My first memories of Mike were made from meeting him on the La Have river back in the early 1980’s. although I had previously fished it for ten or more years before. We were a little like each other in our thirst to move around the river looking for fish. I learned a lot about how fish would take flys when I was working in New Brunswick. Back then, there were many more fish and lots of small streams where you could see the fish and cast to them. It changed my learning curve dramatically and when I got back to Nova Scotia, putting longer lines on the water, my success rate increased significantly. It is there that I encountered Mike and realized he also had figured out what makes a salmon go for a given fly and learned to fish around him, with respect ,when we encountered each other. I also met up with him when purchasing a couple of new fishing rods at his store in Halifax. On one of these occasions he stayed a little late while I was comparison shopping. We walked out the door together. As he drove away, I realized that I had left my car keys on his counter, inside the store. After a bit, I finally was able to find his home number which I believe was out in Bedford somewhere. He actually drove all the way back to the city and opened the store and passed me my keys. That right there was something that I clearly remember about him and a few years later someone called and wrote to me saying that they wanted me to go Salmon fishing on a Nova Scotian river with them while they made a short movie. I had no hesitation to recommend Mike, not only because of his character, but I knew he would show them fish. In the intervening years, I hardly saw him again as I aged and fished less and less, mostly because of an increasing reluctance to wade the swift water I once crossed with ease to get to those less accessible fishing areas. As someone else has said in writing about his friendship with Mike, I noticed too that he was very attentive to your every word when it came to which fly you were using and giving glory to the ones you held in esteem. I was shocked to read about his passing,written in the Atlantic Salmon Journal. I immediately tried to verify it in an anxious search of the internet. One of things that I enjoyed so much about meeting him on the river, or just being on the river where he was, is that he always put his whole mind and effort on fishing. He wasn’t just going along for the fun, but put serious focus on where the fish were or were going to be and even though I had seen him raise or hook fish that I had exhausted my self in trying to catch. Good man yourself, Mike Crosby!
