up fishing the local prairie reservoirs.
Fortunately, hitchhiking was pretty safe in those days, for every weekend he could be found with fly rod in hand thumbing rides toward southern Alberta's foothills and mountain streams - fly fishing became a passion that Bob enjoyed all of his life.
Bob arrived in Prince George in late 1966.
Being a self-taught fly fisherman who loved to sell, it seemed only natural that in 1974 he opened Bob's Sports and through customer service, grew the business into the largest selection of fishing tackle north of Vancouver.
It was through his business that Bob Melrose became a famous fly fishing name in the North: selling, guiding, discovering and challenging the country and its fledgling fishing resource for his clients and customers.
Throughout the years Bob spent in the North, he contributed his time and knowledge to many endeavours. He wrote a weekly fishing column for the Citizen, conducted video fly fishing programs at Kelly Road Elementary School and held fly fishing instruction classes in the lakes and rivers of our region.
He published many fly fishing articles, authored book segments for other writers, and from 2002-2004 designed and authored the weekly internet column BC North www.bcnorth.ca.
In one article, Bob writes: "I embrace the new and have a great fondness for the old. I've enjoyed the journey and hope it's a long one. I hope I never arrive." Those words pretty much summed up Bob's thoughts on life.
Bob's favourite places are also our haunts: the Stellako, Anzac, Blackwater, Crooked, Morice and Bulkley Rivers. And also our clearest and most challenging lakes: Opatcho, Vivian, Everett, Pinkerton, Hart, Wicheeda and Dragon.
Bob, we miss you and will remember you when we reminisce of the great fly fishers we have known. Thank you for all you have given to us, for your grace and friendship, your encouragement and willing smiles, and for your dedication to the sport of fly-fishing.
You have arrived at the place we will all inhabit - keep the Sage fly rod handy and tucked under your arm during your journeys - I hear there's some great fly fishing just over that far ridge.
