Well-known outdoorsman dies

[Spiel]

Well-known outdoorsman dies

Former Sun Times columnist kept no secrets when it came to where fish were biting

 

Posted By JIM ALGIE

 

 

One of the original steelheaders, outdoor writer and conservationist Francis Grant Ferris of Port Elgin has died.

 

The former Royal Canadian Navy diver and a nuclear power mechanic was also a former outdoors writer with The Sun Times. He was moderator and a major contributor to the website "Grey/Bruce Outdoors with Grant Ferris."

 

Mr. Ferris, 67, died Dec. 23 at Saugeen Memorial Hospital five years after a diagnosis of cancer. Mr. Ferris's body has been cremated and there is to be a private committal service at Woodlawn Cemetery in Guelph, his wife Gloria said in an interview Friday.

 

"He first got cancer five years ago and it was up and down for the last five years," she said. "He still fished when he could . . . He still rode his motorcycle. He rode as long as the weather lasted this fall."

 

Although Gloria Ferris did not share her husband's lifelong interest in angling, they did ride together and frequently made long excursions to gatherings such as Americade, the early June rally in the Lake George area of New York state.

 

Mr. Ferris was an angler long before he and Gloria met at her sister's wedding in 1968. They married the following year.

 

Born and raised in Guelph, he was the son of Frank Cyril Ferris and Olive Collingridge. In 1958, at the age of 18, Mr. Ferris joined the Royal Canadian Navy where he worked as a diver.

 

He later worked in foundries in the Guelph area and was active in United Steelworkers of America locals before obtaining employment with the city of Guelph first as a pollution control operator then as an arena manager.

 

Mr. Ferris joined Ontario Hydro in 1981 and worked as a nuclear mechanic at Deep River and at the Bruce Nuclear Power Development. The couple moved to Kincardine in 1981, then to Port Elgin where they lived for 21 years. He retired from Ontario Hydro in 1993 as a trades management supervisor.

 

Mr. Ferris knew parts of Bruce County intimately long before moving here mainly because of weekly trips to fish the Saugeen River.

 

Bruce Farrell of greybruceoutdoors. com described his long-time associate as a veteran river angler with deep concern for conservation and a particular interest in steelhead, or rainbow trout.

 

"He was concerned about the fishery, definitely a conservationist," Farrell said in an interview. "He was an excellent, beyond excellent, sheelheader . . . He was one of the originators of float fishing, fishing for steelhead in rivers. . . He goes back a long time, way back when they were building their own rods and piecing together reels that would work because nobody was manufacturing anything like they do now."

 

Mr. Ferris's feature writing revealed his deep fondness for the outdoors. Although he wrote about hunting, he confined his trips to photography.

 

"To my knowledge the only thing he ever killed was a Canada goose once and after that he never would again," Gloria said. "He would always take pictures, that kind of thing."

 

He was an pistol target shooter and remained active in several area outdoors groups, including the Sydenham Sportsmen's Club, Lake Huron Fishing Club, Ducks Unlimited and Friends of McGregor Point Provincial Park.

 

After his retirement from Ontario Hydro, Mr. Ferris became increasingly active with writing, initially for the Port Elgin Beacon Times and later for The Sun Times.

 

He went fishing most days and wrote about it, keeping no secrets about when and where the fish were biting.

 

"Some people got a little angry with him because they'd say 'You're telling everybody where all the good fishing is and people are going to come up here and take all our good fishing.' He said it belongs to everybody," his wife said.

 

Farrell plans to continue the website he and Mr. Ferris began in the late 1990s.

 

An obituary posted to the site's Forum and a portrait of Mr. Ferris had received more than 70 responses by midday Thursday. One praised Mr. Ferris's "enthusiasm and love of . . . steelheading."

 

Someone else posted a quotation from the 19th century American writer Henry David Thoreau: "Many men go fishing their entire lives without knowing it is not fish they are after."

 

"He enjoyed helping people. He enjoyed telling his stories," Farrell said. "He always told it exactly like it was."

 

Mr. Ferris is survived by his children Russ Ferris of Milton and his wife Manie, Lara Inneo of Guelph and her husband Vito and Alyssa Ferris of Cambridge. He is also survived by two grandchildren and two sisters.