Peculiarities.
When one has fished over many years there will
be some 'peculiarities' among the experiences one has had and I will tell you
about some of them:
We are at the start of October 1970 - as a Vet. in a partnership we had an
agreement: Were there not much to do then one of us could take free the rest of
the day, and as a result of this and as the weather was perfect I drove up to
the upper reaches of Simested aa (aa is the name of a danish stream - we are not
so sufisticated to have any rivers), where I had planned a meeting with an old
friend of mine - a brown trout around 1½ pound in weight. I had 'missed' him a
few days before and would see if I could persuade him to take one of my new tied flies inspired by Joseph Keen's
book "Fluorescent Flies". Hook Mustad 72505 # 16. Hackle and tails taken from
one of my Blue Bantam Wyandotte cocks. Body: Phosfor-Yellow DRF floss (Depth Ray
Fluoriescent) covered with clear monofile nylon dyed in Picric acid. The trout
were rising and I got on my first throw a nice rainbow of over a pound. Further
up my old friend was active and he took the fly the first time it passed over
him. This time I hooked him and after my bitter experience I kept my rod high
and pressed him up.
After 'some dicussions' he ended in my net and then I saw the reason for my
earlier failures:
He had missed his upper jaw on the left side and by this, there was a whole gap.
Another day the next year I was fishing at my
other favorite stream, Binderup aa, together with two friends - Hans Møller, one
of the first Danes to fish earnestly with a dry fly, and a Swede, Kenneth
Boström. At that time the meadows were 'running' straight to the shore of the
stream and by this it was perfect for 'cross-country casts' - one could be
placed flat on ones bossom a distance from the shore and let the cast go low
over the grass, cross the stream and end upstream near the other shore where
most of the best trout were situated. A trout was rising steadiky like a
metronome and we
crawled forward - one after the other - to have our chance with the trout - but
he neglected every presentation. First after a long while, then we wanted not to
frighten him with the shadow of our line and cast to pass over him, one of us
made a too long cast in over the trout, and he took the fly promptly. Reason to
all our failures: He was blind on the eye to our side. He was in perfect
condition and we let him free with many thanks.
Once more at the upper stretch of Siemested aa
I had in one way or the other broken my hook at the bend - I observed it first
after some trout had taken the fly and I missed to contact them. I cut it off my
cast and throw it into the stream. In the afternoon I returned to the same place
and caught a nice trout, which I killed and took with me. At home I cleaned it
and I inspect always the stomach content in water in a white saucer - and what
do I find among all the other things - my broken hook!
Kneeling low among the high sedges on the
lower stretch of Simested aa I was fishing a riffle; but after a few casts I
hang fare back and not wishing to disturb the rising trout I broke the cast and
mounted another fly of the same pattern. Once more after a few casts I hang and
now I did not
want to loose another fly, so I crawled back along the line, found the fly in a
leaf on a bush; but a few cm from it hang my other fly!