Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: chris gadsden on August 17, 2012, 06:40:39 PM
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Many of you will have read about Gwyn in a few of my fishing stories and seen him in some recent video clips. He became gravely ill while on the Island and is in the ICU at the Nanaimo hospital.
I went to the Island yesterday to see him and also visited him this morning before returning home.
It was so sad for me to see him so sick and I shed tears as I left the room, hoping for a miracle so we once again could enjoy fishing, attending environmental meetings together and hunting trips to many parts of BC.
It made me aware once again, of how fragile life is.
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Wow Chris, this is really unfortunate to hear, I had no idea.
I hope Gwyn pulls through, and I'll see him again out on the river this steelhead season. Please pass along my best wishes.
You just never know when this kind of thing is going to happen to yourself or someone else. Best to enjoy the time now while you can...
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Speedy recovery, all the best to him.
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Sorry to hear that Chris... will say a prayer.
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I'm very sorry to hear about your friend Chris and I wish him a full recovery and many more years joining you at the meetings as well as future fishing trips. Life is truly fragile ! One only need to take a drive on any highway to realize how quickly it could all end. Myself, I learned about it at the ripe old age of 34 when I was diagnosed with endocarditis and had to spend 13 weeks in the hospital and eventually have open heart surgery.
The surgeon told my family I had less than a 20% chance to survive surgery because my body was so weak, but survive I did. And now, 23 years later I still carry the same heart valve, move a bit slower due to a bad knee but I can still hike the Cap canyons and sing
and laugh with my family and friends. Just saying Chris, never give up hope. It may look bleak but its alway darkest before the dawn.
Wishing your friend the Best Chris and I wish the same for you.
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Sorry to hear about your friend Chris. I wish him nothing but the best and for a quick recovery. Hope your doing alright buddy.
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I wish your friend a speedy and full recovery
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Wow Chris, I am sorry to hear of Gwyn health issues and I wish him a speedy recovery so that he may once again be able to hear the bell ring or see the float dip under.
I personally know all to well how ones health can change in the blink of an eye. 4 years ago I suffered a work place accident that required surgery to my back in hopes of solving the issues only to have the surgery go wrong and I now have permanent nerve damage. They had hoped that the damage would not get worse over time but it slowly has and I now require a mobility scooter to help me get around on days where all the pain meds just dont seem to work. I hope to be able too one day return to the river and do the one thing that has brought so much joy to my life.
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Sorry to hear abouth this Chris, my most positive thoughts go out to see Gwyn recover.
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I was just in Winter Harbour and had a nice visit with Gwen, got a tour of his cabin. So sorry to here he is in the hospital , he was looking forward to entertaining several friends over the next couple of weeks. My thoughts are with him and his family.
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Gwyn passed away at 2:30 this afternoon, I am sure the thoughts of us all from this forum will be with his family at this difficult time.
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Wow, so fast. Thanks for this Chris. Gywn was our good friend - please let me know of future arrangements.
Wow. A really good, caring, hardworking and honest man, and as good a fishing partner as you could hope for.
Jeez, we counted spawning steelhead together this past spring ...
RIP Gywn Joiner
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Gwyn passed away at 2:30 this afternoon, I am sure the thoughts of us all from this forum will be with his family at this difficult time.
I am so sorry for your loss Chris. My condolences to you and all his friends and family.
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Condolences to all that knew him
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Here is Gwyn entering a fish in the Wally Hall. He entered a few if I am not mistaken. I am sorry to have never met him.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=195982893824350&set=a.188765584546081.44431.113421562080484&type=3&theater (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=195982893824350&set=a.188765584546081.44431.113421562080484&type=3&theater)
I hope this link works..
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May he rest in peace
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Rest in peace Gwyn..
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Sorry to receive the bad news. Gwyn has always been so willing to share when out fishing with him and he has also been very active in the fishing community when it comes to volunteering. We've fished together many times. The trips together in 2008's early coho season was especially memorable. Here it is again:
Since the forecast has called for heavy rainfall in the next several days, we decided to make a trip out on Thursday as well. Typically we have done rather well on the Chilliwack River just prior or during the first heavy rainfall around late September/early October. Unlike last year, there wasn't much expectation on what we wanted to catch. The coho salmon return is not expected to be significant just as what we had experienced in 2005. Nevertheless, catches of a few chinook and chum salmon would still be considered a good trip.
We Had a later start, arrived at our spot at 7:30am. Gwyn and Chris were already working the run. They reported no catches except one adult chinook salmon that Gwyn had beached. Water clarity looked ideal, one couldn't have asked for better condition than this during this time of the year. Fish were rolling left and right in front of us, but most appeared to be chum salmon.
(http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/fishingwithrod/2008/081002-01.jpg)
After drifting through the run several times, one fish couldn't resist a big chunk of roe at the end of Nina's line. A silvery roll after the hookset showed that it was a jack coho salmon, but a brief slack on the line allowed it to swim away quickly.
Bites were absent for the next couple of hours except a stubborn chinook salmon that Gwyn had connected with. This fish refused to come in for around 15 minutes. In the end, persistence by the angler won the battle as the fish was towed into the shallows. The fish was slightly coloured. Gwyn sent the fish back into the run after a quick photo session.
(http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/fishingwithrod/2008/081002-03.jpg)
(http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/fishingwithrod/2008/081002-04.jpg)
(http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/fishingwithrod/2008/081002-05.jpg)
(http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/fishingwithrod/2008/081002-06.jpg)
(http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/fishingwithrod/2008/081002-07.jpg)
By this point Chris had moved to a different run and reported some missed bites when we talked on the phone. He suspected that they were smolts or trout, but I was skeptical as smolts or trout usually go off the bites by this time of the year. Nina and I decided to make our way down to his run and found out ourselves. Upon our arrival, Chris reported that they were salmon after all, as he had just hooked several and broke them off. I began drifting through while Chris took a break. I rebaited, looped a big chunk of roe on. Chris disapproved the size of the bait. "Bait is too big.", he said. The float took a dive just as he finished the remark. ;D It was a small adult chinook, which took me downstream for a bit but popped off the hook as it entered the shallow.
As I rigged up again, Chris was back on his feet with big bait on his hook too. ;) It only took a couple of casts before his float also took a dip. A bigger chinook emerged and shot for the rapids downstream. He beached it quite easily after just several minutes of fight. The fish, estimated to be around 15lb, was released quickly as no one was willing to carry it back to the car. ;)
After some more misses and a couple more hook-ups, the bites died off at 11:00am. 9:00am to 10:00am seems to be the biting period lately, while first light has not produced well. We packed it up and headed to Cookies Grill to end another Vedder venture. :) No coho salmon were harrassed.
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So sorry for your loss and to Gwyn Ill quote what I said to my Dad when he passed, "tight Lines and Straight Shooting"
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So sorry to hear about your friend Chris. My condolences.
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Sorry to hear about this fellow's passing. My condolences to his family and friends during this extremely difficult time.
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I've met Gwyn several times on the river as well. Sorry to see him gone.
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Sorry to hear of Gwyn's passing. Met him on the river a few times, good guy. Best wishes to his family in this difficult time.
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I’m having a hard time with this recent death of a really good man and really good friend. We locals all knew he had respiratory problems and needed to carry an oxygen bottle which he did while fishing or hunting or attending environmental advocacy meetings or retirement ceremonies for people he respected or counting spawners or distributing salmon carcasses or picking up other people’s garbage, and he knew the very active life he led would soon end as he was considered not eligible for his only hope, a double lung transplant. But this is just too fast.
Gywn left a legacy of giving back to what he believed in and I wish now I had spent more time with him. Good on you Chris for visiting him on his death bed; I know he and Diane appreciated it.
Life is short folks. Make the best of it.
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Thanks to all who have posted, I have passed on to Diane, Gwyn's wife that many from this forum have posted your condolances here. I will send this link to her at a later date and I will keep you posted when the Celebration of Life will be held, I believe later in September, after the 10th.
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RIP
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Gwyn`s Chwk Fish and Game Association and his Vedder River associates will truly miss him .
Our thoughts go out to Gwyn`s family .
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Gwyn`s Chwk Fish and Game Association and his Vedder River associates will truly miss him .
Our thoughts go out to Gwyn`s family .
If you have any pictures from away back, please let me know.
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Gwyn passed away at 2:30 this afternoon, I am sure the thoughts of us all from this forum will be with his family at this difficult time.
Chris,
I m very sorry for your loss.This is a very difficult time to pass and I hope all but good memories are left. Laura and I send our condolences to you and his family.
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Oh man, this is terrible news, I am shocked and very sad to hear this...
Chris I am so sorry for your loss, I can't believe he's gone :(
I will never forget all of the things that he taught us, the lessons were many.
Gwyn was the undisputed king of roe curing; he had incredible technique that produced stuff I haven't seen duplicated anywhere.
-Nicole
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Celebration of Gwyn's Life, Saturday September 15, 2012 at 1 PM at the Best Western Hotel Chilliwack, just off Highway #1 and Lickman Road.
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Here is another photo of Gwyn. It was requested to be posted by a friend of his who reads the forum.
(http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/fishingwithrod/2012/120824-3.jpg)
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Beauty Whitetail!
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The celebration of life for Gwyn was attended by over 400 people on Saturday. It was a great tribute to Gwyn. Thanks to Gwyn's friend Don Ball, owner of the Best Western for putting this on and providing the room and the refreshments.
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Wow!So sorry to hear about this. :(
I didn't even know Gwyn had passed away. I was out of town when it happened.
Thanks for bringing this thread back.
RIP Gwyn.
It was an honour to share a run with you on a couple of occasions.
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Sorry to hear about Gwyn passing. He was always the good guy mentioned by Chris' great fishing journals. RIP.
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Very sorry for your's and his families' loss Chris.. I hope you are doing ok
Rick
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Very sorry for your's and his families' loss Chris.. I hope you are doing ok
Rick
Thanks I got to say a few words on Saturday. We are getting a Rotary Trail bench, by Lickman Rpoad in his memory near where he caught his last steelhead on the Vedder. I was there that day with him and he made one cast to catch the hatchery.
We had no trouble rounding up the needed funds to finance it.
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A well diserved medal, thanks Mark for getting this done for Gwyn.
http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.markstrahl.com%2Fpress-releases%2Ftight-lines-and-straight-shooting%23.UFt6PpCBOic.facebook
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Many of us that were at the Boxing Day Derby yesterday certainly missed him as he organized this derby a number of times as well as caught a few fish on derby day.
Also, thanks to Nick and his wife for making a Christmas wreath that we placed on the memorial bench that his family and others put up at Lickman Road on the Rotary Trail a few weeks ago. The pictures I took are on the FVSS Facebook page, please take a minute or so to view the bench and think of Gwyn when you are fishing in that area.
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Chris you are a true friend . I'm sure Gwyn is is looking down with a smile on his face.
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Many of us that were at the Boxing Day Derby yesterday certainly missed him as he organized this derby a number of times as well as caught a few fish on derby day.
Also, thanks to Nick and his wife for making a Christmas wreath that we placed on the memorial bench that his family and others put up at Lickman Road on the Rotary Trail a few weeks ago. The pictures I took are on the FVSS Facebook page, please take a minute or so to view the bench and think of Gwyn when you are fishing in that area.
My condolences to you Chris. It was a pleasure to have met you. My prayers to you during this tough time.
-Francis