My dearest lovely brother gave me a fly-fishing lesson for my birthday last year. I had my lesson on the 2nd of April and am now fully obsessed.
My dad taught me to fish with a fly and we did most of our fishing together in Ireland. We'd stand beside beautiful clear loughs fishing for brown trout, and rivers fishing for brownies and salmon. Occasionally, I'd catch one and yell for my dad, who'd come rushing over to help me play, land and kill the fishy in a way that showed the fish the maximum respect. My dad had taught himself to fish, which is bloody clever because it's bloody tricky to do right, let alone well, and he always caught beautiful big fishes. We were very happy out fishing together, me and dad, and now when I stand on the riverbank by myself his spirit stands beside me.
It's a decent pastime for the middle-aged writer, fly-fishing, because it is active without requiring exertion and demanding without being impossible. So I intend to be doing it for many years, and, in the fullness of time, will happily teach anybody who cares to come to the water with me.
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i love this for three reasons:
ReplyDelete1) you are learning new and improved skills, which you are excellent at (especially when it involves reading up about, getting to grips with, and then especially buying new teccy kit to realise said new and improved skills). see: photography, running, kayaking etc..
2) in a self-interested fashion i am thinking of delicious self-caught fish you are going to serve me up, thankfully excellent cooking being another one of your hobbies. i'm hoping turbot, lemon sole or maybe fresh tuna given your other recent post. clearly i'm clearly not up to date on the native fishes of walberswick but am hoping one of these will feature.
3) it's in the genes! i remember well our lovely trip to ireland and how you told me then about fishing with your pa (obv then you were relegated to underling/learner-fly-fisher duties). now the underling takes centre stage. i'm hoping that the chain will continue and that the child will get to learn some of these family skills and the fruit of it plus the joy of it including the happy recollections and reminders of fun times that play part of the process of person vs fish.