LAST CAST WITH DOM
“The smaller the trout stream, the more intimate and tempting it is”
HAVE you ever cast your eyes on a passing stream and found yourself hypnotised? Every spring, I find myself prone to this malady.
A fever takes over, to the point where I completely forget what I was meant to be doing. Or, to her eternal annoyance, totally forget whatever the heck my wife was just saying.
In a funny way, the smaller the trout stream, the more intimate and tempting it is. And yet I still rarely ever see an angler on the dozens of such waters there are in my home county alone. Do people still assume game fishing is for toffs, or horribly expensive? I can’t imagine many of us would have an irrational hatred of wild rivers that tend to be too small for the usual hordes of paddlers and swimmers.
By this stage there may already be one or two thinking: “Here we go again – Garnett is banging on about fly fishing”, but I only wish I could show you how simple and delightful it is to hit a small river for trout, especially those of you who sorely miss running water during the coarse fish closed season!
You don’t even need a fly rod, let alone a hedge fund and garments made entirely of tweed, to enjoy these superb little fisheries. Tiny lures are often permitted, while a surprising number of waters are cheap as chips or even free in some urban locations.
There is no more handsome
British fish than a wild trout, period. Nor are there many more obliging. And having sat for what feels like half a lifetime blanking on Exeter Canal over the winter, it’s deliciously quick fishing. Even the most tempting little pool or bend rarely detains me for more than 15 minutes – just a couple of casts are often enough to see if anyone’s home.
Perhaps the best recommendation I can give is the sheer intimacy, however, and the huge value this has to your other fishing. Indeed, there are universal lessons for all of us here.
Fish don’t really want to get caught. They don’t give a toss for our convenience, and they have a lot fewer problems with a hearty current than we do.
Furthermore, we do well to treat all fish, stocked or native, like wild animals. They don’t like it when we skyline them or tread clumsily, and they prefer a cast that’s like the caress of an angel, as opposed to a left hook from Tyson Fury.
A trout stream takes these essentials to their bare bones – and adds a layer of raw beauty that’s hard not to love. This is why I lose track of time, find new leaks in my waders and feel a deep satisfaction for fooling the sort of fish that wouldn’t feed a pygmy. It’s fishing that could drive the most cynical angler to distraction. Which is why I still have zero idea what my wife was on about as we went over the last bridge.
Across: 1 Pinched 5 Noses 8 Taylor 9 Sardines 10/20 Knot picker 12 Snags 14 Kite 15 Straggle 18 Ribbon 21/30 Breaking strain 22 Adur 24 Solid 26 Dabs 28 Disgorge 32 Get it 33 Seaweed.
Down: 1 Plain 2 Nil 3 Herts 4 Disease 5 Nor 7 Sweetcorn 11 Track 13 Surge 16/6 Twiddling stick 17 Gurus 19 Baked 21 Bullets 23 Right 25 Desna 27 Blind 29 Rat 31 Rye.