By Canadian Press

Newfoundlanders remember former president Bush’s fishing trips to Labrador

Dec 3, 2018 | 8:52 AM

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Some prominent Newfoundlanders are reflecting on the late George H.W. Bush and his affection for the fishing trips he made to the province.

The former U.S. president passed away on Friday at the age of 94 and will be laid to rest in a state funeral Wednesday at Washington’s National Cathedral.

Bush was an avid angler and often visited Labrador, where he fished at Adlatok River in the 1990s with Newfoundland businessmen Harry Steele and the late Craig Dobbin of Universal Helicopters.

John Steele says his father Harry was with Dobbin at Adlatok Camp, which Bush visited after the Atlantic Salmon Federation contacted his father in the early 90s asking if he could host the president.

He says Steele asked Dobbin if he could host, and his friend renovated the camp especially for the trip and went on to form a lasting relationship with Bush.

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Former federal fisheries minister John Crosbie and former Quebec premier Jean Charest were also on the trip.

Steele says his father spent time on the river guiding Bush and found him to be a humble, approachable man with a good sense of humour, adding that he was a pretty good fisherman.

Thomas d’Aquino recalled a 1993 fly fishing trip with Bush and Harry Steele on the Adlatok River in a blog post written last summer.

The author, entrepreneur and philanthropist recalls presenting Bush with a gift of some homemade flies, which they jokingly called “weapons of mass destruction.”

(VOCM)

The Canadian Press