A Legend on the Stage Meets a Legend on the Water

-        Oscar Peterson Fishes Saanich Inlet With Jim Gilbert, Oh, and Plays his Piano at Night

He’s Playing Fish – Then His Piano

May 1969, by Bill Thomas

Film fans may have the idea that jazz musicians sit around dressing rooms between their sets discussing music in odd jargon over limitless supplies of drink. The room has to be filled with girls, seen through a haze of cigarette smoke.

No producer would believe the scene below the stage in Memorial Arena, where jazz award winner Oscar Peterson and his trio have their dressing room. As soon as the leader got off the stage Wednesday he was surrounded by musicians.

There was no talk of jazz, drink, horses or girls. The entire band wanted only one question answered: “How was the fishing, Oscar?”

The Toronto-based pianist could only reply, “Just great, man. I got the limit with Jim Gilbert in Brentwood Bay, and I’m going back tomorrow.”

After that, the talk got really technical. “What time did they start to strike? What weight were you using? How deep were you? What lure did you have on? How thick was the herring strip? Were you on the bottom with a steel line? Exactly what time did you get the first strike and where?”

Oscar Peterson will be out there this morning ready for fishing at 7 a.m. “I think there are a few left out there that I missed. I just happen to be an oddball in this business. Most guys like to get back to the city and go downtown. Me, I like to get out and fish, and my wife likes it too. She was really pleased to catch two salmon. It was her first time with big fish.”

The date to play the Victoria Exhibition came as a surprise to the jazz pianist.

“It was really strange. I have played a couple of county fairs, but this is even different from those. I was never aware it would be like this. Still it’s good to work different conditions. It keeps me fresh.

“We have adapted our material to the crowd and we are doing middle-of-the-road things.”

His clear, clean style with such tunes as On a Clear Day and Too Marvellous for Words drew an ovation. He plays effortlessly, but with great drive and determination. Most of his action comes just from the wrist.

If Oscar Peterson fishes with the same determination, he will be in around noon with another limit catch.

He will play two shows a day until the exhibition closes Saturday. The rest of the time he hopes to be playing big salmon.

Oscar Peterson and his wife (Google records that Sandra King was his wife during the time this photo was taken):

And a truly iconic image of Jim Gilbert netting a salmon:

The Demise of Cadborosaurus - Or Not

The following, undated article is from a Victoria-area news paper and recounts the demise of the area’s greatest sea serpent, the Cadborosaurus. Perhaps it appeared in the 1950s or ‘60s. Harry Gilbert was Jim Gilbert’s father. Read on: 

Cadborosaurus Reported Killed In Saanich Arm

-        Rammed Twice by Brentwood Launch

‘Caddy,’ Victoria’s famous sea monster, may not be seen again.

Ernest Lee, proprietor of Lucky Lee’s Fishing Service, Brentwood Bay, in company with Harry Gilbert, made an attempt to capture Cadborosaurus dead or alive. After being rammed twice by Mr. Lee’s boat, Caddy sank, apparently dead.

“At about 7 o’clock in the evening, I was fishing in Mackenzie Bay, Saanich Inlet, with Mr. and Mrs. Ryan, of Winnipeg, when we saw Caddy,” he reported yesterday. “it seemed to be wounded and was swimming in circles, so, we ran the boat alongside of it and had a good look.

“The head was like a seal. It had a neck about fifteen feet long, a big fin in the middle of the back and a tail similar in shape to that of a salmon or shark. It was about thirty-five feet in length overall.

“It had a wound on the back of the head and could not go under the water for more than a few seconds at a time. I went on fishing and at 8 o’clock picked up Harry Gilbert at Brentwood to see if we could catch it. After trying to hook it with our anchor, without success, we thought we could ram it with the boat.

Disappears After Second Blow

“Full speed ahead we went and hit it in the neck. Down it went and a minute later it came to the surface, just about all in. I hit it again with a little more pep, and this time the boat came right out of the water when we hit it. Caddy sank, and did not rise again.”

As we supposed ‘Caddy’ swam on the surface, it held its head above the water, Mr. Lee reported, and the fin and half of the tail also were exposed. It was dark above, slightly lighter underneath and its skin was covered with musky slime that clung to the anchor line thrown over its back.

Mr. Lee said he had seen the same creature two weeks before, when he thought he had noticed a pair of flippers, but had not noticed them when he rammed it in Mackenzie Bay. It was considerably longer than his own boat, which is twenty six feet in length, he said.

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If you would like to know more about our almost mythical sea creature, Google this and read on: https://www.bing.com/search?q=Cadborosaurus%2C+sea+creature%2C+Victoria&pc=MOZD&form=MOZLBR. 

Google this, and read even more: https://www.bing.com/search?q=cadborosaurus&pc=MOZD&form=MOZLBR. 

X-Files fans want Scully and Mulder to come out of retirement and solve the mystery for good. Contact them at: https://www.fox.com/the-x-files/.

Dief the Chief Fishing with Jim

Among the many luminaries who had the great good fortune to fish with the west coast’s brightest fishing luminary, Jimmy Gilbert, was Dief the Chief, as Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was known to Canadians.

Born in 1895, Dief was, after many attempts, first elected to the House of Commons in 1940. He ran many times for the PC leadership, too, finally accepting the mantle in 1956. He was Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963. While he made the wrong decision with the best fighter jet ever to see the sky, the Avro Arrow, he made the right decision to go fishing with Jim.

Dief had a grand opinion of himself, and that shines through in the pictures taken during and after his time learning from Jim. His greatest good fortune, was to appear in Time Magazine, Jan 17, 1964 taking tutelage from the Master himself:

This looks to me like the outside of Willis Point with Sheppard Point in the background, en route to Mackenzie Bight. Note the rocks on the transom of Gilbert’s boat, which were used for weights – inserted in nylons – prior to downriggers. Note also the Peetz wooden reels, which look loaded with monofilament line, rather than wire line used with planers. 

As gregarious and bombastic as Dief was, he had to get in on the act, and net a fish himself, something that a neophyte ought leave to the captain’s choice. The easiest thing to get caught is what catches the fish - the hook - and once in a net, you lose the fish and net the hook.

In this next one, you will note the net, safely in Gilbert’s hand, and the fish in Dief’s. 

I’ll bet that Jim held the net a number of times that day, as Dief holds a prodigious catch of chinook at day’s end. (Note the black mouths, suggesting that no blueback, Cowichan coho are on the ‘stringer’. The letter from Diefenbaker, below, is January 1964, implying that it was a winter day that was fished, with bluebacks being available in Saanich Inlet from late November to late February).

A letter to Jim from Esquimalt/Saanich MP GL Chatterton says:

I am enclosing a couple of photographs Doug Leiterman took on the boat and sent to me. I thought you would appreciate having them for your scrapbook.

The Chief has never stopped talking about the wonderful days of fishing we had and I want to express to you my sincere appreciation for the good company and expert guidance.

Yours sincerely

G.L. Chatterton, M.P.,

Esquimalt-Saanich.

In fact, the Chief was so moved by all the fish he caught, he wrote a letter to Jim Gilbert as well. I have enlarged the image so you can read it yourself. As an image, it gives an era-accurate example of a hand-written letter, that these days are called emails or text messages. It also shows how Diefenbaker signed his name.

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Final note: All these Jim Gilbert images are from originals maintained by Joan Gilbert. Other well-known types came to fish with Jim, too: George ‘Dub-yah’ Bush, Oscar Peterson, Lester Pearson, Gordie Howe, and etc. We’ll get to them in future stories.