“This is a great feeling every time,” Currie says with the widest smile.
Currie has been fly fishing for 25 years. There is zero doubt it is his passion. Currie owns and operates Flymart.ca, in Massey. He wakes every day and thinks it is a good day to go angling. For the first 29 years of his life, Currie grew up in Scotland and did a lot of travelling and fishing. It’s not hard to figure out why Currie uprooted his life and moved from another country, ending up in a small and beautiful northern Ontario town doing the thing he has the most passion for.
“I did it for love,” the 39-year-old said with another big smile.
In his 20s, Currie was working as an electrician and was also seeing the world. One day on a tour bus in Ireland, Currie met a woman named Kelly from Canada. She was in Europe on a work visa working for a charity group. The two hit it off and nothing was going to keep them apart. They dated for a year before Kelly went back to Canada for university. Currie was working on an off-shore oil rig at the time, and a long-distance relationship wasn’t going to be enough. Currie packed his bags and moved with Kelly to Massey, her hometown. They live on the Spanish River with their three kids; : Sam, Ava and Findley, and their dog, cat and chickens. Currie runs Flymart.ca out of a small building on the property. It is a life Currie wouldn’t change for anything in the world.
“It’s absolutely brilliant here,” he said. “It wasn’t a big change in lifestyle for me because all the fishing opportunities compliment what I love to do and that is fishing. It is a great place for a family. My oldest child is saving up to buy a kayak and not a video game system. I love it here and have no regrets. I do miss family and friends back home, but I go back for visits. It is scenic here and beautiful.”
Kelly will never forget the first time she met Currie. She saw him while waiting to board one of the 17 tour buses. It was a crowded lobby in a hostel. The room was filled with hundreds of backpackers with huge packs. Kelly caught a glimpse of Currie as he had a smaller pack compared to everyone else.
“He caught my eye,” Kelly said. “Later, I was sitting on the bus and the mystery man was not on it. Every other bus had left for their tour but we were not moving. The tour guide came on with an announcement saying that he is really sorry for the delay but, I quote: ' Some Moron got on the wrong bus' . That was my man. We really had a great time in Ireland and promised to keep in touch.”
The relationship unfolded, unencumbered by anything. When Kelly returned to Canada for school, it wasn’t long before she heard from Currie again.
“Two weeks after returning home, I received an email from Scott saying that he was meeting up with some friends in Canada and asked if I would fancy a pint,” she said. “I invited him up to Sudbury and at the end of his two week stay, I asked him about his 'friends'. He said he would have found some if this didn't work out. That was that.”
“It’s absolutely brilliant here,”
-Scott Currie
Love, fly fishing and life with Cactus Ass