To those that don’t fish the thought of standing waist deep in the freezing cold of a northern Scottish river must stretch credulity. Imagine the reaction when having driven to Aberdeen and beyond, I arrive to find a river blistered by sun, no discernible flow and to all intents and purposes devoid of fish.
River Dee..only a gutter of water.
We salmon anglers must be bonkers driving to the top of the British Isles to fish for a creature more elusive and rare than the sight of herds of Bison being corralled on Oxford Street. We press on regardless sometimes, buoyed by hope and possibility, but even the relentless optimism that our sport demands can desert us when you look up into a cloudless sky and with my feet dangling in water with a temperature of over 70 degrees.
Conditions for catching anything couldn’t be worse but I am here, and I might as well try…and I tried everything, every fly in my box, every line density I could change. Boy I tried. I fished for trout, I fished for Salmon and I fished through the dusk into deepest night. I saw deer, I saw bats, I saw otters and the heard the say nothing silence of the seen it all ghillies. I never saw a Salmon but caught the sun, and returning to the office was asked how I had enjoyed my holiday in Spain. Exactly.
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