ANTIGONISH, N.S. —
To say Wayne Brightman was fanatical about fishing might just be an understatement.
Wayne was hooked at a young age and has fished rivers and lakes throughout Canada for a variety of species during the past 70 years.
“If there was 180 days (of fishing), I would fish about 170 of them,” Wayne says, when asked how often he’d fish at the height of his passion.
Wayne, 72, fished with both spinning gear and fly rods over the years. He got involved in tying his own flies as a 10-year-old after learning the art from his uncle.
“My uncle taught me when I was a little fella how to make certain ones and I screwed them up a lot, let me tell ya,” he laughs. “I don’t anymore; I do a pretty good job on them now.”
Indeed.
As owner of New Scotland Flies in Isaac’s Harbour, Guysborough County, Wayne has perfected his craft and is the creator of hundreds of salmon flies. He decided to specialize in streamers after taking advice from a fellow angler he met on a fishing trip in Ontario years ago.
“This guy had an entourage with him; there was about 15 with him, and I found out he wrote books and he won a lot of tournaments down in the States and in Canada, and I asked him one day, ‘If you were gonna go fishing anywhere in the world to catch big fish what one fly would you use?’ And he said, ‘I’d use a streamer.’ They’re the fly of choice for big fish. So, I based my whole life on that concept. I’ve been using streamers since as far back as I can remember.
“My streamer flies will catch fish anywhere in the world – I promise you.”
And while streamers are his most popular, Wayne also creates classics, such as the Jock Scott, Silver Doctor, Green Highlander and Fiery Brown – flies that fetch between $75 and $100 apiece.
“Why?” he says. “Because there’s four materials that go into them that cost over $1,000. When I use thousand-dollar material like blue macaw it goes up by 20 bucks. These take hours to make.”
Wayne is from New Glasgow and as a young boy fished area waters, including Barney’s River. He has fished in every province in Canada and says his favourite places to wet a line are Labrador and B.C., near the Alaskan Highway. The Cape Breton Highlands are also high on his list.
“You want to go after nice big trout, go to the Highlands,” he says. “There’s some nice fishing all through Cape Breton. And the whole world beats a path down there to go salmon fishing, but not trout fishing.”
Wayne’s fish of choice is the Atlantic salmon. He says the species doesn’t get the same hype as the bass family, but pound-for-pound, he says, is the hardest-fighting fish and most enjoyable to catch.
“I find that a small-mouth bass will battle you right on the surface and so will a largemouth, but you get an Atlantic salmon or brown trout, he’s down. He’s down and when he goes into the air he’ll tear the line right off and the hook on the side of his mouth – he’ll die trying to get away.”
Wayne makes a few bucks from tying flies but says he gets the most satisfaction from simply doing something he enjoys and meeting others.
“I’m doing a service for the community and I like talking to people.”
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FAST FACT
On Dec. 19, Wayne will give away the king of all salmon flies – the classic Blue Jock Scott – at the Antigonish Farmers’ Market. Anyone who makes a purchase from Wayne that day will be entered into a draw to win the fly that his uncle taught him how to make.
“He said that this is the fly of all flies; it’s one of a kind. He said that’s the best fly in the world, don’t ever give it away. But I’m gonna make him or me famous,” Wayne laughed.
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DID YOU KNOW?
Wayne started making earrings from fly-fishing materials in September.
“Antigonish has been really good to me on the flies and they’ve been telling me all my pretty flies, I’m not doing them justice by taking them out and selling them for fishing, I might as well make earrings out of them.”
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