88-year-old gives young angler the fly-fishing rod he made as a teen

In support of his new hobby of fly fishing, 11-year-old Eli Billard from Moncton received a special fishing rod as a gift.

Made with four pieces of bamboo and about six feet long, the fishing rod was handmade by Pat Gillespie, who is now 88 but made the rod when he was just 16.

Gillespie said he threaded and varnished the rod himself, and it was used to fish many rivers in New Brunswick. His hope is that Eli “enjoys it as much as I did over the years.”

Gillespie learned about Eli’s new love for fly fishing through a community pastoral letter delivered to his door in early June by Eli’s father, Aaron Billard, the minister at St. John’s United Church in Moncton. 

In the letter, Billard said he and his son were on a fishing trip along the Molus River, a tributary of the Richibucto, when a friend showed Eli how to fly fish and cast. 

“You could just see this passion spark in Eli about the joy of this moment of learning how to cast. … When he finally got it right, it was just this beautiful moment along a beautiful river in New Brunswick on a beautiful evening.”

Fly fishing is done without bait, such as a worm. Artificial flies in a variety of colours, shapes, and sizes are used to catch the attention of the fish, according to Gilliespie. 

As of now, Eli’s been catching mostly trout.

After seeing the letter, coming out of church one Sunday, Gilliespie asked Billard if he could give his fishing rod to Eli.

They arranged for Gillespie to go over to Billard’s house, where he presented the rod to Eli.

“It was just a touching moment and Eli was really blown away by it,” said Billard. “Standing back as a father watching this, it was like just watching these generations connect over something that they both loved.”

Billard tweeted that Gilliespie told them, ‘You have not lived until you’ve stood on a riverbank just before sunrise seeing the mist and hearing the water.”

Even though it’s been stored away for years, Gillespie said he used the fishing rod to fish in waters all over the Atlantic region, although he never made it to Newfoundland and Labrador. 

According to Billard, Eli promised Gillespie that he would “take it fishing in Newfoundland someday.”

“When I told him that I’d been everywhere but over there fishing, he said, ‘Maybe if I go, I’ll bring you back a fish,'” said Gillespie. 

“I told him not to bring me back a cod fish,” said Gillespie, whose caught a variety of fish over the years.