Ottawa Senators winger Drake Batherson is a man making the most of his off-season. Naturally, it includes everything you’d expect of a wealthy young NHL player.
“I’m kind of getting to that age now,” Batherson told me last month. “I just turned 26, and everyone’s getting married. My buddies are getting engaged. So I’ve got a few bachelor trips, weddings, stuff like that.
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“Other than that, just getting back home and seeing my buddies, golfing and laying low, maybe do a little bit of fishing, and then we’ll get back at it and get training.”
Wait. Did he say a “little” bit of fishing?
Ottawa Senators winger Drake Batherson (left) and his cousin, Dean Vial on their fishing trip in Nova Scotia last month.
Image credit: Matt Dort
The above photo was snapped at Batherson’s recent fishing trip out east with his cousin, Dean Vial, the son of former Ottawa Senator Dennis Vial. Based on the photographic evidence, there was nothing “little” about their haul.
Batherson reached out to sport fishing guide Matt Dort, whose godson had been Batherson’s minor hockey teammate in Antigonish. As they reconnected, Batherson told him he wanted to get out there and try for striped bass. And so Dort, who’s a guide based in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, took them to one of the Bay of Fundy rivers called the Stewiacke.
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Former Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price fished in the same spot for the same species last summer, so it’s definitely a world-class fishing area that draws a lot of attention.
Dort suggested Batherson’s choice to go fly fishing for striped bass may have been a sentimental one.
“Drake definitely has a passion for fishing,” Dort said. “And I think it was instilled in Dean as well because of their grandfather. They told me a story about their trip to Newfoundland many years ago to do some fishing with their grandfather. And they were able to catch some striped bass that day with the flies their grandfather tied for them.”
Batherson is so often near the top of his team’s scoring race that it should come as no surprise that he also found a way to top the fish standings.
“Drake caught the most,” Dort said. “I think he caught over 20, with some of them pushing 35, 40 pounds.”
Some guys have all the luck.