YOU'VE EITHER GOT IT, OR YOU DON'T

Some have it, some don’t. My friends have it, my son has it, I don’t. It’s not merely skill, it’s a gift. I was at the back of the queue when the fishing knack was being doled out.

I know it’s not skill on its own. When boat fishing for trout one friend will hook a small trout, which will attract a larger fish and he will bring both to the net. At the start of a drift he will cast a short line before reaching his normal length, and a fish will take. When changing the bob fly he will hook a trout on the tail fly as it trails behind the boat. And guess who comes back with the best trout of the day? These incidents only happen to him.

Skill is definitely a major knack factor. If I fish a salmon pool with an Orange Ally’s Shrimp without success, my other fishing pal will wait a few minutes, fish the same pool with the same fly and take a fish. On one occasion he took me to a pool on a river he knows well, pointed out a stone midstream, and told me to cast just in front of it. He lay back on the bank and fell asleep. I was casting well and hit the hot spot, placing the fly as directed – again and again, with no success. After half an hour my friend woke up and seemed surprised that he had not been wakened by a screaming reel. He borrowed my rod and hooked a fish with his first cast. It’s a wonder that I still go fishing with him.

The lockdown has prevented us from fishing in Scotland; like many I can’t wait to get onto the water again. I may lack the fishcatching knack, but I was near the front of the queue when enthusiasm was on offer. David Syme, Edinburgh