'I just want them back': Sask. anglers remember 2 friends who died in car crash hours after successful fishing tournament
Todd Taylor was laying down for a nap after an early morning of hunting when a message popped up on his phone – his cousin, Steve Taylor, and friend, Cody Strass, had died in a car crash.
“I laid there and I just couldn’t process it for a minute, and then I just lost it. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Taylor and Strass were driving home from a weekend fishing tournament when the truck they were driving collided with a minivan on Highway 6, about 10 kilometres north of Watson, according to the RCMP. The crash occurred at 12:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Both men were pronounced dead on scene, as well as a third man who was driving the minivan.
Taylor was living in Melfort and Strass in Pickerel Lake.
They were both avid anglers.
“(Cody is) kind of known as Saskatchewan’s trout king. I’ve talked to lots of people and there’s no one catching big fish like him,” said Todd, explaining how Strass worked as a summer fishing guide.
Although Strass’ main home at the time was in Pickerel Lake, he spent much of his time across the province.
He and Taylor spent their entire lives together, mainly bonding through fishing, hunting and playing hockey as they got older.
Todd said one of Taylor’s goals was to win Angler of the Year at the Saskatchewan Walleye Trail tournament. He met that goal just a few hours before he died.
“It’s just a sad irony,” he said.
“It’s heartbreaking, you know, to be shaking his hand at the awards after he won Angler of the Year to finding out not even 24 hours later that he’s gone. It’s a very hard thing to digest,” said Kolby Matiachuk, who was also friends with both Taylor and Strass.
He described Strass as “always joking around, laughing,” and Taylor as a loving father.
“That’s what I think we should remember most about him, is how much he loved his children and his wife, Steph. He made that very clear wherever he went.”
A GoFundMe created for Taylor’s wife and four young children has raised about $40,000.
“It’s just a small thing to help them move forward,” Matiachuk said.
Glen Boehme has been friends with Taylor for about 15 years, and met Strass just shy of a decade ago.
“It’s been the first day where I’ve actually been able to talk about it and not get super emotional,” he said during an interview on Tuesday.
“I’m not sure why things happen in life and I guess they happen for a reason, whether we know it or not at the time, but people are definitely going to be affected by this. I don’t think they would have had an enemy on the planet.”
Boehme described Taylor as someone who didn’t sugar-coat anything. He’d always give you honest advice, he said. As for Strass, he was “very high energy, very enthusiastic, very passionate.”
“You wouldn’t want anybody else in your corner but these two guys,” he said.
Boehme said it’s been hard not to think ‘What if I did this?’ or ‘What if I did that?’ when it comes to the deaths of his two friends, but he knows they’ll always be remembered and loved.
And Taylor agrees, finding some comfort knowing they died after a weekend doing what they love – fishing.
“But in the grand scheme of things, I just want them back.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.