Super fly
Kate Pierrepont tested the waters with some of Scotland's finest fishermen.
The romance of fly fishing captured me at a young age. I think it was the pictures I had seen of solitary figures, gracefully poised amid the gushing torrents that entranced my imagination. It was generally regarded as an odd dream for a girl to have, those I told put it down to the fact I was being raised with four brothers.
The day came when one of them decided to indulge me and offered a day’s tuition (allegedly) on the art of the fly at a lake near Stoke-on-Trent - not the mythic, sparkling river of my reveries but, hey, one can never have it all I reasoned.
On reflection I should have stayed with my dreams as the reality turned out to be three freezing hours cooped up in the bottom of a boat clutching my fishing rod and suffering the bored surveillance of my brother. OK, I should have known better of course. After all this was my elder brother who had tortured me through my childhood with Chinese burns and had always refused to let me bat. So I returned a novice, and nurtured my enthusiasm in secret.
Hence it was with child-like glee that I accepted an invitation to spend a day fishing with members of Scotland’s Fly-Fishing Team. No lake in the Potteries this time, but instead the beautiful River Don on Speyside, one of the finest trout fishing rivers in Scotland and coincidentally in the heart of whisky country. Well, not so coincidentally as it happens, because the Scottish fly fishing team is sponsored by Glen Garioch Highland Single Malt Whisky which is m.....
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By Kate Pierrepont
Section : Whisky and Sport
Page number : 18
