Snagged by the pussy willow

I WENT fishing again the other day.

It was a surprisingly nice afternoon and I was on my knees on the bank of a very small stream concentrating hard on a trout that was rising close to the opposite bank. I made a short cast and, bang.

No I didn’t hook the trout, I hooked a small pussy willow bush on the far bank that I’d somehow failed to see. I had to break the tippet and send the trout scuttling for shelter. But I had to admit it was a pretty pussy willow in full flower — rather late in the year, but then everything’s rather late this year.