InFocus Magazine

Ralph Shaw leads me through a crowded  basement, past shelves and fridges stocked with smoked salmon and untold other delicacies and underneath fishing rods balanced in dusty rafters.   We emerge in a tiny room of indescribable clutter and boundless character that serves as workshop and home office for the author, environmentalist and avid outdoorsman who will prove to be one of the most interesting people I’ve met in recent years.

We’ve met to discuss Shaw’s new book, a compilation of the diaries of long-time friend and renowned fly fisherman Jack Shaw (no relation, although the two look like brothers).  What emerges from our conversation, however, is a poignant, philosophical discussion of fly-fishing, ecology, and no less than the future of human existence.

A dynamic octogenarian who has spent a lifetime in the wilds of BC and Alberta, Shaw is about as engaging a man as one could hope to join in candid conversation.  Born in Cold Lake, Alberta in 1926, he’s been a trapper and an elementary school principal, has contributed to countless books on fly-fishing and outdoor pursuits and has been appointed to the Order of Canada, our nation’s highest civilian honour, for his extensive conservation work.

In the early ’70s, Shaw was a driving force behind the establishment of the McQueen Lake Environmental Education Centre, 2.6 square kilometres of preserved wilderness northwest of Kamloops where people still go to experience nature and to learn about ecological systems.   

“As an educator,” he says, “all my life I’ve wanted to teach people about how natural systems work.  We wanted a place where we could take children to study a natural system.”

From an entirely undeveloped parcel of forest, Shaw and his cohorts created a full-fledged environmental education centre where students could come from all over British Columbia to learn about nature.  More than 30 years later, the centre is still fully operational and now boasts a modern science centre and, as Shaw enthusiastically points out, an “amazing” composting toilet that can handle 60 to 70 people a day.

Ushering me gently back to the subject, Shaw gestures toward a framed photograph of Jack Shaw sitting atop a workbench that’s obviously a well-used fly-tying station.  The photo is barely visible beyond the brightly colored feathers and other fly-tying materials that blanket the entire workbench like a Technicolor fungus.  

“What that man knew about systems,” he says reverently, “well, he’s forgotten more than most of us will ever know in terms of ecology, climate change and things like that.”

Jack Shaw’s story began in 1925, when his family moved to BC from Montreal when Jack was nine years old.   Although he left school to join the workforce just two years later, Jack’s innate curiosity and his passion for fishing drove him to experiment with new techniques that would change the face of fly-fishing.

By the time Ralph met him for the first time in 1956, Jack had already pioneered the art of tying imitator-pattern flies and had become an expert on the insects, especially chironomids, that he wanted to duplicate.  He even learned to imitate their natural movements by the deft manipulation of his fly rod.

“He was a magician with a fly rod, there’s no other way to say it,” says Shaw.  “He was the guru, and you couldn’t help but learn from him if you spent much time with him.  His work changed the way we fly-fish.”

Shaw’s new book, The Pleasure of His Company – The Fishing Diaries of Jack Shaw, is set to be released on December 6 and is a tribute to his close friend, who passed away in February 2000.  

The 232-page book is an edited version of more than 300,000 words that Jack penned during his many fishing trips, and it features beautiful paintings of Jack’s flies by Campbell River artist Larry Stefanyk, also the publisher of Island Fisherman magazine.  

“This is a pretty significant book,” says Shaw, not without humility.  “It impresses because it’s a big, thick tabletop book; it really is beautiful.”

A leather-bound limited edition of the book has already received lots of interest and advance orders, significant given the $135 price tag, and Shaw is confident that the 1,100 first edition hard covers will be equally successful at $39 a pop.   

Never one to pass up an opportunity for ecological philanthropy, Shaw is donating all proceeds from the sale of his book to the McQueen Lake Environmental Education Centre, and to the Fisheries Association of BC to teach children how to fish.

While Shaw is optimistic about the book’s success based on the tremendous support from private donors that he’s received so far, to the tune of nearly $20,000 in production costs, he admits that he’s a wading into new territory when it comes to marketing his creation.