Rudd is making a comeback

I WENT fishing the other day. Fly fishing for trout in a small stocked lake. The day was hot, there was no breeze and the sun blazed down on a lake that looked as though it was filled with molten lead. These are not good conditions for catching trout.

I thought of giving up even before I’d started. Then I noticed some activity in a shallow part of the lake. Fish were swirling around and I thought that some of them might be taking very small flies on the surface. I opened my fly box and picked out a dry fly that was so small it took me 15 minutes to thread it on to the line.

When I cast it out the results were instantaneous. Something rose but I failed to hook it. For the next 20 minutes the same thing happened on practically every cast. There are days like this. Dry fly fishing has a lot to do with reflexes and there are times when human reflexes seem to get it wrong every time.