Fly Fishing - How I was hooked…

 

For several years a neighbour of mine used to bring trout for the freezer because he loved fly fishing but didn’t like trout!! I have since discovered that this isn’t unusual.

One day, about a decade ago, I expressed an interest in having a go myself, which started me off on a love of all things fly fishing.

Having bought an airflow kit and had a lesson with the very patient Mike Smith APGAI certified, I spent around three months practicing my casting at the local lakes, Roosting Hills, hoping and praying that I didn’t catch anything as I didn’t have a clue what to do with a hooked fish!

It was a boiling hot Saturday when a work colleague and I decided to go fishing. I was using a home-tied Diawl Bach and practicing my casting when I cast a particularly awful cast. Saying out loud, “Mike would have been disgusted with that cast!” I started to strip it back at high speed, when a bow wave appeared and my line flew off the reel across the lake. Yelling, my fishing buddy came running across, “keep your rod up!” and talked me through landing the fish. What a buzz! I couldn’t despatch it, not knowing how, so my buddy did the deed.

As with most fishing lakes, a record had to be made of catch and weight, with a special area for any fish over a certain weight. My first fish, and still my personal best, was 3lbs 1oz, so I had to record it separately.

Sending the details off to Fly Fishing and Fly Tying magazine, I won first prize for the letter that month, and a Sharpes of Aberdeen fly rod.

Needless to say, I hooked the fish, and the hobby hooked me!