On his favourite spot
The majority of times now, at my age, I pretty well like to stay home a little bit and fish right from the cottage, right in the lake out front where my wife can keep an eye on me.

On his fishing partners
Well, my son [John Bower Jr.] is a great fisherman and so's my grandson [Bruce]. They all love fishing. Of course, Johnny's been transferred now to Calgary. In fact, I was there last summer and we went fishing up in the Bow River. Oh man, did we ever catch fish there. Wow.

On his grandson
He could fish morning 'til night. Of course, he's young. He wants to get up at four in the morning. I said, "Hey, I'm a senior now, I need my rest. I'll see you at about eight o'clock."

On fishing with his wife
My wife caught a good-sized bass once. And she didn't fish too much, so she got a little excited when she caught it. Apparently I didn't hook it properly on the stringer and the fish got off. Was she ever disappointed. That was the last time she went fishing with me.

On his favourite fish
It's a lot of fun catching pickerel. I think it's one of the better fish to eat, too.

On his favourite "pickerel" lure
We use a lot of worms and different kinds of bait here and there. We use just about every lure there is on the market. I've got a box full. I think I've got more lures than they have in the stores right now.

On his most memorable fishing trip
I think my greatest thrill was when I caught my first lake trout at Great Slave Lake. It took me at least a good half hour to get it in. It was the fight I liked about it. I weighed the fish and it was 18 1/2 pounds. The guy says, "Put it back, you're going to get a 35-pounder." I said, "No thanks. I just want to keep this one." We just left it there and went to have something to eat, and when we came back and I looked at the fish hanging on the scale it was 28 1/2 pounds. The guys had played a trick on me. They put rocks inside the mouth. So when the guy was filleting it he said here's all the rocks that came out of your fish. I could have shot those guys.

On sharing his hot spots
There's a few hockey players now that have cottages near mine, so I'll probably be seeing some of them. And they'll be asking me for the spots, but I won't tell them. I worked too hard to find them.

On his dream trip
I'd like to take another trip up to the treeline, up to the Arctic. I'd like one more trip like that.