the fly fishing hunger day 5 part 2

my retirement home

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY

one of my target fish on my list of things to catch on the fly was a brook trout yup a brook trout lovely looking fish and id just always wanted to catch one so ken arranged for an evenings fishing up at his folks place in the hills and i mean in the hills ...........

we stopped on the way to pick up some supplies which consisted of beer and its funny how beer can make a redneck jump for joy there is absolutely no shops near where we were going so picking up the beer was vital did i mention that kens folks had there own trout pond yep in there garden they had there very own trout water can you believe that having your own pond in your garden stocked with rainbows , brook trout and brown trout loving that idea




on the way up to kens folks place there is some pretty spectacular places on the way , including very old covered bridges like the one below built in 1875 entirely of wood still solid and still standing which says a lot for the old building methods , just really nice to walk along the bridge i saw in the movie sleepy hollow ...........

kens folks live way up in the middle of some woods in the middle of nowhere up a long dirt track and halfway up this dirt track is a spring that kicks out some of the purest spring water I've ever drunk i mean you stop your car fill up your bottle with ice cold spring mountain water and drink it no treatment needed , this flows throughout the year never ices over even in the coldest of weather what an experience spring water straight from the mountain .................................

THE FLIES HAVE IT

i hadn't brought along any flies for trout but ken has a well stocked box or ten tied to his usual high standards so there was no problems there , but the trout in his folks pond had other ideas and we didn't even see a fish , i carried on fishing and ken said hang on I've got an idea i will get a brookie , with that he vanished and the next i heard was an engine starting up .......

come hop on and bring the 5 wgt , he was sitting on a quad bike oh feck i though what has he got planned so i had every faith in him and within seconds we were heading up a dirt trail up a mountain after a while he stopped pretty much in the middle of a wood and said this is it ....

WILD FISHING NIRVANA

when ken was young this was his playground and he knows it like the back of his hand he stuck me on this pool said cast the fly across to the other side of the white water and skate your fly back across the surface and you ll get a brookie .

so a small dry fly goes on and cast across the pool and skated back true to his word second cast i had a small completely wild brook trout

wild fly fishing at its best

OK so it may not be predator fishing but this is something id recommend every fly fisher do at least once in there life hone your skills as a fly angler on water like this and you'll come away from it with a great new karma towards your fly fishing , i have been lucky enough when i was between 8 and 12 to be able to fish some of the best rivers for trout in Scotland but i can honestly say that nothing compared to doing this

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT

so does life get any better than this here i was hiding behind the boulder casting down the pool with the dry fly for the resident brookies that lived in the pool despite these fish hardly ever seeing a fisherman they were really hard to hook up with in pool i mean i saw them chasing the drys across the surface but once you spook a couple of fish in pools like this the best thing to do is move on to another pool.........still great fun though

WE MAY NOT BE ALONE

where i was fishing could have really been any wild stream in Scotland except for the fact ken pointed out a great big bear track er thanks for that now I'm going to have to look over my shoulder between casts so i don't get eaten

ken told me in this spot i had to cast slightly upstream and across so the fly would drift under the branch on the far side with the light fading it was getting pretty difficult to see where i was casting let alone seeing the fly on the water but there was fish in there so it was worth the effort

and i got one out i mean how perfect is that a beautiful and perfect wild brook trout and more than likely this will be the only time it will ever see a hook well maybe till next year ....:-)

so with that and me ginning like a Cheshire cat because of the whole experience i just had it was time to head back to camp and kens mum had laid on a feast for us home grown potatoes bread and iced water some great spicy new Orleans sausage and some of moms home made burgers and that was the day gone time to head next door to the lodge where i fell asleep to the sounds of the Forrest and ken farting and snoring life was good again and i still had a new kind of fishing to experience tomorrow ..........

see ya tomorrow folks

mcfluffchucker

a cave in Scotland