ABC/Taylor Glenn

Dick Cheney has plans for the end of August, but those plans don't include going to the Republican convention in Tampa.

In fact, while his party gathers to formally nominate Mitt Romney for President, Cheney will be out of the country.

He tells me he is going fishing - in Canada.

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"I've got a fishing trip planned that week," Cheney told me. "I've done a lot of conventions over the years, but this is a special trip I've been planning on for a long time."

Cheney, an avid fly fisherman, has been a fixture at Republican conventions since the 1970s, but this won't be the first one he's skipped. He didn't go to the 2008 in St. Paul, Minn., either.

He also has good Republican company when it comes to missing this year's convention: former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush aren't going either.